So it was Garr who betrayed me! Garr must have told the Jedi everything! But still… my friend. No doubt thinking this would help…
A few more meters and they would all be in Aurra Sing’s sights.
There was no time to think. Boba pushed the ring forward and dove, faster and faster. He cut in front of the patrol ship, surprising it and throwing it off course, just as Aurra Sing’s laser bolt fired
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
- and missed, by centimeters.
The little cloud car might have been small, but it was also amazingly fast. With the sky patrol craft in pursuit, Boba dove down under the city and threaded the cloud car into the forests of dangling algae, where it was all but invisible among the thousands of strands some of which were hundreds of meters long.
The patrol craft was right behind. After a quick look around, though, it left, presumably to resume the search for Aurra Sing. Wonder if they know I saved their lives, Boba thought. He didn’t regret it, though he wondered if it had been the smart thing to do. If he had let Aurra Sing blow them to pieces, he would perhaps be with her now, in Slave I.
Now, here he was in the weeds. Nowhere, with nowhere to go. A ten-year-old boy in a stolen craft. No money, no friends; he didn’t even have his precious flight bag. What was that?
Boba wasn’t the only one hiding in the weeds. Slave I was cruising through, slipping silently among the hanging fronds. Was Aurra Sing hiding from the sky patrol craft or chasing it? It was impossible to tell.
The cloud car had no comm unit. But what did it matter? Boba was sure Aurra Sing wouldn’t talk to him anyway. She was convinced he had betrayed her - and even though she was wrong to think he had told the Jedi where to find her, he had betrayed her by spoiling her ambush.
If she sees me, she’ll run. Or worse, blast me.
If only I could sneak up on her, Boba thought. And then, watching her drift slowly toward the edge of the platform, he thought of a way that he could.
Keeping the cloud car hidden in the hanging fronds, he followed Slave I across the underside of the abandoned city. It was clear now that Aurra Sing was hiding from the Jedi. She was hovering, barely using her jets. Had she lost her nerve?
Boba knew that as soon as the Jedi were gone, she would be hitting her turbos, blasting for space.
If this is going to work, I have to make my move now, he thought. It meant taking a chance, but Boba was getting good at taking chances.
She was drifting past. Boba waited, with his hand on the edge of the cloud car’s open cockpit, until Slave I was directly underneath.
Then he stood up.
And stepped over the edge, into the open air.
As he fell, slowly at first, then faster and faster, Boba watched the ship below.
It was tiny; Bespin was huge.
If he missed, he would fall for a thousand kilometers, until his skull cracked in on itself like an egg.
If he missed, but he hadn’t allowed for the sideways drift of Slave I. He only missed by a few meters. He saw the shock on Aurra Sing’s face when she saw him fall past. He could only imagine the look of horror that she saw on his.
Then he heard the WHOOSH as she fired her turbos, and dove underneath him. He heard the click/whrrr as she opened the entryway and positioned herself beneath him, like a net.
000MPH! Boba hit on the flight bag he had thrown in earlier; the battle helmet and the book made it hard as a rock.
The entryway closed.
Safe! Boba grinned - until he saw Aurra Sing’s scowl.
“If I didn’t know you were the son of Jango Fett,” she said, “I would swear you were trying to keep the Jedi alive by spoiling my little surprises.”
“I just want my ship back,” said Boba. “I don’t care who you kill.” That was a sort of lie - Boba didn’t want her killing Garr, or even Ulu. But it was close enough.
“Fair enough,” said Aurra Sing. “So let’s switch seats.”
“Huh?”
“You know how to fly this thing, right? And I’m a better shot than you. We’re going to have to work together to get out of here.”
Boba didn’t have to be told twice. Picking up his flight bag, he scrambled forward to the pilot’s chair. It felt good to have his hands back on the familiar controls of Slave 1.
“Now take us up and out. Let’s see if our friends are still there.”
They were.
K-RANG! KA-RANG!
Boba dodged laser bolts from two sides. The sky patrol craft had been joined by starfighters from the Candaserri. This was their chance to catch the bounty hunter who had attacked so many Jedi.
Aurra Sing fired back, but the shots were wild. Boba threw the little ship into a roll, and dove into a cloud.
“Let’s grab some vacuum!” Aurra Sing said. “Head for space.”