Star Wars_ Darth Maul 02_ Shadow Hunter - Michael Reaves [55]
“My locator was in my comlink,” Darsha said. “I have no idea which way to go.”
“Fortunately, I have a built-in global positioner,” I-Five said. “To orient ourselves toward the Jedi Temple, we would be best served by taking that one.” He pointed to the leftmost tunnel.
“That’s a good argument for taking the right-hand tunnel,” Pavan muttered. Darsha looked at him; he met her eyes for a moment and then looked away.
“I’m trying to get you back to a safe haven,” she told him. “If you’d rather take your chances with our friend up there, that’s fine with me. I can tell the council about the impending blockade as easily as you can.”
He turned back to look at her again. “Hey, the Sith was probably vaporized along with your Jedi buddy,” he said. “And good riddance to both of ’em.”
Darsha felt herself go cold with anger. Without taking her gaze away from his, she said, “I-Five, what do you think the chances are that the Sith’s dead?”
“Given the fact that, in our brief peripheral acquaintance with him, he has already survived several attempts on his life and killed quite a few beings, as well, I wouldn’t count him out until I saw his dead body,” the droid said. “And even then I’d want him frozen in carbonite just to make sure.”
Darsha nodded. “I agree. But you’re entitled to your opinion, Pavan. Maybe it’ll be safer if we all go our separate ways; after all, you seem to be the one he’s looking for.”
Even as she said this, she realized it was a mistake. She didn’t need to see the look that passed between the droid and Pavan to know that she couldn’t play one off against the other. Whatever bond they had was strong enough to unite them, even in a situation like this.
I-Five said to Pavan, “She’s right about you being the primary target. Sanctuary from the Jedi may be your only option. Are you willing to accept that?”
“Of course,” Pavan replied with a scowl. “I’m not stupid. But that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about the situation.”
“True,” Darsha said. “But you could at least try being congenial. If we’re going to be stuck with each other for a while, we might as well try to make it pleasant.” She turned to face the left-hand tunnel, took a few steps toward it, then turned back to him and added, “Anoon Bondara died saving your life. I don’t want to hear any more disparaging remarks about him.”
Neither Pavan nor I-Five made any reply to that as she started down the tunnel. After she had taken a few steps they fell in behind her.
There is no emotion; there is peace. Well, maybe someday. After all, she wasn’t a full-fledged Jedi yet, and the way things were going, it didn’t look like she ever would be. But some truths you didn’t need the Force to see. Like the fact that one Anoon Bondara was worth a fleet of Lorn Pavans.
Lorn didn’t like the Jedi Padawan. This fact would hardly be surprising to anyone who knew him even casually—which was how pretty much everybody knew him, these days—as he was not reticent about his feelings when the subject of the Jedi Knights arose. He had stated on more than one occasion to anyone who would listen that he considered them on a par with mynocks in terms of parasitic opportunism, and a notch or two beneath those energy-sucking space bats on the general scale of galactic evolution.
“Shooting’s too good for them,” he once told I-Five. “In fact, dumping them all in a Sarlacc’s pit to marinate in gastric juices for a thousand years is too good for them, but it’ll do until something worse comes along.”
He had never told anyone why he felt this way. In his present circle of acquaintances only I-Five knew, and the droid would never divulge the secret of Lorn’s bitterness to anyone.
And now, thanks to a truly ironic twist of fate, here he was almost literally stun-cuffed to a Jedi and dependent on her to save him from the murderous intentions of a Sith—a member of