Star Wars_ Rebel Force 2_ Hostage - Alex Wheeler [15]
Makes it easier for everyone to move on."
Leia clutched his hand. "I promise you this: No one is moving on. Not without you."
Luke swung the landspeeder abruptly to the left, veering around a corner, straight through a lane clogged with traffic. A luxury speeder behind them slammed on its brakes just in time.
"Luke, what are you doing?" Leia asked in alarm.
"I told you not to let the kid drive," Han grumbled.
J'er Nahj had offered them use of a landspeeder to return to the hotel. Luke didn't understand. "If you can afford a landspeeder, then can't you afford—" He broke off, looking around at the conditions in the warehouse, his question obvious.
"I'm not here out of need," Nahj had said. "I'm here because these are my people."
Luke knew he'd just come within meters of crushing Nahj's landspeeder (and its passengers), but it had been worth it. He'd confirmed his suspicions. "We're being followed," he said, glancing over his shoulder at the red SoroSuub X-31. It was keeping its distance, but it had matched everyone of Luke's twists and turns.
Luke glanced at Leia, who still seemed a bit shaken up from what she'd seen at the warehouse. "We can contact Var Lyonn and have him waiting at the hotel with reinforcements," he suggested.
"That probably is Lyonn," Han argued. "Or one of his men."
"Maybe. Maybe not." With a dangerous smile, Leia narrowed her eyes at the SoroSuub speeder. "Let's find out."
Luke pushed the landspeeder as fast as it would go, whooshing through the streets of the warehouse district. He took a hairpin curve at full speed, nearly flipping the vehicle on its side. The speeder shot down a back alley, then burst out the other side, nearly slamming into a giant borrat frozen in the middle of the road, its furry ears twitching as it stared into the oncoming traffic. Veering around it, Luke skidded across the sidewalk and plowed through a detour sign blocking off the entrance to a street crowded with construction equipment. He threaded the landspeeder through a serum of bulldozers and deactivated construction droids, his teeth rattling as the repulsorlifts bounced over the torn up road.
Still, the red SoroSuub followed. Leia's plan called for them to look like they were trying to evade their pursuer, even as they drew him deeper and deeper into the abandoned district. As far as Luke was concerned, her rash "plan" was more like a death wish. It sounded like something Han would have come up with. So Luke wasn't just pretending to evade pursuit. He was determined to shake the guy.
Just one problem: Whoever was following them seemed to anticipate Luke's every move.
"Turn in here!" Leia barked, and Luke swung the landspeeder sharply to the right, ducking into a narrow, twisting alley. It dead-ended in a high, durasteel gate with sharp barbs running along the top. "Perfect," Leia said. "Stop."
Luke groaned. What was so perfect about a dead end? But he obeyed her command and hit the brakes.
"Remind me of this brilliant plan again, Your Worshipfulness," Han said. "We're going to get out of the landspeeder, wait for this guy, whoever he is, to catch up with us, and—
what, exactly?"
"And find out who he is and what he wants," Leia said. "You have a problem with that?"
"Let's see," Han said. "It's risky, it's foolish, it's overconfident—"
Chewbacca growled, and Han grinned at him. "Because you didn't let me finish, you overgrown fuzzball. I was about to say, sounds like my kind of plan."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Luke muttered.
The red SoroSuub pulled into the alley and drew to a stop.
"Got your blaster ready, kid?" Han asked.
Luke nodded. But I'll only use it if I have to, he thought, his hand straying to his lightsaber. According to Ben it was more effective than a blaster.
Of course, Ben had known how to use it.
A single figure slipped out of the