He churned up piles of glowing stones as he ran across the bed and reached the other side.
Beyond the bed of lume rocks, Zak found the door to a monk’s cell. It opened automatically and Zak stepped inside.
Grimpen sat on a short, wide platform. His face was very calm. He smiled at Zak. “Hello, Zak. I’ve been expecting you.”
“Y-You have?” Zak panted, trying to catch his breath. Grimpen nodded. “I know why you have come,” the monk said distantly. “I know many things.”
Zak nodded. “Then Tash must have figured out a way to tell you, too. Did she warn you?”
“Warn me?” Grimpen replied. “Tash has warned me of nothing.”
“What is it then?” Zak gasped. “Part of your enlightenment? Is that how you know about Jabba’s brain transfers?”
Grimpen chuckled. “Of course not. I know about Jabba’s brain transfers because I’m the one who’s been performing them.”
CHAPTER 16
Zak backed away in horror, but Grimpen was faster. The monk lunged for ward and grabbed Zak’s arm. His grip felt as strong as a Wookiee’s.
“Now, now, there’s no need to be afraid,” Grimpen scolded. “Soon enough Jabba will have another customer in need of a new identity, and then we’ll have use for you. You should consider it an honor.” Grimpen laughed. “Kept alive inside a spider, your brain will have centuries to contemplate the universe.”
Keeping a viselike grip on Zak’s arm, Grimpen dragged him out of the meditation chamber. “Come along. I have an appointment. I think you’ll want to be there.”
Grimpen stomped over the lume rocks. “I suppose you know about these,” he said with a laugh. “You’d be amazed how often that trick works. It gets my victims to think they really are enlightened. I just throw a few such simple tests their way, and when they pass, they think they’re ready to solve the mysteries of the universe!”
Zak winced at the pain in his arm. “That Sarlacc test wasn’t so easy.”
“Of course it was,” Grimpen mocked. “The Sarlacc wouldn’t have bothered Tash if you hadn’t been so clumsy. Anyway, your sister was already convinced she was going to be the greatest thinker in the galaxy. That only made things easier for me. Half the time, my subjects are so convinced that they’re enlightened, they don’t even put up a struggle when I scoop out their brains!”
Grimpen strode through the main halls of the B’omarr monks, dragging Zak with him. The brain spiders-Tash and Beidlo-jabbed at Grimpen with their metal legs, but the monk brushed them aside.
They reached the portal Zak had seen on his first day. Beyond it lay the Great Room of the Enlightened, where they’d stumbled on the monks performing the brain operation. The walls were covered with shelves, and the shelves were filled with jars, and the jars were filled with brains floating in chemical soup.
This time Zak got a closer look at the table in the center of the room. There were leather restraints attached to each corner. Beside the table sat a tray of medical instruments. Some of them were modern tools-laser-needles and vibroscalpels. But there were older, more wicked-looking tools as well-blades with jagged edges, and a heavy saw.
“For sawing through the skull,” Grimpen explained. “Very difficult.”
Keeping one hand on Zak, Grimpen pulled a handheld vidscreen from his robes. As it powered up, Zak could see the fleshy face of Jabba the Hutt on the small monitor.
“Jabba,” Grimpen said, “I’m in the Great Room. I’m ready to operate.”
“Your patient is on his way,” the crime lord boomed over the speaker. “The sooner the better. I want Karkas’s credits!”
“I have the Arranda child as well,” Grimpen added.
“Good!” Jabba crowed. “I’m sure we can make use of his body. But only after we’re done with the other victim I’m sending you.”
Zak looked around desperately. There was nothing in the room to use as a weapon. He wished for the rusty knife, but he’d left it sticking in the Sarlacc’s tentacle.
Footsteps approached the Great Room.
“Ah, here comes our patient now,” Grimpen said.
Everything’s going to be all right, Zak told himself, staring at the floor. Things have been worse. Uncle Hoole is still out there somewhere, and he always appears at the last minute. He always saves us.
“Welcome,” Grimpen said.
Zak looked up. Tash had entered the room, accompanied by two Gamorrean guards. Not Tash, Zak reminded himself, but the killer Karkas in Tash’s body. She-he-was guiding a small hoversled.