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 hairy-faced 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 slime-dripping 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 pilot 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 and Tenel Ka nearly tumbled out of their seats, but they managed to bring the car under control and fasten their crash restraints in time.
With a bestial roar, Lowie careened out of the hangar bay in the second cloud car, a blue streak across the sky. Jacen wrestled with the controls and soared onward at full speed. He breathed a great sigh of relief.
“I guess they didn’t count on our alternatives,” Jacen said.
Tenel Ka twisted around to look behind her at the gleaming white metropolis in the clouds. “It does not appear that we are safe just yet, Jacen, my friend,” she said.
Not far behind them, they could see that the thugs had helped themselves to a pair of cloud cars, newer and brighter than the ones the young Jedi Knights had found. The killers raced after them in hot pursuit.
18
Surrounded by the clutter of girders and construction debris, Jaina gripped her extinguished lightsaber, wishing she dared turn it on again to light their way. But for now the tangled darkness offered them places to hide from the turncoat security guards who still hunted the four companions in the abandoned amusement park site. Overhead, however, chameleon creatures scrambled along catwalks and crossbeams, keeping an eye on them as they fled.
Luckily, the chameleon creatures carried neither blaster pistols nor stunners. Instead, they brandished wicked-looking transparent knives with blades fashioned from crystal shards.
Since the creatures were nearly invisible, Jaina had a difficult time counting the camouflaged enemies, but she caught glimpses of the smooth forms as colors and shadows shifted across their bodies. Their cruel lipless mouths grinned as they approached their prey.
“Oh, why didn’t I carry my own hold-out blaster?” Lando muttered. “Ever since I became respectable, I stopped packing weapons.”
Zekk commiserated with him. “Right now I wish I had a lightsaber, too … even my old one from the Shadow Academy.”
“We’ll just play hide-and-seek as long as we can.” Anja seemed more angry than afraid at the prospect of the creatures’ attack.
Jaina gritted her teeth as they hurried along. “Looks like we women’ll have to defend you men.”
“We’ll do our best to help out,” Zekk said, flashing her a grim smile. “Somehow or other.”
The pack of chameleon assassins made soft thumping sounds as they swarmed along the girders above. Lando and his three companions dashed under the twisted superstructure of the enormous looping hovercoaster. It was the most massive part of the amusement park; the heavy beams and bent durasteel framework loomed high above them like a fossilized prehistoric creature.
“We can’t hide under here,” Anja said, ducking as a brilliant bolt zinged past her face. She fired up her acid-yellow blade.
“I don’t know where else to go,” Lando replied. More blaster fire rang out from the shadows as security guards marched into the enclosed space, targeting Anja’s bright lightsaber now. “If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.”
Jaina gazed up at the chameleon creatures slinking along the hovercoaster above them. Their sharp crystal blades twinkled, reflecting the dim emergency lights. Skins rippled and flickered, adjusting their camouflage, as the creatures gathered their forces overhead. Although viciously armed, the chameleons seemed to be relative cowards, unwilling to attack until they had massed for a single strike.
Jaina intended to use that to her advantage. “Everybody stand back,” she said. “And dive for cover.” She stood up, switched on her blazing violet lightsaber, and held it high.
“Wait!” Lando called. “What are you going to—”
The Wing Guards shouted and ran toward them.
“What are you waiting for?” Zekk said. Jaina slashed sideways.
Her dazzling lightsaber blade sliced through the main pillar that supported the central section of the hovercoaster. The energy-blade severed the heavy durasteel brace as easily as if it were a hot knife slicing through Ithorian sap gelatin. She stood back to look at the smoking, sizzling ends of the huge support beam. As if in slow motion, she saw the metal begin to slide. The hovercoaster tilted.
“Look out!” she cried, and dove for a pile of heavy crates.
Anja and Zekk had already scrambled backward. Lando stared in horror. “My hovercoaster!”
The clustered chameleon creatures skittered about, scrambling for balance. Suddenly the entire framework toppled beneath them, groaning, bending, twisting.
Jaina looked up, shielding her eyes against any debris that might fall in their direction. The smooth-skinned creatures tumbled downward, shaken loose from their precarious perches. Their skin color shifted as they tried to match the color of the air through which they fell. Girders groaned and crumpled. With a resounding crash, the central section of the hovercoaster slammed down onto the deckplates.
“That’s just great,” Lando said, astounded. “Now I’m even more behind schedule.”
Showing no consideration whatsoever in response to his financial plight, the traitorous Cloud City security troops opened fire again, running toward the scene of the crash.
“We’ve got them now,” bellowed one deep voice.
As Lowbacca roared across the sky in his commandeered blue cloud car, he hooked sharply off to the left, intentionally veering far away from Jacen and Tenel Ka. Separating and causing their pursuers to split up seemed their best chance of escape.