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“The emergency repulsorlifts,” Kit said.

Once more the train lurched, but this time the cars began to level out as antigrav repulsors levitated those that had dropped into the notch.

By then, too, the pair of repulsorlift platforms had cozied up to the train’s left side, and scores of emergency craft were rushing in from all sides. Mace could feel an increasing sense of desperation sweep through the cars as passengers grew frantic to exit. He knew that it was only going to get worse, since none of them would be allowed to leave until Palpatine had been moved to safety.

He and Kit did their best to make that happen as quickly as possible. Within moments, they had ushered everyone who had been in the lead car onto one of the platforms. Pressed in among his Red Guards, Palpatine couldn’t even be seen. Disengaging from the mag-lev, the platform was moving away from the train before a single passenger—even any of Palpatine’s advisers—could scramble out onto its twin.

The air was filled with escort craft and gunships, two of which put down on the platform as it was closing on the canyon’s eastern rim. Leaping out of the craft, two platoons of commandos assumed firing positions along the platform’s perimeter. Behind them came four Jedi Knights, who rushed to join Shaak Ti and Stass Allie in guarding Palpatine.

Mace recognized the more scorched of the pair of gunships as one of two that had been in pursuit of Grievous’s gunboat. Hurrying over to it, he signaled the pilot to raise the bubble canopy.

Cupping his hands to his mouth, he said: “What became of the gunboat?”

“My wingmate is in pursuit, General,” the pilot said. “We’re awaiting word.”

“Did Grievous fall from the mag-lev?”

“I was too far back to see much of anything, sir. But I didn’t see him fall, and I didn’t see anyone on the train.”

Mace replayed the events in his mind. Saw himself Force-pushing Grievous from the roof of the car; saw Grievous plunging over the edge, down out of sight, toward the rail or the canyon floor. The cyborg’s gunboat disengaging from the train, descending into the canyon before it and the second gunship had commenced their corkscrewing race around the mag-lev …

Mace clenched his hands, and swung to Kit. “The gunboat could have caught him—somehow.” He gazed up at the pilot again. “Any word yet?”

“Coming in now, sir … Sector H-Fifty-Two. My wingmate is in close pursuit. I’d better get a move on.”

“General Fisto and I are going with you.” Mace turned to Shaak Ti, Allie, and the four newly arrived Jedi Knights.

Shaak Ti nodded at him. “We’ll see the Chancellor the rest of the way to the bunker.”

Shaak Ti was the last to board the gunship that would deliver Palpatine to shelter, somewhere deep in the narrow service chasms that fractured the exclusive Sah’c neighborhood. Encircled by the contingent of Red Guards, Palpatine stood silently in the rear of the troop bay. His hair and robes were mussed, and he looked pale and feeble among his striking protectors. Stass Allie and the four Jedi Knights Yoda had dispatched from the Temple stood just inside the door, shoulder-to-shoulder with commandos and government agents. Shaak Ti knew the human male Jedi and the female Twi’lek by sight, but she couldn’t recall ever running into the other two—a male Talz and a male Ithorian. All four of them looked able enough, though she hoped there would be no call for them to demonstrate their skills.

Moments earlier, the gunship carrying Mace and Kit had banked north, back toward the Senate District, in apparent pursuit of Grievous’s gunboat. Palpatine’s gunship had taken off to the south, and had immediately begun to descend. Dusk had already fallen on the rim of the canyon. Bruised by the day’s events, Coruscant’s skies were a swirl of blood red, orange, and deep lavender. Down below, the buildings and thoroughfares were illuminated.

Halfway to the floor of the canyon, a gunship that had seen recent action fell in alongside the Supreme Chancellor’s, and remained just off to starboard and slightly astern through the numerous twists and