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“Masters! Out here!”

Responding to Anakin’s call, the two Jedi hurried to the back of the shop and out the rear entrance whose door was now ajar. They found him standing in an alley, kneeling and pointing. The pavement was dry and thick with dust. The marks of the two sets of footprints were clear to see. Thank the Force, Obi-Wan thought, for the absence in the back alley of a muddling breeze.

“Ansionian footprints.” Luminara looked up, glancing both ways down the alley. “By themselves, confirmation of nothing.” She indicated the numerous other prints that marred the avenue’s dusty coating. “Many feet have recently trod this path.”

“But these begin right from the doorway,” Anakin argued. “And see how deep they are compared to some of the others. As if the two who made these deeper ones might be carrying something.” He gazed down the shadowed passageway. “All Ansionians are more or less the same size—and weight.”

“Three go into the shop, two come out, and neither of those sets human.” Obi-Wan was nodding approvingly. “You are learning to see beyond the obvious, Anakin. Would that you always continue to do so.”

Luminara had shut her eyes tightly. Now they opened anew. “I cannot sense her presence anywhere. If she has been taken, I should be able to detect her distress. But there is nothing.”

“She might be unconscious.” Obi-Wan had moved farther out into the alley, the better to scan its most distant reaches. “If the two locals who took her intended her ill, they might have used the same method to knock her out that they used on the owner of the shop.”

“Or she might be dead,” Anakin pointed out. In another setting, among other people, his comment could have provoked angst or outrage. Neither Luminara nor Obi-Wan reacted, however. As Jedi, they were not offended by objectivity, no matter how sensitive the subject.

But within, Luminara was churning. While a Jedi might not show many emotions, that did not mean she did not have them.

“This is a sizable city. How are we going to find her?” She fought to keep the anger she felt in check.

“We could ask the city authorities for assistance,” Anakin proposed helpfully.

Obi-Wan set the suggestion aside. “That’s all we need now, at this delicate stage of negotiations. To confess to our hosts that one of our own has gone missing, and that we were helpless to prevent it. How much confidence in our perceived omnipotence do you think that admission would inspire?”

Anakin nodded understandingly. “I see what you mean, Master. Sometimes I am too direct.”

“A common affliction of the inexperienced, for which you are not responsible.” He looked back at Luminara. “We have to find her ourselves, no matter what her condition.” His anxious colleague smiled tightly. “And quickly, lest our Ansionian hosts sense something is amiss.”

Luminara indicated the shop. “First we’ll get as detailed a description as we can of the two Alwari who were here at the same time as Barriss. Then I think we should split up, each of us taking a third of the city. Using this shop as a nexus, we’ll fan out and sweep as much of the community as we can; asking questions, offering rewards locally, and striving to sense Barriss’s presence.”

“Obi-Wan, do you think the same people as those who were assaulting Master Luminara and Padawan Barriss when we arrived are behind this?” Anakin wondered.

“Impossible to say,” the Jedi Knight replied. “There are so many factions opposing one another on this world that it could be the work of any one of them. And as you know, there are offworld interests at work here as well.” In his quiet way, Anakin saw, Obi-Wan Kenobi was more than a little displeased. “This is all we need—to add heat to a flashpoint. But politics aren’t important now. What matters is finding Barriss.” He did not add “alive and well.”

He did not have to.

NEWSBLINK (Coruscant News Network)—Nemrileo irm-Drocubac, representative from Tanjay VI, died yesterday when his aircar collided with a heavy-equipment delivery vehicle in south quadrant, section ninety-three, of the exclusive Bindai suburb