“Someone’s bound to check on the ship eventually,” he pointed out. “All we have to do is dump the message into storage and leave some kind of signal flashing that it’s there. You have people who know how to pull a dump, don’t you?”
“Any idiot knows how to pull a dump.” Mara glared at him. “Funny, isn’t it, how this scheme just happens to require that I keep both of you alive a while longer.”5
Luke remained silent, meeting that bitter gaze without flinching … and then, abruptly, Mara’s internal battle seemed to end. “What about the droid?” she demanded. “It’ll take forever to get it across this terrain.”
“Artoo’s made it through forests before. However …” Luke looked around, spotted a tree with two low branches just the right size. “I should be able to rig up a dragging frame to carry him on—a travois, or something like that.” He started to get up. “If you’ll give me my lightsaber for a minute I can cut a couple of those branches off.”
“Sit down,” she ordered, standing up. “I’ll do it.”
Well, it had been worth a try. “Those two,” he told her, pointing. “Be careful—lightsabers are tricky to handle.”
“Your concern for my welfare is touching,” she said, her voice dripping sarcasm. She drew the lightsaber and stepped over to the indicated tree, keeping an eye on Luke the whole time. She raised the weapon, ignited it—
And in a handful of quick, sure swipes trimmed, shortened, and cut the branches from the tree.
She closed down the weapon and returned it to her belt in a single smooth motion. “Help yourself,” she said, moving away.
“Right,” Luke said mechanically, his mind tingling with astonishment as he stumbled over to collect the branches. The way she’d done that … “You’ve used a lightsaber before.”
She gazed at him coldly. “Just so you know I can handle it. In case you should feel tempted to try and make a grab for my blaster.” She glanced upward at the darkening sky. “Come on—get busy with that travois. We’ll need to find some kind of clearing to put the sonde balloon up, and I want to get that done before nightfall.”
C H A P T E R 24
“I must apologize for chasing you out like that,” Karrde said as he walked Han toward the central building. “Particularly in the middle of a meal. Not exactly the sort of hospitality we strive for here.”
“No problem,” Han told him, eyeing him as best he could in the gathering dusk. The light from the building ahead was casting a faint glow on Karrde’s face; with luck, it would be enough to read the other’s expression by. “What was that all about, anyway?”
“Nothing serious,” Karrde assured him easily. “Some people with whom I’ve had business dealings wanted to come and look the place over.”
“Ah,” Han said. “So you’re working directly for the Empire now?”
Karrde’s expression cracked, just a little. Han expected him to make some sort of reflexive denial; instead, he stopped and turned to look at Lando and Ghent, walking behind them. “Ghent?” he asked mildly.
“I’m sorry, sir,” the kid said, sounding miserable. “They insisted on coming out to see what was happening.”
“I see.” Karrde looked back at Han, his face calm again. “No harm done, probably. Not the wisest of risks to take, though.”
“I’m used to taking risks,” Han told him. “You haven’t answered my question.”
Karrde resumed walking. “If I’m not interested in working for the Republic, I’m certainly not interested in working for the Empire. The Imperials have been coming here for the past few weeks to collect ysalamiri—sessile creatures, like the ones hanging on to the tree in the greatroom. I offered my assistance in helping them safely remove the ysalamiri from their trees.”
“What did you get in return?”
“The privilege of watching them work,” Karrde said. “Giving me that much extra information to try to figure out what they wanted with the things.”
“And what did they want with them?”
Karrde glanced at Han. “Information costs money here, Solo. Actually, to be perfectly honest, we don’t know what they’re up to. We’re working on it, though.”
“I see. But you do know their commander personally.”
Karrde smiled faintly. “That’s information again.”
Han was starting to get sick of this. “Have it your way. What’ll this Grand Admiral’s name cost me?”
“For the moment, the name’s not for sale,” he told Han. “Perhaps we’ll talk about it later.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think there’s going to be a later,” Han growled, stopping. “If you don’t mind, we’ll just say our good-byes here and get back to the ship.”
Karrde turned to him in mild surprise. “You’re not going to finish our dinner? You hardly had a chance to get started.”
Han looked him straight in the eye. “I don’t especially like sitting on the ground like a practice target when there are stormtroopers wandering around,” he said bluntly.
Karrde’s face hardened. “At the moment, sitting on the ground is preferable to drawing attention in the air,” he said coldly. “The Star Destroyer hasn’t left orbit yet. Lifting off now would be an open invitation for them to swat you down.”
“The Falcon’s outrun Star Destroyers before,” Han countered. But Karrde had a point … and the fact that he hadn’t turned the two of them over to the Imperials probably meant that he could be trusted, at least for now. Probably.
On the other hand, if they did stay … “But I suppose it wouldn’t hurt us to stick around a little longer,” he conceded. “All right, sure, we’ll finish dinner.”
“Good,” Karrde said. “It will just take a few minutes to get things put back together.”
“You took everything apart?” Lando asked.
“Everything that might have indicated we had guests,” Karrde said. “The Grand Admiral is highly observant, and I wouldn’t have put it past him to know exactly how many of my associates are staying here at the moment.”
“Well, while you’re getting things ready,” Han said, “I want to go back to the ship and check on a couple of things.”
Karrde’s eyes narrowed slightly. “But you will be back.”
Han gave him an innocent smile. “Trust me.”
Karrde gazed at him a moment longer, then shrugged. “Very well. Watch yourselves, though. The local predators don’t normally come this close in to our encampment, but there are exceptions.”
“We’ll be careful,” Han promised. “Come on, Lando.”
They headed back the way they’d come. “So what did we forget to do back at the Falcon?” Lando asked quietly as they reached the trees.
“Nothing,” Han murmured back. “I just thought it’d be a good time to go check out Karrde’s storage sheds. Particularly the one that was supposed to have a prisoner in it.”
They went about five meters into the forest, then changed direction to circle the compound. A quarter of the way around the circle, they found a likely looking group of small buildings.
“Look for a door with a lock,” Lando suggested as they came out among the sheds. “Either permanent or temporary.”
“Right.” Han peered through the darkness. “That one over there—the one with two doors?”
“Could be,” Lando agreed. “Let’s take a look.”
The leftmost of the two doors did indeed have a lock. Or, rather, it had had a lock. “It’s been shot off,” Lando said, poking at it with a finger. “Strange.”
“Maybe the prisoner had friends,” Han suggested, glancing around. There was no one else in sight. “Let’s go inside.”