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Yes, any Jedi Knight might know one of these three techniques—most commonly, the technique of levitation. But only a Jedi Master was likely to know all three or be able to sustain them simultaneously across such a broad distance.

Mara bumped her nose into something hard and stopped. Immediately ahead of her was uniform grayness.

She looked up along the curved surface of the bunker wall. And only a Jedi Master is likely to become so focused that she walks into a wall, she told herself.

She swayed where she stood, suddenly dizzy from the heat. Come on, Tiu, she thought. You should have detected me by now—

A cord, millimeters thick, transparent and almost invisible in the darkness, fell across her face. Hurriedly, she grasped at it, wrapped it around her waist three times, and gave it a tug.

It hauled at her and she walked up the wall, her arms trembling and legs increasingly faltering as the heat threatened to overwhelm her. An eternity later, she was ten meters up the wall and a wedge-shaped slit in the duracrete surface beckoned her. She stepped into darkness, dropped a meter to a hard floor, and landed badly, collapsing to the floor as her legs failed.

She released the heat entrapment and felt the built-up energy flow away from her. With her last bit of strength, she held her control over the surrounding air long enough to send much of that heat streaming out through the slit in the wall, even as the slit slid closed. And then she burst into a sweat, a sudden head-to-toe sheen that felt like heavy motor oil against her skin.

In the darkness, a female voice said, “Goodness. You smell like a rancor after a footrace.”

Mara smiled weakly. “That’s no way to greet a Master. And you’ve never smelled a rancor after a footrace.”

“Yes, I have.”

There was a click, and brilliant light from overhead blinded Mara; she raised an arm over her eyes.

As her vision settled, she could see she was in a tight chamber, narrower against the bunker exterior wall but long. It was dominated by a neutral-blue flying craft, a tubular vehicle like a starfighter but with abbreviated fins instead of maneuvering wings; its canopy, which opened at the rear instead of forward, was up.

At the far end of the chamber, beside a circular hatch a meter in diameter, stood Tiu Zax, with her hand on a control panel mounted on the wall. Short of stature—she stood a centimeter shorter than Leia, and was lean like most of her kind—she had pale blue skin, hair so pale that it seemed translucent, and delicate features dominated by eyes that seemed oversized. She wore the black pants and tunic of her Jedi outfit; her boots, belt, and cloak were not in evidence.

Mara struggled to a sitting position. Though tired and still flushed with heat, she felt much better already. “What is this place?”

“A secret escape chamber.” Tiu came forward and reached up into the vehicle’s cockpit, pressing dashboard controls without looking. A side panel on the craft popped open; inside, Mara could see bundled clothing, packaged field rations, items she couldn’t make out. Tiu reached for one of them and came forward to hand it to Mara; it was a transparisteel canteen. “I think there are four of them in this building, but I haven’t gotten at all of them. The entry is concealed on the other side. This and the other one I found both had two-person escape vehicles in them.”

“That’s very Thrackan-ish.” Mara took the canteen, unscrewed the cap, and took a long drink of its contents—water, tasting slightly of its storage in a metal container. “So, first: Master Skywalker says ‘Good work’ on your staying here like this.”

Tiu beamed.

“Second—your report?”

Tiu sat down, cross-legged. “The short form? I’ve been here several days, have figured out how to patch a datapad into their internal holocam system and beep my comlink whenever the area I’m in is about to fall under active observation. I’ve dived under more tables recently than you can possibly imagine.”

Mara grinned and took another drink.

“Sal-Solo isn’t spending much time here,” Tiu continued. “Which has