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Lando was a healthy man in good physical condition. But Nandreeson was right about one thing: Human beings were not meant to spend a long time in water, especially with no food and no sleep.

Eventually Lando would lose consciousness, sink beneath the water, and drown. Not a very glamorous way to go. Not even very exciting. But satisfying for Nandreeson.

Lando rolled off his stomach and onto his back. The watumba bats were swarming across each other. He had to concentrate.

He had to find a solution soon.

Or he would die.

Thirty-one

Leia paced in her chamber. Still no response from Han. She checked her messages every few moments, but she knew nothing would come. Han still had to be on Smuggler’s Run. He wouldn’t ignore her message unless he hadn’t received it.

Auyemesh was too far away for him to have been on it when Kueller took everyone’s life.

At least she hoped so.

Han would have contacted her when he left the Run.

She had meant what she said to him just before he left. Sometimes she wished they were a normal couple with normal concerns. Then sitting down to dinner at night with her children would be routine, not the unusual. Sleeping beside her husband would happen every night instead of a few nights every other month.

But she was as loath to give up their life as he was.

Except at moments like these.

The chamber computer bonged. “Mistress Leia,” it said with Threepio’s inflections and Han’s voice. She hadn’t bothered to repair Anakin’s tampering. Somehow the absurd prank he had pulled made her feel closer to her son. “Mon Mothma is here to see you.”

“Let her in,” Leia said.

She took one more glance at her messages. Only updates from Admiral Ackbar. All communication with Auyemesh had ceased. No one could raise anything from Pydyr, either, although on Pydyr, the communication system was not blocked. Attempts to contact Kueller on Almania were met with a reproduction of his death’s-head mask, and silence.

“Leia?” Mon Mothma stood at the door. She looked older; the pain she had suffered when Ambassador Furgan poisoned her still showed in her face. “I came as soon as I could.”

Leia nodded, unable to speak for a moment. Of all of her friends on Coruscant, only Mon Mothma would understand the dilemma Leia faced. And not even Mon Mothma, for all her savvy, could know how deeply the destruction of Auyemesh affected Leia. It brought all the feelings about Alderaan back. Feelings that then, as now, Leia had no time to deal with.

“Child, what can I do?”

Leia swallowed, then made herself smile. “That’s what I want to talk with you about,” she said. “I need your help.”

“We’ll catch this madman before he attacks your family,” Mon Mothma said.

Leia’s hands were clammy. She wiped them on her fatigue pants. “Hear me out,” she said.

Mon Mothma nodded.

“Kueller contacted me. Not the government. Me. He holds my brother prisoner.”

“Have we verified that?” Mon Mothma asked.

“Luke last reported in to Yavin 4 after he had left a planet named Telti. He said he was heading toward Almania and would check in as soon as he arrived. No one has heard from him since.”

Mon Mothma let out a sigh and sank her elegant body onto Leia’s vanity chair. “I had hoped that Kueller was bluffing.”

“He still might be,” Leia said. “Luke might be near him, and threatening him instead of imprisoned by him. We’re too far away, and we have none of our people there. We have no way to verify this.”

Mon Mothma nodded.

“It seems to me,” Leia said, “that Kueller has made this personal. He will destroy my family if he doesn’t get his way. It was only as an afterthought that he threatened the people of the New Republic.”

“Ackbar showed me a tape of the holocording,” Mon Mothma said. “It seemed that way to me as well.”

Leia sat on the edge of the bed. “I think Kueller was trained as a Jedi.”

Mon Mothma’s eyes widened. “Have you evidence of that?”

“Nothing concrete,” Leia said. “But he’s contacted me before. In ways that Luke would train