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Evidently convinced he’d killed her, the warrior reached for a pouch at his belt. Mara straightened and swung one-handed, aiming for the pouch. Again, that tingling at the back of her mind came just in time. She backstepped swiftly as the alien flung down the pouch. Something splashed out of it near her feet. It reached up pseudopodia, grabbing for her feet.

You again! Scowling, she vaulted the sticky blorash jelly. She tossed her lightsaber to her stiffening left hand and reached inside her vest for her blaster.

Anakin was closing in from behind, out of the enemy’s line of vision. His lightsaber dispatched the swooping attack creature. Then he pulled his other weapon from his belt. Not a smooth-sided fear stick at all, it almost looked like a Stokhli spray stick, but it was smaller and shorter.

Mara left her blaster holstered, reached across to cross hands on her lightsaber, and swept in again. The warrior swung his amphistaff once more.

Maybe the staff creature’s ability to heal itself made it almost impervious. She swung hard and fast, aiming directly into the snake head’s crest, while ducking aside. Half of the head flew off, hitting the nearest stone wall with a satisfying crunch. The amphistaff went limp.

Yes!

At that moment, Anakin fired. A blast of pale-blue webbing shot hissing out of his weapon.

Mired by gooey residue, the Yuuzhan Vong managed to fling two more razor-edged living disks. One circled Mara’s head, diving and spinning. The other went for Anakin. She dispatched hers as the warrior fell, struggling against the web’s stun charge. Finally, she drew her blaster. It whined as she fired off a stronger stun burst from practically on top of her target.

Even that didn’t quiet him. Evidently they couldn’t be stunned—at all. She closed down her lightsaber, got a good grip, and whacked his temple.

He collapsed.

Anakin sprinted close. “Let me unmask it,” he exclaimed.

Mara stepped back, still gripping her lightsaber, and let youthful determination take over. She opened and closed her left hand cautiously. It still tingled, but it hadn’t lost sensation.

The warrior’s face seemed to be bleeding white where she whacked it. Cautiously, Anakin fingered a faint line along the creature’s nose. The skin started rippling, as if something was moving under its surface—then peeled back from the motionless face, taking the wounded spot along with it. The living ooglith masquer shrank into the throat of the Yuuzhan Vong’s restaurant uniform, making slurping noises as it pulled free of its carrier’s pores.

Underneath, the alien was pale-skinned, with little flesh on its face. Bluish sacs hung under both eyes, with one upper cheek burned almost through, leaving a scar that showed bone. Tattoos like concentric energy bursts crossed its forehead. The exposed cheekbone showed a network of healed, jagged fractures.

The masquer created a rolling bulge as it shrank toward the warrior’s legs. The Stokhli web finally trapped it near its owner’s knees.

“Good idea, the Stokhli stick,” Mara murmured.

Anakin stuck it in his belt. “New model, short range. Almost concealable.”

“Surprised me,” she admitted. It bothered her that he’d found one before she’d even heard of it. As he beamed, she pulled out her comlink. “Enforcement? Mara here. We’ve got our infiltrator.”

CHAPTER SIX

With the captured Yuuzhan Vong laid out on an examining table and the wounded masquer contained inside a transparisteel tank, Mara folded her arms and rested against a wall. New Republic Intelligence would take over from here, but she lingered. Anakin hadn’t gone far, either.

Exobiologist Dr. Joi Eicroth had pulled back her fair hair into a tail. She spread an array of tools and drug ampules on a tray near the table, then stood, shaking her head. “We know only enough about their physiology,” she said, “to know that we don’t know enough.”

Mara pushed away from her wall. “At least we found out that a stun burst won’t bring them down, no matter