• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

When Jacen arrived with Tenel Ka and Lowie at the address for the supposed debriefing facility, they found only an empty hangar dock filled with old-model cloud cars and other small sky vehicles waiting for repair.

"There's nobody here," Jacen said.

Tenel Ka looked around. "Are you certain this is the correct location?"

Jacen checked again. "This is where they told us to come."

"Indeed, I can verify that," Em Teedee added, though no one had asked him.

Lowie sniffed the air. His black Wookiee nose wrinkled, and he let out a low, uneasy groan.

"Something is not right here," Tenel Ka said.

"Hey-this is afact," Jacen agreed with forced humor. Tenel Ka and Lowie unconsciously moved closer to him, as if preparing for battle.

The outer bay doors were open wide, and clouds stretched out in a vast empty skyscape, tall gray thunderheads rising above the white ritists far below. Judging from the weather patterns, Jacen suspected that heavy storms would strike the floating city before the day was out.

The three went deeper into the docking bay, looking around, growing more uncertain by the moment. "We'd better check with someone," Jacen said.

Lowie stopped by two of the cloud cars, bent over, and touched their control panels. One was painted a rich blue, the other a bright scarlet.

Both were typical recreational vehicles, cloud cars that had been souped up and probably used for races or sky patrols.

Lowie grumbled something, and Em Teedee scolded him. "Master Lowbacca, these are not our vehicles. It's of no concern to us that they are still functional. We're going to be late for our debriefing."

"We are here," Tenel Ka pointed out. "The others are not."

Jacen glanced at Lowie. "Hey, maybe you and Jaina could tinker with some of those things later. Lando could probably get them for us cheap, if they're just sitting here, decommissioned."

Tenel Ka, her reflexes coiled like an overwound spring, suddenly whirled about. In the only entrance to the cloud-car bay were the hairyfaced bounty hunter and the slime-dripping alien from the first attempt on their lives. Beside them stood two Wing Guard security policemen.

"Hey, you caught them," Jacen said to the Wing Guards, thinking that this was part of the debriefing: identifying two of the hit men who had attacked them. "Those are the ones who tried to kill us."

"I say! If those men have been arrested, why are they all carrying their own weapons?" Em Teedee said, as the Wing Guards and the two hit men hauled out their blaster rifles.

Lowie roared in outrage.

"We have been betrayed," Tenel Ka said.

Jacen backed up, holding his hands in front of him to prove he had no weapons. Only a few meters behind them stretched the open entrance to the cloud-car bay and another immense drop.

"Just keep backing up until you're over the edge," the slimedripping killer said with a chuckle. "Save us some energy in our blaster packs."

"Not again," Jacen said with a groan. Lowie snarled. Tenel Ka reached for her lightsaber.

"Don't make us shoot you down right where you stand," said one of the Wing Guards. "That would leave us with quite a mess to clean up."

Thinking quickly, Lowbacca swept out with one ginger-furred arm and knocked Jacen into the nearest cloud car. He roared and pointed for Tenel Ka to leap into the scarlet vessel beside Jacen, while the Wookiee scrambled into the blue cloud car.

"Duck!" Jacen called, squirming to right himself inside the cramped pile; t seat. Tenel Ka bent down and fired up the engines as she wriggled into her own seat beside him. Lowie roared his blue vehicle into motion while the surprised security men cried out and rushed into the room after them.

Blaster bolts rang out, one sizzling and ricocheting off the scarlet paint near Jacen's head. He fumbled with the cloud-car controls and adjusted the dials to their maximum output.

"Punch it, Lowie!" he called to his Wookiee friend as the four killers ran toward them, howling and firing indiscriminately.

With a lurch, Jacen's cloud car blasted out into the open sky and spun in a full circle. He