Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)(83)

The droid went limp, its processor vaporized. Padmé didn’t wait to see it fall, but spun around to face the other droid. It was trying to bring its own blaster to bear, but the weapon was too far out of line. Before it could swing the blaster even halfway around, she delivered her second kill shot.

In the silence, the double clatter as the B1s collapsed to the floor seemed to boom. The noise half covered Huga’s startled curse. “Are they dead?” Cimy asked, sounding awed. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“You need a blaster with enough punch,” Padmé told him, crouching down beside the second droid. Her shot had burned straight through the top of its head, leaving a smoking, red-edged hole. “Come here and give me a hand.”

“What do you need?” Cimy asked, gingerly dropping to one knee beside her.

“Hold the other end,” she said, taking one end of her wristband and pointing a finger at the other end. “Get a grip a couple of centimeters back. Now hold it steady.”

Carefully, Padmé touched her end to his, making sure the thin wires of the induction loop were lined up. Then, holding the ends together, she laid the plastoid against the glowing edge of the blaster hole.

“I’ll be krinked,” Huga muttered as he watched over her shoulder. “Is that going to work?”

“We’re about to find out,” Padmé said, sniffing the air. There was the faint smell of scorched plastoid. “Let’s ease it back…go ahead and let go, Cimy.”

He did so, and Padmé lifted her wrist for a closer look. “Seems okay. We’ll find out inside if I got it right.”

“Whoa,” Huga said. “What do you mean, we’ll find out? Cimy and I aren’t going in there.”

“I thought you were going to help me get Anakin out,” Padmé said as she stood up.

“We were helping you get in,” Huga said. “We’re not going in there without orders.” He nudged one of the droids with his toe. “Not after this.”

Padmé looked at Cimy. “Cimy?”

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m with Huga on this one.”

“I understand,” Padmé said, feeling a twinge of guilt. These were just normal people, trying to live their lives and survive under the Separatists’ thumb. Now, because of her, they were having to put their lives and the lives of their friends at serious risk. “Where exactly are these Bins?”

“The cells?” Cimy pointed at the door. “Inside, turn left, and the outer entrance door is in a plain permacrete wall about fifty meters in and on your right.”

“Thanks,” Padmé said. “One other favor. Would you find LebJau and tell him where I’ve gone?”

Huga snorted. “Why, because he still believes there’s a reward?”

“What do you mean?” Padmé asked. “I promised.”

“That was when you needed to let your uncle know where to find you,” Huga said. “But he’s here now, before he ever got your messages, so I guess he found you all right on his own. So tell me he can see the future and knew to bring money with him. Go ahead—tell me.”

Padmé sighed. Putting their lives on the line and now convinced there would be nothing to show for it. “Just tell LebJau,” she said. “And don’t worry—I will get you your money.”

The door the B1s had been guarding had relocked itself sometime during the past couple of minutes. But as LebJau had suggested, her newly restored wristband clicked off the lock as she approached, allowing her to push it open and slip through. Tucking the ELG back behind her sash and pulling out the more powerful S-5, she opened the door and slipped inside.



* * *



—

There was a distant thud, a subtle puff of air through the ventilation slits on Anakin’s door, and the soft clatter of rushing droid feet.

The guards had arrived.

“Hurry!” Anakin said, loudly enough for the droids to hear, softly enough for them to think he was talking to Thrawn or someone else. “They’re coming!”

He braced himself…and then, there they were: two B1s, their E-5s raised, rushing forward to see what had made the noise they’d heard from outside. They reached the cell doors—

And stopped, their heads turning back and forth in confusion.

And as they stood there, Anakin stretched out to the Force and shoved the first droid backward across the narrow passageway, slamming it hard into the permacrete wall behind it. The second droid managed to get its blaster up and aimed before Anakin smashed it into another tangled heap beside the first.

“Impressive,” Thrawn said.

“Thanks,” Anakin said, pushing open the door and stepping into the passageway. One of the E-5s had been damaged when the droid holding it had hit the wall; picking up the other one, he leveled it at the distant cell block door. If the commotion had been heard, they could be getting company any moment.

But the passageway was empty, the door at the far end having apparently closed by itself behind the droids. That wouldn’t last, he knew, but at least they should have a little breathing space. “Looks clear,” he said, keeping an eye on the door as he stepped to Thrawn’s cell and pulled out the dowel pins.

“Thank you,” Thrawn said. “The stories we tell of Jedi don’t do you full justice.”