• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Hey,” Laranth said. “Feel that?”

Jax nodded. Something was happening in there, something that was stirring the Force like wind stirs a stormy sea. Impossible to tell if 10-4TO was involved, of course, but whatever the disturbance was, it had to be investigated.

He said as much. Predictably, Den Dhur asked, “Why?”

“Because we’re Jedi,” Laranth said.

Dhur said nothing, but when the rest started forward, he followed. Jax couldn’t resist: “You’re not a Jedi,” he said. “Why are you coming?”

The Sullustan sighed. “Because I’m a reporter,” he said. “Much as I hate to remember it sometimes.”

thirty-two

Kaird could feel the weapon’s blast reverberating through him, seemingly scorching every nerve in his body. It reminded him of a time long ago when, as a young hatchling, he’d blundered into a colony of jelly-bees. Individually, the stings from their trailing tendrils weren’t much, but each hive could number as many as twelve or fifteen, and they’d all attacked him. He remembered the strands, over a hundred of them, writhing over his body, all delivering a painful shock. That was how it felt now: agonizing jolts, each more painful than the last.

Eventually, after eons of subjective time, the jolts ceased. Kaird tried to rise, to speak, to crawl. He could do none of these things. It was as if his body had been unplugged, disconnected from his mind—except for the nerves that carried messages of pain. Those were working just fine.

Xizor stepped in front of him and squatted down so that Kaird could see his face. The Falleen was not smiling anymore. His face was grim, and back to its usual jade hue. Kaird had seen that look on Xizor’s face before, and had felt sorry for whoever had been its recipient.

“A few more blasts are all it will take to finish you, I think,” Xizor said. “So you should take that into consideration when answering my question. It’s a simple one. Are you acting on your own initiative, or did the Underlord sanction my death?”

Kaird didn’t answer. His mind was scrabbling about like a clumsyfoot on the slick peaks of Nedij’s tallest mountains, looking frantically for someplace firm on which to stand, and finding nothing.

Xizor slapped his face—not hard, but not gently, either. “I know you can still talk, Nediji. Speak truthfully, and you may survive this.”

“Yosh,” Kaird said. He didn’t know much Falleen, but he had heard that the one-word curse packed quite a wallop.

Apparently he’d heard right. Xizor backhanded him, hard enough to make his ears ring.

“Fool!” the prince growled. Then, with a visible effort, he composed himself. He glanced over his shoulder at the droid. “Again,” he said as he rose and stepped out of the way.

And Kaird’s world was washed away once more in a crackling, blazing wave of pain.

“Y’know,” Nick said to Jax as they headed for the turbolifts, followed by Laranth, the Sullustan, and the droid, “considering that this was supposed to be a solo project, you seem to have amassed quite a following.”

“Noticed that, did you?” The Jedi’s tone held some humor, but mostly annoyance.

“I understand taking Laranth along to watch your back. Never met her, though I’ve heard stories. But what’s with the Sullustan and the droid?”

Jax sighed. “To tell the truth, I’m not really sure why they’re part of the party. The droid saved our lives a couple of times, and claims it knew my father. It’s with Dhur, the Sullustan.”

“You mean it belongs to Dhur.”

Jax sighed again. “Believe me, I wish that was what I mean.”

This exchange left Nick more puzzled than he’d been when the conversation started, but by then they’d reached the turbolifts. The lifts were still operating, but the repulsorplates had lost a lot of their charge and seemed almost reluctant to do their job. Nick tried not to think about the consequences should the plates choose to cut out completely, leaving them all to drop back down four stories. Although a part of him almost wished they would; that way he’d be spared having to continue his betrayal.

He’d realized,