Star Wars_ The New Rebellion - Kristine Kathryn Rusch [87]
“You like anything in a man,” Zeen said from below. “Don’t believe any of that about Han. Lando’s here for him. Something’s going down.”
Lando shook his head. “I know I’m not going to convince you, Zeen, but at least Blue believes me. Just lead me to Han and I’ll leave all of you alone.”
Zeen blocked the edge of the ramp, his blaster pointed at Lando’s heart. “You’re not going anywhere, Calrissian. You’re wanted by Nandreeson, and you haven’t been to the Run in almost twenty years. That makes you an outsider. We don’t like outsiders much.”
Lando’s mouth went dry. “I don’t like having a blaster pointed at me either, Zeen. You want to put that aside?”
“No can do, Calrissian.”
“Put down the blaster, Zeen,” Blue said. “He’s my responsibility.”
“Fine,” Zeen said. “You stay with him on his precious ship, then. And we’ll all wait for Solo to return. Then Calrissian can leave us in peace.”
“What are you so afraid of me for, Zeen?” Lando asked.
“We don’t need Nandreeson’s people here,” Zeen said.
“Too late.” The voice that had spoken before, the one Lando hadn’t been able to place, spoke again. A Rek stepped out from the crowd. His slender, whiplike body blended in with the crowd, but his orange eyes blazed like a freighter’s running lights. In his rope-thin hands, he held a blaster, trained on Lando. “You’re coming with us, Calrissian. Nandreeson will be happy to see you.”
Another Rek stepped out from against the wall. Then another, and another, until thirty Reks surrounded the group of smugglers, “Very happy,” one of the Reks said. “About two million credits’ worth.”
“Wow,” Blue said. “If I’d known you were worth that much, I’d’ve turned you in myself.”
The sum startled Lando, too. “It was only fifty thousand last I heard.”
“Come with us peacefully,” the first Rek said, “and I will leave your ship alone.”
“What good will that do me?” Lando asked. “I can’t use it if I’m dead.” He reached for his own blaster, but a rubbery appendage wrapped itself around his wrist. He looked down. Another Rek had twisted its arm around his skin. Its slitted mouth opened in a Rek’s version of a smile. This Rek was female; her purple eyes gave away her gender.
“I wouldn’t try it, big boy,” she said. “You’re still worth a million credits to Nandreeson dead.”
“All right,” Lando said to Blue. She was his only hope now. “No more pretense. I’ve got to find Han. He’s in big trouble.”
“I’ll say,” the female Rek said. “He’s going to meet us on Skip 6. I’m sure your reunion will be a happy one.”
Blue backed away, holding her hands up. “Sorry, Lando,” she said. “I never get involved in Nandreeson’s business.”
“Some friend you are,” Lando said.
“I never said I was a friend,” Blue said. “Just an interested party. You never should have come here, Lando.”
“Don’t I know it,” he said.
Twenty-three
Four new languages in the last day. Threepio sat at his computer bay in the Solos’ apartments. He had had no duties since the children left, and he was using the time to catch up on the new languages. Two were from recently discovered planets, and two were new droid languages. That made eighteen new droid languages in the last week, or 2.571 languages per day.
The computer bay was near the children’s quarters. Threepio sat in the chair because Jaina had once insisted he do so. Anakin had pasted stickers of heroes of the Old Republic onto the bay walls. Threepio had asked him to remove them, but Anakin had “forgotten,” a word he often used when he meant that he did not want to.
A tiny icon flashed on the corner of the screen. It was a small R2 unit. Threepio pressed a key with a golden finger and the icon covered the screen. Then he pressed another key and the icon turned into a single blinking message:
EMERGENCY
EMERGENCY
EMERGENCY
There was a small code tagged onto the y. Threepio opened the code, and binary covered the screen. The message was from Artoo. He was in the cargo bay with someone named Cole Fardreamer, and they were being accused of sabotage. The message was new, and it kept repeating, over