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Kandra stood on tiptoe so she could whisper in Valin’s ear. “What is it?”

“A ripple in the Force.” Valin’s voice was distant. “And all of them have pouches the right size to carry lightsabers. Perhaps this is what they look like in their true forms …”

“They who?”

Valin seemed to collect himself. “Never mind. Stay away from them. They’re dangerous.”

Kandra’s pulse quickened. Valin still wasn’t offering answers, but at last they seemed to be in the vicinity of the story he’d promised. She leaned back to Beurth and nodded as inconspicuously as she could toward the four in jumpsuits. “Spycam on those four throughout.”

The Gamorrean dug around in his pack and drew out a large datapad, which he opened. A puzzle game appeared on screen. Beurth oriented the ’pad’s base toward the four travelers as he played.

He kept the datapad out as the group of arrivals, the jumpsuit-clad four and Valin’s party among them, went through orientation, were told of the dangers of drochs, received cans of droch repellent, and heard an ominous warning about violent storms on the planet’s surface.

The shuttle trip down to Hweg Shul was uneventful. Valin had sat the three of them in the back, well behind the jumpsuited travelers, and now he did not look at them, nor would he let Kandra and Beurth stare. “Eventually they would feel your attention on them. Do not let your thoughts betray you.”

Theirs was a predawn landing at the planetary capital, and on their approach Kandra could see, through the viewport, the effects that storms had wreaked on the town. Buildings were damaged. Debris was strewn across some streets. Temporary shelters had been put up in empty lots, tents against the winter weather.

After landing, they stepped out into that weather. Kandra hugged her stylish but not-quite-adequate long coat to her. Even Beurth, as well insulated as Gamorreans tended to be against cold, shivered.

Standing a few meters away from the shuttle, directly between it and the main terminal dome, was a shuttle operations representative, handing each passenger a piece of flimsi printed with the names and locations of local hostels, entertainments, restaurants, and other businesses.

Kandra scanned the list. “Jedi Horn, you have a recommendation about any of these?”

There was no answer.

She looked up, turned around.

Valin Horn was gone.

KLATOOINE

IN THE LOUNGE AREA OF THE FALCON’S MAIN HOLD, ALLANA TRANSMITTED her last group of study answers and set her datapad aside on the game table. “Done.”

C-3PO, seated in the nearest chair, cocked his head, clearly evaluating her scores. “Very good, young mistress. When you apply yourself, you consistently perform at a level years in advance of your actual age. We have now come within four minutes of your scheduled midday break. I think we can bend the rules and begin the break immediately. Would you like to play a game? Or have your midday meal?”

“I want to go outside.”

“Oh, dear.” C-3PO straightened up. “Perhaps not advisable.”

“But that’s why they got me guards. So I could go out. And Grandma commed to say it would be all right.”

“Well, yes, but …”

She hopped up. “Don’t worry, it’ll be fun.”

“I acknowledge that there are dialects of Basic in which the word fun does apply to situations of high stress, or, in ironic mode, to absolute tedium, but that sort of linguistic range is not in your current lesson plan.” He followed her out of the lounge. “You’ll need your desert garments and an application of ultraviolet shield spray …”

Minutes later, the two of them and R2-D2 descended the boarding ramp. Anji trotted along beside Allana, often sprinting ahead to sit for a moment on a cooler spot in a tent’s shadow as the bipeds she accompanied trudged across the sun-baked sands.

Javon Thewles and a detail of three additional security operatives met them at the bottom of the ramp. Javon and the female operative were impassive, but the other two, both males, one a human and one a Duros, looked just short of miserable in the heat.

Allana gave Javon