[Thrawn Trilogy] - 02(31)

But if the sensory tingles and hunches had started again, perhaps the power was back, too :

“I’m sure we can double whatever you’ve been offered,” she said. “Maybe even throw in something extra to sweeten the pot.”

His grin turned evil. “That’s a real generous offer, Red. Real generous. Lotta men’d jump on that right away, sure `nough. Me”-he lifted the blaster a little higher-“I like stayin’ with a sure thing.”

“Even if it means settling for half the money?” Two meters behind him, piled carelessly up against a retaining wall, was a small stack of scrap metal parts waiting to be picked up. A short length of shield tubing, in particular, seemed to he rather precariously positioned on one edge of a battered power cell case.

Setting her teeth, clearing her thoughts as best she could, Mara reached her mind out toward the tubing.

“On my pad, half a sure thing’s better than twice o’ nothin’,” the man said. “Anyway, I don’t ‘spect you can outbid the Empire.”

Mara swallowed. She’d suspected it from the first; but the confirmation still sent a shiver up her back. “You might be surprised at our resources, she said. The length of tubing twitched, rolled a couple of millimeters-

“Now, don’t think so,” the other said easily. “C’mon, let’s go.”

Mara tilted a finger back toward the dead man crouched at the box behind her. “You mind telling me first what happened here?”

Her assailant shrugged. “What’s t’ tell? I needed a decoy; he was wandering’ around the wrong place at the wrong time. End o’ story.” His grin suddenly vanished. “Enough stalling Turn around and start walking:unless you’re looking’ to spite me by making me settle for the death fee instead.”

“No,” Mara murmured. She took a deep breath, straining with every bit of strength she possessed, knowing that this was her last best chance—

And behind her captor, the tubing fell with a muffled clank onto the ground.

He was good, all right. The tubing had hardly even finished its fall before he’d dropped to one knee, spinning around and spraying the area behind him with a splattering of quick cover fire as he searched for whoever was sneaking up on him. It took less than a second for him to recognize his mistake, and with another spray of blaster fire he spun back again.

But one second was all Mara needed. His desperate blaster spray was still tracking toward her when she shot him neatly in the head.

For a long moment she just stood there, breathing hard, muscles trembling with reaction. Then, glancing around to make sure no one was running to see what all the commotion was about, she holstered her weapon and knelt down beside him.

There was, as she’d expected, precious little to find. An ID-probably forged-giving his name as Dengar Roth, a couple of spare power clips for his blaster, a backnp vibroblade knife, a data card and data pad, and some working capital in both local and Imperial currency. Stuffing the ID and data card into her tunic, she left the money and weapons where they were and got back to her feet. “There’s your twice of nothing,” she muttered, looking down at the body. “Enjoy it.”

Her eyes shifted to the piece of shield tubing that had saved her life. She’d been right. The twitches of power, as well as the hunches, were back. Which meant the dreams wouldn’t be far behind.

She swore under her breath. If they came, they came, and there was nothing much she could do except endure them. For the moment she had other, more pressing matters to deal with. Taking one final look around, she headed for home.

Karrde and Dankin were waiting when she arrived back at the townhouse, the latter all but pacing the floor in his nervousness. “There you are,” he snapped as she slipped in through the back door. “Where the blazes-?”

“We’ve got trouble,” Mara cut him off, handing the Dengar Roth ID to Karrde and brushing past them to the still largely disassembled communications room. Pushing aside a box of cables, she found a data pad and plugged in the card.

“What kind of trouble?” Karrde asked, coming up behind her.

“The bounty hunter kind,” Mara said, handing him the data pad. Neatly framed in the center of the display, under a large 20,000, was Karrde’s face. “We’re probably all in there,” she told him. “Or at least as many as grand Admiral Thrawn knew about.”

“So I’m worth twenty thousand now,” Karrde murmured, paging quickly through the card. “I’m flattered.”

“Is that all you’re going to say?” Mara demanded.