Part 23 (1/2)
”Could be, sir. Gotals have a tendency to shed when they're taken by surprise or frightened.”
”What would have frightened him?”
”No telling, sir.” The commander glanced up from his datapad. ”Anything else?”
”The prints leading down the corridor and back. One pair is certainly Rodian. The blood in the rear room explains why the Rodian was walking unsteadily when he returned to this room. The one who accompanied him back here wasn't doing very well either, judging by the fact that he was supporting the left side of himself on a crutch, improvised from a length of pipe. Footprints of the two walking wounded are all over this room.
The Rodian retrieved something from underneath one of the hoversleds, but we can't be sure what that was--unless it was the holoprojector. Evidence suggests that the pair left by the rear door, same as the others, but they were on foot, at least until they reached the pub-trans booth on the corner.” The commander finished his note taking and looked at Qui - Gon.
”All this give you any insights?”
”Captain Cohl, the Rodian, and the woman must have been ambushed in the rear room.”
”Ambushed? By Havac?” Qui-Gon nodded.
”Havac thought all three were dead?”
”No, he expected us to find Cohl and the Rodian alive.”
”Why would he risk that?” the commander asked.
Qui-Gon looked at him. ”Because he wants to throw us off the scent.” The commander scratched his head in thought.
Obi-Wan slid the holoprojector toward him.
”Let's see what we find in here.” L ope peered through the small doorway that led to the roof of the Nebula Front's safe house in the southern part of the city. A security craft made a low pa.s.s from the south, continuing on in the direction of the summit hall.
”Right on schedule,” he told the five human and alien terrorists crouching on the stairs below him.
”We have ten minutes.” The Gotal squeezed by him and scampered out onto the roof, his ringed horns twitching as they monitored the hazy air for portents.
Five meters from the doorway, the Gotal flashed Lope an all - clear sign and disappeared behind the first of the many domed rooftops they would need to traverse before attaining a clear view of the summit hall.
Lope and the rest hurried outside, rounding the same dome that now concealed the Gotal. On his hip, Lope wore a sheathed vibroblade, and on his wrist, a rocket launcher. The others carried both in-close weapons and blasters.
Beyond the first dome, the expanse of interconnected roofs was a terrain of spherical hills and steep peaks, cut through with shallow ravines and washes.
Octagonal towers, slender steeples, and antenna arrays rose above the domes like isolated trees.
The diverse domes resembled the k.n.o.bbed lids of giant cook pots. Some buildings were topped by long barrel vaults, and others with hip roofs, covered with tile or slate. Small houses with tiny windows graced the few level sections.
With the Gotal at point, they began to move at a steady clip, worming through tight meanders, negotiating precipitous ledges, and leaping to adjacent rooftops. Their mimetic suits allowed them to blend with the gray roof tiles, reddish bricks, and acid - rain-stained domes.
They scaled a tall roof and dropped down into a hollow formed by a quartet of contiguous domes. Then they edged around a ma.s.sive cupola that gave them their first un.o.bstructed view of the summit hall. East of the domed building was a range of high hills, shrouded in particle-laden haze. Far to the north, a broad river emptied itself into a slender projection of the sea.
A long stretch of flat roof ran all the way to the final dome, below which two streets joined to become a broad boulevard that arrived ultimately at the summit hall mount.
They were halfway across the flat roof when sounds of a commotion reached them from street level. Forging through his fear of heights, Lope crawled to the edge of the roof and looked down over the low retaining wall.
Squads of riot-control security troops were rerouting ground traffic and dispersing bystanders who had gathered for a glimpse of whatever dignitaries might pa.s.s by.
In a building across the street, people drew curtains over their windows or pulled shutters closed. From slowly cruising landspeeders, announcements blared in half a dozen languages, threatening dire consequences for anyone caught on the rooftops or found loitering in restricted areas around the summit hall.
Lope saw a hovercade approaching from the south and waved for one of Havac's men to join him at the wall. The convoy of ten repulsorlift vehicles was being escorted by as many speeder bikes piloted by helmeted police.
Havac's man trained electrobinoculars on the fifth vehicle in line.
”Valorum,” he uttered in a hushed voice. ”Eriadu's governor and lieutenant governor are with him.” Lope asked for the electrobinoculars.
”Your boss should have listened to reason and let us. .h.i.t Valorum here.”
He patted the rocket launcher strapped to his right wrist. ”One shot with this and the job would be done.” Havac's confederate took back the electrobinoculars. ”For the moment, Havac's your boss, too. Besides, Valorum's riding under the protection of an energy s.h.i.+eld. Now, get on the comlink and inform the team at the summit hall that the target will be arriving through the south gate.” Lope crawled back to where the others were waiting, and removed a small comlink from his pocket.
”Valorum's right below us,” he explained.
He activated the comlink and keyed in the number Havac had given him, but all he got for his efforts was an earful of static. ”You need to get above some of these antenna arrays,” the Gotal suggested. ”Try from the top of the big dome.” Lope nodded. Jogging in a crouch to the base of the dome, he began his ascent. But he was just short of the ornamented summit when he heard engine noise behind him. Over his shoulder, he saw three airspeeders approaching rapidly from the direction of the summit hall.
He slid down the dome and hurried back to the others. ”Hover patrol headed our way.” The woman Cohl had hired glanced at her wrist timer.
”It's too soon for them to be making another sweep.” Everyone hunkered down as the blunt-nosed hovers sped overhead. But the trio of vehicles went only a short distance before coming about for a second pa.s.s.
”They spotted us,” the Gotal said.
Lope armed the rocket launcher. ”We can remedy that.” Raising his right forearm, he fixed his sights on the lead vehicle.
From the pa.s.senger seat of an airspeeder, all of Eriadu City looked the same. That, at least, was Qui-Gon's considered opinion after more than an hour of searching the city from above for the location of the roofscape image stored in Havac's holoprojector.
Bisected by a slow-moving, muddy river, the city was a confusion of domes, interior courtyards, and precarious towers, cleaved by narrow streets and a few broad avenues. Dwellings were built on top of one another in haphazard fas.h.i.+on, sprouting annexes here and additional levels there, extending from the bay clear to the barricade of hills at the city's back.
It was little wonder that none of the security officers had been able to identify the span of roofs Havac's holoprojector had singled out. When a quick study of 2-D maps had only complicated matters, copies of the stored image had been fed into the terrain - following computers of three airspeeders, in the hope that a series of overflights would allow the computers to match the image to an actual roofscape. But flights to the north and to the east of the summit hall had failed to yield even a possible match.
Qui-Gon continued to believe that Havac had wanted the holoprojector to be found, but he wasn't willing to take the chance that Havac's leaving the device behind hadn't const.i.tuted a genuine oversight.
Just now the trio of airspeeders was approximately two kilometers south of the summit hall.
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were pa.s.sengers in the lead vehicle, trailed by KiAdi-Mundi and Vergere in the second, and two judicials in the third.
Gazing down over the speeder's starboard gunwale, Qui - Gon thought he glimpsed movement on one of the rooftops. But when he s.h.i.+elded his eyes with the edge of his hand and looked again, all he saw was what might have been heat s.h.i.+mmer at the base of a slender brick tower.
He reached out through the Force.
At the same instant the speeder's terrain-following computer began to chirp repeatedly, indicating that it had matched the image. The computer's screen displayed the stored image superimposed on the roofscape directly below. Pivoting in his seat, Qui-Gon saw Ki-Adi-Mundi wave a sign of acknowledgment that the computer of the second airspeeder has also discovered the match.
The Eriadu security officer at the controls banked the airspeeder through a sweeping turn and was headed back toward the stretch of roofs when the craft's threat a.s.sessor suddenly added its voice to the steady chirping of the terrain-following computer.
”Missile lock!” the pilot said in astonishment.
Obi-Wan leaned over the side of the craft and pointed to something below.
”There, Master!” Qui-Gon caught sight of the small rocket and realized at once that it had been launched from the base of the tower, just where he had detected movement moments earlier.