Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 06_ Balance Point - Kathy Tyers [92]
The street-sweeper swung out a long metal arm, aimed at R2-D2. Mara couldn’t get there in time to stop it. R2-D2 flew into the air, and an angry cheer erupted.
Behind R2-D2, Mara spotted a pod soaring off the housing complex’s second floor. She confirmed Jacen and Jaina on board, then stretched out to nudge Luke. He and Anakin were holding their own, keeping the Duros distracted, laying them limp on the pavement, if necessary.
Mara vaulted onto one of the hefty diagonal braces that rose up from street level. She made sure she had a good grip, then reached out with the Force toward R2-D2.
He changed course in midair, swooping around like a blunt silver missile.
Duros scattered out of his line of fall. The mob surrounding Luke and Anakin stampeded aside.
Luke broke into a sprint, headed away from Jacen and Jaina’s escape route, toward the hoverbike Mara had parked. Anakin followed, still gripping an ignited lightsaber. Mara guided R2-D2 toward them, then carefully set him down, facing in their direction. Instantly, he extended his third tread and rolled forward.
She exhaled heavily. The key to “size matters not” was realizing she hadn’t lifted him at all. The Force had energy to spare—but directing its flow still tired her. She dropped lightly onto her feet and then pounded after Luke. Right in front of her, Anakin deflected a dirt clod with his lightsaber.
“Get Artoo hidden,” she ordered him. “We’ll draw them off.”
Luke climbed onto the hoverbike and fired it up. Mara sprang onto the second seat. Luke took off so fast she had to grab him with both arms.
“Not exactly—the distraction—we had in mind,” she puffed, setting her chin on his shoulder.
“Anakin changed things a little. Not badly, though. Just a little hazy on the escape plan.”
He circled back, buzzed the crowd chasing Anakin and R2-D2, then headed up the nearest boulevard, toward a shopping strip. Mara craned her neck to look back. Anakin ducked around a building, out of her line of sight. The crowd came on, following Luke.
“How are we going to get to the Shadow?” Keeping one arm around Luke’s waist, she corralled as much as possible of her streaming hair with the other hand.
“I’ll think of something.”
“Think fast, Skywalker.” She knew how much he was enjoying this—but she was tired.
She still couldn’t say it, though.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Jacen leaned into an inadequate flight harness as Jaina piloted the borrowed hoverpod up a boulevard lined with manufacturers’ offices. She claimed she could see all right.
As she rounded one corner, three pods marked with CorDuro’s triangular insignia swooped after them. “Don’t slow down,” Jacen told her, “but—”
“What makes you think I’d slow down?”
“But we just picked up three more shadows,” he said. “They’ve got CorDuro markings.”
“Meaning what?” Jaina accelerated toward the approach ramp for the public pod-driver bound for Port Duggan. Fortunately, there was little early evening traffic.
“Meaning don’t go that way!” he exclaimed. “Get us to a private dock. We won’t be able to get anywhere close to main shipping.”
“That’s where Mara docked the Shadow,” she growled, but she changed course without hesitating, blasting along at second-story level, scattering gray-skinned pedestrians. “Just tell me if I’m about to hit anything small.”
Glancing at her enhancement mask, he gritted his teeth. “Right,” he said. “Okay, what was it you found out about Thrynni Vae and CorDuro?”
“And the Peace Brigade, we think.”
She related a sketchy story, constantly interrupting herself to swerve, jink, and dodge traffic. From her flying, he had to conclude that she could see. Mostly.
“All I can say,” she finished, “is that Thrynni’s dead, Brarun’s on somebody’s payroll—not SELCORE’s—and Mom’s scrambling refugees onto evac ships. Again.”
“We’d better find one uncorrupted government official, report Brarun, and—”
“Oh, sure,” she said. “There’s time for that.”
Jacen glanced back. “They’re still with us.”
“Got any ideas? Or do we just wait for the speed police to get a bead on us?