A gruff voice came over the citywide intercom system, echoing from a thousand amplification speakers. “This is Dengar. I know the bounty hunter Zekk is down there—I have followed him here to the hiding place of Bornan Thul.”
“Why does everybody make that assumption?” Zekk said.
“I intend to cause much more damage unless you surrender my bounty.” After a pause, Dengar’s deep voice continued, “Further negotiation is … not acceptable.”
An army of scurrying machines spread out through the factory city. Fire-response droids and disaster-mitigation crews pumped flame-suppressant chemicals onto the burning wreckage. Salvage crews set to work cleaning up portions of the assembly lines and strove to keep them running at all costs.
Dengar’s ship cruised overhead, banked, then came back toward the administration building. With calculated malice, he dropped another bomb directly onto a droid fire-response fleet, obliterating them.
Tyko gazed around in confusion and horror. “What are we going to do?”
Tenel Ka turned toward him skeptically. “First we must know if you staged this attack. The timing would appear somewhat … convenient. Is this a new hoax—like your assassin droids on Kuar?”
“Certainly not!” Tyko looked at her, the picture of appalled innocence. “My dear girl, that terrorist is destroying my factories!”
Raynar studied his uncle for a second. “I believe him. He’d never damage his own facilities like this.”
“No, Dengar doesn’t work for Tyko,” Zekk agreed. “He’s after Tarkona’s bounty. He intends to bring in Bornan Thul, dead or alive—it doesn’t matter which.” He frowned, his green eyes hard as emeralds. “I outwitted him once, but I wouldn’t count on it again. Dengar’s one of the best.”
The broad windows rattled with the thunder of Dengar’s passage as he swooped past the administrative headquarters. As if to taunt them, the bounty hunter loosed another explosive … but detonated it in midair, so that the walls of the office buildings merely shuddered.
Jacen looked at Raynar with concern. “'Hey, we promised to keep Raynar safe on this trip—and it’s not very safe just to sit here in an office while we get bombed. I think we should head for the Rock Dragon and get out of here. If we all leave Mechis III, Dengar won’t have any reason to stay and cause more damage.”
Zekk looked over at Jaina. “The Lightning Rod is closer. We could get to my ship and harass him, create a diversion so the others can escape.” He raised an eyebrow hopefully. “I could use a good copilot, Jaina … if you wouldn’t mind coming with me.”
She hurried to Zekk’s side. “What are we waiting for? Em Teedee, you go with Jacen—he’s a fair pilot himself, but he and Tenel Ka may need your assistance getting the Rock Dragon out of here.”
The little droid floated upward in his excitement, barely managing to keep his new microrepulsors under control. “Oh my! This is a sobering responsibility—I will do my utmost not to let you down, Mistress Jaina.”
Jaina grabbed Zekk’s hand and they raced out of the offices together, toward where he had docked the Lightning Rod. Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Raynar headed for the door as well.
Tyko Thul stood all alone, looking sickened. “But … but I can’t leave here. This is my factory planet! I got Mechis III up and running when all the systems had fallen into disrepair. I won’t abandon it just because some … some vandal comes in shooting.”
Raynar spluttered, “But you can’t stay here, Uncle Tyko—you’ll be killed. You’ve got to come with us.”
“No! I’m going down into the reinforced lower levels. I’ll be perfectly safe there. You children go on now.” Leaving his office, Tyko turned and jogged out of sight down the corridor.
Jacen looked after him, but Tenel Ka gestured for them to hurry. “Jacen, we must get to the roof or our plans will be wasted.”
The three ran toward the nearest turbolift. Em Teedee floated after them, still working to control his new repulsorjets. “Wait! Wait for me!”
Breathing hard, Jaina secured her crash webbing as Zekk lurched the Lightning Rod into the air, roaring out of the overhang-covered shipping area where he had landed. She glanced at the dark-haired young man as he worked, his gaze intent on the controls.
“Sure is good to fly with you, Zekk,” she said.
“You seem to be making this a habit—getting into situations where I have to come rescue you,” he said, smiling slightly.
“Hah! I’m not half-bad at rescues either, you know. Watch it, or I might just turn the tables on you one of these days.”
“I don’t suppose I’d mind that so much.” Zekk punched the engines for a new surge of acceleration. They streaked up between tall manufacturing centers and into the open air. Jaina leaned forward to the cockpit windows, trying to see through the thick curls of smoke.
Dengar dropped a thermal shock-wave generator onto the roof of the building adjacent to Tyko’s administrative headquarters. The weapon burned its way downward like a luminous diving bell, incinerating floor after floor after floor until it impacted the building’s foundations.
“I’ll concentrate on flying,” Zekk said. “You take the weapons controls.”
“Sounds like a plan. Let’s go,” Jaina said.
As if out of nowhere, they soared in. Jaina fired the laser cannons without mercy, targeting the hull of the bounty hunter’s ship. They skimmed past so close that Jaina could have kicked Dengar’s craft if the Lightning Rod’s access hatch had been open.
Zekk sped onward, and Dengar launched after them in hot pursuit. Wrestling with the piloting controls, Zekk rolled the battered old ship. He took them into a downward loop and flew beneath his enemy, jerking sideways and up. Jaina could see that subconscious instincts made Zekk use his Force skills to dodge, but she said nothing to interrupt his concentration.
Dengar followed, blasting away furiously with his ship’s weapons.
“Think he’d hold a grudge against me for what I did to him on Ziost?” Zekk said.
With a touch of irony, Jaina said, “At least he’s stopped damaging the buildings. Our goal was to distract him so the others could get away to safety.”
“Of course, I’d like to get away, as well,” Zekk said. “Hang on.” He headed in the direction of the smoldering buildings Dengar had already blasted. “That looks like a good prospect.”
Sagging and ready to collapse, twin skyscrapers blazed side by side in parallel infernos. With the bounty hunter still clinging to their afterburners, Zekk arrowed the ship directly toward the blazing columns.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Jaina muttered.
The Lightning Rod shot into the gap between the burning towers as a network of connecting girders broke loose. Damaged beyond repair, the skyscrapers began to topple….
Up on the rooftop, the smell of fire saturated the air. Jacen and Tenel Ka ran side by side, with Raynar close behind them. “There they are!” the Alderaanian boy said, pointing. The polluted wind rippled the sleeve of his Jedi robe.
With Dengar’s ship perilously close behind them, firing its blasters, the Lightning Rod plunged recklessly between two collapsing buildings. Fire and smoke raged upward as the towers crashed together, and Zekk’s ship vanished into the inferno.
Dengar broke off his pursuit at the last instant, hauling his ship around and up, away from certain death. He left the wreckage behind and came about.