Alliances (Star Wars: Thrawn, #2)(84)

“We’ll try to send you back with some fresh material,” Anakin said as the Chiss pushed up the door and slipped out of his cell. “Okay. First job is to get my lightsaber back. After that we’ll take a look around and figure out what Solha and his friends are doing.”

“Have you a plan to retrieve your weapon?” Thrawn asked as they headed toward the door.

“Not really,” Anakin said. “It’ll probably depend on how easy it is to get up on the roof. I set it right next to one of the floodlights, so it shouldn’t have been noticed by any of the vulture droids.”

“We’ll hope there are no rooftop foot patrols.”

“I didn’t see anyone up there on our way in.”

“There was no Jedi on the loose then.”

“Point,” Anakin conceded. “We’ll figure it out.” He pulled open the door.

The first thing he saw was the blaster leveled at him from barely a meter away. The second thing he saw, above the blaster—

“Ani!” Padmé said, her eyes going wide, her lips parting in a relieved smile. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Anakin assured her, turning his blaster away from her. Focused on the problem of his lightsaber, he’d completely missed her approach. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” she said. She started forward, her arms opening for a hug—

“This is Thrawn,” Anakin said, twitching a hand in warning. “He’s here to help me find you. Oh, and he speaks Meese Caulf.”

“Ah,” Padmé said, her arms dropping quickly as she peered past Anakin’s shoulder. “Thank you,” she added in Meese Caulf.

“My pleasure,” Thrawn said gravely. “You, obviously, are Ambassador Padmé. Is that a grappling hook on your weapon?”

Padmé looked down at her blaster, a flicker of surprise crossing her face. But then, she was new to Thrawn’s observational skills. “Yes,” she said. “It’s a combination blaster and ascension gun.”

“Then the plan is obvious,” Thrawn said. “You and I will travel to the rooftop to retrieve General Skywalker’s lightsaber. He’ll remain here and draw enemy attention away from us.”

“Wait a minute,” Anakin said, frowning. “You and Padmé? Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to go up and get it?”

“We cannot create nearly as wide-ranging a diversion as you can,” Thrawn pointed out.

Abruptly, somewhere in the distance, an alarm began to sound. “Well, that’s going to wake them up,” Anakin said. He really didn’t like the idea of letting Padmé go off alone with the Chiss.

But he was right. With the Force allowing Anakin to throw objects and even fire blasters from a distance, he could make the Separatists think they were facing a whole army. Even Padmé and Thrawn together couldn’t do that.

And it wasn’t like Padmé couldn’t take care of herself. “Fine,” he growled. “If Padmé’s okay with it.”

“No problem,” Padmé said, eyeing Thrawn thoughtfully. “I’ve been told there’s a massive assembly line taking up the first and second floor just down the hall. Stairway’s right behind me.”

“I’ll check it out,” Anakin said, taking her arm and turning her back out of the doorway. “We’ll go up together, and then you can head to the roof.”

“We’ll do better to go out the hole in the south wing service level,” Padmé said. “There are a couple of trapdoors leading down from that wing that the locals use to sneak in and out. I don’t think the droids know about the hole, and we can go up the outside of the building and get to your lightsaber. It’s on top of the east wing, right?”

“Yes, next to one of the floodlights,” Anakin said. It was all he could do to keep from taking her in his arms…but Thrawn was here, and the Chiss already was suspicious of their relationship.

Though why Anakin should even care about that he didn’t know. It wasn’t like Thrawn would ever go to Coruscant and tell anyone.

“We’ll bring it to you,” Padmé promised. “Second floor of the assembly line?”

Anakin nodded. Trust Padmé to quickly grasp all the details and their tactical significance. The second floor of a two-floor operation would give him the best overall view, and launching an attack at the assembly line itself was his best guarantee of keeping Duke Solha from looking anywhere else in his little kingdom. “I’ll be doing a one-man Marg Sabl.”

“Sounds good,” Padmé said. “Be careful.” Her hand twitched, as if she, too, was fighting the urge for a quick hug. Then she turned and hurried away.

Anakin caught Thrawn’s arm as he started to follow. “Protect her,” he said quietly, handing him the droid’s E-5.

“I will,” the Chiss promised.

And then they were gone.

Over the still-warbling alarm Anakin could hear the sounds of voices and hurrying footsteps. Taking a deep breath, forcing himself to hand Padmé’s life and safety to the Force, he prepared for combat.





Padmé and Thrawn had passed the two downed droids and were halfway to the trapdoor she was aiming for when LebJau suddenly appeared around a corner in front of them.