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As Mara was performing her check of the electronics on the door into the suspect quarters, Luke saw two beings—a Gamorrean and a human—leaving other sets of quarters. Both were clad in blue jumpsuits emblazoned with the Zorp House apartment tower logo; they barely glanced at the Jedi before heading off toward the turbolifts.

“Looks as though this floor is mostly quarters for building workers,” Luke said.

Mara nodded. “Mostly or entirely. Which makes me wonder how Lumiya got a place here. Did she forge an ID and records, which is certainly within her capabilities, or did she bribe the building manager and it’s just a little detail he’s conveniently forgotten? Oh, here we go, stand back.” She stepped away from the doorway, and though he felt no presence of danger, Luke did likewise.

The door slid aside with a scraping noise suggesting that it needed to be realigned on its rails. The Jedi waited a moment for traps to spring, then cautiously entered.

This set of quarters wasn’t a hovel, but it was primitive. The main room, four meters by five, opened via a curtained doorway into a short hall; doors there accessed two bedrooms, a kitchen with minimal facilities, and a refresher. The walls and ceiling were the same blue as the halls outside, and the floor was covered by a thin, springy, off-white pad, scuffed here and there but clean. There was no furniture other than a sleep-mat in one bedroom and a chair in the main room.

Luke and Mara moved cautiously from room to room, inspecting every closet and cabinet, turning the chair over, unscrewing panels from walls to see if anything was hidden.

In one bedroom closet were two Zorp House apartment tower jumpsuits in Lumiya’s size. Mara paused while looking through them. Luke saw her nostrils flare, and then she pulled the garments from the closet, tossed them to the floor, and leaned in to study the back of the closet.

“Something?” Luke asked.

“A hidden panel concealing a locking mechanism. I think the whole back of the closet is a doorway. You?”

“The alert diode on the package delivery slot was disabled. Something was delivered since the last time she was here—a datacard.”

“Go ahead and run it. I’m going to be a minute or two here.”

Luke slid the unlabeled card into his datapad and watched a password prompt and a couple of lines of analysis text pop up on his screen. “Encrypted,” he said. “We’ll need to run it on a computer with some decryption muscle.”

Mara’s reply sounded like muttered swearing in Huttese. Luke didn’t know whether she was reacting to his statement or to the persistent unwillingness of the lock she was working on to be opened.

“And speaking of encryption,” he continued, “while I was getting at the datacard, I was forwarded a message by the Temple comm system. An encrypted recording from Leia.”

Mara glanced back at him, her brows up. “How is she?”

“So-so, I think. She didn’t mention Jacen shooting from the Anakin Solo and killing her bodyguards. She did mention that Han was getting back to normal from the blaster shot he sustained.”

“Good.”

“And she asked me to do something.” In a few words, he outlined Leia’s request about putting a word in Jacen’s ear regarding the Errant Venture.

Mara turned her attention to the locking mechanism as she considered. “Sounds like a good tactic. But if you do it, you’ll be conspiring with an enemy of the GA. I know how you like to keep your nose clean.”

Luke offered her a dismissive little sniff. “Han and Leia aren’t enemies of the GA—they’re suspects in an investigation. If they’re ever captured and charged, they’ll be cleared.”

“That’s true. Our justice system is particularly fair and rational these days.”

“Also, getting to the truth is always a good idea…no matter how it hurts. Besides, if you’re ever strapped for credits, you can always turn me in for the reward.”

Mara turned again to smile at him. “Luke, you always know the right thing to say.”

“I do.”

She turned back and made one final adjustment to the locking mechanism. “Ah, here we go.” There was a faint rumble from