Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance (15 page)

He
eased his head around the corner. Three large, horned figures stood
in a cluster 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.

Shigar
took a moment to reassure 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 Shigar 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, " Shigar 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 Shigar. "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 Shigar 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 Tassaa 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 Shigar. "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, flashing its
lights and issuing a warning to stand still. Shigar 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 Tassaa Bareesh's sleeping chamber.

The
shaft began branching and doubling back on itself. Shigar 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. Shigar spun his lightsaber like a
shield, 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 Shigar, spying something ahead.

She
followed close behind him. There was a ladder mounted firmly in the
wall, leading up into a vertical shaft.

"You're
sure this is the one?" she asked.

"As
sure as I can be. " He tested his weight on the rungs. They held
without complaint. "I'll go first. "

"Don't
kill anything until I get there, " she said.

*
* *

The
shaft led to a basement filled with barrels of oil buried under two
centimeters of insect shells and dust. It looked as though they
hadn't been touched for decades. Shigar moved lightly through them,
leaving barely a footprint. Larin was nearly as stealthy, and she was
a sharp shot with that snub rifle of hers. Several times he had been
tempted to ask why she had been wasting her time in Coruscant's old
districts, but he didn't want to pry. Behind the banter, she was
tight- lipped. If there was something he needed to know, she would
tell him eventually, he was sure.

Be
kind, Master Satele had said. He had thought very carefully about
that instruction. It had to apply to Larin, the young woman he had
already rescued once, from the Mandalorian. Was it a kindness,
though, to be ripped out of your home and plunged into the middle of
someone else's war? Some would have thought not. But he sensed in
Larin a corrosive rootlessness that could poison her if it wasn't
counteracted. On Coruscant she was just another disenfranchised
person caught up in food riots, separatist uprisings, and corruption.
What she needed was direction, a purpose. He could give her that
much, temporarily, if she wanted it.

The
basement of barrels delivered them to a door that had been welded
shut. His lightsaber soon disposed of that obstacle. They entered a
narrow, musty stairwell that led them up, level by level, to a cellar
that was currently in use. A team of Evocii was busy unloading crates
of delicate foodstuffs into an expansive cool room. They were far too
busy to notice the fleeting figures that ran past them, into the
kitchens.

Larin
found a closet, and Shigar lured a relatively well-dressed slave in
after them.

"We
are guests of your mistress, " Shigar told her, encouraging her
acceptance of the lie by means of a gentle nudge through the Force.
"Obviously, we've lost our way. "

"You're
a long way from the throne room, sir. "

"Do
you know where the two envoys are quartered?"

"Yes,
sir. I work in the laundry detail and am frequently called upon to
attend those areas. "

"You'll
be happy to remind us how to get there. "

The
Evocii provided a detailed description of the two suites. They were
practically side by side, with entrances facing in opposite
directions. The suite belonging to Envoy Vii of the Republic was
closer.

"Ever
heard of this Vii fellow?" Larin asked him in an aside.

Shigar
had to confess that he hadn't. "Politics is my Master's
business. "

"It
should be everyone's business. "

"Between
you and me, I agree completely. "

Shigar
interrupted the slave, who had descended to ridiculous detail in her
efforts to help. "You'll give us access codes to the secure
areas, too, in case we've forgotten them. "

"Yes,
sir, but not to the suites themselves. I don't know what they are.
The guards can help you with that when you get there, I expect. They
will know you, of course... ?"

"Of
course, " Shigar reassured her. "You don't need to worry
about that. "

"No,
sir. I don't need to worry about that. "

The
Evocii obediently gave them all she knew, and Shigar committed it to
memory.

"Before
you go, " he said to her, "I want you to know that it's
unsafe down here today. Find somewhere to hide, and stay there until
the fuss dies down. You don't want to get hurt. "

"I
don't want to get hurt. "

"That's
right."

The
slave left the closet and hurried off to obey his command.

"Ready?"
he asked Larin.

"I
was born ready. "

"You've
already done that one. "

"I
have? Well, you'd better tell me where to shoot before I embarrass
myself further. "

They
eased out of the closet and hurried through the well- appointed
corridors. It made a pleasant change not to be kicking up dust and
running through cobwebs. Instead, fragile vases and statues lined the
corridors, and Shigar took great care not to damage anything
unnecessarily. Someone had made these things. The preservation of
culture was among a Jedi's many missions.

They
came to the checkpoint the Evocii slave had described. Five Houk
sentries guarded the entrance to the Republic guest quarters. That
was more than expected. Larin took in the situation at a glance, and
communicated her strategy to Shigar with a series of brisk, concise
hand gestures. He nodded, happy to take her lead.

She
rolled out from cover and came up on her knees, firing into the
shoulders of two of the Houks. They toppled backward. Shigar leapt
past her, using his blade to defend both of them. A third Houk went
down, struck by a bolt from his own weapon, deflected back at him
from Shigar's lightsaber. That left two. Larin took a close burn from
one of them and retaliated with two shots to the chest. Shigar sliced
the remaining one's arm off.

He
stood still in a defensive pose in the curling smoke, ready to strike
again if any of the fallen so much as twitched. Larin moved lightly
to his side, unhurt by the near-miss, although her shoulder now
boasted a new charcoal patch.

"No
alarm, " she said with satisfaction. "We got them all in
time. "

"The
door will be locked. See if you can get through without triggering
anything. "

She
knelt down by the lock and took off her helmet while he kept an eye
out for passersby. A stream of precision tools came out of the left
thigh hatch of her armor. She applied them one by one to the lock
mechanism, humming softly as she worked. Shigar was about to ask how
much longer she would be when she pocketed the tools, stood up, and
touched the access panel.

The
door slid open, surprising two Houks on the other side. Shigar
deflected their blasterfire while Larin neatly dealt with them. Then
they hurried into the suite and closed the door behind them.

The
scene awaiting them was utterly unexpected.

A
gaudily dressed Twi'lek was standing over the bodies of a Republic
security detail. He reached for a communicator, but Shigar whisked it
out of his grasp with a quick Force pull.

"What's
going on here?" Larin asked in crisp, commanding tones. "What
have you done with the envoy?"

"I?"
The Twi'lek looked mortally affronted. "These creatures came to
harm through no action of my own. They were found this way, drugged,
in a cantina. The envoy is missing. "

Larin
pressed the barrel of her rifle under the Twi'lek's chin. "You're
lying. "

"The
envoy is an honored guest, invited here solely to do business! We
bear him no ill will!"

"He's
got a point, " Shigar said.

"That
doesn't mean I have to like it. " She reversed the rifle and
clubbed the Twi'lek across the head. He dropped like a stone. "You
stay there while I double-check your story. "

Shigar
closed the door behind them and locked it again. Larin pulled one of
the fallen bodyguards up to a couch and lightly slapped his face.
"He's got a pulse. That's a start. "

Before
she could do the man any serious damage, Shigar came to help,
lowering the bodyguard's head onto a cushion before trying to wake
him up.

One
hand stayed on the cushion. The other cupped the bodyguard's
forehead. Concentrating, Shigar nudged the flow of the Force through
his body, encouraging wakefulness.