Part 39 (1/2)
”Trust me. I have some experience with such things.” With that, he blasted the cables. Smoke and sparks spewed from the wall, made a short-lived fountain of yellow and orange before it shorted out. The acrid stink of burned plastic filled the corridor.
”Now they won't be able to see us, at least on this level. If we take out all of these we find, they'll go blind.”
Chewie yelled something. Luke turned. More guards, and they weren't blind, although they shot as if they were. Good thing, too.
”This way!” Luke yelled. Firing behind them, the four of them ran, blaster bolts stabbing after them.
They rounded another corner, zigzagged through a side corridor, and sprinted toward a door at the end ofthe hall. Heard somebody pounding toward the other side, saw the door start to slide back. Dash and Lando brought their guns up-”No!” Luke yelled. ”Don't shoot!”
The door opened wide to reveal-”Leia!”
Luke grinned, and she returned it. He ran to her.They embraced.
”Took you long enough,” she said. She looked closer at them, wrinkled her nose. ”Gah, what have you been swimming in? You smell like that stuff Lando tried to feed us. And you look like it, too.”
”The s.h.i.+p broke down,” Luke said. ”So we had to take a shortcut through the sewer.”
Both of them glanced at Lando.
”It was not my fault about the s.h.i.+p,” Lando said. ”It was Han's modification!”
”Never mind. Let's get out of here.”
Now five, they ran.
”Master Luke?”
”What is it now, Threepio?”
”We appear to have caught the attention of a robotic police vessel. It seems to be following us.”
”Well, lose it.”
”How, Master Luke?”, ”Fly like Han does.”
As she ran next to him, Leia's eyes went wide.
”You're letting the droids fly the s.h.i.+p? Are you crazy?”
”They're doing all right. Just a few jitters, that's all. They're really doing quite well.”
”No, shut up, Artoo!” Threepio said. ”You heard what Master Luke said.
I'll just loop around, whoa - yaahh!”
Artoo's whistles and squeals sounded even more frantic.
”Master Luke! Help! Help!”
”Threepio, what are you doing?”
Artoo's whistles sounded like a recording played at ultrahigh speed. ”I'm trying to turn it right side up! Be quiet. Ahh!”
”Sounds as if they are upside down,” Lando said. ” 'Doing all right,' you said,” Leia said. ”I can't believe you let them fly the s.h.i.+p.”
”Threepio, do what Artoo tells you! Artoo, show him how to pull out of the loop!”
There came another exchange of squeals and nervous chatter over the comlink.
”Ah, that's better. We seem to have lost the pursuer, Master Luke. I believe it smashed into that walkway we flew under while we were upside down.”
”I can't believe you let the droids fly the-”
Luke glared at her. ”Will you stop saying that?” He looked back at the comlink. ”All right, you two, get to the coordinates like I said. And be more careful.”
”We're doing quite well now, Master Luke. Don't worry.”
Luke stared up at the ceiling and sighed.
38.
”I'll sound the general alarm-” Guri said.
”No! How would that look? The head of Black Sun allows his security to be breached? Tell the perimeter guards to watch their backs-whoever got in had better not get out.”
Guri nodded and spoke into her comlink.
They hurried down the corridor past the room from which Leia had escaped.
There was a surveillance nexus, a substation not far ahead, where they could access the feed and see holograms of the holocam input. They would stop there and spot the intruders, who were inside the camnet once they ascended from the bas.e.m.e.nt.
They arrived at the node. Guri tapped commands into an old-fas.h.i.+oned keypad. An image of Xizor's personal logo appeared in the air. She tapped in her security ID code, changed the reader from pad to vox access.
”Display level fifteen, anybody not wearing an employee uniform.”
The image broke into a million tiny dots, swirled like water going down a drain, then went blank. Xizor frowned. Tapped his forehead with the blaster he held.
”Where is the image?” Guri asked the computer.
”Holocam and sensor feed on level fifteen are currently nonoperational.”
”Display level sixteen.”
Again, the image stayed blank.
”Display level seventeen.”