Star Wars_ The Dark Lord Trilogy - James Luceno [57]
The rest of the guards hurried out from behind the darkened console to counterattack. By then Obi-Wan and Anakin were on them, dropping them with punches, side kicks, Force pushes. Bodies sailed across the anteroom, tumbled over one another, smashed into display screens. One Aqualish managed to get off a shot, but the blaster bolt missed anyone during its mad carom around the room.
The fracas was over almost before it began.
In the red glow of emergency lights, K’sar cast a dumbfounded look around.
“You’re Jedi!”
“Two out of three,” Travale said.
“But … what are you doing here—on Escarte?”
Anakin pressed his forefinger to his lips with elaborate seriousness. “Republic business.” Then into K’sar’s hands he pressed the blaster he had summoned from the guard.
K’sar stared at the weapon. “But—”
“I won’t need it.”
“Here’s where we part company,” Travale said to Anakin. “Remember: stay left until you reach the stairway.”
“Where are you sending him?” K’sar asked.
“Docking Bay Thirty-Six.”
The Bith nodded. “I know the way.”
Travale chuckled. “This just gets keeps getting better and better.” He swung back to Anakin. “K’sar will also know the way to Docking Bay Forty. That’s where we’ll be waiting for you. Escarte Control won’t be able to bring the tractor beam back online immediately, and judging by the way you fly, you shouldn’t have much trouble dodging the patrol craft. But good luck, anyway.”
“Thanks, but there’s no such thing.”
As Travale and Obi-Wan were running off, Anakin noticed that one of the turbolift cars was descending.
“Security detail coming to check on the guards,” K’sar said. Anakin nodded toward the dark corridor they were supposed to take. “Go!”
K’sar’s long legs propelled him at a fast clip. But instead of going left as Travale had advised, he turned right at the first intersection.
Anakin grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. “This isn’t the way we were told to go.”
“The captain’s a newcomer to Escarte,” the Bith said, short of breath. “I’ve been here for fifteen years. I know every route through this rock.”
Anakin regarded him in silence.
“Trust me, Jedi, I have nothing to gain by lying to you and remaining here.”
Anakin tapped him into motion. Several minutes of running brought them to a rickety stairway, which K’sar didn’t hesitate to climb.
“I’d still like to know what you did to end up in detention,” Anakin asked from behind K’sar.
“And I wish I could tell you,” he said. “My superior—a Gossam—said I had made an accounting error that would cost the Commerce Guild a small fortune.”
“You were always an exec?”
“I started out as a technician—design, installation, the whole gamut. Gradually, I worked my way up.”
“Up, maybe. But you’re on the wrong side in this war. Your entire species.”
K’sar stopped to catch his breath. “Clak’dor Seven had little choice,” he said. “The Separatists were offering unrestricted access to hyperspace routes, better deals on trade goods, no interference … As for me, I was already working for the guild. One day it was business as usual, the next—on the heels of what happened on Geonosis, at any rate—the guild was suddenly at war with the Republic.” He raised his gaze. “We go left at the top of the stairs.”
Anakin heard a note of indecision in his voice. “You don’t sound as sure as you did.”
“I haven’t been in this area for a long while, but I’m certain we can reach the docking level.”
The rock walls of the corridor into which they raced bore the scars of the giant drills that had hollowed Escarte. Light and oxygen were scant, and the uneven floor was slippery. Anakin clamped his right arm around the Bith’s narrow waist to help him along.
“Wait, wait!” K’sar said suddenly.
“What’s wrong?’
K’sar eyes filled with dread. “I made a mistake! We shouldn’t have come this way!”
Anakin prevented him from moving. “Too late to turn back.”
“We have to! You don’t understand