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"If you don't help us, more will die," Ferus said quietly. "Princess Leia will die."

Kiro took a deep, shuddering breath. "I don't know where the Imperials took her."

Ferus exchanged a glance with Luke. The same hopeless frustration was painted across both their faces.

Until Kiro spoke again. "But I know someone who will."

Deputy Minister Var Lyonn liked to work late. And he liked to work alone. It meant he could focus on his tasks without any distractions. It also meant that when two men blasted through his office door, then aimed their weapons at his head, there was no one to hear him scream.

He screamed quite a bit.

"Give it a rest," Han snapped. Time was running out. And he was getting a headache.

"We're not here to kill you."

Lyonn reached for a switch on the corner of his desk. A laserbolt shot across the room, blowing a hole in the expensive wood. Lyonn yanked his hand back. "No need to call in reinforcements," Fess said calmly. "You'll be gone by the time they get here."

"And just where am I going?" Lyonn said, trying and failing to sound like he was in control of himself or anything else.

"You're going to take us to wherever the Empire has stashed the princess."

Var Lyonn went white. "The princess is…missing?

"She is," Fess said. "Thanks in part to you."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Another laserbolt whizzed by, this one blasting a hole in the wall just behind Lyonn's left ear. "Try again," Fess growled.

"You can't blame me!" Var Lyonn squeaked. "I had to do what was best for Delaya!

We have enough problems of our own, without all these survivors sapping our resources.

The Empire promised to help!"

"In return for giving them Leia." Han was glad that they'd agreed Fess would do all the blasting. Han would have been too tempted to blow a hole straight through this skrag. "So you did it. And now you're going to help us get her back."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

There were no Imperial guards posted outside the deserted medcenter, but the place had a sinister feel. Maybe it was the boarded up windows, or the sentry droids hovering at the perimeter, but Han was certain this was the place.

You only needed to look at Var Lyonn to know he'd told the truth. He stood at the lone entrance of the medcenter, legs trembling, sweat bleeding through his shirt. He banged on the door again. "Let me in!" he shouted in a high, quivering voice.

"Stop shaking!" Han hissed from his hiding place in the bushes. "If they suspect you've betrayed them, they'll kill you."

"Is that supposed to make him feel better? " Luke asked.

Fess shushed them both.

With the addition of Elad, there were five of them. Although Luke was still hit-or-miss with a blaster, and the old man was…well, an old man. Then there were the droids, who Han refused to count at all. If Lyonn could get them inside, it just might be enough—or not. They had no idea how many Imperials they were facing, or where Leia was being held. More time might have allowed them to make a better plan.

But who knew how much time Leia had left?

The door slid open. Two stormtroopers stood in the entrance.

"Just a few more steps, fellas," Han muttered, waiting impatiently for a clear shot.

Lyonn was supposed to get the guards to step out of the building. Han and Luke would take them down, then don their armor. Dressed as stormtroopers, they'd infiltrate the facility, find the princess, and get her out. It was a crazy plan—but it had worked before.

Mostly.

"I need to see your lieutenant," Lyonn said loudly. Then he leaned toward the stormtroopers, saying something Han was too far away to hear.

"Blast it!" Han swore. "I knew this would happen."

"What?" Luke asked, just as one of the stormtroopers raised his comlink. The other raised a blaster, taking aim for the bushes.

"Go!" Han shouted. They scattered. A barrage of laserbolts slammed into the foliage, sending billowing plumes of dirt into the air. Han darted through the cloud, firing at one of the stormtroopers. He went down.

"Watch out!" Luke shouted, knocking Han out of the way just in time to avoid