[Legacy Of The Force] - 03(65)

Han frowned at her. “You coming?”

“Not yet.” She drew a long-barreled blaster from her thigh holster. “I hate being drugged.”

“Then you’d better come with us now,” Han said. He stepped in front of her, extending a hand as though to help, but actually trying to block her line of fire. “If you think this is bad, wait until the Hapan interrogators…”

Nashtah raised her blaster and squeezed the trigger, sending a bolt of blue heat screaling past Han’s ear. He cried out in astonishment, then turned and saw the bartender tumbling away behind the bar-a T-21 repeating blaster flying from his hands and a wisp of smoke rising between his eyes.

Han dropped his head. “I really wish you hadn’t done that. Now things are going to get…”

Before he could finish, the cantina broke into an uproar of shouting voices and screaming weapons. Leia’s lightsaber growled as she brought her blade around to defend.

“Han!” she yelled. “A little help?”

Han whirled around to find Leia frantically batting aside full-power blaster bolts, doing her best to avoid hurting anyone by directing the attacks up into the web of ducts that served as the cantina ceiling. But the Renatyl was having its effect on her, slowing her reflexes enough that some bolts ricocheted off a wall or the floor instead, and a couple even slipped through and went screaming past Han’s head.

Keeping his own blaster set to stun, Han began to return fire, concentrating on a trio of agents between them and the exit. He dropped one, and Leia started toward the exit, staggering and weaving.

Blaster bolts began to pour in from behind. Han spun around to lay covering fire, but the cantina slipped into a Renatyl-laced spin, and he could see nothing but whirling blurs of color. He pointed his blaster into the stream of blue bolts and held the trigger down-then cried out in shock as something hot slammed into his shoulder.

Han was on the floor before he knew he was falling, his nostrils burning with the smell of scorched flesh, one side of his body throbbing in searing pain. To his surprise, he was still holding his blaster pistol, pouring fire toward a pair of amorphous forms that were fast taking the shape of charging security agents.

“Han?” Leia cried. “Are you…”

“He’ll be fine!” Nashtah called. Finally deciding to help out, she slipped off the bench and knelt at Han’s side. She fired twice, and both agents went down with scorch holes in their faces. “Perhaps I believe your story after all.”

“Too … late,” Han groaned. “If we get out of here, you’re on your own.”

“Oh-you’re angry?” Nashtah patted him on the cheek, then turned to face Leia’s direction. “How cute.”

She fired a dozen times, and suddenly the only sound in the cantina was the drone of Leia’s lightsaber. Han rolled to his knees, nearly passing out from the pain and the Renatyl, and spun around. Leia was standing two meters ahead, holding her Hghtsaber at her side and staring at the motionless bodies of several Hapan Security agents.

When it grew obvious they were all dead, Leia deactivated her Hghtsaber and knelt beside Han. “How bad…”

“I’ll live. We’ve got other things to worry about.” Han shifted his eyes toward Nashtah, who was still kneeling on the floor beside him. “That was just a surveillance team, but…”

Han winced in pain as Leia pulled him to his feet.

“… they had to have called for backup the minute they identified us,” she said, finishing his sentence. “You’re right-we have to get out of here.”

“Before we meet my contact?” Nashtah asked.

“What contact?” Han demanded. “You were just testing us.”

But Nashtah was already staggering toward the back of the cantina, clearly feeling the effects of the Renatyl even more than the Solos. Though most of the bystanders were evacuating as quickly as possible, a classy-looking brunette in a red syntex vest was standing just inside the rear exit, her eyes darting around nervously as Nashtah approached.

Han’s shoulder was killing him, but he was beginning to think this might have been more than a test after all.

“What do you think?” he asked Leia.

“I think we passed,” Leia said. “Are you up to this?”

“For Tenel Ka, I’m up to anything.”

Han led the way after Nashtah, grimacing inside as he and Leia stepped around wounded bystanders and motionless security agents. He was sickened by the thought of so many people getting killed just because Nashtah was too lazy to adjust the power setting on her blaster, but the stakes were too high to let his feelings show. The lives of Tenel Ka and her daughter depended on finding out who was behind the coup-and so did the stability of the Hapes Consortium.