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"Yeah, I've heard that."

"Lieutenant, do you have a family?"

The officer scowled. "None of your business."

"Have you looked outside recently?"

The big man's jaw tightened. He didn't answer. He didn't have to.

Mace said, "I can stop it. Those ships your droids are chasing are piloted by men under my command. But if something were to happen to me..."

The big man's chin drew down stubbornly. His men frowned at each other; some bit their lips or shifted their weight. One of them said doubtfully,

"Hey, Lou, y'know-I got two kids, and Gemmy's up with another-"

"Shut it."

"Your choice is straightforward," Mace said. "You can follow orders and open fire. Most of you will die. And your families will be left out there. Without you. And without any hope other than that their deaths might be quick.

"Or you can bring me to Colonel Geptun. Save hundreds of thousands of lives. Including your own.

"Do your duty. Or do what's right. It's up to you."

The big man ground out his words between clenched teeth. "You know the last time I could breathe okay?" he growled, pointing at his nose.

"Guess. Go on. Guess."

"Yours is not the only nose I've broken on this planet," Mace said evenly. "And you deserved it more than he did."

The big man's knuckles whitened on the blaster.

Mace lowered his lightsaber but kept its blade humming. "Why don't you call the colonel and ask? It is possible," he said with half a nod back toward the bloody chaos outside, "that he has changed his mind."

The lieutenant's scowl thickened until it broke under its own weight. He shook his head disgustedly and let his gun arm fall to his side. "They don't pay me enough for this."

He came out from behind the permacrete barrier and went to the house comm at the hostess desk. A brief conversation went on in undertones. When it was over, he looked even more disgusted. He returned his blaster to its holster and waved his empty hand at his men. "Awright, stand down, everybody. Put 'em away."

While his men complied, he walked over to Mace. "I'll need your weapons."

From behind Mace's shoulder, Nick said, "You don't have to take our weapons."

"Don't quit your day job, kid." The lieutenant held out his hand. "Come on: I can't bring you down there armed."

Mace silently handed over his lightsaber. Nick flushed while he dangled his pistols from one finger through each trigger guard.

The lieutenant took both pistols in one hand, and weighed Mace's lightsaber in the palm of the other. He gave it a thoughtful frown. "The colonel said you're Mace Windu."

"Did he?"

The officer looked the Jedi Master in the eye. "Is it true? You're really him? Mace Windu?"

Mace admitted it.

"Then maybe I don't mind the nose so much." The big man shook his head ruefully. "I guess I'm lucky to be alive at all, huh?"

"You," Mace said, "should consider a new line of work."

The entrance to the Republic Intelligence station was a waterproof hatch; it was disguised as part of the checkered tile pattern on the bottom of a steaming mineral bath fed by the natural hot springs below the Washeteria. The lieutenant led Mace and Nick to a wading-stair from the deck down into the shallow end. Two sweating regulars brought up the rear, rifles slanted across their chests.

Nick made a face. "Stinks in here. People really want to go in that?"

"Not many, I bet," the big man said. "If they did, it wouldn't make a real good secret entrance, would it?"

A concealed latch opened a code panel that swung down from the stair rail. The lieutenant tucked Mace's lightsaber under his arm so he could punch some keys, and the field generator built into the stairs and the pool floor hummed to life. An electric crackle heralded the opening of a channel; walls of sizzling energy held back the sul-furously steaming water. Toward the deep end the channel became a tunnel. Another code panel opened the waterproof hatch, and openwork stairs with drains beneath them led down into a dry, brightly lit room filled with the very latest electronic