Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 06_ Balance Point - Kathy Tyers [86]
“Would you care to come with me while I check that?” The security super phrased it like a question, but his body language offered no quarter.
“No, I would not,” Luke said softly. “I am sorry to have inconvenienced your staff.”
He turned away a second time. He took two steps toward Anakin.
His left foot was touching down when Anakin’s lightsaber cleared the pocket where he’d hidden it. It ignited with a snap-hiss recognizable anywhere in the New Republic. Beyond Anakin, a startled Rodian in CorDuro brown-and-red backed away.
Displaying his empty hands, Luke kept walking.
“Take them,” the supervisor growled.
Luke spun around, activating his lightsaber. Two Gamorreans headed toward him, two toward Anakin. The rest of the CorDuro people hung back. Anakin’s eyes gleamed, his chin set with satisfaction. The guards brandished local-made blasters, offering the Jedi little challenge.
But Luke didn’t want to make enemies. Now he would see how well he’d trained Anakin. He calculated the oncoming guards’ angle and then reached out with one hand, beckoning subtly. All four converged on him.
He somersaulted out of their midst, leaving them to pile up together, while he landed lightly between Anakin and the supervisor.
“We’re not going to hurt them,” Luke said, “but you can’t hold us.”
To his satisfaction, Anakin held his ground, ready to strike—but only if necessary.
“Skywalker,” the supervisor muttered, “so it is you. A word of advice, then.”
Luke raised his head.
“Get out of Bburru. Your kind isn’t wanted here.”
Luke spread his hands. “We will, as soon as we finish our business. One of your employees, there, remembers the woman I’m looking for.”
“So you want to talk with him?”
“He remembers seeing her dead.”
The supervisor’s lips pulled back in a humorless smile. “Then kill him. Fair’s fair.”
Luke shook his head. “I expect you to discipline your own staff. I will check back.”
Again he turned on one heel and walked away. He felt Anakin follow, disappointed but alert.
Anakin was young. He wanted to make a stand, just as Jacen wanted to make a difference.
The image of Thrynni Vae’s bloodied body thrust itself back into his mind, and for one moment, Luke wondered how he ever would face his sister if any of her Jedi children met that fate.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Leia had barely stopped moving, or giving orders, since Mara had transmitted the information that Dassid Cree’Ar was actually Nom Anor, the unmasked firebrand from Rhommamool—and a Yuuzhan Vong. Breathless from running to the research building and back, she sank into a chair in her communication center, near the main gate and quarantine area. C-3PO stood at another terminal, running duplicate analyses of every lab result Cree’Ar had ever reported. How much of the reclamation had he sabotaged? she wondered. All that work, that sense of accomplishment—a future for exiled refugees! Had he planted destructive organisms out there? And—
“There’s the source for our white-eyes,” Han’s voice said over the comlink. He’d hidden the Millennium Falcon in plain sight, on a nearby bluff. SELCORE had left a pile of anthracite out there for emergency fuel, and the Falcon—now matte black—all but vanished from view. According to the best current reports, the Yuuzhan Vong did not seem to have sensors that would detect it.
“And we’ve still got over a thousand people in quarantine. You know,” she said, “the simple fact that Nom Anor’s here makes this world look more like a target than a haven.”
“Don’t get excited yet, sweetheart—”
“The Yuuzhan Vong didn’t invade Rhommamool,” Randa insisted.
The Hutt pressed himself against a wall, cringing and flexing his little hands. She’d thought about locking him up permanently. It didn’t feel right, though.