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In the white glare of spotlights, the gunship that had been brought down by RPGs was a flaming hulk, dangling from the edge of the landing pad. Even less remained of the gunship that had delivered Palpatine to the complex. Fatalities of the surprise attack—one in a series of terrible surprises now—had been removed from the scene, but the pad boasted a company of reinforcements, as well as two AT-STs that had been air-dropped by wide-winged LAAT carriers.

This time Mace and Kit didn’t wait for the gunship to touch down. Jumping from five meters up, they raced across the brightly illuminated landing platform and directly into the access tunnel. Steps into the tunnel, their worst fears were realized when they saw three troopers hauling away a MagnaGuard, holed by more blaster bolts than would have been needed to demolish a police skimmer.

The hijacked gunship had rescued Grievous after his fall from the mag-lev, Mace told himself. But had the fall been deliberate—part of an increasingly elaborate ruse—or had Grievous originally planned to abduct Palpatine from the train?

Either way, how had the cyborg general known how many of his forces to commit to such a daring plan?

Unless, of course, he had received prior intelligence on the number of Red Guards in Palpatine’s detail, and the number of troopers and other combatants stationed in the bunker complex.

Every meter of the tunnel presented Mace and Kit with fresh evidence of the ferocious fight that had taken place, in the form of slaughtered commandos and others. Without limbs, beheaded, shocked to death by EMP weapons …

Mace stopped counting after he reached forty.

The heavy, hexagonal entrance that was the terminus of the bloodstained tunnel was open. If the fight leading to the door had been fierce, the one inside the ravished bunker had been savage. Stass Allie, her face and hands blistered and her robes singed, was kneeling by the bodies of the four Jedi Knights with whom Mace had spoken briefly during the mag-lev evacuation. Only Grievous could be held accountable for what had been done to them. The same was true for those Red Guards whose corpses had been burned open by lightsaber.

Grievous had taken the blades with which the Jedi had fought.

Here, too, were the shells of two more MagnaGuards.

But Palpatine was missing.

“Sir, the Supreme Chancellor was gone by the time we arrived,” a commando explained. “His captors exited the complex by way of the south tunnels.”

Mace and Kit glanced at the door that led to those tunnels, then turned to Shaak Ti, who was standing by the bunker’s holoprojector table as if lost. When Mace hurried over to her, she practically collapsed in his arms.

“I fought Grievous on Hypori,” she said weakly. “I knew what he was capable of. But this … And taking Palpatine …”

Mace supported her. “There will be no negotiations. The Supreme Chancellor won’t allow it.”

“The Senate may not see it that way, Mace.” Shaak Ti composed herself and gazed around. “Grievous had help. Help from someone close to the top.”

Kit nodded. “We’ll find out who. But our first priority is to rescue the Supreme Chancellor.”

Mace looked at the commando. “How did they leave the complex?”

“I can show you,” Shaak Ti said. Turning, she activated a security recording that had captured Grievous and several of his humanoid guards dragging Palpatine to the south landing pad, butchering the handful of troopers posted there, scrambling into a waiting tri-winged shuttle, lifting off into sunset clouds …

“How were they allowed through the shield?” Mace asked the commando.

“Same way they entered the bunker, General.”

Mace hadn’t even thought to ask. Had assumed they had burned their way in—

“They had the entry codes to the bunker, sir, as well as codes issued earlier today that permitted them to clear the screen.”

Mace and Kit glanced at each other in angry bewilderment.

“What is the shuttle’s location now?” Kit asked.

The commando conjured a 3-D image from the holoprojector.

“Sector I-Thirty-Three, sir. Outbound autonavigation trunk P-seventeen. Gunships