“That was just my question,” Fligh said, nodding. “They told me not to worry about it. To my great surprise, Aarno was hired for several events. To Aarno’s surprise as well.”
“That’s why you concluded that an insider had to be involved,” Obi-Wan said.
Fligh nodded. “Who else could get Aarno hired, with his record? So we came to Euceron and Aarno got his instructions. It seemed like a deal as sweet as a piece of blumfruit. Aarno would find a way to shave a few seconds here and there and we’d take off with a small fortune. I didn’t expect anyone to get hurt. Didi was almost killed, and Aarno got run over by a speeder.” Fligh shivered. “I’m going back to Coruscant, where I’ll be safe. I just paved the way for some bets to be placed. I didn’t want anyone to get killed.”
“You got the false text docs for Dering,” Obi-Wan guessed. “Why did he suddenly want to get off-planet?”
“I guess he lost his nerve,” Fligh said with a nervous glance at Ry-Gaul.
Siri had moved so that she was now sitting in front of Fligh on her haunches, her hands dangling. Her bright blue gaze was piercing. “There is something you’re not telling us. Why was Aarno so afraid?”
Fligh fingered one of his long ears. “I had an appointment to drop the text docs off to Aarno right after the swoop race. As soon as you left, I went to his quarters and waited for him. He was in a big hurry to leave Euceron, and I asked him why. He said if I knew what was good for me, I’d leave too. Of course, I had to pressure him. I withheld the text docs until he told me. He thought he had been hired just to fix the events. But then he found out something else. Something’s going to happen during an event. Something will go wrong. They want people to get killed during an event so that the Senators will be blamed.”
“Which event?” Obi-Wan asked.
“I don’t know,” Fligh admitted. “Aarno didn’t tell me. He found out by mistake. He was afraid they would come after him because he knew.”
“Who are they?” Siri barked in frustration.
“I didn’t ask,” Fligh said with a shudder. “I don’t want to know. I’m in over my head. And if I know anything about anything - which I don’t, but I know about this - sooner or later it’s going to occur to them that I know too much. And it’s going to be sooner, not later. All in all I’d rather be on Coruscant, so if you don’t mind - “
Obi-Wan, Siri, and Ry-Gaul turned toward the door at the same instant. The surge in the Force had warned them. At the same time, the sound of heavy rolling could be heard in the corridor outside Fligh’s room.
“Hey, I’m over here, guys,” Fligh said. “Are you going to answer my quest - “
Before Fligh could finish the word, the door blasted apart and a squad of droidekas appeared in the smoldering opening.
CHAPTER SEVETEEN
Fligh dived behind the sleep couch as the Jedi ignited their lightsabers. The droidekas unfurled and snapped into attack position, blaster bolts firing. Obi-Wan’s lightsaber was an arc of moving light, deflecting the shower of blaster fire. Beside him Siri’s lightsaber swung in a continuous arc of precise movement, with Siri’s two-handed grip and her graceful footwork. Ry-Gaul did not move. He did not need to. His long arms were a blur in the air as his lightsaber shifted from hand to hand.
The three-legged droidekas were built for battle and close to invincible but these droidekas weren’t shielded. Their heavy armor shells and volts of firepower as well as their maneuverability made them capable of cutting down opponents with fearsome efficiency.
It wasn’t as though their power alarmed Obi-Wan. But he still was not especially pleased to see them. There were twelve of them, so he was glad to have Ry-Gaul and Siri by his side.
The air filled with smoke as the blaster bolts zinged, but the Jedi deflected them and struck blow after blow at the heavy armor plates on the droids. Because the doorway was narrow, the droidekas began firing through the wall itself, quickly tearing gaping holes in the structure. After a sweep from Siri’s lightsaber, one droideka smoked and fell, and another, its legs gone, bobbled and spun until it crashed against a wall. Obi-Wan sliced a droideka in two and sent one piece flying over the sleep couch and crashing into the wall. Fligh shrieked as pieces of hot metal rained down on him.
Droidekas had control centers, not brains. They could not feel fear or apprehension. The amazing skill of the Jedi was lost on them. They continued to advance and fire, continued to evade by rolling themselves into balls and repositioning themselves to fire again. Time after time they attacked, and time after time the Jedi struck blow after blow until the harsh smoke and the heat caused Fligh to have a coughing fit. The Jedi did not react to the smoke. Their minds and bodies were focused on battle, and nothing else mattered but the moment.