Tenel Ka drew a breath of dismay as the Lightning Rod vanished into the billows of smoke and debris. But Jacen shook his head. “I’m sure they made it, somehow. Zekk’s too good a pilot—and I’d sense it if Jaina got hurt.”
“This is a fact,” the warrior girl said.
Jacen looked over his shoulder toward the stairwell, trying to locate Em Teedee. The little floating droid had not managed to keep up with them. When Dengar spotted them and soared toward the rooftop, Jacen forgot about Em Teedee and thought instead about their own survival. “To the Rock Dragon— quick!”
The Hapan passenger cruiser sat where they had landed it on the opposite side of the roof. Tenel Ka sprinted along to the sheer edge, running as if she were simply doing her morning workout. Tossing her red-gold braids behind her shoulders, she glanced down, observing the extreme height with interest. “Lowbacca would have enjoyed being up here.”
“Yeah, I’d rather he was here to pilot the ship, too. Em Teedee!” Jacen called. “Where can he be?”
Dengar’s inelegant ship circled low. Before they could reach the safety of the Rock Dragon, the bounty hunter landed defiantly at the edge of the roof, blocking the way.
Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Raynar staggered to a stop, looking grimly at each other.
The bounty hunter opened the hatch and leapt out. His shoulders were broad, and he carried two massive blaster cannons—each of which usually required two arms to lift, though Dengar easily held one in each hand. The mouth on the bounty hunter’s bandage-wrapped face sagged like his loose-fitting clothes, which were dirty and stained from a thousand fights and a thousand quick repair jobs on his ship.
Dengar’s sunken eyes flicked from side to side as he scanned the three young Jedi Knights like a targeting computer assessing damage potential. He aimed both blaster cannons at the companions. “Hostages. Expendable.” He scowled. “Where is Bornan Thul? Tell me.”
Raynar crossed his brown-robed arms and put on a brave face. “I am Raynar, son of Bornan Thul. My father isn’t on Mechis III. He never was.”
Dengar’s expression did not change. “Then you will tell me how to find him, or I will begin eliminating hostages.” His sallow face showed no sign of regret or anticipation. “I hope one of you cooperates before all three of you are dead.”
Around the metropolis, emergency-response droids cruised through the damaged areas. Smoke poured into the sky, blacker and more noxious than the pollution belched out by the manufacturing centers.
Jacen and Tenel Ka exchanged glances, but no one spoke.
Dengar waited precisely five seconds. Then he raised his blaster cannons, both pointing at a single target—Jacen.
The young man’s heart thudded, and his hand groped for his lightsaber. He wondered if he could possibly use its blade to deflect such high-powered explosive bolts. He was sure his uncle, Luke Skywalker, could have done it.
“You will not kill my friend,” Tenel Ka said, stepping in front of Jacen to shield him with her body. She drew her own rancor-tooth lightsaber and flashed its turquoise blade. Jacen saw her lips part in a feral grin, filled with challenge and menace toward anyone who would threaten him.
Jacen glanced over at Raynar, who stood concentrating, his gaze fixed on Dengar’s ship. Jacen felt a ripple in the Force and instantly knew what the blond boy was trying to do.
“Doesn’t matter to me who I start with,” Dengar answered coldly. He readjusted his aim toward Tenel Ka. She didn’t flinch.
Jacen added his own Jedi abilities to Raynar’s, concentrating on the bounty hunter’s ship. The craft had landed close to the edge of the rooftop, and its rear support pad rested …
“Let this first one be a lesson to you,” Dengar said. The bounty hunter’s finger tightened on the firing stud. Defiant and fearless, Tenel Ka held up her lightsaber, ready to block the shot.
Jacen squeezed his eyes shut and focused. He had to help her! With every ounce of his concentration, Jacen drew on the Force to nudge, push, shove.
Dengar fired both blaster cannons.
Using the Force, Jacen jostled the weapons. Both shots went wide, missing Tenel Ka. Behind him, Raynar was still focused on one goal.
“And let this be a lesson to you, Dengar,” Tenel Ka said. Sensing that she was joining her efforts to Raynar’s, Jacen lent his assistance as well.
Dengar’s ship slid backward, scraping across the rooftop. Its rear support pad dropped over the side of the building. The craft tipped and lurched, its hull grating against the rough edge of the roof.
The bounty hunter whirled in alarm. “What—?”
Suddenly the rooftop door burst open. The towering bulk of IG-88 strode out, arms extended, weapons powered up.
Em Teedee, hovering above the assassin droid’s body frame, amplified his normally tinny voice to a commanding boom. “I suggest you leave our friends alone, you arrogant bully!”
Tyko Thul in his colorful robes confidently followed the two droids out onto the rooftop. “IG-88, I order you to protect us!” The assassin droid aimed his built-in weapons.
Dengar reacted with lightning speed, whirling away from Tenel Ka and letting loose a volley of blaster bolts. Most ricocheted harmlessly off the assassin droid’s durasteel torso, leaving cherry-red spots of absorbed energy.
However, one bolt glanced off IG-88’s skeletal frame and hit Em Teedee’s outer casing. The little translating droid shrieked as sparks flew from his side; his optical sensors flickered wildly. Spinning in the air like an asteroid after a collision, he let out an electronic wail.
IG-88 opened fire again and again, but with such precision that instead of blasting the bandage-wrapped human off the rooftop, his weapon discharges turned one of Dengar’s heavy blaster cannons to slag in his fist.
Jacen remembered that the assassin droid’s new programming prevented him from shooting down the bounty hunter outright, even to protect his masters. But IG-88 was resourceful enough to find alternatives.
Behind him, Dengar’s ship teetered precariously on the edge of the roof.
Still expressionless, Dengar tossed the smoldering firearm away and grabbed his remaining cannon with both hands. But IG-88 targeted carefully with a volley of shots that blew away the muzzle of the second blaster, leaving Dengar unarmed.
Then the droid bombarded the roof plates at the bounty hunter’s feet.
Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Dengar dove for his ship. Off balance, it groaned and tilted toward an inevitable crash between the buildings. IG-88 fired once more just as the bandage-wrapped bounty hunter scrambled through the hatch. Blaster bolts sizzled off the frame as Dengar sealed himself in.
With a final shriek of protest, the ship fell from the rooftop. Jacen gasped, and Raynar raced to the edge of the building to look down. The ship plunged and spun, like a paving stone dropped off a cliff.
At the last instant, Dengar managed to power up his engines and wrench the ship out of gravity’s clutches. Spinning the craft sideways, the bounty hunter thundered through the narrow gaps between buildings. From the rooftop IG-88 launched grenades toward the stern of Dengar’s ship in an attempt to disable the engines as he departed. The explosives fell short as the bounty hunter whirled and dipped, zigzagging skillfully along a random course.
“No more grenades,” Tyko yelled at the assassin droid. “If you can’t bring yourself to actually destroy his ship, at least wait until he comes back into range, or you’ll damage my buildings.”
Before Dengar could circle around and come back again, though, the Lightning Rod shot up out of an alleyway, gaining speed as Jaina blasted volley after volley of laser fire into Dengar’s already damaged craft.
“All right, Jaina!” Jacen cried. “Go!”