Star Wars_ Coruscant Nights 01_ Jedi Twilight - Michael Reaves [79]
Den could see that the Jedi was getting a little annoyed at I-Five’s audacity. He was sure the droid sensed it as well. Yet I-Five pursued the question. “Am I right?”
“It’s none of your—” Pavan began, but Laranth interrupted. “It would seem so. We don’t know how or why.”
“If it’s true,” I-Five said, “and if Jax uses the Force in any high-profile way, Vader could possibly sense it. It’s difficult to find a droid through the Force, anyway.”
“Very true.” A new voice came from the shadows. The two Jedi reacted with a swiftness incredible to behold: Laranth’s blaster and Pavan’s lightsaber were in their hands and ready to be activated almost before the new arrival had finished speaking. I-Five’s response time was just as fast: he had both arms level from the elbows and his hands doubled into fists, save for extended index fingers, like a Naboo child playing kaadu-and-aliens.
The owner of the voice strolled into view. He was as lean as a starving Givin, wearing what Den had come to think of as “slythmonger chic”: a blue-black, knee-length fleekskin coat, leggings, and boots. The only concession to urban warfare was the chest armor made of duracrete slug hide and the blaster on his hip.
“So how’s about I just take you to it?” he continued.
Den saw Jax Pavan relax slightly. “Nick. Good to see you again.” He introduced Laranth and Den to the newcomer, pointedly ignoring I-Five. “This is Nick Rostu. He was a hero during the Clone Wars …”
“And now he’s just another underdweller. There’s a lesson in that somewhere.” Rostu shrugged. “Got anything to eat?”
Den decided it was up to him to introduce I-Five, since no one else seemed eager to. This he did.
Rostu barely glanced at the droid; he was much more interested in the palp wafers Laranth had just given him. “Your droid?” he asked Pavan, mumbling through a mouthful. He must really be hungry, Den decided. Palp wafers tasted as bad as they sounded. Worse, in fact. Nothing could beat ready rations for sheer unpalatability, but palp wafers came close.
“Not hardly,” Pavan said in response to Rostu’s question. “It’s a—”
“A most singular droid,” Laranth said, to Pavan’s apparent surprise. “I think you’ll be surprised by I-Five, Nick Rostu. We continue to be.”
“Thank you,” I-Five said quietly.
Pavan made a gesture of annoyance. “Am I hearing you right, Nick? You know where the droid is? How?”
“Easy,” Nick Rostu said. “Well, maybe not that easy … come on. I’ve got an air skimmer parked down the block. It’ll hold all of us.”
As they moved down the street, Rostu explained in somewhat greater detail his adventures after he’d last seen Pavan, culminating in his escaping from the Palace and stealing the Corellian ship, barely in time to avoid being executed for killing an Imperial officer months ago. It all sounded straightforward enough, Den decided, even though Rostu seemed a little vague on some of the details.
“Still doesn’t explain how you know where the droid is,” Laranth commented as they reached the air skimmer. It was a four-seater, so Den sat in I-Five’s lap.
“I found it,” Rostu said as the vessel lifted off. “I was going to head back to my old stomping grounds, but then I heard they’d been pretty much stomped already by one of Palpatine’s big urban renewal droids. So I decided I’d see if I could find it myself, maybe help you out a bit.” This last was addressed to Pavan, who nodded.
Rostu piloted the skimmer down a narrow, crowded thoroughfare. “It wasn’t that hard to find,” he continued. “It’s not a common model.”
“Good work, Nick,” Pavan said. He was sitting in the back, next to I-Five and Den. Den heard the droid murmur to Pavan, “This is all too convenient. Your friend escapes the clutches of the Imperial Guards—he’s not specific how—and easily finds the droid for whom the underground has spent weeks searching in vain. I think there’s more to it than he’s telling us.” His tone was pitched too low for Rostu