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Homing in on the distress signal, Zekk powered up the Lightning Rod's weapons systems.

The last time he'd fought Dengat, Jaina had done the shooting while he did the flying. This time Zekk would have to do both. But he still had the advantage, given both his Jedi instincts and the element of surprise.

If he did this right, Dengar would never know what hit him.

He watched the navicomputer, counting down the seconds until he emerged from hyperspace.

He kept his hands on the firing controls, intent.

In his mind he brought up an image of Dengar's ship, a modified Corellian JumpMaster 5000, imagined its hot engines and every minuscule weak point in its U-shaped configuration.

Zekk cued an ion torpedo as the swirling starlines of hyperspace faded and his ship lurched out into the starfield--and instantly saw the two ships engaged in a dogfight. Dengar's vessel, Punishing One, pummeled a crippled and heavily damaged craft that must have been Bornan Thul's.

Even now Dengar's sensors would be sounding an alarm at Zekk's appearance. He had no time to hesitate. Without wasting a heartbeat, Zekk fired his ion torpedo, powered up a second, and launched it.

Both torpedoes flew truerathe first exploded beside Punishing One's port stardrive, while his second neutralized the starboard engine.

He opened up the corem channel. "Hello, Dengarmit's me, Zekk. I just wanted to make sure you'd remember who I am."

Dengar's voice, normally gruff and flat, was heated by the fires of outrage. The enhancements to his brain had stripped him of most emotions, but Dengar could still experience rage. "You have broken the Bounty Hunter's Creed. You fired upon me as I pursued another target."

Zekk said, "Your target is also my target, and you're standing between me and my bounty."

Dengar roared. Zekk took careful aim at the Punishing One's communications dish and blasted it to pieces. The bounty hunter could do nothing.

His ship hung helpless in space.

Bornan Thul tried to limp away, two of his engines sparking and flaming.

Many of the running lights on his ship winked out. Thul's systems were failing.

"Hello. "Master Wary," Zekk transmitted. "We meet again, it seems."

"I should never have been so foolish as to hire you in the first place,"

Thul said bitterly. "My engines are damaged, my ship in ruins.

I don't know how I'll ever make it away from here. I should have guessed no one would answer my i distress call but one of you bloodthirsty bounty hunters."

"Actually," Zekk said, "I came to help you get away from Dengar. I... I'm not going to take you in."

"Why should I believe you?" Thul shot back.

"You bounty hunters are all the same, interested in profit but never in consequences. If Nolaa Tarkona gets the information I have, the whole galaxy will become a charnel house."

"You mean the navicomputer Fonterrat gave you?" Zekk asked, gambling with what he already knew.

"Fonterrat? What do you know about him?

That sniveling worm would let billions die for his own profit."

"Fonterrat is dead--as are all the people on the human colony of Gammalin. It was a plague."

Zekk had been to the modest settlement, wiped out down to the last inhabitant by a horrible disease unwittingly carried there by Fonterrat, a small-time scavenger who had made the mistake of doing business with Nolaa Tarkona.

Bornan Thul groaned. "Perhaps it is too late then."

"What's too late? I can help you protect the information you have--"

"No one can help me," Thul said flatly. "Especially not a bounty hunter."

"Listen, I found your brother Tyko, didn't I?"

Zekk said. "I've spent time with your son Raynar. Why won't you trust me?"

"I can't trust anyone," Thul said. "There's too much at stake. The Diversity Alliance has infiltrated everywhere. I can't even be sure of the New Republic. The Alliance has spies in the military, in the government."

Thul's ship staggered away, as if running at only 10 percent power.

Zekk couldn't believe the man was still trying to escape when he had so little chance. The Lightning Rod could run him down in an instant.

In his