peating Blasters just inside the doorway, killing the soldiers
crewing the weapon.
Asyr's X-wing came in right behind Wedge's and re-
peated his strafing run. As she flew through the area, Wedge
chopped his thrust back, hit his rudder, and turned his
fighter around. He punched the throttle, killing his momen-
tum, then cut his repulsorlift coils in. Asyr sailed on past him
and pulled up to begin a loop, while Wedge goosed his
X-wing forward and brought it up in line with the ware-
house opening.
"They're running!" Wedge hit the trigger and scythed
fire back and forth across the gaping warehouse entryway.
Two laser-bolts caught a small airspeeder in the middle and
aft, slicing it into three equal parts. The pieces flew across the
open area and rebounded off a neighboring building, then
tumbled into the urban canyon depths.
The rest of his shots missed the legion of targets because
what he was trying to hit tended to be small and moving very
fast. Speeder bikes with and without sidecars corkscrewed
fheir way out and down or up to elude him. One airspeeder
just sailed out and dropped like a freefalling Hutt, sinking
out of sight before he could track it. Others banked hard and
flew fast to escape, though from corem unit chatter, each of
them had been tagged and had pursuit on its way.
An ugly green light strobed through the warehouse.
Wedge nudged the X-wing forward, and saw boxy silhou-
ettes, each supported on twin pillars, bobbing up and down
in the warehouse. A shiver ran down his spine, then he keyed
his corem unit. "Scout walkers, three of them, with two com-
ing our way. I've got them."
Wedge flicked his weapon's-control over to proton tor-
pedoes. His aiming reticle went from yellow to red as the
targeting computer locked on. Mynock shrieked with a lock-
tone and Wedge hit his trigger. A proton torpedo streaked
out, crossing the fifty meters between the X-wing and the
warehouse in the blink of an eye.
The proton torpedo caught the rightmost AT-ST in the
outside leg, just below the upper joint. The torpedo sheered
the leg off, and the impact spun the scout walker around. It
crashed into the walker next to it, then rebounded and
bounced to the ground. Ten meters behind it the proton tor-
pedo exploded, detonating the walker's concussion grenade
magazine.
The second walker, which had awkwardly skipped for-
ward after being bumped, ended up being slightly off balance
when the grenades went off. A burst of green light from
deeper within the warehouse outlined the upright walker as
the downed walker's good leg whipped around and caught it
across the ankles. The standing walker staggered as the pilot
tried to widen its stance and remain upright. His efforts al-
most paid off and the walker had begun to straighten up,
when its left foot ran out of warehouse floor. The machine
wavered for a moment, then slowly keeled over in an un-
gainly plunge toward the ground.
The green light, from the last AT-ST's twin blaster can-
non, again lit the interior of the warehouse. What is it shoot-
ing at? In the time it took him to form that question in his
mind, he also came up with th e answer. No, can't let that
happen.
He nudged the throttle forward and picked up some
speed. Flying into the warehouse, Wedge got to see the
AT-ST fire one last shot at the far wall, widening the breach.
An airspeeder--heavily laden, judging from the way the aft
end struck sparks as it slewed around the scout walker--shot
in toward the hole. The remaining walker squared off to face
him and protect the airspeeder.
The other vehicles were decoyst This one is the bomb.
Wedge hit enough left rudder to track the airspeeder, then
fired a proton torpedo. The projectile hit the ferrocrete deck-
ing and skipped off, rising quickly. Instead of passing be-
tween the AT-ST's legs, it slammed full into the cockpit. The
explosion filled the end of the warehouse with a firestorm. A
black cloud billowed up with red-gold flame-claws slashing
their way clear of it, while pieces of debris and shrapnel
ricocheted and bounced throughout the warehouse.
Swirling tendrils of smoke curled out through the hole,
and Wedge knew instantly where the airspeeder had gone.
He guided the X-wing straight for the center of the hole the
scout walker had opened in the other side of the warehouse.
He made it through with centimeters to spare on both sides,
then cut the repulsorlift generators and dove.
the other side."
Hunter One sounded faintly amused. "We would have
let you come back out this way, Rogue Leader."
"Thanks, Hunter One, but I'm in pursuit of the bomb."
Deep below him he saw the airspeeder level off and head
toward lnvisec. "Let the bacta storehouse know it's incom-
ing, and so am I. With luck, only one of us will get there."
40
"He's not the fat guy," said one of the three men facing
Corran.
"Doesn't matter. Kill him anyway."
Corran pulled his right arm back and whipped it for-
ward, sidearming the lightsaber toward the trio. The blade
spun through a flat arc. The men on either side of the group-
ing dove for cover, but the center man's eyes grew wide and
glowed in the blade's icy light. He shot twice at the light-
saber, but missed with both bolts.
The lightsaber's silver shaft scythed through his middle
and dropped him in two parts to the ground. Two wet, meaty
thumps swallowed the clatter of the blaster carbine against
the floor. The glowrod attached to the barrel flared, then
went out.
Corran dove to the left, rolled, and came up in a crouch.
He tracked a moving cone of light and fired at its base. He
heard no scream to indicate he had hit his target, then a
spray of blaster-bolts from the right forced him to duck
again. As he slipped back into the shadow of a statue, his
two foes extinguished their glowrods, leaving the footlights
as the only illumination in the larger room.
Two assumptions I can make first, they have comlinks
I
something solid thump against the wall be-
en before he heard the click of a comlink, he
ld and rose up on his left knee. Jamming the
against the wall with his right hand, he
raked it upward. It pulled free of the wall at
arc, spitting and hissing as blood evaporated
shaft of light.
man on the other side of the wall fell across
ust as the third man, who had been approach-
from the opposite side, opened fire. The
,ht two bolts that would have killed Corran
in shifted aim and started tracking the light-
bolt singed the hair on the back of Corran's
rest passed by without hurting him.
left hand came up and he snapped off
two
blaster carbine's muzzle flashes. Both hit.
crashed backward into a display case, then
angles. In the footlight Corran could see
once or twice, as if still working the trigger
that had fallen to the floor, then the man lay
tinguished the lightsaber, then clipped it to his
the belt around so the weapon hung at his
mldn't bang against the bruised one. Pocketing
he crawled over to the body of the first
loosened the chinstrap on the hehnet and
lside it he found a comlink in a clip. He pulled
for a moment to see if other troopers were
the comlink remained silent.
the second man's blaster carbine and
glowrod. He played it over the dead men and
black uniforms weren't any sort of Imperial
seen before, and the men themselves were
that he knew they weren't storm-
never seen a stormtrooper without a helmet
see them looking quite this ordinary. Still, the
T, so he assumed the three dead
of a local constabulary force. Another
thought you were allies, but in CorSec we
and are going to be coordinating their attack. Second, they
can or have called for backup, which means they win the
waiting game. I have to get out of here, and the only way to
do that is by going out the way they came in. He glanced
over at the doorway which the lightsaber's glow backlit.
They're moving out to surround me, so now's the best time
to go.
Corran bobbed up and down twice, using the light-
saber's light to silhouette the obstacles in his way. The path
looked fairly clear. He reached into his pocket and ran his
thumb over the ruined face of the Jedi medallion. You're not
the one I used ?br hack, but here's hoping there was some left
in the dies when you were struck.
He took off at a dead run, cutting around one statue and
then a display case before heading toward the doorway. Lit-
tle holograms flickered to life behind him, drawing attention
first to themselves, then to him. The first few shots fired at
him burned holes in his cloak, but then his assailants shifted
their aim and raked the doorway with blasterfire--blasterfire
that should have exploded his heart and reduced his lungs to
cinders.
And it would have except that the Jedi cloak caught the
corner of the display case. It yanked Corran from his feet,
then the throat clasp snapped. With his momentum thus
slackened but far from depleted, he flew through the door-
way feet first, centimeters below the line of blasterfire. He hit
hard on his right hip and cracked his right knee on the gran-
ite floor, then slid toward the middle of the room.
His right hand closed on the hilt of the lightsaber. He
switched it off and scrambled back toward the doorway
through which he had just flown. He hoped to find the dead
man's blaster carbine, but as he settled his back against the
wall beside the doorway he saw its outline two meters away
on the wrong side of the opening. Hopeless. Gotta get up.
gotta run for the exit--wherever it is. Even though he knew
running was the only viable plan, the stiffening sensation in
his knee and hip told him a weak limp was going to be the
best he could manage. And l'll get raped for the ef/rt. I'm
dead.
Then
hind him.
twisted ar
lightsaber
flicked it c
the top ot
from the s
The b
the doorw
ing the dt
dead man
before the
saber's arc
hand, but
Corra
shots tow;
The third
hung then
his hands 1
of the wea
still.
Corra
belt. He sl
left hip am
his holdou
man he'd
pulled it ot
it out and i
on the wa,
He FC
turned on
frowned. 1
uniform h
mismatche
troopers. I
on, but I c
uniforms x
men were
time l'd h
didn't shoot someone just because he wasn't the suspect we
were looking for.
Corran played the glowrod over the bottom of the com-
link and adjusted the frequency. Now to find out where we
are. While he had long detested the Empire, it did manage to
do some things with a remarkable amount of efficiency. One
of them was the establishment and maintenance of standard
measures. On each world broadcast stations had been set up
to provide the exact time, both local and in relation to Co-
ruscant. By tuning into that signal he could find out where he
was and what time it was. It occurs to me I've not seen
outside for a long time.
He held the comlink near his ear and slowly limped over
to the hole the trio had blown in the wall on the far side of
the chamber. "Must be a real backwater planet if they only
sent three guys to catch an escaped prisoner--even if they
thought I was Derricote. I wonder if I can ever get off it?"
Over the comlink he heard a mechanical voice an-
nounce, "8 hours, 45 minutes, Coordinated Galactic Time."
"Great, I'm on a world that's set its clocks to Coruscant
time, no matter what the local situation is." He hefted the
blaster carbine, glanced at the power level indicator, then
played the light out through the hole into the next room.
Unlike the one he had found himself in, the room beyond the
hole was clean and orderly. Even better, there is an open
doorway to the outside.
He was about to step through the wall when two irrec-
oncilable ideas collided in his brain. It was rather clear that
he was inside some sort of storehouse filled with Jedi memo-
rabilia. The mansion from which he had escaped had obvi-
ously been an Imperial Moff's retreat, but what Imperial
Moff would risk his position by hoarding so much Jedi mate-
rial? The only Moff who could do that would be a powerful
one, and powerful Moffs weren't found on backwater
worlds.
Actually, there were no Moffs so powerful that they
would have dared defy the Emperor and Vader by boarding
this stuff. Only the Emperor could have . . . Corran's jaw
dropped open. And the chck here is set to Coruscant
time ....
Corran slumped against the wall. It can't be. I can't be
on Coruscant. It makes no sense. I remember traveling on a
ship. Then again, I was so doped up . . . Maybe l am on
Coruscant and lsard just wanted me to think I wasn't on
Coruscant. He chuckled. It would explain why no one ever
found Lusankya--it was here all the time, which means she
is, too.
He glanced back at the dead men. And she has enough
pull with local authorities to have them out bunting Der-
rioore. I may be out of her dutches, but I'm not free, yet.
He
glance d at the comlink and thought about tuning into the
military frequencies Rogue Squadron used, but rejected that
plan for two reasons. I'm not going to have the right scram-
bier codes to let me hear and speak with them, and even if I
did, there's the traitor to consider.
He shook his head. 1 need someone I can trust. It's a
long shot, but it's the only one I have. He set the comlink
and opened a channel. "This is Corran Horn calling. I'm not
dead--I only feel like it--and I could use some help returning
to the land of the living."
41
Wedge pulled back on the X-wing's stick and leveled out
approximately 300 meters behind and above the airspeeder.
He had to trim his speed back because even though the
X-wing could close fast, the airspeeder could turn faster
within the close confines of the city. Part of Wedge knew
racing speeder bikes through the forests of Endor was safer
than doing what he was doing, but he had no choice. That
bomb has to be stopped.
"Mynock, make sure you're getting a solid tracking feed
on that airspeeder."
The astromech droid shrilled out a confirmation of that
order. Wedge watched the tracking data get updated, then
rolled up on the right stabilizer foil and dove. He cruised
down below the speeder's line of flight, entering a large bou-
levard that sped him forward toward Invisec. If I can head
him off... "Mynock, plot all his routes from here to the
target."
The droid shrieked like wind howling off the S-foils.
Wedge wove his way through the undercity, cutting
around buildings, over walkways, and through tunnels, all
the while marveling at the intricate labyrinth that was Corus-
cant. Making his way in and out, up and over or around
tested his skills as a pilot. While not much of the dawn's light
penetrated that deeply in the city, he did have enough to
navigate by, but only just barely.
A shiver ran down his spine. Corran and the others were
flying out here at night when we took Coruscant. I never
really appreciated what they did until now.
Mynock hooted at him. Wedge glanced down at his
monitor and saw various schematics flash past. "Slower, My-
hock, I'm flying here, too." Wedge marked the location of