[Thrawn Trilogy] - 01(131)

Luke grimaced. “Not that they really need any proof.”

Mara shrugged and straightened up again. “Some officers are more legal-minded than others. The question is, what do we do now?”

Luke looked back down at the map. By Mara’s reckoning, they were no more than four or five kilometers from the edge of the forest-two hours, more or less. If the Imperials had this much organization already set up in front of them … “They’re probably going to try to ring us,” he said slowly. “Move units around to the north and south, and eventually behind us.”

“If they haven’t done so already,” Mara said. “No reason we would have heard them-they don’t know exactly how fast we’re moving, so they’ll have made it a big circle. Probably using a wide ring of Chariot assault vehicles or hoverscouts with a group of speeder bikes working around each focal point. It’s the standard stormtrooper format for a web.”

Luke pursed his lips. But what the Imperials didn’t know was that one of the quarry knew exactly what they were up to. “So how do we break out?” he asked.

Mara hissed between her teeth. “We don’t,” she said flatly. “Not without a lot more equipment and resources than we’ve got.”

The faint whine/drone came again from somewhere ahead of them, rising and then fading as it passed by in the distance. “In that case,” Luke said, “we might as well go straight up the middle. Call to them before they see us, maybe.”

Mara snorted. “Like we were casual tourists out here with nothing to hide?”

“You have a better idea?”

She glared at him. But it was a reflexive glare, without any real argument behind it. “Not really,” she conceded at last. “I suppose you’re also going to want to do that role-switch thing Karrde suggested.”

Luke shrugged. “We’re not going to be able to blast our way through them,” he reminded her. “And if you’re right about that pincer movement, we’re not going to sneak through them, either. All that’s left is a bluff, and the better a bluff it is, the better chance we’ve got.”

Mara’s lip twisted. “I suppose so.” With only a slight hesitation, she dropped the power pack from her blaster and handed it and the forearm holster to him.

Luke took them, hefted the blaster in his hand. “They may check to see if it’s loaded,” he pointed out mildly. “I would.”

“Look, Skywalker, if you think I’m going to give you a loaded weapon-“

“And if another vornskr finds us before the Imperials do,” Luke cut her off quietly, “you’ll never get it reloaded fast enough.”

“Maybe I don’t care,” she shot back.

Luke nodded. “Maybe you don’t.”

She glared at him again, but again, the glare lacked conviction. Teeth visibly grinding together, she slapped the power pack into his hand. “Thank you,” Luke said, reloading the blaster and fastening it to his left forearm. “Now. Artoo?”

The droid understood. One of the trapezoidal sections at the top of his upper dome, indistinguishable from all the other segments, slid open to reveal a long, deep storage compartment beneath it. Turning back to Mara, Luke held out his hand.

She looked at the open hand, then at the storage compartment. “So that’s how you did it,” she commented sourly, unhooking his lightsaber and handing it over. “I always wondered how you smuggled that thing into Jabba’s.”

Luke dropped the lightsaber in, and Artoo slid the door shut behind it. “I’ll call for it if I need it,” he told the droid.

“Don’t count on being very good with it,” Mara warned. “The ysalamiri effect is supposed to extend several kilometers past the edge of the forest-none of those little attack-anticipation tricks will work anywhere near Hyllyard City.”

“I understand,” Luke nodded. “I guess we’re ready to go, then.”

“Not quite,” Mara said, eyeing him. “There’s still that face of yours.”

Luke cocked an eyebrow. “I don’t think Artoo’s got anywhere to hide that.”

“Funny. I had something else in mind.” Mara glanced around, then headed off toward a stand of odd-looking bushes a few meters away. Reaching it, she pulled the end of her tunic sleeve down to cover her hand and carefully picked a few of the leaves. “Pull up your sleeve and hold out your arm,” she ordered as she returned with them.

He did so, and she brushed his forearm lightly with the tip of one of the leaves. “Now. Let’s see if this works.”