[Jedi Apprentice] - 14(14)

Qui-Gon did his own careful surveillance before starting across the street, Obi-Wan at his heels. Obi-Wan started toward the door of the building Irini had entered, but Qui-Gon stopped him. He had been studying the building next door.

“Let’s try this one first,” he said.

The door was bolted with a strong durasteel lock, but Obi-Wan swiped through it easily with his lightsaber. They pushed the door open and stood for a moment in the dark vestibule.

“I don’t want to take a chance with the glow rod,” Qui-Gon said. “Wait a moment until your eyes adjust.”

Obi-Wan didn’t understand how the light of a glow rod would be visible to the next building, but he followed Qui-Gon’s lead. In only moments, his eyes had adjusted to the pitch-black interior. He saw that they were in a small foyer. There had once been a datapad station here, most likely for messages and mail for the inhabitants. It had been ripped out, the console parts thrown on the floor. There was a turbolift, but no doubt it was no longer working. A staircase cluttered with debris led above.

Qui-Gon began to climb. “I saw evidence from the outside that some floors here had been enlarged into the adjoining building, probably to expand apartments,” he murmured to Obi-Wan. “We might be able to get close enough to Irini to hear what’s going on.”

Qui-Gon stopped on the first landing, listening intently. Obi-Wan did the same, but heard nothing. They continued upward, stopping at each floor. They climbed five flights before they heard something. It was a soft murmur, nothing more. They moved toward the sound.

It was so faint that they lost its direction a few times. They stood, blocking out the slight noises of the building - the rush of night air through an opening, the skitter of dust along the floor. Then they would pick up the murmur again, and move on.

They walked through abandoned rooms and found evidence of the lives that had been lived there. Narrow sleep-couches, torn and stained. A battered pan on the floor. One boot. A palm-sized datapad that appeared to have melted into the floor. Room after room opened up into the next like a maze. Once, Obi-Wan realized, there had been too many people crowded into these too-small rooms.

Qui-Gon stopped. “We are now in the other building,” he murmured to Obi-Wan. “They are very close.”

Obi-Wan could feel the presence of others as well as hear them. But the sound quality was muffled and disorienting. He paused to focus. When they moved, they moved as one. They had both discovered the source of the sound. It was behind a closet. Qui-Gon eased open the door. They saw a crack of light running from the floor to the ceiling. Squeezing inside the closet, they both put their eyes to the crack.

The room next door was lit only by a glow rod set at low power. Yet they could clearly pick out Irini, who sat in a semicircle of other men and women. They were dressed similarly in dark coveralls or tunics.

Now Irini’s words came to them clearly.

“I have seen them myself, and I am telling you, they were brought by Roan,” she said.

“They admitted to this?” one of the group asked.

“Why should they? They are his tool. The Jedi are sent here to ensure that the government stands. If the government stands as it is, none of the remaining Absolutes will be brought to justice. Therefore they are our enemy.”

“With all respect to my fellow Worker lrini, the Jedi were neutral parties six years ago,” a quiet-voiced woman said. “They supported the will of the people, whatever that might turn out to be.”

“Their role was as peacekeepers only,” a man chimed in. “Why are they now our enemy?”

“Because peace is not what we seek,” lrini said fiercely. “Justice is. We must overthrow the murderer of Ewane.”

Another woman spoke up. “We have agreed that before we plot the overthrowing of Roan we must have evidence of his guilt. We do not have this yet.”

“We will,” someone else said. “I think lrini is right. The Absolutes have re-formed. We know this. Every day they gain power. Roan must be behind it. And if he has sent for the Jedi, they must know it.”

“What do you think, Lenz?” the quiet-voiced woman asked.

The man she addressed had not spoken, but Obi-Wan had noticed him. He watched the others with grave, intent eyes. There was a kind of power to him, even though he was hunched over, his hands dangling in his lap. His face was thin, thinner than lrini’s. Obi-Wan did not know how he knew this, but he sensed that Lenz had suffered greatly at one time in his life, no doubt at the hands of the Absolutes.

“I have new information,” Lenz said. “A new group of leaders have risen in the new Absolute order. No one knows their identity. They are taking pains to conceal them. All we know is that these leaders are clever. Harassment of our movement has begun. Some report an increase in surveillance. We must be careful.”