Star Wars_ Darth Bane 02_ Rule of Two - Drew Karpyshyn [107]
He had expected to find Darovit sitting at a terminal in one of the four halls, or possibly examining the bronzium busts in the rotunda. But when he brought Master Valenthyne to speak with the young man, Darovit had vanished.
“He’s probably just lost somewhere in the stacks,” Farfalla assured him.
Johun signaled to a passing analysis droid. It turned and made its way toward them with quick, stiff-legged steps.
“May I be of assistance?” it inquired helpfully.
“I’m looking for someone,” Johun explained. “A young man.”
“Beings of all species and ages visit the Archives,” the droid responded. “I would be better able to provide assistance if you could provide a description, Master Jedi.”
“He is missing his right hand.”
There was a soft whir as the droid accessed its recent memory banks.
“I believe I recently saw the man you are looking for in the third hall,” the droid offered, turning to lead them in that direction.
Johun didn’t bother to wait; he pushed past the droid in his haste. Farfalla followed closely at his heels.
There were many people examining the datacards located in the third hall, but the Healing Hermit of Ruusan was not among them.
“We’ve got to find him!” Johun said to his Master, then ran up and down the entire length of the hall, peering into the side aisles to see if Darovit was hidden among the stacks. His disruptive antics drew the ire of several of the other scholars.
Farfalla reached out and grabbed Johun as he ran past a second time, stopping him before he could make another lap of the hall.
“He’s not here, Johun,” he said.
There was a loud clearing of the throat, and two men turned to see an older redheaded woman glaring at them.
“Master Valenthyne,” she said, “I respectfully remind you that the Archives is a place of contemplative research. Your young friend would be better served to resume his exercises out in the training yards.”
“Our apologies, Master Qiina,” he whispered. “But this is a matter of some urgency. We are looking for someone who has gone missing.”
“It is easy to lose oneself in the wisdom of the Archives,” Qiina replied. “I myself often disappear for days at a time.”
Farfalla smiled politely at the jest. “This is somewhat different.”
The analysis droid that had been helping them earlier toddled over toward them, having only just now caught up after they left it behind in their haste. Johun glanced at the droid, then back to Master Qiina.
“We’re looking for a young man,” he told her. “He’s missing his right hand.”
Qiina raised her eyebrows. “I saw him not thirty minutes ago. He was with a young woman.”
“A woman?” Farfalla asked in surprise.
“They seemed to know each other,” the old Jedi informed them. “They called each other by silly little nicknames. Tomcat and Rain, if I remember correctly.”
Johun seized Farfalla’s arm. “Rain was his cousin! The one he met down in the caves. She’s here!”
“Do you know where they went, Master Qiina?” Farfalla asked.
The old woman shook her head. “They were using that terminal over there to look something up. Then they left.”
Farfalla turned to the droid. “Is there any way we can find out which records they were viewing?”
“I am sorry, Master Jedi,” the droid replied. “To protect the privacy of our scholars and to avoid compromising their research, the terminals do not store any data on which records they were used to explore.”
“Your friends seemed to be in quite a hurry,” Qiina offered. “I doubt they even bothered to return the datadisk to the stacks. It might still be plugged into the terminal.”
Johun rushed over to the screen. It was still logged on, under the name Nalia Adollu. As Qiina had guessed, there was a datacard loaded in. He pulled up the disk’s index as Farfalla came and peered over his shoulder.
“Tython,” the Jedi Master remarked, picking out the common theme among the thousands of articles and papers referenced by the index. “Birthplace of the Jedi.”
“That must be where they’re going,” Johun insisted. “Bane must have gone into hiding in the Deep Core!”
He