Star Wars_ Millennium Falcon - James Luceno [83]
Less than a hundred meters ahead and twenty meters below the containment sphere was zipping toward the river, going airborne at each shallow hill. Flying five meters above the street, the speeder truck was still in pursuit, but short of cutting the Colicoid off there wasn't much it could do. Jadak took a moment to study the stretch of roadway ahead, then pushed the yoke forward and dropped the air-speeder almost to ground level and so close to the front of the truck that it was forced to veer off. Seeing what was coming, Poste extended his legs and arms to brace himself against the floor and passenger's-side door.
Jadak waited for the next dip in the roadway; then, just when the containment sphere took to the air, he called all speed from the T-11 and dived beneath the sphere.
The airspeeder's forward motion drove the ball up onto the slanted prow, over the low windscreen and the lowered heads of Jadak and Poste, and down into the rear nacelle, where it wobbled for a moment before nesting into the bucket seats. The extra weight sent the T-11 onto the street, sparks fountaining from the undercarriage, until Jadak managed to regain control of the repulsorlifts and get the speeder back into the air. By then, though, the police SoroSuubs had caught up and were attempting to keep the Incom from gaining additional altitude.
A sudden hail of blasterfire from the truck turned the situation on its ear. Holed by bolts, two of the patrol speeders slewed to opposite sides and plummeted to the ground, leaking smoke and fire as they screeched along the street, then plowed through two fences, furrowed an area of lawn, and splashed into the river.
The containment sphere prevented Jadak from seeing behind him, but the abrupt disappearance of the other SoroSuubs suggested that they were now chasing the speeder truck. Accelerating, the T-11 streaked out over the river, twenty meters above the choppy water, banking into morning sun and on course for the spaceport.
* * *
The freighter that was to have accepted delivery of the sphere from the speeder truck was warming in a docking bay. As Jadak lowered the Incom alongside, several humanoids and two Gamorreans hurried to roll the containment sphere out of the Incom and up the freighter's boarding ramp.
Eyeing their clothes, the ship's captain asked: “What are you two dressed for?”
Poste smiled without amusement. “We have parts in the school play.”
“What happened to the truck?”
“The pilots dropped the ball,” Poste said.
“Last we saw,” Jadak added, “police units were after them.”
The captain nodded once. “That's their problem.” He cocked his head toward the freighter. “The Colicoid's got an appointment on a world a long way from anywhere.” He began to ascend the ramp, then stopped and turned around. “Can we drop you two somewhere?”
“Yeah,” Jadak said, tapping Poste into motion. “But the where's going to depend on whether Rej Taunt honors his part of our arrangement.”
“He will. Find yourselves a couple of bunks in the common cabin.”
They went directly there. After testing all the bunks, Poste set his knapsack on one and began pulling items from it while singing to himself, exactly as Jadak had seen him do on Nar Shaddaa in his hole-in-the-wall crypt the day before they left.
“What's with the song?”
“It's to make sure I have everything.” Poste pointed to items while he sang. “Socks and shirts and pants and comb, and boots and hat, and—”
“All right, I get it,” Jadak interrupted.
“I was taught to do it by one of the old-timers who lived in the canyon my tribe haunted. In the beginning I only owned a few things, but every one of them was important to me, and it hurt went something went missing, either