Star Wars_ The Black Fleet Crisis 02_ Shield of Lies - Michael P. Kube-McDowell [55]
Akanah opened her mouth to protest, but Luke knew better than to argue. “We’re leaving,” he said, pulling her along by the arm.
Unswayed by the promise, the droid followed them back to their landspeeder and waited until they moved off to return to its post by the gate.
“Have I mentioned that I hate security droids?” Luke grumbled. “How are you going to check the other side and a half now? Did you find anything?”
“There was writing by the front gate,” Akanah said. “It marked this place as Kell Plath.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all. What we need is inside.” She looked back to see if they were out of sight of the gate at River Gardens. “Stop here.”
“Why?”
“I have to go back.”
“And do what?”
“What I did the night we met,” she said. “Or have you forgotten?”
“I haven’t forgotten that you never explained how you got into the sanctuary without me sensing you.”
“Are you going to stop?”
Frowning, Luke brought the landspeeder to an abrupt halt.
“Thank you,” she said, and tipped open her door.
“You’re not going to explain?”
“No, I do not intend to explain.”
“Wait—” he said. “What can I do?”
“I do not expect to need anyone killed,” she said, clambering out. “Do what you just said—wait. And try not to attract the suspicions of any droids in this neighborhood. Our ship is halfway around the planet, and it might be difficult to get back to it if we’re criminal fugitives.”
He stared after her as she strode back down the street, wondering how many different women he was traveling with, and whether he would ever learn all their stories.
Twenty minutes later, Luke felt Akanah approaching.
“Let’s go,” she said as she climbed in.
“Did you get inside?”
“Let’s go,” she repeated insistently.
Luke looked back along the street. “Is someone following you?”
“I got inside. No one is following me—yet. Now, can we go?”
The landspeeder surged forward. “And?”
“I found it,” she said. “We’re done here.”
“Are you going to tell me this time?”
“When we’re away from here, and I know it’s safe.”
“So it’s not me you don’t trust.”
“These things are never to be spoken to one who cannot read them,” Akanah said. “To tell you at all violates an oath. To tell you now, here, when there are so many ways a secret can escape, compounds that offense with needless risk.”
Luke frowned. “Is there any reason we can’t return by Skyrail?”
“No,” she said, looking out her side viewpane. “I wasn’t seen.”
She seemed determined not to talk, but there were things Luke needed to say before they reached the terminal.
“You weren’t the only one who was successful,” he said. “I turned up some information, too. And I’ll even tell you now.”
“Please don’t. Whatever it is, it will keep,” she said. “All that matters now is to get away from here.”
“Knowing where we’re going next matters a tiny bit,” Luke said. “I got curious about how your friends left.”
“It’s of no consequence. We leave no trail that an outsider can follow.”
“You may think so,” Luke said. “But I found out some interesting things, all the same. Like the reason they sold the commonal.”
She looked at him disdainfully. “That’s no mystery—to buy passage. They had no more use for it except for any value they could take with them.”
“Akanah, they bought a starship.” Luke waggled the traveler’s aid card. “Can’t judge things by their size. In addition to the maps, the food guides, the attraction lists, and the ads, this has a wireless link to the Teyr Commerce Bureau and an information hotline. Your friends may be long gone, but there’s still a corporation registered here called Kell Plath. And it owns a starship named Star Morning.”
“It must have taken everything they had,” Akanah said.
“And a little more,” Luke said. “Star Morning is a Koqus liner—the better part of fifty years old, mind you, and too small