Heir To The Empire (31 page)

All right, then, he told himself, sitting down on the edge of one of the boxes and looking around for inspiration. I can’t use the door. There aren’t any windows. But there was another room in this shed-he’d seen the other door while Mara was opening this one. Perhaps there was some kind of half-height doorway or crawl space between them, hidden out of sight behind the stacked boxes.

It wasn’t likely, of course, that Mara would have missed anything that obvious. But he had time, and nothing else to occupy it. Getting up from his seat, he began unstacking the boxes and moving them away from the wall.

He’d barely begun when he found it. Not a doorway, but something almost as good: a multisocket power outlet, set into the wall just above the baseboard.

Karrde and Mara had made their mistake.

The metal doorplate, already stressed by the blaster fire Mara had used to peel it back, was relatively easy to bend. Luke kept at it, bending it back and forth, until a roughly triangular piece broke off in his hand. It was too soft to be of any use against the sealed equipment boxes, but it would probably be adequate for unscrewing the cover of a common power outlet.

He returned to the outlet and lay down in the narrow gap between wall and boxes. He was just trying to wedge his makeshift screwdriver against the first screw when he heard a quiet beep. He froze, listening. The beep came again, followed by a series of equally soft warbles. Warbles that sounded very familiar . . . “Artoo?” he called softly. “Is that you?”

For a pair of heartbeats there was silence from the other room. Then, abruptly, the wall erupted with a minor explosion of electronic jabbering. Artoo, without a doubt. “Steady, Artoo,” Luke called back. “I’m going to try and get this power outlet open. There’s probably one on your side, too-can you get it open?”

There was a distinctly disgusted-sounding gurgle. “No, huh? Well, just hang on, then.”

The broken metal triangle wasn’t the easiest thing to work with, particularly in the cramped space available. Still, it took Luke only a couple of minutes to get the cover plate off and pull the wires out of his way. Hunching forward, he could see through the hole to the back of the outlet in Artoo’s room. “I don’t think I can get your outlet open from here,” he called to the droid. “Is your room locked?”

There was a negative beep, followed by an odd sort of whining, as if Artoo was spinning his wheels. “Restraining bolt?” Luke asked. The spinning/whine came again- “Or a restraint collar?”

An affirmative beep, with frustrated overtones. It figured, in retrospect: a restraining bolt would leave a mark, whereas a collar snugged around Artoo’s lower half would do nothing but let him wear out his wheels a little. “Never mind,” Luke reassured him. “If there’s enough wire in here to reach to the door, I should be able to unlock it. Then we can both get out of here.”

Carefully, mindful of the possibility of shock from the higher-current lines nearby, he found the low-voltage wire and started easing it gently toward him out of the conduit. There was more than he’d expected; he got nearly one and a half meters coiled on the floor by his head before it stopped coming.

More than he’d expected, but far less than he needed. The door was a good four meters away in a straight line, and he would need some slack to get it spliced into the lock mechanism. “It’s going to be a few more minutes,” he called to Artoo, trying to think. The low-power line had a meter and a half of slack to it, which implied the other lines probably did, as well. If he could cut that much length off two of them, he should have more than enough to reach the lock.

Which left only the problem of finding something to cut them with. And, of course, managing to not electrocute himself along the way.

“What I wouldn’t give to have my lightsaber back for a minute,” he muttered, examining the edge of his makeshift screwdriver. It wasn’t very sharp; but then, the superconducting wires weren’t very thick, either.

It was the work of a couple of minutes to pull the other wires as far out of the conduit as they would go. Standing up, he took off his tunic, wrapped one of the sleeves twice around the metal, and started sawing.

He was halfway through the first of the wires when his hand slipped off the insulating sleeve and for a second touched the bare metal. Reflexively he jerked back, banging his hand against the wall.

And then his brain caught up with him. “Uh-oh,” he murmured, staring at the half-cut wire.

There was an interrogative whistle from the other room. “I just touched one of the wires,” he told the droid, “and I didn’t get a shock.”

Artoo whistled. “Yeah,” Luke agreed. He tapped at the wire . . . touched it again . . . held his finger against it.

So Karrde and Mara hadn’t made a mistake, after all. They’d already cut the power to the outlet.

For a moment he knelt there, holding the wire, wondering what he was going to do now. He still had all this wire, but no power supply for it to connect with. Conversely, there were probably any number of small power sources in the room, attached to the stored replacement modules, but they were all packed away in boxes he couldn’t get into. Could he somehow use the wire to get into the boxes? Use it to slice through the outer sealant layer, perhaps?

He got a firm grip on the wire and pulled on it, trying to judge its tensile strength. His fingers slipped along the insulation; shifting his grip, he wrapped it firmly around his right hand-

And stopped, a sudden prickly feeling on the back of his neck. His right hand. His artificial right hand. His artificial, dual-power-supply right hand . . . “Artoo, you know anything about cybernetic limb replacements?” he called, levering the wrist access port open with his metal triangle.

There was a short pause, then a cautious and ambiguous-sounding warble. “It shouldn’t take too much,” he reassured the droid, peering at the maze of wiring and servos inside his hand. He’d forgotten how incredibly complex the whole thing was. “All I need to do is get one of the power supplies out. Think you can walk me through the procedure?”

The pause this time was shorter, and the reply more confident. “Good,” Luke said. “Let’s get to it.”

Han finished his presentation, sat back in his chair, and waited. “Interesting,” Karrde said, that faintly amused, totally noncommittal expression of his hiding whatever it was he was really thinking.

“Interesting, indeed. I presume the Provisional Council would be willing to record legal guarantees of all this.”

“We’ll guarantee what we can,” Han told him. “Your protection, legality of operation, and so forth. Naturally, we can’t guarantee particular profit margins or anything like that.”

“Naturally,” Karrde agreed, his gaze shifting to Lando. “You’ve been rather quiet, General Calrissian. How exactly do you fit into all of this?”

“Just as a friend,” Lando said. “Someone who knew how to get in touch with you. And someone who can vouch for Han’s integrity and honesty.”

A slight smile touched Karrde’s lips. “Integrity and honesty,” he repeated. “Interesting words to use in regard to a man with Captain Solo’s somewhat checkered reputation.”

Han grimaced, wondering which particular incident Karrde might be referring to. There were, he had to admit, a fair number to choose from. “Any checkering that existed is all in the past,” he said.

“Of course,” Karrde agreed. “Your proposal is, as I said, very interesting. But not, I think, for my organization.”

“May I ask why not?” Han asked.

“Very simply, because it would look to certain parties as if we were taking sides,” Karrde explained, sipping from the cup at his side. “Given the extent of our operations, and the regions in which those operations take place, that might not be an especially politic thing to do.”

“I understand,” Han nodded. “I’d like the chance to convince you that there are ways to keep your other clients from knowing about it.”

Karrde smiled again. “I think you underestimate the Empire’s intelligence capabilities, Captain Solo,” he said. “They know far more about Republic movements than you might think.”

“Tell me about it,” Han grimaced, glancing at Lando. “That reminds me of something else I wanted to ask you. Lando said you might know a slicer who was good enough to crack diplomatic codes.”

Karrde cocked his head slightly to the side. “Interesting request,” he commented. “Particularly coming from someone who should already have access to such codes. Is intrigue beginning to form among the New Republic hierarchy, perhaps?”

That last conversation with Winter, and her veiled warnings, flashed through Han’s mind. “This is purely personal,” he assured Karrde. “Mostly personal, anyway.”

“Ah,” the other said. “As it happens, one of the best slicers in the trade will be at dinner this afternoon. You’ll join us, of course?”

Han glanced at his watch in surprise. Between business and small talk, the fifteen-minute interview that Torve had promised him with Karrde had now stretched out into two hours. “We don’t want to impose on your time-”

“It’s no imposition at all,” Karrde assured him, setting his cup down and standing. “With the press of business and all, we tend to miss the midday meal entirely and compensate by pushing the evening dinner up to late afternoon.”

“I remember those wonderful smuggler schedules,” Han nodded wryly, memories flashing through his mind. “You’re lucky to get even two meals.”

“Indeed,” Karrde agreed. “If you’ll follow me . . . ?”

The main building, Han had noted on the way in, seemed to be composed of three or four circular zones centering on the greatroom with the strange tree growing through it. The room Karrde took them to now was in the layer just outside the greatroom, taking perhaps a quarter of that circle. A number of round tables were set up, with several of them already occupied. “We don’t stand on protocol regarding meals here,” Karrde said, leading the way to a table in the center of the room. Four people were already sitting there: three men and a woman.

Karrde steered them to three vacant seats. “Good evening, all,” he nodded to the others at the table. “May I present Calrissian and Solo, who’ll be dining with us tonight.” He gestured to each of the men in turn. “Three of my associates: Wadewarn, Chin, and Ghent. Ghent is the slicer I mentioned; possibly the best in the business.” He waved to the woman. “And of course you’ve already met Mara Jade.”

“Yes,” Han agreed, nodding to her and sitting down, a small shiver running up his back. Mara had been with Karrde when he’d first welcomed them into that makeshift throne room of his. She hadn’t stayed long; but for the whole of that brief time she’d glowered darkly at Lando and him with those incredible green eyes of hers.

Almost exactly the same way she was glowering at them right now.

“So you’re Han Solo,” the slicer, Ghent, said brightly. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Always wanted to meet you.”

Han shifted his attention away from Mara to Ghent. He wasn’t much more than a kid, really, barely out of his teens. “It’s nice to be famous,” Han told him. “Just remember that whatever you’ve heard has been hearsay. And that hearsay stories grow an extra leg every time they’re told.”

“You’re too modest,” Karrde said, signaling to the side. In response, a squat droid rolled toward them from around the room’s curve, a tray of what looked like rolled leaves perched on top of it. “It would be difficult to embellish that Zygerrian slaver incident, for example.”

Lando looked up from the droid’s tray. “Zygerrian slavers?” he echoed. “You never told me that one.”

“It wasn’t anything important,” Han said, warning Lando with a look to drop the subject.

Unfortunately, Ghent either missed the look or was too young to know what it meant. “He and Chewbacca attacked a Zygerrian slaver ship,” the kid explained eagerly. “Just the two of them. The Zygerrians were so scared they abandoned ship.”

“They were more pirates than slavers,” Han said, giving up. “And they weren’t afraid of me-they abandoned ship because I told them I had twenty stormtroopers with me and was coming aboard to check their shipping licenses.”

Lando raised his eyebrows. “And they bought that?”

Han shrugged. “I was broadcasting a borrowed Imperial ID at the time.”

“But then you know what he did?” Ghent put in. “He gave the ship over to the slaves they found locked up in the hold. Gave it to them-just like that! Including all the cargo, too.”

“Why, you old softie,” Lando grinned, taking a bite from one of the rolled leaves. “No wonder you never told me that one.”

With an effort, Han held onto his patience. “The cargo was pirate plunder,” he growled. “Some of it extremely traceable. We were off Janodral Mizar-they had a strange local law at the time that pirate or slaver victims got to split up the proceeds if the pirates were taken or killed.”

“That law’s still in force, as far as I know,” Karrde murmured.

“Probably. Anyway, Chewie was with me . . . and you know Chewie’s opinion of slavers.”

“Yeah,” Lando said dryly. “They’d have had a better chance with the twenty stormtroopers.”

“And if I hadn’t just given away the ship-” Han broke off as a quiet beep sounded.

“Excuse me,” Karrde said, pulling a comlink from his belt. “-Karrde here.”

Han couldn’t hear what was being said . . . but abruptly Karrde’s face seemed to tighten. “I’ll be right there.”

He got to his feet and slipped the comlink back onto his belt. “Excuse me again,” he said. “A small matter needs my attention.”

“Trouble?” Han asked.

“I hope not.” Karrde glanced across the table, and Han turned in time to see Mara stand up. “Hopefully, this will only take a few minutes. Please enjoy your meal.”

They left the table, and Han looked back at Lando. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he muttered.

Lando nodded, his eyes still following Mara and Karrde, a strange expression on his face. “I’ve seen her before, Han,” he murmured back. “I don’t know where, but I know I’ve seen her and I don’t think she was a smuggler at the time.”

Han looked around the table at the others, at the wariness in their eyes and the guarded murmuring back and forth between them. Even Ghent had noticed the sudden tension and was studiously eating away at his appetizers. “Well, figure it out fast, buddy,” he told Lando quietly. “We might be about to wear out our welcome.”