“Then you should do the same for me.”
Siri said nothing for a long moment. She squinted into the distance, as if counting the tall buildings in Yinn La Hi. “All right,” she said finally. “But we must not delay more than a few hours.”
Obi-Wan quickly made a deal with the pilot.
“All right. It’s only a little out of my way,” the pilot said. “I wouldn’t want your friend to get herself in trouble.”
They boarded the transport and took off. Obi-Wan’s impatience made the flight seem to last forever. As the pilot slowed the engines and began landing procedures, a blinking warning light suddenly lit on the panel.
“Well, eclipse my moon, there’s that same problem,” he said, hitting the panel with an angry fist. “That mechanic didn’t fix my problem after all. Maybe I shouldn’t have bought that discount part. I’m going to have to drop you and head back to Yinn.”
“But we have to get to Coruscant!” Siri exclaimed.
“Well, you can come back with me, if you want,” Donny Buc said genially, slowing the engines further. “Don’t worry, we’ll make it back to the landing platform. Should be a couple of hours, that’s all.”
Siri groaned in frustration. “I don’t believe this! We could have been halfway to Coruscant by now.”
“Sorry, little girl,” Buc said cheerfully. “The hyperdrive’s busted. Lucky we made this detour so I can get back to the mechanic. You could hitch another ride from Yinn, I guess. But nobody else was making a run near Coruscant today.”
Siri bristled at being called “little girl.” “I don’t like any of these options.”
“It will only mean a few hours delay,” Obi-Wan said.
“Maybe less,” Buc said, shrugging.
“We might as well get off here,” Obi-Wan said to Siri. “We can look for Astri while we wait. You’ve come this far.”
Siri pressed her lips together. She gave a short, angry nod.
“All right, drop us here,” he told Donny Buc. “We’ll be at the landing platform in two hours.”
“Make it an hour and a half. I feel lucky.”
Donny Buc swooped in for a bumpy landing. They scrambled off the craft and he made a wobbly takeoff back to Yinn.
Siri and Obi-Wan were hit with a blast of hot wind.
“All I can say is, he’d better come back,” Siri grumbled.
Obi-Wan led the way through the sand. He was grateful to Siri for agreeing to stop. She may have been disdainful of him back at the Med Center, she might be angry now, but one thing he could say about Siri - she was loyal.
They struck out over the dunes. Obi-Wan saw no sign of the tribe or Astri with her three companions. But up ahead, he caught the glint of metal.
“Siri, look.”
She shaded her eyes with her hand. “It’s an air taxi,” she said. “Come on.”
They ran ahead, the sand sucking at their footsteps.
The air taxi was settled into the sand, but did not appear to have crashed. As they got closer, Obi-Wan saw a bundle of clothing in the front seat.
His heartbeat tripped. It was not a bundle of clothes. It was a pilot. He’d been strangled.
CHAPTER 10
Barely breathing, Obi-Wan walked closer to search the rest of the ship. He braced himself for the sight of Astri’s lifeless body. But how could you brace yourself for something like that?
The air taxi was empty except for the pilot.
“What should we do, Obi-Wan?” Siri asked in a hushed voice. She anxiously scanned the area around them. “Do you think Ona Nobis killed the pilot?”
“I have no doubt of it.”
“What do you think happened to Astri? Do you think…”
“I don’t know,” Obi-Wan said uneasily. “Maybe she’s hiding. Is there anywhere you can think to look?”
“Yes,” Obi-Wan said. He tried to ignore the foreboding that was gathering inside him.
“There is one place. When Astri and I were here, the local tribe led us to the bounty hunter’s hideout.”
He led Siri along the sheer rock wall that circled the canyon. When he got to a sharp turning, he stopped.
“Put your hood up,” he advised. “The wind will get very strong after we turn the corner. Whatever you do, don’t lose sight of me.”
Siri nodded, drawing her hood over her face. He did the same.
They turned the corner into a howling wind. Pellets of sand peppered any exposed skin. Obi-Wan kept one hand on the wall so that he would not get lost. He could only see a meter or two ahead.
He dropped to his knees, motioning to Siri to follow. His fingers trailed along the rock, looking for the opening to the bounty hunter’s hideout.