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Moments later Corran hurtled through the hole Jaina had cut in the blast doors, his lightsaber blade gleaming with purple light. He sprinted in her direction. An instant after that Saba leapt through and immediately rolled to the side, avoiding a barrage of blaster bolts pursuing her like angry flying insects. The bolts hit the corridor’s permacrete floor, some of them burning themselves out of existence, a few ricocheting up to hit the corridor wall far past Jaina.

The two Masters joined her, and together they peered down into the turbolift shaft.

It was actually three shafts, no separations among them. Theirs, the central one, showed no car below; the car that had passed Jaina was stopped some twenty stories up. To the left, no car was visible in either direction. To the right, a car was descending from far above.

Jaina glanced back at the blast doors. At best, they had another ten seconds before the first, bravest, of the pursuing troopers would poke a head through and start shooting. From that point, the Jedi would once again be deflecting blaster bolts and would have to continue to do so until a suitable lift car came.

Somewhere else in the building, closer to the delegation offices than to the hangars, Tionne, Kam, Zekk, and Taryn would be doing exactly the same thing. That team had a different destination.

The car in the right-hand shaft roared down past them. Jaina saw it stop with startling suddenness four stories down.

The three Jedi jumped.

It was a fifteen-meter fall, but a touch of the Force allowed each of the experienced Jedi to land painlessly and gracefully atop the car.

The car got under way again, hurtling upward, its acceleration so great that Jaina and Corran were forced to their knees. Saba stayed upright, her legs and tail forming a triangle of support.

In moments the car stopped again with a turbolift’s typical suddenness. These cars, equipped with interior inertial compensators, could do so without turning their occupants into broken-limbed jelly. On top, though, the three Jedi were propelled upward as if fired from a spring-loaded cannon at a carnival.

They flew up an additional two stories, then pushed a little with the Force and drifted a meter laterally to land on the centimeters-wide ledge at the base of another set of doors.

Corran glanced at the numbers stenciled on the inside of the door. “This is a chamber level. We’re good … if that car doesn’t come up and smash us flat. Give me some room.” He ignited his lightsaber.

Jaina and Saba drew to either side, holding on to narrow grooves and durasteel plate joins on the wall, as Corran cut a way out through the doors.

The turbolift car below descended. A lift in the far-left shaft roared by from above.

Another one, far above in this shaft, became visible in a rapid descent. Saba hissed something unpleasant-sounding, activated her lightsaber, and joined Corran in cutting the hole. In moments, their blades met, buzzing and sparking.

Jaina dived at the circular plate they’d marked. Despite her comparatively light weight, she knocked the plate free and fell atop it on the corridor floor beyond. As she rolled to her feet, her shoulder grazed the superheated edge of the metal. Even with the protective virtues of her lightly armored robe, she felt the sudden sting of injury.

She came up on her feet. Ahead, just a few meters away, stood a row of security troopers aiming blaster rifles—

With no time to ignite her lightsaber, she dodged left, drawing their fire away from the hole. Bolts tracked her, smacking and sizzling into the wall and the other turbolift door now behind her.

Beyond the troopers, Jaina could see a low archway leading to a large, well-lit chamber beyond. The Senate chamber—

In her peripheral vision, she saw Saba leap through the turbolift hole, then Corran. A turbolift car descended so close to his emergence that his cloak was snapped from his body, jerking his head back before the clasp broke, slamming him back into the turbolift door.

Saba caught the next volley of blaster bolts as Jaina activated her lightsaber.