by Jude Watson
"Your threats reveal your fear," Obi-Wan said. "I'll be back."
Chapter Eight
Marit's friends sat together on the athletic field outside. They seemed to be expecting Anakin. He noted one friend looking him over carefully, from the top of his head to his boots. The student, a Bothan, stood as soon as they came up.
"So this is the one," he said. He was short, shorter than Marit, and the curling hair down to his shoulders gave him a soft look that was undercut by his shrewd gaze. This was clearly not someone to underestimate.
"This is Anakin," Marit said. "Anakin, meet Rolai Frac. And this is Tulah, and Hurana, and Ze."
"Have you ever ridden a swoop?" Ze asked. He was a humanoid, short and plump, with close-set green eyes and two pigtails that hung down his back.
He seemed eager for action.
"A couple of times," Anakin said.
"We were going to have a swoop race," Tulah said. Anakin recognized the elongated head and pale skin of a native of Muunilinst. Tulah was tall and skinny, with a shock of bright yellow hair that stuck straight up from his head. His voice was all business. "Do you want to join us?"
"Just once around the school grounds," Marit said. "Sounds like fun,"
Anakin said.
"The only thing is, it's technically against the rules," Hurana said.
She gave him a shy smile, but he could tell he was being tested. "You're going to have to avoid the roving surveillance droids."
"Sounds even better," Anakin said.
Marit pointed to a nearby swoop with her chin. "That's yours, then.
Watch out for professors and security cameras. Let's go."
Marit and her friends slung their legs over their swoops. Anakin followed. He took a moment to get used to the swoop controls and was a few seconds behind them. He wasn't worried. He knew how to fly a swoop faster than anyone.
He took off after them, streaking across the gray sky. Ahead was a security checkpoint. Anakin could see the camera lenses revolving. Marit gunned her motor and flipped her swoop sideways to avoid being tracked.
A second later, Hurana dipped below it, missing it by only a fraction.
Anakin saw her grin and knew she had timed it that way. The others followed expertly.
Anakin was impressed. He increased his speed, timing his approach with the revolving camera lenses. He pulled the swoop up and then down quickly, missing the lens by a comfortable half second.
He pushed the engine to maximum and quickly caught up to the others.
He didn't slow down but zoomed by them. He saw Rolai's surprised face, but Marit looked worried.
He saw why. Below him a group of professors had paused on the stairs outside one of the academic buildings, talking. Any moment they would see him.
He turned the swoop to the left and headed for the dense branches of an enormous tree. Behind him, he saw Marit pull her swoop up and circle out of range of the professors.
Anakin could hover in the branches, but he was too impatient. He dipped below one branch and zoomed up to skim above another. He snaked in and out of the thick branches, leaning his body first one way, then the other. He did not make even one leaf tremble. The professors continued to talk, completely unaware of the swoop above them.
The others skirted the trees, looping around to avoid the professors and adding crucial minutes to their times.
He cleared the grove of trees out of sight of the professors, as well as Marit and her friends. A surveillance droid revolved ahead, surprising him for only an instant. Anakin pulled the swoop to a hard right, avoiding the rotating sensors. Then he dove beneath the droid and zoomed on.
Grinning, Anakin leaned over the handlebars and gunned the motor. He skirted a security camera and dove beneath a tractor beam. This was child's play for him.
The others were in sight again but still well behind him as he cleared a rooftop and did a quick triple loop dive to avoid being seen by a class of students playing laserball below. Then he dropped from the sky and landed in the same precise spot he had left from. He sat down and crossed his legs in a leisurely fashion.
A short two minutes later, Marit and the others pulled up. Anakin was surprised at their speed. They were almost as fast as a Jedi on a swoop.
Marit swung off her swoop and strode toward him, tossing her braid behind her shoulder.
"Okay, hotshot," she said. "You win."
"What do I win?" Anakin asked. "If it's the chance to break out of here," he joked, "count me in." He spoke lightly, but he could feel how close he was to being accepted. He didn't need the Force to pick up on the humming energy among the group of friends. Something was definitely up. Had he found the secret squad the Jedi High Council spoke of?
"You see?" Marit said to Rolai. "I told you he could fly.
"He can fly," Rolai agreed.
"He's almost as good as me," Hurana said. Her pale gold eyes held a new respect.
"We have a sort of club," Marit said. "Not a school club. A serious club. Are you interested?"
"I'm not sure yet," Anakin said. "Why don't you tell me about it?"
"We take on assignments from outsiders. Beings who need a little help.
We use our skills to aid them. If my friends and I have one thing in common, we don't like to see others get kicked around. I think you're that way, too."
"I am," Anakin said. "What exactly do you do? Rescue fluffkits from trees?"
Rolai looked annoyed. "This isn't a joke. Two weeks ago on Tierell, we changed the course of a planet's history."
"And made a bundle of credits," Tulah said. "Don't forget that."
"We do whatever is needed," Marit said quickly. She gave Rolai a warning glance, as if he'd said too much. "You'll learn more if you join us. Look, I told you how it works here. They only run the scholarship program so that they'll look good. They don't care about us. They won't help us. No one will. We have to help ourselves. Why should we wait around to get passed over for good jobs when we can start our lives now?"
"I agree," Anakin said. "But how do you get off campus? You'd have to violate security."
Marit shook her head. "We're able to conduct the missions on our free days. We have permission to leave. We just have to be sure to be back in time. And there are ways to trick security." She grinned at Rolai. "Rolai is our security expert and financial officer. Ze handles communications."
Ze nodded. "Comlinks, datapads, holo transmissions. Traces and countertraces. There are plenty of frequencies to hide in, if you know how.
" Anakin was impressed. Even he didn't know how to navigate the complicated process of concealing a transmission origin.
"I'm transportation," Hurana said. "I get us in and out, and fast."
Tulah lifted a finger. "I'm battle strategy. But mostly I'm comic relief."
Tulah spoke lightly, but something in his face told Anakin that his joking was a pose to hide a serious purpose.
"And I research the proposals," Marit said. "I'm the galactic politics expert."
"So what am I?" Anakin asked.
"We need someone who knows something about sophisticated air transport like starfighters," Hurana said. "I know some, but Marit has been watching you, and she says you know more."
"I don't know about that," Anakin said. "But I did grow up fixing engines. So how do you decide what you're going to do?"
"We consider proposals and vote on them," Hurana said. "Everyone's vote is equal."
"And every decision is unanimous," Tulah said. "If one of us doesn't want to take an assignment, we pass on it. You'd get an equal vote, too, fly-guy. Just try to vote with me."
Unlike the others, Rolai's look was cool. Anakin had the feeling that he would have to prove himself to the Bothan before he welcomed him. It didn't bother him. He might feel that way himself with an outsider.
"The kind of assignments we take on are important," Marit said. "We're just starting, but already what we can do has spread to the right beings.
We're on the side o
f justice in the galaxy. The powerful exploit the weak.
We try to tip the balance. In one of our last missions we broke into the records of a company that was dumping its toxic garbage on a neighboring planet's moon. We exposed them and got paid for it. We can get away with a lot because adults tend not to notice kids. They underestimate us."
Rolai grinned. "Big mistake."
To his surprise, Anakin found himself liking what he was hearing. It was almost like being a Jedi, but without Masters. No one told the squad what to do. They picked their own missions and were responsible only to themselves.
"Count me in," he said.
Chapter Nine
Anakin met Ferus at their prearranged spot in the computer lab during their free time before lights out. Most of the students were in their own rooms, studying or talking. No one liked to venture out into the halls at night, no matter how good security was now. The computer lab was open but empty. They spoke in low voices in a corner.
"Reymet keeps dropping hints," Ferus said without waiting for Anakin to speak. "He says he knows something about some secret goings-on at the school. He even has hinted that it has something to do with Gillam's disappearance. I know he's trying to impress me, but I still think he knows something. Maybe about the secret squad. If we could infiltrate it, we'd finally have something to tell Obi-Wan."
"I did infiltrate it," Anakin said.
Ferus looked startled. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"You didn't give me a chance," Anakin said. As usual, Ferus got under his skin. "It just happened today."
"How? Who is it? This is great news," Ferus said approvingly.
Anakin wasn't sure what annoyed him more — Ferus's lack of envy at his progress, or the way his approval sounded just a bit condescending, as though Ferus was his Master.
"I was approached by Marit Dice," Anakin said. "She and her friends are all scholarship students here at the school. That's the key. They feel that they won't be treated fairly when it comes to positions after graduation, so they decided to strike out on their own. The school doesn't help them. They only help the sons and daughters of the important people."
"Sounds like an excuse to me," Ferus said.
"No," Anakin said, annoyed. "I'm sure it's true. Haven't you noticed that the other students don't talk to the scholarship students?"
"Not really," Ferus said. "After all, I talk to Reymet." "Only because you have to."
Ferus sighed. "So they picked you because you're a scholarship student."
"They picked me because they thought they could trust me," Anakin said. "I don't have a reputation as a snob."
If Ferus felt the sting of Anakin's remark, he didn't show it. "Did they say anything about Gillam? Do you know if he was in the squad?"
"They didn't say a word about Gillam," Anakin said. "That's strange,"
Ferus said. "It's all everyone else at school talks about."
"They have more important things on their minds," Anakin said.
"Is Marit the leader?"
Anakin gave this some thought. "She did most of the talking. But I didn't get the feeling that she was the leader. They say they vote on everything."
"Do you know if they're going out on an assignment?" Ferus asked.
Anakin shook his head. "Not yet I'll find out."
Ferus frowned. "So do you think there's a connection? And if there is, what could it be?"
"I don't know," Anakin said. "I can't imagine them kidnapping a fellow student. They seem straightforward. They take on good causes. They're almost like Jedi, in a way. Think about it, Ferus. Can you imagine being able to pick and choose your own missions?"
Ferus looked at him curiously. "No. That's why we have the Council."
"But if we didn't, we could use our skills on missions that we decided were important."
"If we didn't have the Council, we wouldn't be Jedi." Ferus gave him the severe look that always got under his skin.
Anakin decided to change the subject. "Do you know anything about the planet Tierell?"
"There was a coup there. It was a repressive government. The leader was assassinated two weeks ago. The rebels are now in charge. Why?"
"The squad said they were involved," Anakin said. "In an assassination? Do you call that a good cause?"
"I didn't say that they assassinated the leader,"
Anakin argued. "I just said they were involved." "Anakin, they are mercenaries," Ferus said, exasperated. "What exactly do you think they do?"
"Not cold-blooded murder," Anakin said decidedly. "You've made a lot of conclusions considering you just met them," Ferus said.
"It's an instinct," Anakin said. "That doesn't mean they can't be hiding something. I'm not totally in their confidence yet. I need to gain their trust."
Ferus nodded slowly. "I agree. But be careful."
Anakin said good-bye and was halfway down the hall before he wondered what exactly Ferus wanted him to be careful of.
The secret squad had a secret signal, of course. Many of the students had holographic displays outside their doors. When a hologram of a detailed topographical map of Marit's homeworld of Hali was outside her door, a meeting was scheduled. If the moons of Hali were shown, the meeting was in the free evening hours. If the three suns were shown, the meeting would take place before the morning meal.
They met almost every day. Anakin was surprised at the number of proposals for help they received, from groups and individuals all over the galaxy. The squad had only been in operation for six months, and the word of mouth had spread. Rolai received the requests on a datapad Ze had tweaked so that the routing system was too complicated to trace. Credits were deposited in a secret account in an Andoran bank known for discretion.
Anakin admired the group's professionalism. They discussed the proposals seriously, and he was impressed at Marit's knowledge of galactic politics and history. It was obvious that they needed a mission soon, for their treasury was low and they needed supplies.
Anakin was heading to his last class when he saw the signal for an evening meeting. As soon as the free period began, he headed for a storeroom located near the students' rooms. The storeroom wasn't used at such hours and they did not have to pass through security checkpoints to get to it from their rooms. It was a private place to meet.
He slipped inside the room to find the others waiting. He got the sense that they had been talking before he entered. "Do we have a proposal?
" he asked, sitting down on the floor next to Hurana.
"No," Rolai said. "It's just a general meeting. Anybody have anything?
" "Just stuff we can't afford," Ze said. "I haven't wanted to bring this up, but we've got to upgrade our comlinks. We've got to get some holographic capabilities pretty soon. And if we don't up-tech the drivers, we'll be blasting static when we go past the Core. I have an idea how I can do a basic upgrade without dipping into the treasury, but it's going to be complicated." Ze launched into a highly technical discussion that obviously left the rest of the squad behind.
"So if I patch into the C-board here and steal some juice from the circuit, I can maybe extend the range from meta to mega if the systems don't chatter and I don't pulverize the school mainframe," Ze concluded cheerfully.
"Affirmatively good work, Ze-tech." Tulah nodded his head in approval, but it was obvious he hadn't a clue as to what Ze was talking about. By the looks on the faces of the rest, they felt the same.
"Don't forget to bypass the transit sensor when you patch," Anakin said. "Otherwise you'll end up with a cinder instead of a comlink."
"An excellent point," Ze said, impressed.
"I was going to say that transit thing," Tulah said. "I mean, I would have if I'd known what Ze was talking about.
Marit gave Anakin a sidelong look. "You know comm systems?"
"Some," Anakin said. As a slave at Watto's shop, he had learned how to fix anything. He had kept up the hobby as a Jedi student. "I know droid circuits better."
"That's good
, because we might be in the market for an astromech,"
Tulah said. "Love those little guys. Hurana has been shopping for a couple of used A-6 interceptors, and a couple of astromechs are key. By the way, we really need to get some starfighters soon. This hitching rides on freighters has got to stop."
"I agree," Rolai said. "They're slow."
