“Well, this is fun,” he said, hoping for a display of verbal stupidity that might help Jusik locate him.
But neither man responded. He didn’t expect them to. Concentrate on the movement. Work out the direction.
Skirata tried to count the number of times they seemed to swing right or left to get some idea of the route. They were in an automated skylane, so he could count the seconds and try to calculate the distance between turns, but it was a massive task. Ordo, with his faultless memory, would have had the skylane network memorized and calculated the times and distances at the same time. But Skirata was not a Null ARC trooper, just a smart and experienced soldier whose natural intelligence had been sharpened by having to cope with six hyperintelligent small boys.
He had no idea where he was. The speeder continued toward either a nerve-racking deal that would take them a step closer to striking at the heart of this Separatist network, or a lonely death.
Service tunnel beneath skylane 348, 0855 hours, 385 days after Geonosis
“Bard ‘ika, you’ll never need to shave again when Kal catches you,” Fi said.
“You seriously think I’m not going to follow him?” Jusik raced Ordo’s Aratech speeder bike along the service tunnel that ran parallel to the skylane serving the southern edge of the plaza. Fi decided that Ordo had no sense of danger if he was happy to ride pillion with the Jedi at speeds approaching five hundred kph. But then the man was nuts anyway. Fi held on to the handgrip behind him for grim death. “Vau, can you still hear me?”
The comlink was breaking up, but audible. “I’m a few vehicles behind Perrive. He’s transmitting like a Fleet beacon.”
“Where’s he heading?”
“Looks like Quadrant N-Oh-Nine.”
“What’s there besides offices and residential?”
“That’s about it. Stand by.”
Jusik made an irritated grunt that he seemed to have picked up from Sev and accelerated. At times like this Fi had passed beyond the first flush of adrenaline and into a cold and rational world where everything made sense to his body if not to his brain. He found an instinctive sense of effortless balance as Jusik wove through the ducts, clearing some of the transverse durasteel joists by a breath. Speed no longer felt like conscious fun, as it had in training, but he was beyond fear for himself at that moment.
All he could think of was Sergeant Kal.
“He can take care of himself,” Jusik said. “He’s packing more weapons than the Galactic Marines.”
“Are you telepathic?” The thought disturbed Fi, because his mind was the only private retreat he had. “I was just-“
“If you’re not as worried for him as I am, then I’ve read you all wrong, my friend.”
“Bard’ika .”
“Yes? Too fast? Look-“
“Even if you didn’t have your Force powers, you’d still be a terrific soldier. And a good man.”
Fi couldn’t see the Jedi’s expression. For once, Jusik didn’t scare the living daylights out of Fi and look back over his shoulder with a silly grin when they were hurtling toward a wall, only to bank sharply at the last moment. Jusik dropped his head for a second and then raised it again. His slipstreamed hair slapped Fi in the face.
“I’ll try to live up to that.”
“Yeah, but you still need to get your shabla hair cut.” Jusik didn’t laugh. Fi wasn’t sure if he was moved or offended. And it seemed impossible to offend Jusik.
“Hang on.”
Whatever element of the Force was guiding the Jedi, it was completely instinctive. He could find Skirata.
The speeder swung hard left and Fi feared for the Verpine rifle under his jacket, its folded stock wedged in his armpit. He was used to wearing the scruffy assortment of dull civilian clothing that Enacca had sent over with Vau. He wondered how he’d cope with his all-encompassing Katarn armor after being out of it for two weeks.
Jusik’s head jerked around as if someone had summoned him. “He’s heading for business zone six.”
“Been there. Recce’d that place last night. Stuck a remote holocam opposite the house, in fact.”
“Maybe the Force is giving us a break.”
“That’s got to be their hub.”
“Let’s try that.” Jusik banked right to shoot up a vertical channel. Fi decided zero-g had its appeal. “At least we’ll be able to see Kal if that’s where they’re heading. I bet that’s reassuring.”
“It would be.”
“But?”
“But if they’re using the speeder that was parked in their roof space last night, I clamped a remote thermal detonator in its air intake.”