Maze of Deception

by Elizabeth Hand

  But Kos could not.

  Boba held his breath. He slid down as low as he dared, hoping the vice-chair wouldn’t notice. But the official was squinting into the darkness, still trying to get his aim fixed on Aurra.

  “There she is,” he murmured. Boba heard the soft click of the blaster’s loading device. Kos raised his arm.

  Boba ducked as an explosion ripped through the air beside him.

  But it wasn’t the official’s blast. It was Aurra’s.

  “Got him!” she crowed triumphantly. Boba grimaced as Kos’s tall form toppled over the side of the speeder, to fall soundlessly into the vast and empty shaft. Too late Boba thought of the vice-chair’s weapon—it was gone with him into the depths.

  And now Boba was alone with Aurra Sing.

  “Thought you could betray me? Think again!”

  With a dull whine the hoverbike swept toward Boba’s airspeeder. He glanced around, hoping to find something he might use as a weapon.

  Nothing. He kept his hands on the controls and stared defiantly across the empty darkness at Aurra.

  “Everything is for sale on Aargau,” she said with a cruel laugh. “I bought myself citizenship. Too bad you won’t live long enough to do the same.”

  Her laughter died, and she stared at Boba with hatred. “No one escapes from me, Boba. I’m the best at what I do.”

  “My father was better,” said Boba in a low, calm voice. His gaze locked with hers as he continued to stare at her, unafraid. As he did, his hand moved slowly, silently, across the control panel. “My father didn’t kill for fun. Or out of fear.”

  “Fear?” Aurra’s voice rose almost to a scream. Her eyes blazed, and two crimson spots bloomed on her dead-white face. “You think I’m afraid? I think it’s time I introduce you to the real thing!”

  Her face twisted into a mask of rage. She raised her blaster before her face, the bike steady beneath her. “Good-bye, Boba,” she said.

  Boba ducked. He jammed his hand onto the controls, hitting the REVERSE DIRECTION command. A flaming pulse from Aurra’s blaster zoomed a scant meter above his head. At the same moment, the speeder shot backward. He’d hoped it would slam directly into Aurra’s bike. Instead it sideswiped it. Aurra shouted furiously as her arms swung and her next blast went wide. Her bike rocked wildly, and she clung to it to keep from plummeting into the abyss.

  “Yes!” cried Boba in triumph. The speeder veered back and forth through the passage, barely missing the walls. He finally got control of it, whipping it around so that it soared out from the tunnel and into the vast main shaft. Behind him he could hear Aurra’s angry yelling, and the dull thrum of her bike throttling down. He pointed the speeder in the direction he’d come. With a low roar it began to rush back toward the entrance to Level Two.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Boba knew better than to think he’d lost Aurra for good. She was like a mynock clinging to her prey, difficult to pry loose.

  But not impossible. As his speeder drew closer to the entry to Level Two, Boba flicked on the comm unit. Immediately a voice came through the speaker.

  “Sir, we’ve been unable to contact you for some time. Are you all right?”

  Boba cleared his throat. “I’m fine,” he said, trying to make his voice sound as deep and muffled as possible. “But there’s a renegade noncitizen loose on Level Two. She’s armed. There may be some casualties—”

  And I don’t want one of them to be me!

  Behind him came the abrupt high drone of Aurra’s bike and another explosive burst. The comm unit went dead. Boba leaned over the controls, not taking his eyes from what was ahead of him: the entry to Level Two.

  Closer, closer…He could see the familiar sign, and the door behind it. Sparks of orange and scarlet flame whistled through the air around him as he drew the speeder alongside the landing platform. Keeping his head low he jumped out, turned, and bolted for the door. He shoved it open, and raced through, onto Level Two.

  Immediately the world around him changed color. Instead of darkness, everything shone with a soft green glow. He was in yet another tunnel, but this one was well lit. At one end a sign blinked on and off.

  EXIT

  Boba whirled. At the other end of the tunnel was another blinking sign.

  INTERGALACTICBANK OF KUAT

  ENTRANCE ONLY

  “That’s it!” Boba said aloud. He began to run. From behind the door he’d just left he heard the hoverbike’s drone suddenly shut off. He didn’t need to look back to know that Aurra Sing was at his heels.

  Ahead of him a security droid stood beside the entrance to the bank. “May I see your card, please?” it asked in its mechanized voice.

  Boba dug into his pocket. For a second his heart stopped: He’d lost the card!

  But no, it was still there. He yanked it out and handed it to the droid. The droid raised the card before its infrared eyes and scanned it. Then it took Boba’s hand. There was a flicker of heat as it read his DNA. Then it nodded.

  “Very good,” it said. “You may enter.”

  “Stop him!” Aurra’s voice raged from the far end of the tunnel.

  “You better check her citizen papers,” Boba said breathlessly to the security droid. “She’s armed and I think her papers are forged.”

  He pushed open the door and hurried into the bank. Behind him he could hear Aurra’s boots racing up to the entrance. Then he heard the droid’s calm voice.

  “May I see your citizen papers, please?” it asked. The door slammed and locked behind Boba. He grinned as he heard Aurra’s voice rise in frustrated rage.

  “May I help you?”

  It was another droid, this one neatly clad in gold-and-silver hardware. It stood before an immense black wall. Set into the wall were thousands upon thousands of small boxes, each with a number.

  “I want to get what is mine,” Boba said, gasping. “My father—he left something for me here when he died.”

  “Of course,” said the droid politely. “May I see your card, please?”

  Boba handed the card to him. The droid turned and rolled along the front of the wall. Finally it stopped. It punched the card into a slot in the wall. One of the boxes slid open. One of the droid’s mechanical arms withdrew something from it. It closed the box, turned, and rolled back to Boba.

  “This closes your account,” he said, and handed Boba a small leather pouch. The robot stuck the card into another slot inside its chest. There was a hiss and a wisp of smoke. The card had been destroyed.

  Boba looked down at the pouch. It seemed awfully small. He opened it, and poured a handful of shining, multicolored credits into his hand.

  “Is this all?” he asked. He shook his head. “My father left me a fortune!”

  “There was a large withdrawal made from this account today,” the droid said in its calm voice. “Five hundred thousand mesarcs. That is what remains. Your account is now closed,” it said with finality, and rolled away.

  Boba stared after it in disbelief. Then he looked at the money in his hand. From the passage behind him, he could hear voices.

  “Let go of me! I tell you, these papers are legal! I’m allowed to carry a blaster!”

  It sounded like Aurra Sing was having a hard time with Aargau security. Even as Boba turned to look, a side door opened. Heavily armed soldiers wearing uniforms identical to the vice-chair’s poured into the corridor. He watched as they ran toward where security had detained Aurra Sing, their boots echoing loudly. Moments later he heard Aurra Sing’s shout of rage as the soldiers surrounded her.

  “No—let me go, you’ll never—”

  Boba fought back a shiver. He felt no pity for Aurra—she would have killed him as easily as she’d killed the lieutenant, and with more pleasure. But he knew that losing her freedom would be far worse for Aurra Sing than losing her share of his father’s fortune.

  Still, she probably wouldn’t be imprisoned or detained for long. Boba would bet his life on that.

  But not righ
t now. Right now, Boba planned to hang on to every bit of currency he had. He looked at the money in his hand—not a huge fortune, maybe, but still enough to outfit a ship. Still enough to get him off Aargau. He put the money back into the leather pouch and closed it. He put it carefully into his pocket, along with his father’s book. Then he turned and began walking quickly down the corridor, back to Level One.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  No one questioned him when he bought the fuel and provisions for his ship. And no one questioned him when he climbed aboard, after obtaining clearance to depart Aargau. Money might not buy happiness, but it bought a lot of other things that were useful.

  Boba settled himself in the cockpit of Slave I. It felt like coming home again—for the first time. He strapped himself in, hit the controls, and settled back. A moment later he felt the familiar rush and roar of takeoff.

  Within moments Aargau was far, far behind him. Boba gazed out the screen at the glittering planet. He wondered briefly about the people he’d seen there. The young clone 9779. The Clawdite Nuri—if that was really his name. The manipulative San Hill.

  What would become of them all, Boba wondered? And what would become of the Separatist cause, led by the double-crossing Count Dooku?

  And Aurra Sing?

  Aurra Sing might be in custody for now, but Boba knew she wouldn’t stay there for long. She was too smart for that. And when she got free, she’d come looking for him.

  Boba smiled with determination. When he next met up with Aurra Sing, he’d be ready for her. For now, he had other things on his mind.

  Boba knew where his immediate future was—with the notorious gangster Jabba the Hutt!

  With a grin, he leaned over the control panel and punched in the coordinates for Tatooine.