Part 10 (1/2)

The sight of a distinctively rounded, low-chinned helmet brought Larin to an abrupt halt. With an urgent wave of her hand to signal to s.h.i.+gar to stay under cover, she backpedaled into a crowded corridor and stayed there until the Mandalorian went safely by.

A second glance told her that it wasn't Dao Stryver. This one's armor was silver and blue, not gray and green, and Stryver was both taller and more ma.s.sive. People moved out of the way.

She grabbed a pa.s.serby at random. ”Who was that?” she asked, indicating the receding helmet.

”Only Akshae Shanka, ” said the mousy Evocii, as though she were an idiot. ”Stay away from him, if you know what's good for you. He's come second in two separate Great Hunts. ”

”And I bet that hasn't improved his mood, ” Larin muttered as the slave hurried away. While the Mandalorians waited for the next big war to break out, they amused themselves by ritual fighting among themselves, drawing in anyone foolish enough to show an interest in their violent ascendancy games. They were dangerous and unpredictable in all things except one: having returned to the galaxy during the Great War, they weren't going to slink away again anytime soon.

Larin waited a full minute to make sure Shanka didn't come back, then she moved back out into the flow of the main branch and waved for s.h.i.+gar to follow.

They were following information gleaned from one of the palaces chefs. Two high-security visitors-the Republic and Imperial envoys, Larin and s.h.i.+gar a.s.sumed-were being housed in one of the luxury wings deep in the heart of the rambling structure. It was difficult to get into those parts of the palace, but they'd learned of a shaft connecting the underlying service routes-like the one they were following at the moment-and the high-security bas.e.m.e.nts. Getting from one to the other was taking time, but thus for it wasn't proving to be especially difficult.

Larin led the way, following the map she had memorized and keeping her eyes firmly forward. s.h.i.+gar was hard on her heels, somewhere; she was sure of that, although she couldn't see him. He walked as lightly as an Alderaanian swan and vanished into a crowd like a puff of smoke. When she stopped at the next junction to check her bearings, he simply appeared beside her, as if from nowhere.

”Almost there, ” he said. ”I'll take point for the next leg. ”

”All right, ” she said. ”But I've been thinking: why are we going this way in the first place? Shouldn't our priority be the vault?”

”It would be, if we knew where it is. When we reach one of the envoys, then we'll have our guide. We know they've both seen it. Asking the right people is always better than asking at random. ”

She heartily agreed with that. They'd learned a lot by mingling with the palace's downtrodden staff, but every important piece of information they had gathered came with a wealth of worthless trivia. Sorting the one out from the other had taken more time than either of them would have liked.

”After you, ” she said, waving him ahead of her. It was her turn to trail after now. A pair of people walking side by side always drew more attention than individuals in a crowd. Surrounded by unknown serfs and servants, they blended in, pa.s.sed by, and were instantly forgotten. That was something Akshae Shanka would never manage.

They reached the entrance to the subterranean shaft without incident. There, Larin tripped a pa.s.sing Gamorrean into a heavily laden Evocii, and during the resulting distraction s.h.i.+gar activated his lightsaber and cut through the door's ma.s.sive security bolt. Rusty hinges groaned as he swung the door open; no one noticed over the shouts and recriminations. The argument was barely reaching its peak when Larin crept in after him. Together they pulled the ma.s.sive door closed.

It was much quieter on the other side, and darker, too. s.h.i.+gar took a deep breath, glad to be out of the multispecies press and the poverty they endured. He had glimpsed the luxuries lavished on those at the top of the social pyramid on Hutta. He knew what privileges they enjoyed. All around him was the cost, in filth and sentient misery.

That the underbelly of Coruscant was exactly the same gave him some pause in blaming the Hutts. Perhaps it was simply the nature of things. Perhaps Master n.o.bil's rebuke was well earned. How could the Jedi Order change something that had endured for millennia? It wasn't the Council's brief, not when the Emperor's wolves were snapping at the galaxy's throat.

A taint yellow light flared into life. ”Straight ahead, then left, wasn't it?”

Larin's voice echoed sibilantly in the miles of metal pipe ahead of them. By the light of her blaster rifle's utility torch, he raised one finger to his lips and nodded. She rolled her eyes and said, ”There's no one down here. That's what we were told. ”

He shook his head and indicated that it was her turn to lead. Better not to take any chances, he thought.

Larin moved off at a cautious lope through the tunnel. The pipe was dry and empty, and easily large enough for them to stand upright. They could have run side by side if they'd wanted to. Occasionally the ceiling was interrupted by pipes and cl.u.s.ters of cables, forcing them to duck, and on two occasions they had to jump across a shaft, but apart from that there were no interruptions.

They reached the junction in fifteen minutes. As Larin approached, s.h.i.+gar reached out for her shoulder. With a firm grip, he pulled her to a halt.

She looked at him inquiringly. He put one hand over the rifle's lamp, extinguis.h.i.+ng the light.

All was black for a moment; then a dull glow appeared. The sound of faint movement echoed around them. Someone was in the tunnel, just around the corner.

s.h.i.+gar moved forward, hardly daring to breathe. Through the Force, he sensed three organisms in a cl.u.s.ter, but not clearly enough to ident.i.ty their intentions. If they were lying in wait, why the light? If it wasn't a trap, why the silence?

He eased his head around the corner. Three large, horned figures stood in a cl.u.s.ter around a lamp, looking up at the ceiling and scratching their heads. They were clearly Hortek, which explained why they weren't talking: they were telepathic. Furthermore, the thick work uniforms they wore and the tools scattered at their feet explained what they were doing in the tunnels. They were a maintenance team, and therefore perfectly innocent.

s.h.i.+gar took a moment to rea.s.sure Larin, then closed his eyes. His telepathic powers were modest at best, but they had been enhanced under the Grand Master to the point that she could convey simple concepts to him without speaking. The Hortek were receptive to outside thoughts and vulnerable to Force persuasion. If s.h.i.+gar could combine the two, he could easily get rid of them.

He found the focus required with surprising ease. The practice on the way to Hutta had done him good. Within moments, the Hortek picked up their tools and moved off.

”Nice one, ” whispered Larin when the sound of heavy footsteps faded away. She eased around the corner and flicked the light to its lowest setting.

”It gets tougher from here on, ” s.h.i.+gar said, unhitching his lightsaber hilt. ”Let's not get complacent. ”

”Hey, look at this. ” Larin had the light aimed up at the ceiling, where the Hortek had been working. Something had burst through the shaft's metal wall, melting it. Several silver threads dangled down like strands of web. Larin blew gently on one of them. It swayed stiffly from side to side. ”That looks like wire. ”

”It can't be, ” said s.h.i.+gar. ”It's getting longer. ”

Larin pointed the light at the bottom of the thread. Its terminus was visibly extending lower.

”Growing, ” she said, ”or extruding?”

”Doesn't matter, either way, ” he said. ”What's going on up there is none of our business. ”

”In a Hutt's palace, ” she said, ”I'd call that a lifesaving philosophy. ”

The first security drone they encountered was a metal sphere that dropped whirring out of a chimney, sprouting weapons as it came. Larin downed it with one shot, beating s.h.i.+gar by a bare millisecond.

She blew imaginary smoke from her blaster. ”You'll have to do better than that to beat, uh, me. ”

She'd almost said to beat the Blackstars, but caught it in time. She didn't want him to wonder what one of the Republic's elite commandos was doing skulking about with him in the bowels of Ta.s.saa Bareesh's stronghold. Just thinking about telling that story punctured her confidence. Still, what they were doing felt like old times, and the mental state was surprisingly easy to fall into. The brashness, the boasting, and the belligerence-alongside the running around dark places and shooting things.

”Stay alert, ” said s.h.i.+gar. ”There'll be more of those. ”

”I was born alert, ” she said, not ready to abandon the old-time feeling just yet.

The second security drone whizzed out of a side tunnel, flas.h.i.+ng its lights and issuing a warning to stand still. s.h.i.+gar caught this one, spearing it through the middle with the blade of his lightsaber.

”Not so fast that time, were you?”

She smiled.

They moved cautiously. Drones were a danger, but their presence meant that they were nearing their objective. The luxury wings were almost as heavily protected as Ta.s.saa Bareesh's sleeping chamber.

The shaft began branching and doubling back on itself. s.h.i.+gar navigated them unerringly-she hoped-as drones converged on them like millflies. Their reaction times improved with practice until the drones barely had time to appear before being destroyed.

Then a drone three times as large as the others hummed down the shaft toward them, shooting rapidly. s.h.i.+gar spun his lightsaber like a s.h.i.+eld, reflecting its own fire back at it. Gesturing with his hand, he brought down part of the ceiling and crushed the drone under rubble.

”We don't want to do that very often, ” he said when the dust cleared.

”People are bound to notice when the floor caves in under them. ”

They picked their way over the pile of fallen masonry.

”Up here, ” said s.h.i.+gar, spying something ahead.