“Right,” Han said. “So what are we going to do?” Han stepped closer and opened Leia’s robe. Leia raised her brow. “Han, I don’t think we have time right now.”
Han gave her a roguish grin. “Don’t worry-this won’t take long.” He opened one of the pouches on her utility belt and removed an automated lock slicer. “And then we can go find Tenel Ka. That should throw a hydrospanner into their plans.”
Han went to the hand-carved double doors through which the social secretary had disappeared after dumping them in the salon, then knelt on the floor and slipped the unit’s input/output card into the crack between the doors. C-3PO clunked over to stand behind him. “Captain Solo, may I ask what you’re doing?”
“No.”
The lock slicer emitted a short beep, announcing that it had made contact with the security system.
Before Han could activate it, Leia reached over his shoulder and covered the instrument panel. “Han, we need to be…”
“We can’t afford to wait around,” Han said. “Tenel Ka’s a good kid. She isn’t going to keep us sitting…”
“I was going to say quiet,” Leia interrupted. “There are two sentries on the other side of these doors.”
“Oh, dear,” C-3PO said. “It looks as though Captain Solo is going to embarrass us again.”
“It’s okay, Threepio.” Leia pulled Han away from the door and took the lock slicer from his hands. “In fact, we need you to return to the falcon.”
C-3PO cocked his head. “Return to the Falcon? Whatever for?”
“Just do it, chiphead,” Han said.
An indignant harummph sounded from the droid’s vocabulator, but he turned and left through the other door, which opened into the Royal Hangar. Leia returned the slicer to her utility belt and began knocking loudly. It took several moments before an electronic buzz sounded and one of the doors opened partway.
“I’m sorry, Princess Leia,” a Hapan voice said, “but the royal guard isn’t allowed to converse with guests. If you require assistance…”
“Actually, I don’t.”
Leia used the Force to jerk the sentry through the door, at the same time sticking a leg out to catch him across the ankles. He landed at Han’s feet in a huge purple-cloaked neap reeking of musky Hapan cologne.
Han leapt onto the sentry’s back and smashed the man’s helmet into the stone floor to disorient him. The Hapan was extremely large for a human, nearly the size of a Barabel and just about as tough. Despite repeated hammering, the fellow managed to rise to his hands and knees.
Realizing he was in trouble, Han hooked his legs around the sentry’s waist and planted his feet on the man’s knees, then pushed. The fellow dropped to his belly again. Han got in a quick face-slam that actually stunned the Hapan long enough to pull off his helmet.
The sentry started to rise again, one hand reaching back to grab Han’s leg. Han delivered a powerful hammer-fist to the base of the jaw. The big Hapan went limp for a second-then his fingers dug into Han’s thigh so hard that Han had to cry out.
He struck with the hammer-fist again, and the sentry finally dropped to the floor in an unmoving heap.
By this time Leia was hauling the other guard-also unconscious-into the room. Though the fellow was just as large as the one Han had handled, his hands and feet were already bound, and Leia was using only one hand to drag him. Han would have liked to believe she was using the Force, but he knew better. After four years of Saha-style Jedi training, she was just that strong.
“Everything okay?” Leia asked. “Do you need help?”
“I’m … fine,” Han panted. “How about a little warning next time?”
“Why?” Leia pursed her lips in mock disapproval. “You getting old or something?”
“No.” Han tore a strip off the sentry’s cloak and began to tie the man’s wrists. “Just not used to following your lead, that’s all.”
Leia smiled. “How can you say that, dear?” She dumped her sentry on the floor next to his, then bent down, took the man’s security card, and kissed Han’s cheek. “Breaking into Tenel Ka’s palace was your idea.”
Chapter Six
Located in the heart of the Senate District between the Jedi Temple and the Galactic Justice Center, Fellowship Plaza was usually abandoned after dark. But tonight, Alema was hardly alone. Jacen and Ben stood just a few meters away, talking in the shadows beside a neatly trimmed row of blartrees.
And she was not the only one eavesdropping on them. First she had spotted Lumiya, standing in a tall privacy hedge on the opposite side of the walkway, so quiet and motionless it was impossible to be certain she was still there. Then there was the dark blur that had come creeping through the fog after Ben arrived. It was about twenty meters away, crouching behind the hedge on Alema’s side of the walkway, pointing what appeared to be a small parabolic dish through the blartrees toward where Ben and Jacen stood talking. Whoever it was, the shadow had to be a Jedi-and a fairly adept one, at that. Like Lumiya and Alema herself, he-or she-had drawn in on himself until he no longer seemed to have a Force presence at all. “. .. have the sparring sessions been going?” Jacen asked. “Is he still trying to make you lose your temper?”