She would have been just another one of the countless departmental drones nec-essary to the smooth functioning of a planetary gov-ernment, had she not been discovered by someone who recognized her potential.
But now-to stand on the verge of becoming a Jedi! To be one of the ancient order of protectors, one of the guardians of freedom and justice in the galaxy! Even now, after all these years of preparation, she could hardly believe it was true- "Padawan Assant." Master Windu was speaking to her. The dark-eyed human's mellifluous voice was quietly pitched, yet its power seemed to fill the large room. Darsha took a deep breath, reaching for the Force to calm and steady her. Now was definitely not the time to appear nervous.
The Jedi Master wasted no time in pleasantries. "You are to go alone to the area in the Zi-Kree sec-tor known as the Crimson Corridor, where a former member of Black Sun is being kept in a safe house. He is to receive the council's protection in return for in-formation regarding a recent shake-up in the higher echelons of that criminal organization. Your job is to bring him back to the Temple alive." Darsha was afire with eagerness, but she knew it would be unseemly to show it. She bowed slightly. "I understand, Master Windu. I shall not fail." Evidently she was not entirely successful in maintaining her equanimity, because she saw a slight smile tug at the senior member's lips.
Well, so be it-being too enthu-siastic was certainly not a crime. Mace Windu raised his hand in a gesture of dismissal. Darsha turned and exited the rotunda, followed by Anoon Bondara.
As the doors slid noiselessly shut behind her, Darsha faced her mentor. The question on her lips as to how soon she could begin her mission remained unasked,; however, when she saw the look of worry in Master Bondara's eyes.
"Master, what is it?** For a moment she was certain that there was disappointment in the Twi'lek's gaze, as well; that Darsha had said or done something before the council to dishonor herself and her mentor. The fear sliced through her like a lightsaber's deadly edge. But the Jedi's first words relieved her of that concern.
"It is a most... arduous mission," Master Bondara said. "I am surprised at Master Windu's choice of this particular test." "Do you doubt my ability to accomplish it?" The thought that her mentor might lack faith in her was even more distressing than the possibility of having unknowingly embarrassed herself before the council.
Master Bondara hesitated, then looked her squarely in the eyes and smiled. "I have always taught you to be honest in your feelings," the Jedi said, "for they are the surest conduit to knowledge, both of the self and of the Force.
Therefore, I cannot be less than honest with you. As part of your trials, you must go alone- and I am concerned that the mission may be too diffi-cult and dangerous a test.
The Crimson Corridor is rife with gangs, criminals, street predators, and other dangers. Also, several assassination attempts have al-ready been made on the Black Sun member's life. But-" The Twi'lek's lekku twitched in a way that Darsha had come to recognize as a fatalistic shrug. "-the council's decision is final, and we must accept it. Be assured that my concern in no way reflects my opinion of your abilities; assign it rather to the frets and misgivings of advancing age. I am sure you will acquit yourself well. Now come-we must prepare for your departure." Darsha followed her mentor as the latter moved down the corridor toward the turbolift. Master Bon-dara's words had dampened her enthusiasm slightly. What if he was right? What if this was too dangerous an assignment? She had heard stories of the dangers in the infamous Crimson Corridor. And she would be on her own for the first time, without Master Bondara or even another Padawan as backup. Could she do it?
She squared her shoulders. Of course she could! She was a Jedi-or would be as soon as she completed this assignment. Mace Windu must have thought her ca-pable of it; he would not have assigned it otherwise. She had to trust in the living Force, as Master Qui-Gon Jinn, another of her tutors, had often said. She was not going into danger alone; she had the Force with her. It would not make her invulnerable, but it certainly gave her an advantage few others had. With the Force she could accomplish things most people viewed as nigh unto miraculous: She could leap twice her own height in a one-gravity field, she could slow her rate of descent in a fall, she could even telekineti-cally move items a dozen meters and more away.
And she could also cloak herself in its essence, hiding in plain sight, so to speak.
Granted, her ability to do these things weren't on the same level of expertise as her mentor's. Nevertheless, she was better off with the Force than without it, that was for sure. She would not fail. She would accom-plish her mission, and when she returned to the Temple the title of Jedi Knight would be waiting for her.
The Infiltrator emerged from hyperspace well in-side the Coruscant system and continued sublight toward the capital world. Darth Maul kept the ship cloaked, though he would drop that as he neared his destination-extended cloaking took too much power. His coordinates and entry code had been given to him by his lord and master, and would clear him through the orbital security grid to land at any space-port on the planet. Still, the less noticeable he was, the better. Even a single raised eyebrow at the sight of the Infiltrator resting on a landing pad was too much.
The ship had been provided for him by Lord Sidious only recently, and he was still getting used to it. It handled well and easily, however. He approached Coruscant over the south pole. He was not concerned about being spotted, even though Coruscant had the most sophisticated and far-reaching system of detec-tion arrays of any world in the galaxy. The Infiltrator boasted a state-of-the-art stygium crystal cloaking de- vice and thrust trace dampers capable of confounding even Coruscant's warning grids.
He chose as his landing site a rooftop pad on an abandoned monad in an area of the city awaiting urban demolition and renewal. He left the cloaking de-vice activated and deployed his speeder bike through the cargo hatch. The bike was a stripped-down model, designed for maximum speed and maneuverability. Maul continued his journey across the cityscape on it.
Lord Sidious had been able to learn that Hath Mon-char maintained an apartment on Coruscant in a well-to-do section of the city several kilometers south of the Manarai Mountains. Maul did not know the exact address, but that did not matter.
He would find the missing Neimoidian, even if he had to search the en-tire planetary city.
It was impossible even to conceive of a time when he had not been in thrall to Darth Sidious. He knew that he had come originally from a world called Iri-donia, but knowing that was like knowing that the atoms composing his body had originally been born in the primordial galactic furnaces that had forged the stars. The knowledge was interesting in a remote, aca-demic way, but no more than that. He had no interest whatsoever in learning any more about his past or his homeworld. As far as he was concerned, his life began with Lord Sidious. And if his master ordered an end to that life, Maul would accept that judgment with no argument.
But that would not happen as long as he served Lord Sidious to the best of his abilities. Which, of course, he would. He could not even imagine a situation or cir-cumstance that would prevent him from doing so.
Faintly, from behind him, came the wail of a siren. Maul glanced back over his shoulder and saw he was being pursued by a police droid on a speeder similar to his own. The sight did not surprise him; he knew he was breaking several traffic laws due to his speed and course. Just as he knew there was no way the droid was going to catch him.
Maul pushed the speeder bike to maximum velocity, rocketing through the ferrocrete labyrinth on a plane between two levels of skycar traffic. The speeder had no stealth capabilities, but that did not matter; his speed and his control were more than sufficient to leave the pursuing droid behind. He knew the droid was comlinking ahead, calling for reinforcements to surround him and bring him to a stop.
He couldn't let that happen.
There was a break in the lower traffic flow ahead. Maul altered the speeder's thrust angle and dived through it, descending several stories until h
e dropped through a fog layer that hovered perhaps thirty meters above the ground. They could still track him, of course, but he knew that, as long as he was not endangering any lives other than his own, he would not be as high a priority to them. Besides, he had almost reached his destination.
He arrived without further incident and parked the speeder bike in one of the local lots, paying for the rest of the day in advance. Then he stepped onto a slide-walk that carried him toward one of the many out-posts of the Coruscant Customs Bureau.
Several times he noticed people looking at him; his appearance was capable of turning heads even on so cosmopolitan a planet as Coruscant. It would take considerable concentration to blind these crowds to his presence by using the Force, though it could be done. But it did not matter who saw him at this point.
If all went according to plan, he would be off Corus-cant in less than a day, his mission completed.
He had one thing to his advantage: Even though there was a bigger variety of alien races and species here than practically anywhere else in the galaxy, there still weren't a lot of Neimoidians to be seen, due to the recent tension between the Republic and the Trade Federation. Maul entered the imposing struc-ture of the Customs Bureau and moved quickly to a data bank terminal. Using a password provided by Lord Sidious, he instituted a HoloNet search that turned up a record of a recently arrived Neimoidian. The image matched the one of Hath Monchar given to him by his master. The name was different, but that was not surprising.
Maul ordered a new search parameter, trying to track Monchar though debit card use. There was no record of any transactions-again, not surprising. The Neimoidian would be too canny to be caught that way. No doubt he used only cash while on Coruscant.
A line had begun to form behind him; other people wanted to use the terminal he was monopolizing. He could hear grumbling voices as citizens and tourists grew increasingly impatient. He ignored them.
He hacked into the planetwide security grid that monitored the spaceports and surrounding environs, calling up the last twenty-four hours of a constant col-lage of images taken by stationary and roving holo-cams. He ordered the system to search its files for Neimoidians.
He found several images, one of which was prom-ising. It wasn't much to go on-a blurred image of a Neimoidian entering a tavern not far from there, a few hours earlier-but it was better than nothing.
Maul smiled faintly. His hand brushed the grip of the double-bladed lightsaber that hung from his belt. He noted the address of the tavern, then turned and left the building.
CHAPTER 4
Nute Gunray pushed the plate of fungus aside in irritation. It was his favorite dish: black mulch mold marinated in the alkaloid secretions of the blight bee-tle, seasoned to perfection, with the spores just begin-ning to fruit.
Normally his taste and olfactory nodes would be quivering in ecstasy at the prospect of such a gastronomic experience. But he had no appetite; in-deed, had not been able to look at food since the Sith Lord's last appearance on the bridge, when Sidious had noticed that Hath Monchar was missing.
"Take it away," he snapped at the service droid hovering respectfully nearby.
The plate was removed, and Gunray stood, stepping away from the table. He faced one of the transparisteel ports, looking gloomily out at the infinite vista of the star field.
There was still no news of Monchar and no clue as to where he had gone. If the viceroy had to guess- and guessing was all he had at this point-he would say that his deputy viceroy had decided to go into business for himself. There were plenty of ways that the knowledge of the impending blockade could be converted into currency, enough currency to begin a new life on a new world.
Gunray felt fairly confident that this was Monchar's plan, largely because he had thought of doing it himself more than once.
That didn't make it any less of a problem, however. Unless Monchar could be returned to the Saak'ak be-fore Sidious contacted them again.
He heard the panel to his suite chime softly. "Come," he said.
The panel slid open, and Rune Haako entered. The settlement officer of the Trade Federation forces crossed the room, sat down, and arranged his purple raiment with meticulous precision, smoothing the pleats assidu-ously before looking at Gunray.
"I assume there has been no further word of Hath Monchar?" "None." Haako nodded. He fiddled with his collar for a mo-ment, then adjusted his bloused sleeves. Gunray felt a flash of irritation. He could read Haako like a data file; he knew the attorney had a suggestion to make re-garding the situation, and he knew also that this cir-cuitous approach to it was designed to put Gunray on the defensive. But protocol demanded that he show nothing of what he felt; to do so would be to acknowl-edge that Haako had the upper hand in the situation.
At last Haako looked up, meeting Gunray's eyes. "Perhaps I might suggest a course of action." Gunray made a slight hand gesture designed to con-vey no more than polite interest. "By all means." "In my offices for the Trade Federation I have had oc-casion to encounter a number of people with singular attributes and abilities." He adjusted the crossed points on his cowl. "I refer specifically to a certain human fe-male named Mahwi Lihnn. For a prearranged fee she searches for and retrieves people who have strayed from their duties or who have committed crimes." "You are speaking of a bounty hunter," Gunray said. He saw Haako restrain himself from smirking, and realized belatedly that by admitting knowledge of the term used for someone of such crass abilities he had lost face before his subordinate. He didn't care, however-he was too excited at the possibility the at-torney's suggestion presented. "We could hire this Mahwi Lihnn to track down Monchar and bring him back before Sidious convenes with us again." "Just so." Gunray noted the veiled contempt in Haako's tone. He adjusted his own collar and took his time replying. His initial excitement at a potential solution to the problem had calmed slightly, and now he decided to show Rune Haako that one did not lightly play games of position with a commanding viceroy of the Federa-tion.
"And you... know this personage?" he in-quired, his tone and expression conveying just the right amount of disdain that anyone of Haako's sta-tion would admit to having had actual social inter-course with such a low individual.
Haako's look of smugness wavered. His fingers plucked nervously at a bit of filigree. "As I said, in the course of my duties as attorney and diplomatic at-tache for the Federation..." "Of course." Gunray infused the two words with equal parts pity and haughtiness.
"And the Trade Fed-eration is most grateful to you for your willingness to fraternize with such... colorful... characters, in hopes that their abilities may one day somehow be of use." He watched Haako's lips purse together as though the barrister had bitten into a rotten truffle, and continued. "To be sure, desperate times call for desperate measures. Though I regret having to ask this of a person of your stature, I hope you can find it within yourself to once again contact this Mahwi Lihnn, in order that we may satisfactorily resolve the Monchar situation.'' Rune Haako muttered an acquiescence and left. After the door closed, Nute Gunray nodded in satis-faction. Not bad, not bad at all. He had managed to implement a possible solution to the question of Mon-char's disappearance, and at the same time had taken that insufferable prig Haako down a peg. He listened in pleasure to a faint rumbling in his gut sac that signi-fied the return of his appetite.
Perhaps he would give his dinner another try.
"Had th' Hurt primed for this," Lorn said. "Was ready t'part with a great deal o' cash for a real Jedi Holocron. Would've paid twice as much for one from th' Sith." He gazed dejectedly into the depths of his glass, swirling the remaining blue-green Johrian whis-key that had recently filled it. "Fifty thousand credits, th' cube was worth. Now've lost it and the fifteen thousand. All I had." "It does put us in somewhat desperate straits finan-cially," I-Five said.
The two were sitting at the bar near the back of the Green Glowstone Tavern not far from one end of the infamous Crimson Corridor section of the city. They were regular patrons, and the
droid's presence there no longer caused much controversy, despite the sign at the entrance that proclaimed no droids al-lowed in Basic and several other languages.
" 'S all my fault," Lorn muttered, more to the drink-stained counter than to I-Five. "Hadn't lost m'temper..." He fixed the droid with a somewhat bleary gaze. "Dunno why y' stay partners with me." "Ah, now we come to the maudlin stage. Will this take long? I may want to put myself in cyberostasis until it's over." Lorn grunted and signaled for another refill. " Y'can be a real bastard, y'know that?" he told I-Five.
"Let's see... according to my data banks, the pri-mary definition of bastard is 'a child born of unwed parents.' However, a secondary usage is 'something of irregular or unusual origins.' In that respect, I suppose I qualify." When the bartender came over to fill Lorn's glass again, I-Five put his hand over it. "My friend has had enough neurons destroyed by various hydroxyl compounds for today.
It's not like he has an overabun-dant supply in the first place." The bartender, a Bothan, glanced at Lorn, then shrugged and moved on down the bar. A Duros wearing spacer's togs and sitting nearby looked at them, seeming to register the droid's presence for the first time. "You let your droid decide how much you can drink?" he asked Lorn.
Star Wars - Darth Maul - Shadow Hunter Page 3
