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She could tell from the look on Green Hair’s face that this was not the script he had planned on running. His purported victims were showing no fear. She had to give him credit, though—he tried again, speaking as if he hadn’t heard Lorn.

“You’re in our territory, and you gotta pay the toll.”

Darsha almost laughed. It seemed like years ago that she’d been nervous about facing this riffraff. Her perspective had radically changed in the last thirty-six hours. Something of what she felt must have gotten across to the Raptor leader, because he looked worried for a few seconds.

“I said—” he began.

Lorn interrupted him. “What you said and what you’re gonna get are two entirely separate things. Listen up—this is how it’s gonna play. You give us your money now—all of you. And you—” He pointed at the leader. “—are taking us on a tour.”

Green Hair could not have looked more shocked if Lorn had shoved a power prod against his chest. He stood there like a statue for a few moments, his electrostatic hairdo quivering slightly in the low breeze. His mates looked uneasy, as well; this kind of confidence was not something they encountered often on their turf. They glanced at Green Hair, and Darsha did not need the Force to read what was in that look. They were waiting for him to make a decision.

It was equally obvious that Green Hair knew what was expected of him. He looked back at his crew, then at Darsha, Lorn, and I-Five. “Take ’em!” he shouted, jumping toward Lorn.

Lorn sidestepped, tripping the youth as he rushed by. I-Five hammered the green head with one metal fist, and the boy went down. The Trandoshan lunged forward, a vibroblade extended. The droid used his finger blaster to heat the vibrating blade to incandescence. With a scream, the Trandoshan dropped the blistering metal and bolted into the shadows, cradling his burned hand with his other one.

Darsha was deep in the Force, knowing what her attackers were going to do before they did it. It was far easier than facing the taozin. Before she was even aware of reaching for it, the lightsaber was in her grasp, its blade gleaming in the shadows as she deflected the blaster bolts that whizzed from the Devaronian’s weapon toward her and her friends. She thrust out her free hand, and the Saurin’s blaster leapt from his hand toward Lorn, who caught it. He thumbed the setting to stun and fired twice. The remaining two gang members collapsed on the street’s cracked ferrocrete alongside their stunned leader.

The skirmish had taken no more than a few seconds. Lorn and I-Five began searching the three unconscious bodies.

“What are you doing?” the Padawan asked.

“What does it look like?” Lorn replied. “We’re taking from those who don’t need and giving to those who do—namely us. We’ve got to have credits to get uplevels.”

Darsha started to say something, then thought better of it. She didn’t like scavenging off the bodies, but she could see the necessity.

Green Hair stirred and moaned. Lorn prodded him with the blaster. “Up,” he said. Green Hair got to his feet, not looking too happy.

“I’m sure you boys have a way uplevels,” Lorn said to him. “Let’s go find it.”

Darsha could feel the boy’s resistance. She started to make a hand motion to focus the Force on him and give Lorn’s suggestion a better chance of working, but Lorn held out a palm to her. “No mind tricks, Darsha—I want him alert.”

She started to say something, then shrugged. He seemed to have a plan, which was more than she had at the moment.

Lorn prodded the Raptor with his newly acquired blaster. He felt much better now that he had a weapon. True, it wasn’t much—only a BlasTech DH-17, without optical sighting arrays and with its power charge nearly depleted, but it had made a satisfying sizzle when he’d fired it during the short battle. He’d also picked up a vibroblade. These weapons might not help him if the Sith caught up with them, but they were better than facing his nemesis empty-handed.

There was another reason to celebrate. Since he