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“What a clever idea,” I-Five said, handing Lorn a length of rope he had picked out of the trash. “Too bad it didn’t occur to you before we were nearly vaporized.”

Lorn secured Green Hair’s wrists, then turned the youth around to face him. “All right, what’s the switch for?”

Green Hair just stared at him, mouth defiantly clamped shut.

Lorn glanced at I-Five, who said, “I traced the circuit to an energy source high on the alley wall—about there.” The droid pointed up at a rusty vent about three meters above the group. Abruptly his pointing finger deformed, the end irising open. A beam fired four times, each hair-thin line of ruby light striking a corner of the vent. Lorn smelled the tang of vaporized metal faintly over the ripe organic scents that filled the alley.

The vent cover fell off and hit the ground below with a clang, and he could see the harsh end of a tripod-mounted blaster just inside the hole. Motorized, no doubt, and cued to zap anyone not near the activation switch.

Wouldn’t that have been a nasty surprise.

Lorn shook his head, then glanced at Darsha. “Here’s a thought,” he said. “Maybe we ought to try one of those mind tricks you wanted to use earlier.”

Darsha gave him a wry look, then turned her attention to Green Hair. She made a subtle gesture with one hand as she said, “You will show us the way uplevels, with no more tricks.”

Fascinated, Lorn watched as the Raptor’s eyes defocused and he repeated, “I will show you the way uplevels, with no more tricks.”

It was eerie, seeing the ease with which she controlled the boy, and Lorn found himself wondering, not for the first time, if she could do the same thing to him.

Their prisoner pointed deeper into the dark alley. “This is the way,” he said woodenly.

Lorn glanced at Darsha. She nodded. Lorn took the lead.

Darsha couldn’t believe she’d missed the relays. She’d been so focused on the idea of living enemies that it hadn’t occurred to her to check for mechanical ones. She had to make sure that it didn’t happen again.

She sent her senses questing out ahead of them, feeling for living and nonliving eyes. Just around the corner was a security cam. Lorn stepped around the bend before she could call out, but it didn’t matter—she had it handled. It took a little more concentration to defeat a mechanical device, but it certainly wasn’t beyond her abilities. She simply jammed the lens aperture control shut.

She, the Raptor, and I-Five caught up to Lorn in short order. He was looking at the security cam.

“Don’t worry,” she said, “I rascaled it.”

He glanced at her. “It was live? I figured it was a dummy they’d set out to keep their trail clear.”

“There were, you’ll remember, two active power relays back there,” I-Five said.

Lorn glanced at him, shrugged, then nodded thanks to Darsha. The gesture came from him easily and naturally. It was hard to believe that less than a day ago he’d resented her for saving his life.

They continued on. It was a twisty path that Green Hair led them down, even for Coruscant—through dark alleys and back utility routes grown vermicularly complex over the centuries. At times the way was so narrow and the darkness so complete, it was hard to believe that they had returned to the surface. Darsha kept her senses sharp, but other than an occasional mendicant or vagrant huddled shapelessly in dark corners, they met no one on the route. After another ten minutes they came to a large round tube, identified as a thermal conduit. Faded signs all around it gave warnings in various Republic languages as well as universal pictograms about the dangers of the pipeline.

Green Hair indicated an access hatch on the side of the pipe. “Through there,” he said.

Lorn stared at the access hatch on the side of the conduit, then at Green Hair. “You’re sure the whammy you put on him is still working?” he asked Darsha.

Darsha nodded. “He’s not lying,” she said. “He believes this is the route. Unless he’s delusional, this is the way they use to go uplevels.”

I-Five tapped the pipe. It rang hollow.