[Hand Of Thrawn] - 01(95)
“Quiet,” Leia cu; him off, braking to a halt a few meters from the door. Suddenly something felt different out there; a hint of evil purpose flickering at the edges of the simmering anger and resentment of the crowd. She stretched out with the Force, trying to pin it down&mdash
And then, to her horror, an all-too-familiar sound split through the rumble like a crack of lightning through distant thunder.
The sound of a blaster shot.
***
There was no warning. None whatsoever. One minute Han was looking out over the crowd, wondering if he should call Leia and suggest she come out here and talk to them; and then the next minute there it was, making a sound like a boot in wet mud as it came out of nowhere to hit the wall by his left shoulder. He half turned to look at it, got just a glimpse of a mass of a soft-looking gray clay with a small tube connected to a multifaceted crystal embedded in the middle&mdash
And suddenly it seemed to explode in a brilliant flash of blaster fire.
He wrenched back, twisting his face away from the flash as a needle-jab of pain stabbed into his left shoulder. From somewhere below him came a scream of pain, and even as he dropped behind the minimal protection of the balcony’s guardrail he heard the sound and caught the flicker of reflected light from a second shot. Yanking his blaster from its holster, blinking around the hazy purple blob floating in front of his eyes, he tried to see where the attack was coming from.
Wherever the gunman was, he didn’t seem in a hurry to give away his position by shooting again. But his first two shots had already done enough damage. Below and ten meters ahead, the crowd had opened a circle around a Mishtak writhing in agony on the ground. A few meters behind him, in the middle of another circle, a Leresai lay still.
With the two shots the crowd had gone deathly quiet. A motion caught the corner of Han’s eye: someone moving on a rooftop a block away. He half stood up, lifting his blaster&mdash
“There he is!” someone shouted.
Han looked down again. Someone in the crowd was pointing up; but he was pointing at Han. “Wait a minute-” Han began.
“There he is!” the man shouted again. “There’s the murderer!”
And as if on signal the crowd suddenly came to life again. Roaring like a hundred berserk rancors, they surged forward beneath the balcony.
And with a slam that shook the whole building, they threw open the doors.
***
“Han!” Leia blurted as the second blaster shot rang out. If he’d been the target&mdash
No, she realized with a flood of relief. She could still feel his presence, alert and tense. But somebody out there had been hit, she could sense the waves of pain. Stretching out with the Force, she tried to locate it.
And then, suddenly, there was a horrendous roar from the crowd outside&mdash
And in front of her the doors slammed open and a solid wall of beings poured into the atrium.
“Oh, my!” Threepio gasped. “Mistress Leia-“
“Get behind me!” Leia snapped, taking a long step to the side and grabbing for her lightsaber as she threw a quick glance at the ceremonial stairway at the other end of the atrium. With some serious effort, she should be able to reach it ahead of the crowd. But Threepio didn’t have that kind of speed. And if she abandoned him to the mob …
“Get behind me,” she ordered the droid again, igniting the lightsaber. She had come here to talk, and she had better get started. The nearest of the crowd shied away as the lightsaber blade blazed into existence, many of them probably only noticing her for the first time. “Citizens of the New Republic,” she shouted, holding the lightsaber high. “I’m New Republic Councilor and Jedi Knight Leia Organa Solo. I call on you to stop.”
The people nearest Leia faltered in their charge, many of them coming to an almost reluctant halt. Or rather, trying to do so. The rest of the crowd behind them, unaware of Leia’s presence, were still pushing forward. Jostling those in front or forcing their way around and past them, they continued to flow into the building.
But at least the momentum of the crowd bad been slowed, and Leia had the beginnings of an attentive audience. Now if she could project her voice to enough of them-and could find the right words to say with that voice …
She took a deep breath, running through her Jedi strength enhancement techniques, and opened her mouth&mdash
And at that moment there was a shout from the Bothan guards grouped at the foot of the stairway, and a half-dozen blaster bolts flashed into the crowd.
And the whole thing went straight to chaotic hell.
Leia had thought the crowd had been at the peak of its noise level. She’d been wrong. The screams from the injured were all but lost in a roar of fury and terror so loud it hurt her ears. The front rank of the crowd fell apart, many of the beings trying to hide behind the short trees and bushes or else scurrying madly for cover toward the offices lining the atrium’s edges. Others simply froze where they were, unwilling to turn tail and run but equally unwilling to walk into massed blaster fire.