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Past several posted DANGER signs, Zekk could see that glowlamps had been crushed and the ceiling had fallen down in broken slabs.

The debris was pale and fresh, and the air smelled dusty. Zekk heard tiny pebbles trickling down as the rockfall settled.

Elis gestured with a broad grimy hand. His fingernails were broken, as if he did most of his work by grasping the rock with his bare fingers.

"This was one of our largest mining chambers, our most active vein.

Numerous tunnels led to this place-and now what do you see?"

"Just rubble," Zekk said.

"You don't want to see what's buried in that rubble," Elis said, his voice hollow. "An entire mining crew was in there. Sixteen men and women, working hard at excavating. There are many tunnels like this......

"Was it a rock slide?" Jaina asked.

"No. The fanning villagers did this," Elis said. "Commandos come in the night. They make their way through the forest, wait for sundown, then race up the pathway and into our mine access shafts. Their sonic punchers are quite effective. They slip them inside active tunnels, hiding them in the shadows behind stones or at floor level in cracks in the rocks where no one can see them. Then they set an activation timer and flee back into the night like the cowards they are."

"What are sonic punchers?" Jacen asked.

"Motion-activated grenades," Elis said, his lips curling, his teeth pressed so tightly together that Zekk thought they might crack at any moment. "It's not enough for the farming villagers just to destroy our tunnels or hinder our work. These weapons are more insidious than that.

A sonic puncher waits until someone comes by. When it explodes, a person gets killed. Every time."

He nodded toward the rubble pile; faint pale dust sifted into his dark hair. "As a fresh mining crew entered this grotto, their movements set off one of the sonic punchers. The trigger could have been the sound of their laughter, or the songs they sang as they went to work.

"The sonic blast cracked and shattered the rock walls and the ceiling.

The entire crew was buried-crushed and battered to death under the collapse of the cave.

"We can never go into this area again. It's too unstable. We do not even dare to excavate the grotto to retrieve their bodies." Elis drew a long shuddering breath. "The miners must rest here, buried in the tunnels where they worked. Over the ages they will become part of the mountain themselves.

"Perhaps by then, there will be an end to this war." The mining leader's voice was bleak.

Seeing the anger in the man's eyes, Zekk wondered.

When all the prisoners, including Han Solo and the young Jedi Knights, had been separated by Elis and the miners, Anja slipped away.

She saw an opportunity too good to ignore. She also knew exactly the person who could best take advantage of the circumstances.

Protas, the younger brother of the mining leader, was a bitter and grim-faced youth, barely nineteen. He had a wispy, pale beard and dusty skin from spending most of his life inside the stone tunnels, working his fingers until they bled among the rocks. But the intense young man also made frequent unofficial excursions down to the forests and croplands, where he planted traps to do his part in the fight against the fanning villagers.

Now, with Anja's help, he could strike a blow the farmers would never forget.

When one of the mining crews took a break, Anja trotted down through the tunnels asking questions until she was finally directed to Elis's younger brother. She gestured for him to join her in one of the shadowed rocky alcoves. "Protas, I need to speak to you."

He raised his eyebrows. They had been children together, and if Anja had stayed on Anobis, they might well have gotten married. But she had slipped off to Ord Mantell to join some band of smugglers.

Because of their past, though, Anja knew Protas would listen to what she had to say.

"We now hold all of the farmers from one village captive inside the tunnels,"