Sebulba cracked his knuckles and slobbered in delight. A clutch of boiled eye-snatcher eggs stared up from his plate. He stabbed one with a fork and took a bite.
“Hah!” he chortled. “The Bothan has finally roused himself from bed.”
Sebulba threw his portable slave tracker on the breakfast table. Its screen showed a map of the landscape around Mos Espa. Every few seconds, a blip appeared on screen. It displayed Dorn’s precise location. The transmitter hidden in the boy’s body worked perfectly.
Djas Puhr watched the screen a moment. “He’s left Jabba’s home, and now he’s in a landspeeder. He’s heading straight for us.”
“Excellent,” Sebulba said, popping the boiled egg into his mouth. A few bites told him that the delicacy was far too chewy to be a real eye-snatcher egg. The bird must have gotten an eye and dropped it in its nest. That was part of the joy of eating eye-snatcher eggs. You never knew quite what you’d get.
They were dining at a roadside stand, where people from a hundred worlds could pass by and recognize the galaxy’s most famous Podracer. Sebulba never tired of hearing people make noises of respect when they saw him. Some of the braver ones would even offer a few words of praise.
“Would you like a bite, Gondry?” Sebulba offered the giant a treat on his fork.
The giant shook his head like a big kid.
“Ah, come on, they’re good for you,” Sebulba said.
“I’ll have one,” Khiss, another Dug, said. He poked an egg with a claw, lifted it in the air, and pretended that it was an eye on a stalk, looking around.
The red blip on the slave tracker drew near as Dorn reached town. He sped closer and closer, edging through the eopies and dewbacks, the crowds of Jawas and moisture farmers, until he passed Sebulba right on the street.
Khiss was still playing with the eye-snatcher egg. He moved it as Dorn passed, and said, “Good to see you, spy.”
Dorn pulled the landspeeder to a stop and got out just down the road.
“All right,” Sebulba told his men, “set your blasters on stun. And don’t lose him!”
At Sebulba’s back a young human spoke up. “Hey, Sebulba, what’s the matter?” It was that pesky Anakin Skywalker. He’d crept through the crowd, right up to Sebulba’s back. Watto’s slave nodded at the screen in Sebulba’s hand. “Having trouble keeping track of your slaves?”
“What business is it of yours?” Sebulba growled.
“Oh, none at all,” Anakin said. “I just thought you would have your mind on the big race.”
“I leave that for small minds like yours to worry about,” Sebulba said. His henchmen laughed.
“Oh,” Anakin said, “I’m not worried. You’re going to have to settle for second place from now on.”
“Hah!” Sebulba snorted.
Khiss waved the egg at Anakin. The blotches on it were the same color of blue as Anakin’s eyes. “Hey, lose something?” Khiss teased. “Or are we just eye-dentical triplets? Right now, I’ve got my eye on you, kid.” He set the egg on Anakin’s shoulder.
Anakin knocked it onto the ground and gave them a mysterious smile. “Keeping your eyes peeled wouldn’t be a bad idea, today.”
He wandered off through the crowd.
Sebulba squinted at the boy as he departed, and his mind suddenly did a little twist. What was the sneaky kid up to? Sebulba was about to call Anakin back to the table, but the boy had disappeared into the crowd.
Dorn had been standing in front of Jira’s fruit stand for less than three minutes when a Jawa passed. A pale human hand appeared at the end of the Jawa’s sleeve, and a metal locket dropped to the ground.
“Put it on,” Anakin said, “and get to safety. Sebulba’s watching you.”
Then Anakin was gone.
Dorn bent over and picked up the locket. He knew just what to do.
He raced through the crowd, following Anakin. As soon as he rounded the corner, he saw Kitster.
Kitster threw him a Jawa’s robe and said, “Now its our turn to save your hide!”
Dorn put on the scrambler and pulled on the robe as he sprinted down the street with his friends. They ran into the Racer’s Edge Cantina, and Anakin shouted, “Hey, everybody, Sebulba’s coming. He’s looking for a fight!”
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Sebulba was sitting at the table watching the blinking light of the slave tracker. The image suddenly died.
“He’s put a scrambler on!” the Dug shouted.
Instantly, Djas Puhr and the others were on their feet. Dorn had been standing a hundred meters up the road not a second ago, and now he’d disappeared!
“I’ll get him!” Djas Puhr shouted. The Sakiyan tracker raced toward the spot where Dorn had been, took a whiff of the air, and spun, chasing the boy down a side alley.
Sebulba followed the others as they ran through streets filled with people and droids. He realized where the boy was headed: right toward the Racer’s Edge Cantina!
Sebulba’s companions hit the door full tilt, and stampeded into the cool cantina. The moist air felt refreshing. But the greeting they got was anything but cool.
“Hey there, Sebulba,” someone said from the shadows. It was Brant Rumble. He and his friends were sitting at tables, weapons drawn. “Do you think it was wise to come in here, after you busted up my Podracer?”
“Not to mention the way you guys shot up my customers yesterday,” the bartender added. He had a big stun baton.
Sebulba and his companions stared down the barrels of a dozen blasters.
“We don’t want any trouble,” Djas Puhr said. “We’re just looking for the kid that came running through here.”
Brant Rumble was a cyborg Sullustan, a small man with big dark eyes. The blaster rifle he pointed looked bigger than he did. “Kid? I didn’t see any kid,” Brant Rumble said. “Anybody else see a kid?” He laughed cruelly.
“If you shoot us,” Gondry said reasonably, “how will you ever get the money to repair the damage to your Podracer?”
“If I shoot you,” Brant Rumble answered, “I could just take Sebulba’s racer.”
For half a second, everyone held completely still as the realization sunk in.
Blaster fire erupted.
Khiss leaped over the bar and neutralized the bartender, then took cover, firing at everything in sight.
Djas Puhr dropped on the ground and rolled under a table, firing just as fast.
Gondry, the giant Abyssin, was a hulking wall of flesh. Sebulba used him as a shield as he pulled out his own blaster and began firing.
Bolts whipped overhead. The smell of smoke filled the cantina. Gondry screamed. He took a dozen hits. But the giant was nearly impossible to kill. He stood firing his blaster in return.
In moments Brant Rumble’s men were all unconscious. Brant Rumble had escaped.
Gondry stood for a moment in the smoke, wailing in pain from a dozen wounds. Then he toppled to the floor, landing on his chest.
Sebulba raced up to the giant and looked down at his face. “You gonna die on me, or are you gonna regenerate?”
“Water...” Gondry groaned.
Sebulba got him a jug of water and gave him a drink. The giant leaked a little, and by the time he got his second glass, he didn’t leak at all.
Djas Puhr sprinted out the back door, crossed the street, and climbed atop a vaporator tower.
Yesterday he’d chased these same boys to little effect. Today he spotted them instantly. Three of them were scurrying down the street, their backs to him. They were a little too tall to be Jawas. The child glanced back, but Djas Puhr quickly hid behind the tower.
You can’t play this game forever, Djas Puhr thought. I’ve got you now.
> Following the scents of three frightened boys was easy for Djas Puhr. The boys led him and Sebulba’s men straight to Gardulla’s fortress.
“They’re here!” the Ghostling girl cried from the treetops. “Anakin, Kitster, and Dorn are being chased by Sebulba and his partners.”
The lookout girl scurried down the tree. By then, the clearing was a madhouse of shrieking children.
A half-dozen Wisties flew about overhead, rising up into the trees to take a look for themselves.
Arawynne got the Ghostlings together, and for a moment they all stood in a clearing, hugging one another. Then she said, “All right, we all know what to do. You little ones get to the fan room and turn off the exhaust ports. Wait for us there. If we don’t reach you soon, go ahead and sneak out into the desert. Anakin and Kitster will be looking for you.” Her face was pale with fear.
Arawynne watched the little ones toddle along behind the oldest as they went off through the trees, leaping logs and ducking beneath feather ferns. She looked at Pala. “Let’s just hope that Sebulba didn’t call for help,” she said. “The only way we can fight them is if we get them alone.”
The Wisties flew back down in a sparkling cloud of multicolored lights. In small voices, the firefolk said, “We’ll fly up in the trees and keep watch.”
Pala felt grateful that the little creatures offered their help. She nodded, and they all took off, heading toward the garden door. None of them had a weapon more powerful than a sharp stick.
Sebulba and his companions had reached the garden quickly. Gardulla the Hutt had welcomed them to the search. Immediately Sebulba knew he had the children trapped. He set one of Gardulla’s guards at the door, to make sure no one escaped. Then he and the others checked their weapons. They each had a blaster for the humans, and a goo gun (otherwise known as a Stokhli spray stick) for the Ghostlings. The blasters were set on stun.
They entered and stared at the jungle of Gardulla’s pleasure garden. Trees soared majestically overhead. Vines and lianas hung from them like green curtains. Below, the forest was a maze beneath the shadowed trees. The path forked in three directions.
“Which trail?” Sebulba asked.
Djas Puhr sniffed the air. “They split up. Each one ran a different way.”
Sebulba gritted his teeth. “I’m tired of these kids. Let’s finish them.”
Djas Puhr pointed to the left. “There’s a clearing in the middle of the garden, and half of it borders the southern window. Drive the kids ahead. If we can force them into the open, they should be easy targets.”
Djas Puhr signaled to the others that he would go straight ahead. He sent Gondry off on the trail to the left, hoping that the bumbling giant would drive the kids toward him. Sebulba and Khiss would go right.
Djas Puhr headed into the brush. The shadows were dark and deep, and the small boy that he followed had left no footprints.
But he couldn’t help but leave a trail of scent. It was the perfect kind of place for Djas Puhr to hunt. He ran swift and sure, leaping over logs and rocks, stepping lightly on the moss, until he came to a grotto where moss hung like beards from trees.
He stopped there. He could smell the scent of a child. It was heavy in the air. He looked up into the tree, crept around its base, until he saw a boy dressed in Jawa robes five meters up, clinging to a tree trunk as he stood on a limb.
Djas Puhr didn’t even bother to ask the child to come down. Knowing that it would only stun, he aimed his blaster. The blast missed, but the boy stumbled and fell. Djas Puhr caught him, laid his sleeping body on the forest floor, and pulled back his hood.
It was Dorn.
Djas Puhr grinned. The Hutts would pay a nice reward for the little thief.
“Here, little kid,” Gondry called. “Come to Gondry! I won’t hurt you, I promise!”
The big bumbling cyclops stumbled through feather ferns that rose over his head. The trail had become too hard to follow.
“Come to Gondry!” he shouted.
Anakin hid and held his breath as the giant bumbled toward him. In the distance, he heard a blaster fire, and one of Djas Puhr’s men shouted, “Got one!”
It couldn’t have been more than a hundred meters away, on the path that Dorn had taken.
Anakin crawled along until he reached a place where his hand suddenly sank into the ground, up to his elbow. He looked at the ground. It was green and mossy, just like everywhere else. But he could hardly pull his hand out. It was harder than mud or sand, more like clay.
Quickclay, he realized, imported from the planet Circarpous V!
“Come here, little boy,” Gondry shouted. “I’m your friend.”
“Promise?” Anakin shouted. “Do you promise you won’t hurt me?”
The huge giant roared and raced straight toward Anakin, screaming in delight. Anakin crawled around the quickclay pit and screamed in terror.
The giant came roaring through the feather ferns — splat!
His blaster flew out of his hand and landed on the ground. The cyclops bellowed in rage and terror, thrashing in the clay. He grasped at the nearest feather fern, but it snapped off, unable to bear his weight.
Anakin went to the giant and stared him in the eye.
“Help!” Gondry cried.
Anakin picked up the blaster and thought about what to do.
“You know,” Anakin said, “I could blast you, and you’d just sink into the quickclay and drown.”
“Please,” Gondry cried. “Don’t.”
“What will you give me if I let you go?” Anakin asked.
“My rock collection!” Gondry shouted. He was sinking fast. He was already up to his chest.
“Hmmm...” Anakin said. “How about this. If I save your life, you let me and my friends go.”
Gondry seemed to think about it. A secretive look passed across his stupid face. “Uh, okay.”
“Really?” Anakin asked. “You don’t look sincere. Tell you what, cross your heart and hope to die.”
Gondry got a guilty look on his face. He would say anything to get free. But he was also a superstitious creature. “Uh, cross my heart.”
“And hope to die?” Anakin asked.
Gondry was sinking. He was up to his armpits. He looked around woefully at the quickclay. “But I don’t want to die! I want to live! Cross my heart and hope to live!”
“Well,” Anakin said, “I guess that's good enough.” He got a tree branch and threw it to Gondry.
For long minutes, Anakin pulled on the giant, trying to free him from the gooey quickclay. At last Gondry crawled up on the ground, gasping from the effort, his body covered with clay.
He lay for a moment on the ground, panting.
“Remember what you promised,” Anakin said. “You’ll let me and my friends go free.”
The giant smiled wickedly. “I had my toes crossed.”
He leaped up and pounced toward Anakin, but Anakin had been expecting a betrayal. He was already running.
Sebulba was a crafty foe. He knew that the kids would try to hide from him. He sent Khiss rushing down the path, making plenty of noise. Then he crept down the trail as quietly as possible.
Ahead was a large tree. Its roots rose up high overhead, forming a cavern. The trail wound through the dark tunnel. Sebulba crept into the shadows and waited.
In moments he was rewarded. Khiss was long gone, and a boy came blundering down the trail, happy to think that he was escaping. Sebulba captured him easily.
Sebulba grinned wickedly and pulled back the lad’s hood. It was a dark-headed boy. Sebulba didn't recognize him. All human children looked pretty much alike to the Dug.
Two down, only eight more to go.
At the edge of the meadow, Arawynne and Pala held still. Pala was breathing hard. The Ghostling princess looked pale. Wisties flew ahead to see what was happening.
In moments the Wisties flew back, sparkling in the shadows.
“There’s a Dug heading for the swamps,” one reported.
“And there’s a Sakiyan sneaking through the woods straight ahead,” another Wistie reported.
Arawynne nodded. “I'll take care of that one.”
Gondry blundered out of the forest and stood blinking in the clearing. Ahead were some standing stones carved into grim faces that reminded him of his mother. He decided to go sit on one, until his friends got out of the thickest part of the woods.
He stumbled ahead through a field of yellow flowers. Suddenly there was a whapping noise at his feet, and he screamed in pain.
Something had stung him!
Gondry looked down. He’d stepped in something sharp. Long purplish quills had lodged in his foot. Urchins!
He grabbed the nearest bunch of flowers and ripped them from the ground. The urchin plant wriggled in his hand and a glob of quills that hung from one root slapped at him as if they were a ball on a string.
“Stupid flowers!” Gondry screamed. He sent the urchin plant flying. He sat down cross-legged and began pulling quills from his foot.
Suddenly there was a red bird in his face, screeching and clawing at his eye. Gondry grabbed for it, but he was too late. The talons struck home, and Gondry’s eye popped out with a sucking sound.
The world went dark, and his eye socket burned in pain. Blindly he swatted the air, hoping that he’d hit the eye-snatcher.
He hated eye wounds. He only had one eye, and it would take hours for it to grow back.
Anakin ran through the forest. He’d managed to get away from Gondry, but now Sebulba was on his trail. He’d spotted the wily Dug only a moment ago.
Anakin ran to a thicket and raced along a rock wall. He felt cornered and wanted to get away. He suspected that Sebulba was driving him in this direction, trying to force him against the wall.
Something up ahead stank. Badly.
He came into a small clearing. There was a sewer pipe coming out of the rock, a sewer pipe that dripped a dark fluid into a huge tank.
Star Wars - Episode I Adventures 007 - Capture Arawynne Page 2