The Defenders Of The Dead(17)

and Cerasi shot it off. The blam echoed off the building fronts below.

Nield continued to shoot laserballs from his slingshot, and Obi-Wan followed suit. They shot ball after ball, reloading and firing rapidly. The sound of blaster fire echoed down the street. Someone emerged from a door across the way and looked up and down the street quickly. Nield and Obi-Wan shot a rain of laserballs into an abandoned building, where no one would see them land.

Crackcrackcrack! The laserballs hit the solid surface, making an even louder sound. The Daan quickly ducked back into the building.

“He’ll sound an alert,” Nield said. “We’re done here. Let’s go.”

Jumping from building to building, they made their way to another quiet street. They repeated the procedure, then moved on. Racing now, they fired down randomly with laserballs while Cerasi shot projectiles where their explosive sound would echo the most. While they moved from block to block, they shifted barricades where they could to block any military vehicles. At checkpoints, they rained their false weapon-fire over the heads of the guards, who took defensive postures, sweeping the empty streets with infrared electrobinoculars to look for the unseen attackers.

The sun rose, and sirens began to sound over the city. Nield turned to them. The rising sun reflected red off his dark hair. “Now for military headquarters.”

Excitement coursed through Obi-Wan. It was almost like a game, this ruse that Nield and Cerasi had concocted. But now the game would get serious. Hitting a military target, even with fake explosives, would be dangerous.

Nield led the way across the rooftops to

the

Daan

military headquarters. From the roof of a building across the street, Obi-Wan could see soldiers running toward landspeeders, carrying blasters and torpedo launchers. Obviously, they were hurrying to investigate the many alarms that had sprung up.

“So far, so good,” Cerasi breathed. “There won’t be as many soldiers around.”

This part would be tricky. They would not be firing at houses full of sleeping civilians. The military would react swiftly. But Nield had pointed out that if they did not convince the military that an attack had been launched, their plan wouldn’t work. If the military thought they were under fire as well, they might conclude that this was not random sniper fire, but a full-scale attack.

In addition to Nield, Cerasi, and Obi-Wan, other groups of the Young should have been

heading out to other Daan and Melida neighborhoods. Their attacks would be launched simultaneously with the attack on military headquarters.

They waited until the soldiers had taken off in their speeders. Two guards stood outside behind transparent armored shields. Cerasi loaded her beam tube. Obi-Wan and Nield placed laserballs in their slingshots. On the whispered count of three from Cerasi, they fired.

The laserballs hit the building, sounding like blaster fire. The projectile boomed. Already, the three had loaded and shot again, then quickly scuttled back on their hands and knees and ran to the edge of the roof to jump to the adjoining building. They fired again.

Soldiers streamed out of the building in full plastoid armor, blasters in hand. Electrobinoculars were trained on the street and buildings above. Armored plates rattled down over windows and doors. A siren blasted insistently. Soldiers began to spread out down the street. Floaters took off for air surveillance. Armored vehicles poured out from an underground holding station.

“It’s time to get out of here,” Cerasi said.

Stuffing the toys and slingshots into their belts, they dashed across the rooftop and quickly

shimmied down a drainpipe. When they hit the street, they slowed their pace, trying to look like Daan teenagers out for a morning walk.

“You there! Halt!”

They froze. The voice had come from behind them. Nield had already given them identity cards, so they thought they’d be able to pass. Cerasi slipped a package out of her tunic. Obi-Wan glanced at her, puzzled. Did she have a weapon? Of course, he had his lightsaber, but he would never be able to take on the troops swarming over the streets. He would only endanger Cerasi and Nield.

They turned and saw three soldiers approaching them, blasters aimed straight at their hearts.

“Identity cards,” one soldier said in a clipped tone. Quickly, the three handed them over. Nield had given Obi-Wan a disc from a Daan boy who was his age and weight. The soldiers inserted the discs into a readout machine. Obi-Wan waited for them to hand them back, but instead, the first soldier gave a look at the other two to keep them. He was still suspicious. He gave Nield, Cerasi, and Obi-Wan a hard look.

“Is there anything wrong?” Nield asked worriedly.

“What do you have there?” The first soldier pointed at Cerasi’s package with his blaster.