“I could kiss you,” Clive told the woman.
“Not tempting,” she said, shutting the door.
Ferus pressed the turbolift sensor. “What now?” Clive asked. “If this Fountain Towers place is anything like every other building in Sath, it’s got hundreds of apartments.”
“And a hangar next door, if we’re lucky. A space cruiser will be parked in a numbered space,” Ferus said. “We have him.”
The turbolift whooshed downward, stopping every once in a while to pick up more passengers. As it descended to the lobby, and the passengers disembarked, Ferus put his hand on Clive’s arm to slow him down before he exited behind them.
“What is it?” Clive asked when the passengers had exited.
“I have a funny feeling about this,” Ferus said.
“That Force of yours?”
Ferus nodded. “We’re being followed. I’m sure of it..”
“We lost the seeker droid.” Clive took a few steps into the lobby. The floor-to-ceiling glass windows afforded a view of canal and street and sky. “Nobody out there that I can see… .”
Ferus walked forward cautiously. Then he stopped. He raised one foot, then the other. He ran his boot along the stone floor and heard a slight clicking noise. “A sensor tag,” he said. “It’s on the sole of my boot.”
Clive squatted down. “Clever.” He straightened. “But we’re cleverer.”
“That’s not a word.”
“Sure it is. Come on.”
They walked out of the building. They hesitated, watching the passing air traffic.
“That one,” Clive said, pointing to a shining chromium speeder that was barreling down the space lane, cutting off other vehicles as it swerved.
“Just what I was thinking.”
Ferus Force-leaped up to the canopy that overhung the ten-story lobby. He hesitated, balancing on the edge. As the speeder approached, he plucked the sensor off his boot and sent it spinning. It connected to the rear of the speeder. In a moment, the speeder had disappeared around a bend.
Ferus jumped back to the ground, doing a somersault on the way down.
“Show-off,” Clive said.
“Come on,” Ferus said. “I’d guess we have about an hour before Bog figures it out. Well, knowing Bog, we might have more than that.”
Quickly they headed to the skyhopper and took off. They stayed in the space lanes for the short trip, and Ferus had another hair-raising ride. He was happy to see the Fountain Towers rising against the cityscape.
The towers were built on the edge of the city, far from the wide aquamarine bay. There were four slender towers, and each had an adjoining hangar that was almost as tall. The hangars contained open-air landing platforms every twenty stories. Three of the towers were completed, and one was half built, its hangar just a shell. The upper levels of the building were full of scaffolding and exposed beams.
They landed near the fountains, which were now dry. Clive zoomed into the first hangar and parked the skyhopper. They began the tedious process of tracking the registry numbers of the vehicles.
At last, they found the vehicle on level fifty-eight. Ferus peered inside the cockpit.
“Clive, look at this,” he called.
Clive pressed his face against the cockpit bubble. “Wow, a control panel. What a surprise.”
“No, in the passenger seat.”
Clive looked again. “It’s a laser lasso.”
“A toy.” Ferns frowned. “I didn’t think there would be a child involved.” Ferus had a bad taste in his mouth.
Something didn’t feel right. It hadn’t felt right since he’d stepped foot on this planet. He was being manipulated. He was sure of it. But why? Why had Palpatine chosen him for this mission? Ferus had a pretty good idea of his own skills, but he knew he wasn’t. the only being in the galaxy who could help with this problem.
The closer he got to finding the saboteur, the more uneasy he became.
“Maybe this isn’t the ship,” Clive said.
“No, this is it,” Ferus said. “I feel it. And look there’s some mud rubbed on the registry numbers to try to obscure them. It’s an old trick, but it works.”
Ferns gazed over at the apartment tower, thinking. He knew that Solace would contact him as soon as she’d rescued Roan and Dona. Until then, he would have to keep going, keep following one step after another until he found the saboteur. Whether he handed the saboteur over to the Imperials or not was another question one he hoped he wouldn’t have to answer.
CHAPTER TEN
Even in the middle of the night, the Senate never shut down completely. As Keets and Curran made their way down the hushed hallways, they passed cleaning crews who didn’t give them a glance, bleary-eyed senatorial aides hunched over their cups of strong tea, and Senators, resplendent in their opera cloaks, stopping by after an evening out to pick up records for the next day.