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Rebel Force #5

Trapped

by Alex Wheeler

CHAPTER ONE

The prisoner refuses to cooperate. He leans back in his chair, smiles at his interrogator, lips sealed, confident that he will win out, that his will is indomitable. He is stubborn, cocky, defiant.

He is wrong.

Luke Skywalker sits down across from the prisoner, aiming a fierce, steady gaze at the man. " You will tell me what I need to know, " Luke says in a low voice.

The prisoner shakes his head. But he is no match for Luke. No match for the power of a Jedi.

Luke clears his mind of distractions, focuses on the prisoner, on the answers he needs and the steely mind that contains them. " You will tell me what I need to know, " he says again.

Dazed, the prisoner nods. " I will tell you what you need to know. "

For so long, he has tried so hard—tried to connect to the Force, tried to bend it to his will, never understanding the true lesson of the Jedi.

Luke allows the Force to flow through him. It binds him to this man, to this cell, to everything and everyone in the galaxy. And now that he understands this, he can do anything. " You will tell me the name of your employer and where to find him, " Luke says.

The prisoner nods again. " I will tell you the name of my employer and where to find him, " he agrees. The Force twists his mind, draws the words out of him. " His name is—"

"Luke!"

Luke's eyes popped open. A sharp rapping at the door kept him from dropping back to sleep. He'd been dreaming about… well, something. Something important, he thought, the memory licking at the corners of his mind. But as he tried to reach for it, the door flew open, and Han Solo blew into the room. The last traces of the dream evaporated, like dew in the morning sun.

"Sweet dreams, kid?" Han asked with a mocking grin.

Luke just groaned, glancing at the clock. It was a little past four in the morning. He'd gone to sleep only a few hours before, after a long, frustrating evening of questioning their prisoner.

Prisoner. Luke winced at the word. The prisoner had saved Luke's life on Kamino, more than once. He'd proven himself brave and honorable, a man of his word. He'd fought off a sea monster, shot down Imperial fighters, and wielded Luke's lightsaber with more speed and grace than Luke could ever hope to achieve. Yet he'd refused to say where he had learned to fight with the Jedi weapon. Just as he'd refused to admit who had sent him to Kamino—who had hired him to follow the Rebels and shoot Luke Skywalker out of the sky.

He'd refused to give them anything but his name: Lune Divinian.

A stranger, a paid assassin, the key to tracking down the man determined to see Luke dead…and yet, after Kamino, Luke couldn't help thinking of Div as a friend.

He climbed out of bed, shrugging off his doubts. Not long ago, he had befriended a mysterious stranger, a man who had also seemed brave and honorable, who had saved his life. And trusting the wrong man had almost killed him. Lesson learned: Trust could be dangerous. Unearned trust could be fatal.

"What do you want, Han?" Luke asked wearily. "It's practically the middle of the night."

"Hey, if you'd rather nap, we can tuck you back into your cradle and—"

"Han!" Luke snapped. "What is it?"

"Nothing much," Han said lightly. "Just thought you might want to know, our prisoner's asking for you. Says he's ready to make a deal."

"I'm here. What's the deal?" Luke asked. Div was locked in the brig, where he'd been since they had returned from Kamino a week before. The small cell wasn't that much barer than Luke's own room; like that sparse chamber, it had a thin mattress, a table, a chair, and little else. Luke could almost imagine he was in the Rebel barracks—if he ignored the lack of windows.

And the locked door.

Luke hated seeing Div like this, penned up like an animal.

Div kicked his legs up onto the flimsy mattress. He stretched out like he was lying on an Amfarian beach, luxuriating under the red sun. "The deal is, you let me go. Now. Or I escape and tell the Empire everything there is to know about this place,