Ferus made the quick calculations even as he pushed the controls of the speeder. Someone had stolen Bog’s personal droid, and it wasn’t the resistance. They had no reason to. They had every reason for Bog to retain the droid. They knew what was on it. The proof of Bog’s bribes were embedded in its programming. Ferus had to get the droid back.
The silver airspeeder headed straight for the thickly clustered tall buildings of Sath. The stormtroopers behind him didn’t seem to mind if Ferus got caught in the middle. Swerving to avoid the fire behind him, Ferus moved to an upper traffic lane. With any luck the thief would notice only the stormtroopers in pursuit, not him.
He pushed his speed, trying to keep the silver speeder in sight below him but not attract attention. He saw the Roshan droids tracking, occasionally sending a thin beam of energy blasting toward the silver speeder that seemed so accurate Ferus was always surprised when it missed.
Screaming through the Sathan skies, Ferus called on the Force to help him maneuver. He pulled up just in time to avoid smashing into an airbus. The glare of the flashing reflections, the buzzing of the Roshan droids, and the traffic around and below him kept him busy.
Whoever was piloting the speeder sure knew how to fly. Ferus soared high above the speeder, tracking it through the space lanes. One droid sent an arc of blaster fire toward it, but the speeder flipped over, flew upside down, and spiraled into an opening in the traffic above. Ferns had to admire the pilot’s skill.
Who was it? If it wasn’t the resistance, who could it be?
Chapter Thirteen
“I think you can slow down,” Trever said through clenched teeth. “The stormtroopers are falling behind.”
“You don’t slow down until you’re home free,” Flame said. “They aren’t giving up. They’re just trying to make me think they’re giving up. I’d better drop you somewhere with the droid. Then we can meet up later. You can lose the speeders a lot easier on foot.”
“Drop me?” Trever asked as Flame flipped the craft to one side to squeeze in between two buildings. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Don’t worry.” Flame laughed. “I’ll get you down in one piece.” She shot him an admiring glance. “I like your style, kid. You swiped that droid like a pro.”
“I am a pro,” Trever said. “I mean, I might have done a bit of, uh, unauthorized lifting of goods on Bellassa.” He shrank back as Flame zoomed into a tunnel, hugging the top of it to keep in the shadows. Trever felt as though the top of his head was going to slam against the wall of the tunnel.
“Funny how skills like that come in handy in the resistance,” Flame said. As soon as they shot out of the tunnel, she flipped over and quickly descended three space lanes. “I got most of my piloting skills from avoiding air traffic tickets.”
Trever watched as she flew and scanned the buildings around at the same time. He glanced behind. The droids were still tailing them, but he couldn’t see the stormtroopers now.
“This is our chance,” she murmured. “The droids will follow me, most likely. I’m going to drop down into one of the courtyards. You’re going to have to jump. Then start running. I’ll contact you on your comlink when I think it’s safe.”
“All right.” Trever crouched on his seat, Bog’s droid on his shoulder.
The airspeeder dropped so quickly Trever felt sure he’d left his stomach up in the space lane. But there was no time to get dizzy. The ground loomed toward him. The cockpit canopy rolled back, and the wind blew in his face. He snapped his helmet cover down.
“If someone follows you, shoot,” Flame said, tossing him a blaster. “Now jump!”
Ferus flew, taking chance after chance. With the help of the Force, he was finding holes in traffic to slip through that didn’t exist fractions of a second before. The speeder below had lost the stormtroopers, but for how long?
In answer, he saw the stormtroopers suddenly appear, bursting out of a tunnel that the speeder had disappeared into. Suddenly the silver speeder below reversed direction and went into a dive. The stormtrooper airspeeders overshot it, tried to reverse, and made an awkward spinning turn that nearly sent one into an airbus while the other clipped a building. A tremendous air traffic snarl instantly locked everyone in place.
Ferus merely reversed his engines and went backward, cursing as he looked over his shoulder and tried to gauge distances between vehicles and swerving from one space lane to another. He saw the silver speeder drop into a courtyard while the droids streaked past, just missing the speeder’s fast descent.