It's not my fault!" "Fine. What do we do now?" "Find a place to hide and fix it before we bump into the Imperial Navy." "That sounds like an excellent idea," Threepio said.
Artoo whistled his agreement.
Guri led Leia and Chewie back into the Under- ground. They walked for hours, turning and twisting into narrower and narrower corridors. Eventually they came to a heavy, locked gate that Guri opened. She locked the gate behind them, and they moved into what looked like a small repulsor train station.
A man waited there. He was short, squat, and bald, built like a freight handler from some heavy gee world.
He wore gray coveralls and had a blaster strapped on his left hip. He smiled, revealing teeth he'd had done in what looked to be black chrome.
Guri said, "Go with him." "Where are you going?" "Not your business. Just do as you are told and you will see Prince Xizor soon enough." She turned and walked away without another word.
The bald man came over to stand in front of Leia.
"This way," he said.
Baldy led the way to a small motorized cart parked outside. There was barely enough room in it for the three of them. Fortunately, there was a convertible roof on the thing, so with the top down, Chewie could sit up without bumping his head. They drove into a tunnel halfway around the circle of shops. Baldy touched a control on the cart, and a heavy metal grate covering the mouth of the corridor slid into the ceiling. Inside, the tunnel was clean, well lighted, no mold or graffiti on the walls, the floor free of dirt.
They drove for a long time; they probably covered ten or twelve kilometers. Finally the tunnel opened out into a large chamber, in the middle of which sat a bul- let car floating on magnetic repulsors over a single rail track.
Wherever they were going, it must be a way off; maglev cars could cover long distances in a hurry, three, four hundred kilometers an hour, especially in a complete tunnel such as this one was. It didn't pay to get them up to speed for anything less than a fairly long run.
Chewie and Leia followed Baldy into the car.
When they were seated and strapped in, Baldy said, "Go." The bullet car moved smoothly away from the chamber and into a dark tunnel. It picked up velocity fast. A row of small yellow service lamps ringed the tunnel every few hundred meters, and it wasn't long before the yellow circle seemed to be flashing over them continuously.
Wherever they were going, they were going to get there pretty soon, even if it was halfway around the planet.
Leia looked at Chewie and wished she could read his expressions better. He looked calm. Calmer than she felt.
She hoped she was doing the right thing, though it was a little late to worry about that now, wasn't it?
What's the problem?" Luke said.
From the service well below him, Lando's reply was more than a bit irritated: "The problem is that Han and Chewie have completely reset, rewired, and screwed up this whole ship! I'm looking at a serpent's nest of wires where there is supposed to be a pop-out circuit board! The schematics don't apply to anything here!" "Well, can you fix it?" "I'm trying to fix it! Pass me that jumper bypass." Luke picked up the JB, which looked like a bar with two sharp fingers making the V sign on one end. He had to lie on his belly to reach Lando.
Lando submitted, in a colorful fashion, that Han's ancestry was in question and that his personal habits left much to be desired.
Despite the danger of their situation, Luke grinned.
"Get Artoo to peek over the edge; maybe he knows what this blue wire is supposed to do." Artoo heard. He rolled to the lip of the service well, "leaned" forward, and peered down into it. Whistled and chirred for a moment.
"Yeeowch!" Lando yelled.
"Probably you'd better not touch that one." "Now you tell me. What about this yellow one?" Artoo whistled.
It looked as if they were going to be there a while, Luke figured.
They had managed to find the remains of a small moon or maybe a large asteroid in a big parabolic orbit around the planet and had nestled the Falcon in among the larger rocks and matched their velocity. From a dis- tance, with most of its power shut down, the ship should be just another one of the cluster of big boul- ders. Not enough gravity here to clump them back to- gether; they'd be a known hazard for ships and probably avoided. Even a Super-class Star Destroyer didn't want a bunch of building-size rocks smacking into its shields at speed; that would be a lot of kinetic energy to have to bleed off all at once.
At least that was what Luke and Lando hoped.
"Pass me those needle-head pliers," Lando said.
Luke complied. "You need me down there to help?
I'm pretty good with tools." "I used to own this ship," Lando said. "I'll figure out a way around what Han has done to her. The man ought to be ashamed of himself." "I'll mention that to him when we get him out of the carbonite," Luke said.
"So will I. High, loud, and repeatedly." The bullet car slowed. The bands of yellow blinked around them at longer intervals. When the car came to a stop, it was inside a vast chamber, as big as a state ballroom. The platform at which it stopped had six large guards on it, each dressed in gray armor and armed with a blast rifle. Baldy stepped out and grinned his shiny black smile. "This way," he said.
Two of the guards broke away from the others and moved behind Chewie and Leia. "Take the helmet off," Baldy said. "You won't be needing it anymore." Baldy led them to a door as thick as that of a bank vault. He pressed his hand against a reader, and the door clicked and swung open. He led them inside a tall, arched corridor wide enough for a dozen men to walk through side by side. The massive door swung shut be- hind them. It was very cold here, cold enough for their breathing to show as vapor.
A short distance ahead was another door, another six guards in armor in front of it. Not as heavy as the door behind them, it was still thick enough and run by a print-reader, and when they'd gotten through it, there were yet more guards.
It seemed as if whoever ran this place didn't want unexpected company.
They came to a bank of four turbolifts. Baldy punched a code into a keypad, and the door to the lift on the left opened. The three of them stepped in, leav- ing the two guards behind.
As the lift rose, Leia said, "Learned to trust us al- ready?" She nodded at the guards they'd dropped off.
Baldy smiled. The lift stopped, and another pair of guards stood there.
Well. Perhaps Baldy hadn't learned to trust them af- ter all.
A series of corridors branched away from the turbolifts, and Baldy led them down one that linked to a maze of other hallways. Leia tried to keep track of all the twists and turns-she had a pretty good memory for such things-but halfway through an intricate chain of left and right tacks, the lights went out. "Just keep walking," Baldy said. "I'll tell you when to turn." They walked in darkness for five minutes, Baldy call- ing out now and then. "Turn left." "Turn right." "Veer forty-five to the left for five steps, then veer right." When the lights went back on-how could he have seen to lead them?-Leia was thoroughly lost.
Whatever fat spider crouched in the center of this web, he truly did not want anybody just dropping by unannounced.
Eventually Baldy led them into a hallway. At the end of the hall were two tall, carved wooden doors and, standing to the sides, two more guards. These didn't wear armor, had no rifles but wore blasters on low- slung belts. They were big men who looked as if they knew how to use their hands. One of them reached for the doorknobs and opened the doors as they ap- proached.
Baldy said, "In there." With that, he turned and walked away.
Leia looked at Chewie. Realized her pulse was rac- ing and her stomach was fluttery. She took a deep breath and let part of it out.
She stepped into the room, Chewie behind her.
A tall man-no, not a man but an exotic-looking alien-rose from behind a large desk and smiled at her.
"Ah," he said, "Princess Leia Organa and Chewbacca.
Welcome. I am Xizor." It was the voice she'd heard over t
he hotel's comm.
Leia's pulse speeded up yet more. She felt a sudden giddiness, as if her brain had fogged over. So here she was at last, facing the person in charge of the galaxy's largest criminal organization. That was strange enough all by itself, but to make it even more so, he was abso- lutely... gorgeousl.
26
How is it going down there?" Luke said.
"Don't ask," Lando said.
"I'm going to see what I can whip up in the galley, you want something?" "Yeah, how about a beaker full of battery acid and bug poison." Luke shook his head, stood, and headed for the gal- ley.
Stopped suddenly as if he'd been touched by a cold hand.
"Master Luke? Are you all right?" Luke ignored Threepio. There was a disturbance in the Force, a dark blot on its perfection. It felt familiar somehow...
Uh-oh.
Luke turned and hurried back to the service well.
"You'd better get it fixed fast, Lando." "What's the hurry?" "I think we're about to have company." Lando poked his head up over the edge of the well.
"What? No way anybody could find us in here." "Yeah? Want to bet?" "Oh, man. Don't even say what you're thinking," Lando said.
"Huh?" "Don't say, ' I've got a bad feeling about this.'" Luke stared at him.
Lando disappeared back into the service well. "I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying!" Luke headed for the cockpit to check the sensors. If it was who he thought it was, hiding in a clump of rocks wasn't going to do much good. You could run, but from some things, you couldn't hide.
Xizor was pleased. The young woman sitting across from him, backed by her furry bodyguard, was every bit as delightful as he had hoped, even more so. Thus far, they had spoken of trivial things, in generalities. He pretended to be honored that she was a high Alliance official come to call; she pretended that she wasn't dis- gusted that he was a criminal. And, in fact, it didn't really matter what she felt, now that she was here in his grasp.
No, the thing now was how best to proceed with his courtship, if he could think in such terms.
Already he had allowed some of his potent pher- omones to seep into the air. He'd fought hard to keep his skin color from altering too much, but there was a definite warm glow to it. The Wookiee didn't seem to notice, but Leia had responded to the chemical at- tractants he exuded. She felt drawn to him; he knew this from long experience with women. He was not unattractive to look at, and with the added lure of his enhanced hormones, it would take a very strong and very determined humanoid female to resist him.
As a young man, he had felt the pull that Leia was now feeling. Falleen women had their version, and it was hard to ignore when one of them... blossomed for you. Like a hothouse flower sending its fragrance into the air, Falleen pheromones swirled and wrapped anyone close enough into their urgent embrace. As strong as a durasteel vise.
If Leia had any sensuality whatsoever, she could only pretend that she wasn't attracted to him-as she now tried to do. He had to give her credit; she was not volunteering how she felt. But the flush of her cheeks, her slightly faster breathing, her... yearning, all were obvious to one who had seen them a thousand times before. To one who knew how to spot the signs and use them to his best advantage, as did Xizor. And use them he would.
"You must be tired from your trip," Xizor said.
"You should refresh yourself, change clothes, relax a bit before we delve into serious matters." "I didn't exactly bring my wardrobe with me." Xizor waved a hand and affected a man-of-the- galaxy smile. "Such things are easily remedied. I'll have Howzmin show you to your quarters. We have had other visitors from time to time, and a gracious host looks after his company's needs. Perhaps there are a few articles of clothing you might find acceptable in your room. I have pressing business to which I must attend. Refresh yourself and rejoin me in a couple of hours." Leia glanced at her bodyguard, then back at him.
Xizor favored her with his sexiest smile.
She looked flustered. "Yes. All right. We are a little tired." Xizor waved his foot unseen under his desk, and a sensor there transmitted the motion to a paging device implanted in Howzmin. The door opened, and the bald servant stepped into the room.
"Show Princess Leia and Chewbacca to their rooms." "At once, Prince Xizor." After they were gone, Xizor sat, breathing slowly and deeply, enjoying the feel of imminent victory. Be- fore their next meeting, he would do the meditation and exercises that brought his hormonal essences into full array. An excited Falleen who loosed his full pher- omonal arsenal was, for all practical purposes, irresist- ible to a member of the opposite sex. It did not matter what a woman's stance was on fidelity, that she had been a faithful partner to another for years or decades.
Falleen pheromones were more potent than the stron- gest spice. Leia might want to resist him with her mind, but her body would ache for him. There was no anti- dote save one.
Xizor smiled. He would enjoy administering the sin- gle antidote to Leia. He would enjoy it very much in- deed...
Leia was shaken. As Howzmin led her and Chewie down another convoluted hallway, she had to take sev- eral deep breaths to calm herself. What had that been all about? That-That emotional attraction that rolled over her like a tropical ocean breaker? Sure, Xizor was good-looking in an exotic kind of way, but she'd never before been one to stare dumbstruck at a handsome face. What she had felt, what she had wanted to do, well, that wasn't like her at all. Besides, she was in love with Han. That wasn't something you just put into a drawer when you saw an attractive man-Falleen. That wasn't right.
Then again, she couldn't deny she'd felt it. The alien called to her somehow. It had been like a punch to the solar plexus; it had knocked the wind out of her.
Well. No matter. She blew out a sigh. She was back to normal; she would stay on target. She'd come here to help Luke. When that was done, they were going to rescue Han. She would put whatever it was she had felt for the mysterious Xizor out of her mind and never think about it again.
The part of her that sat somewhere in her mind watching and listening and refusing to allow anything but the truth to pass it seemed to chuckle: Oh, really?
You might not do anything about what you felt for him, sister, but you won't be able to forget it that eas- ily.
Shut up, she mentally told the little voice. I don't need this.
Maybe not, sister, but you have it.
"This is your room," Howzmin said. "The Wookiee will be in the next suite." Leia shook herself from the interior dialogue and nodded at Howzmin.
Chewie said something that sounded like a question.
Leia said, "I'll be okay in here. If Xizor wanted to harm us, he could have done it before now. Go on.
Wash that dye out, we don't need it anymore. Meet me back here when you're done." Chewie nodded and followed Howzmin to the next door.
The portal in front of Leia slid back as she ap- proached, and she stepped into the room.
It was a study in understated elegance, she saw.
The carpet was so deep she sank nearly to her ankles in it. Black neocel, she guessed, and probably a murder- ous job to keep clean. There was a white leather couch, probably cloned, which sat in stark contrast to the car- pet, a round bed with black sheets and a comforter under a translucent white canopy held up by six carved posts. A white desk with a computer on it and a black chair tucked neatly under the desk occupied a niche next to the bed.
Simple, elegant, and probably as expensive as any Grand Moff hotel suite in the galaxy.
Leia submitted to an urge to remove her boots and walk barefoot across the rug. The material was either naturally warm or was kept heated somehow, and it felt wonderful between her toes.
There was a refresher on the other side of a closed door, also done in black and white, tile, sinks, tub, all of them sculpted into smooth and rounded shapes.
She found a closet door back in the main room and opened it.
There were clothes in the closet, all right. Unlike the rooms, they were all the colors of the rainbow:
dresses, shirts, pants, jackets, jumpsuits. Leia removed a hanger upon which was draped a diaphanous dress of nearly transparent green material so light it weighed almost nothing and looked at it. Touched it. She was not somebody who spent large amounts of money on cloth- ing, but she knew quality when she saw it, even with- out the tag that confirmed it. This dress was a Melanani original, made of Loveti moth fiber, and for what it cost, you could buy a new landspeeder.
A quick scan of the other clothes revealed that they were also first-class originals. Looked after his com- pany's needs, indeed. There were probably enough credits represented by this one closet to buy and furnish houses on many planets, with enough left over to hire cooks and gardeners to go with them.
Star Wars - Shadows of the Empire Page 21
