Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 13_ Trouble on Cloud City - Kevin J. Anderson [39]
Jacen turned to the thranta rider. "What did you mean when you said that other people were ambushed and fell off Cloud City? Someone we know recently vanished off a balcony. The official report said he jumped to his death." He shuddered, thinking of Cojahn and the long, long terror he must have endured during his drop through the clouds.
M'kim looked nervous and sad. "When was this? When did it happen?"
Jacen counted back. "It would have been... six standard days ago, I guess."
M'kim nodded, pursing his lips. "Twelve Bespin days. Yes, that's what I thought."
"You know something about it?" Jacen jerked and tried to sit upright too quickly; the algae nodules shifted under him, and he had to squirm to regain his balance. "Please, tell me."
M'kim looked away. His thranta swooped overhead again, giving its near-silent high-pitched call. "I saw it with my own eyes," the thranta rider admitted.
Jacen scrambled closer to the thin, painted boy. "What happened to Cojahn? We need to know."
The thranta rider stared off into the distant skies. The sunlight filtering through layers of mists dappled the tattoos on his face and skin.
M'kim said, "I can tell you this much. Your friend didn't jump of his own free will."
"What happened to Cojahn?" Jacen pressed again.
"We were out practicing, flying around on the other side of Cloud City.
We'd gone to the top to do loops around Kerros Tower. I was behind the rest of the group, because I'm not part of the actual act yet, even though I practice with the team. I saw a man on one of the outer balconies, but he wasn't alone."
"Who? Who was with him?" Jacen said.
"One big, angry man who looked like he was in charge, and a couple of thugs. I was surprised that the two thugs didn't do the dirty work for the angry man."
"What did the man look like?" Jacen said.
"Pretty strange. He had some sort of visor across his face, a red optical sensor, and short green hair the color of this algae you're sitting on.
He was quite unmistakable."
Jacen swallowed hard as he recognized the description: Czethros!
But the former bounty hunter and smuggler who had once promised to take revenge against Han Solo was now a respectable businessman on Ord Mantell-wasn't he?
"I know who you're talking about," Jacen said, "but what would Czethros be doing on Cloud City?"
"That man shows up every once in a while," M'kim said. "Things go on in Port Town and in some of the casinos that the Cloud City Gambling Authority intentionally ignores. I've heard rumors that a powerful criminal organization is trying to take over the gambling, entertaimuent, music... everything that happens on Bespin-and probably other planets as well. Nobody pays much attention to us thranta riders, but we see things...."
Jacen thought of the sky-rodeo performers darting past windows, looking in. Nobody would think to watch for a spy from the outside on a city in the clouds.
"That man with the green hair-Czethros, was it? - he comes here, supposedly on legitimate business. He meets with some of the important Exex." M'kim shook his head. "But something strange is going on."
"What happened to Cojahn on the balcony? Was he pushed?"
"They were having an argument," M'kim said. "The man with the green hair seemed very sure of himself, but when Cojahn didn't agree, the two thugs came forward to threaten him. Czethros waved them away. He just picked your friend up by the collar, yelled something at him, and tossed him off the balcony. Just... threw him over like a piece of garbage. The man fell."
Sickened, Jacen imagined Lando's friend reaching out for help and dropping, dropping.... "You couldn't help him? You couldn't catch him like you caught me?"
M'kim shook his head. Tears glistened in his eyes. "We were pretty high above Cloud City. I swooped down, but the winds were too strong.
Thunder clouds were rising, and the sky was so dark that