lashing at him with one long, pointed talon. Boba's hand fumbled for his
blaster. He grabbed the weapon and was just raising it to fire, when the
dinko abruptly faded. Going, going... gone.
"Hey - !"
Boba blinked, trying to find whatever the shapeshifter had become. And
saw a giant fefze beetle, the same color as the walls. It crawled through
the toxic Xabar fungus. Then it scuttled into the shadows.
"No!" Boba shouted and lunged after the escaping insect. But he could
barely see it in the darkness. Desperately he took aim with his blaster.
No, wait - Boba shook his head. That's what he wants! If I fire, I'll
alert everyone in the fortress - assuming there's someone here!
He shoved his weapon back onto his belt. He could just make out the
beetle skittering down the tunnel. Boba took a step back, then took a
running leap. As he flew through the air he leaned forward, keeping the
black shape in sight.
Uuumph!
With a grunt Boba fell. The slimy floor beneath him shuddered. His
hand grasped at darkness for the beetle
And got it!
"You're not going anywhere!"
This time Boba kept a firm hold on the slick scales. Moments later he
was grappling with the full-grown Clawdite.
"Don't forget, I have this," Boba hissed. His vibroshiv suddenly
hovered inches above Nuri's neck. He felt the shapeshifter slump in defeat.
"That's better." Boba stared coldly at Nuri. The Clawdite glared back
at him. "Now - I need an answer. Fast. Where is Wat Tambor?"
Nuri bared his teeth. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Boba drew the vibroshiv to within a hairbreadth of Nuri's flesh. "Do
you want to feel how much closer this can get?" he whispered menacingly. "I
know who you are, Nuri. I know you helped the Techno Union spring Wat
Tambor from prison. Now I want to know - where is he?"
The Clawdite hissed. Its evil eyes glittered. It stared at Boba's
vibroshiv. Then it drew a long shuddering breath.
"That way - " Nuri's head twitched, indicating the passage leading
down. "The central chamber. He's there."
"Is he well-guarded?"
Nuri's eyes fixed on Boba. The vibroshiv hummed above the Clawdite's
neck.
"No," said the shapeshifter reluctantly. "He sent the last of his
droid forces to join battle with the Republic. But Grievous is coming - and
he will bring reinforcements."
"Grievous?" Boba frowned. "Who's that?"
"The General." The Clawdite stared at him with hatred. A slow, nasty
smile spread across his face. "Whoever you are, I can see that you are
working alone. The Republic will not come to your aid. You will meet
General Grievous soon enough, stranger - and when you do, he will destroy
you!"
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Boba snarled in rage. "Those were your last words, Clawdite!"
He began to press the vibroshiv against, the shapeshifter's jugular
vein. Then he stopped.
If Nuri's body is found, Wat Tambor will know there's an intruder
inside his fortress, But if I let him go, he'll sound the alert....
Boba looked around the dim tunnel. His gaze lit on a clump of the
paralyzing Xabar fungus. That's it!
He began to drag the Clawdite toward the fungus. Nuri fought
furiously. But Boba was stronger.
"I've been really curious about how this stuff works," he said. He
pinned the Clawdite to the ground, then grabbed the shapeshifter's arm.
"Now I can find out."
Nuri struggled as Boba pushed his arm down.
Sensing prey, the Xabar's tentacles reached upward, wriggling in
anticipation.
Closer... closer...
The Clawdite's hand hung above fungus. Then, like pale, grasping
fingers, the tentacles grabbed him.
"Unnnhhh...!"
Abruptly the Clawdite went slack. He hung, dead weight, from Boba's
hands. Boba recoiled, worried that the toxin might somehow reach him.
"Nuri?" he said in a low voice. "Nuri?"
The Clawdite sprawled before him. He looked dead. He had no pulse. He
was not breathing. His eyes stared upward, blank and cold as stone. When
Boba gingerly touched his arm, it felt stiff.
"Well," Boba said, scrambling back to his feet. He gazed at the fallen
Clawdite lying beside the Xabar fungus. If anyone found him, they would
assume he had accidentally stumbled upon the paralyzing mushroom. "I hope
that stuff works for a good long time. Long enough to get me to Wat Tambor,
at least."
He began to run down the passage. It was noticeably warmer here. And
there were more signs of Wat Tambor's technological genius.
Ribbons of circuitry gleamed along the tunnel's soft, slimy walls.
Phosphorescent globes hung alongside shining plasteel tubes that crackled
with electricity. Computer monitors the size of Boba's thumb blinked like
crimson eyes. Xabar fungus sprouted from discarded bits of droids like
hair.
And always there was that steady, powerful thrumming, like the beating
of a massive heart.
Boba tried not to think about that too much. He didn't like to imagine
what kind of creature would have a heart that size.
Ahead of him the deep-blue glow of the tunnel began to brighten. Now
it was hard to see the walls of the passage behind all the layers of metal
and computer circuitry. The tunnel turned, and turned again. Boba's steps
slowed. He crept alongside the wall, eyes fixed on what was before him.
Just a few meters away, the tunnel ended. A high, smooth archway
opened into a single large chamber. Silvery violet light spilled from it,
threaded with deep purple and blood red.
The light was so intense it hurt Boba's eyes. He paused and adjusted
his optical sensors. Then he checked his weapons. His blasters, his
vibroshiv, Ygabba's holoshroud, ion stunner, dart shooter...
Which would help him capture Wat Tambor?
All of them - or none?
Boba's stomach clenched. For the first time a shiver of apprehension
went through him.
Fear is energy, he told himself. Use it.
He took a deep breath. Then, keeping as low as he could, he ran the
last few meters from the tunnel through the archway.
And found himself face-to-face with Wat Tambor.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Boba sucked in his breath sharply.
He was in a large chamber, more like a cavern than a room. Blinking
and shimmering circuits covered the slivery walls. Banks of monitors
stretched everywhere. There were heaps of parts belonging to droids - arms,
legs, blasters, power cells. Clumps of Xabar fungus sprang up between them,
and other mushrooms as well.
None of this surprised Boba.
But what was in the center of the chamber did.
Thrusting up from the floor was a huge, shapeless, purple mass. It
pulsed and shuddered like a massive slime mold. Flickers of crimson flame
raced inside it. From it protruded dozens of tentacle-like tubes. Each time
it pulsed, Boba could see darkly glowing violet liquid stream through the
tubes, feeding outward into the walls.
There were other veins as well. These rippled from the
walls and into
the bioengineered nerve center, feeding it. The liquid that surged through
them was deep red.
Boba stared at it, revolted. This was why none of Glynn-Beti's ARC
troopers returned. He was gazing at Mazariyan's heart! That was how the
enormous fungus received its power - by feeding on what it found inside!
A deep voice shattered Boba's thoughts. "You are not who I was
expecting."
Boba looked up. In the center of the room towered the Separatist. His
own expression was momentarily as surprised as Boba's.
Wat Tambor was tall and powerfully built. His body was encased in
combat armor that he had designed himself. Only the top of his ridged skull
was visible above it. His eyes were hidden behind round optic sensors. A
heavy metal cowl covered his mouth and the lower part of his face.
When Wat Tambor spoke, his inhuman voice was calm. "So. An intruder.
That is no matter. I will make use of you - one way or another!"
He raised his hand. A ray of scarlet light surged from it. With a cry
Boba dove to one side. The ray struck the floor, pulverizing plasteel into
smoking goo.
Wat Tambor cursed. Boba rolled, drawing his blaster. He fired.
BLAM!
The blast from his weapon arced straight toward Wat Tambor!
Boba's joy abruptly died. Tambor was quicker than he looked, and
dodged the blast, which was then seemingly absorbed by the chamber wall.
Boba felt the entire room around him shudder. The huge nerve center
gave a powerful surge. The shimmering circuits glowed even brighter.
"Your weapons only serve to feed it," announced Wat Tambor in that
calm, mechanical voice. "As you will yourself!"
Boba staggered to his feet again. "No!" he shouted.
Mazariyan's tentacles were everywhere. Writhing, wriggling, crawling
along the floor - dozens of them, with a single target.
Boba Fett!
With a cry Boba drew his vibroshiv. He slashed at a huge vein and felt
his blade cut into it with a satisfying slurp. Shimmering liquid splattered
out. He ducked to one side, nearly falling on the slick floor.
But the chamber floor was already at work, sucking up the liquid
greedily.
"Take that!" cried Boba. A cobralike tentacle swooped toward him and
he grabbed it. It lashed up, scraping the ceiling. Boba hung on with all
his strength. He waited until he was just above where Wat Tambor stood
beside Mazariyan's beating nerve center. Then he let go.
"Yaaah!" he shouted.
He lunged for the Techno Union Foreman, blaster firing.
Too late. Wat Tambor moved too quickly.
The Separatist whirled, sending another bolt of energy flying from his
hand. Boba lunged for the floor. If he could just reach that pile of broken
metal...
"Agh!"
A blazing burst of pain struck his leg, so powerful it overwhelmed his
body armor, which now cracked and smoked. Boba crashed against the ground.
He had a glimpse of Wat Tambor's figure searching for him. Then the
Separatist suddenly looked away, toward the chamber's entrance.
I've got to hide, thought Boba in desperation, before he sees I'm
down....
He rolled and began to drag himself to the heap of droid parts. It was
darker there. He might be able to gain a minute, enough time to get Wat
Tambor in his sights once more.
Boba drew himself up by the wall. The shattered droids gave him enough
shadow to hide, for a moment. In the middle of the room the tentacles were
still gulping eagerly at the fluid leaking from the severed vein.
"Where is he?" Boba murmured. He rubbed his leg. The pain was
subsiding - it had only been a glancing blow. "Gotta find him - "
Boba strained to see Wat Tambor. But the Techno Union Foreman was out
of sight, hidden by the bulk of the nerve center.
Boba could hear him, though. He was talking to someone - but who?
Nuri?
I should have killed the Clawdite! Boba thought angrily. Now he's
betrayed me again! He began to ease himself from the shadows. One hand
remained firmly on his blaster. The other was on his belt, ready to draw
whatever weapon he might need.
But as Boba looked up, he realized he'd be needing all of them.
Because into the room strode the most terrible, vicious figure he had ever
witnessed.
Its head nearly touched the ceiling - a head composed of interlocking
bands of an alloy he'd never seen before. A pale, cowled robe cloaked its
body. Through its folds Boba glimpsed its true form: gleaming metallic
limbs, six-fingered hands like robotic claws. When it turned its head,
searching, Boba saw its eyes. Golden reptilian eyes, the pupil a black
slash set within blood-colored sockets. Even Mazariyan's tentacles seemed
to sense his awful threat. They retracted into the heart, like a
carnivorous snail into its shell, waiting.
Boba's blood froze. Suddenly, and with horrible certainty, he knew he
was looking upon the most powerful, most lethal threat he had ever faced.
The terrifying general of the droid army
Grievous!
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Boba's mouth went dry. Grievous was flanked by two droid bodyguards,
nearly as tall as he was. Their eyes were huge and round and crimson. They
scanned the room methodically, heads sweeping back and forth.
Any moment they would find Boba!
Now what? he thought. His hands moved quickly over his weapons belt.
The blasters' energy would just feed Mazariyan. And his vibroshiv would be
useless against a droid.
Suddenly his hand felt something else. A small compact object, fitted
neatly on his belt.
Ygabba's holoshroud.
Yes! Boba moved so that he was sitting upright. He peered out.
Grievous's bodyguards had started circling the room, scanning for the
intruder. Grievous stood ominously in the center of the chamber by the
heart, waiting. Wat Tambor was near a monitor, busily inputting
information.
Grievous hasn't seen me yet, Boba thought. He doesn't know exactly
what I look like, or who I am.
Boba had no idea what image Ygabba had scanned into the holoshroud.
But it was this or nothing.
This is my best chance for living long enough to thank you, Ygabba,
thought Boba. It better be good!
His finger hovered above the holoshroud's button. He took a deep
breath. Then he pressed it, and stood.
There was a hum from where the cell hung at Boba's waist. Then he was
surrounded by a glowing halo. It extended high above his head. When he
moved his arm, the halo moved. When he stepped forward, it moved too.
From inside the holoshroud, Boba could see only this shimmering cloud.
But others, he knew, saw something completely different. They saw whatever
image Ygabba had scanned into the cell.
But what image was that?
As Boba stepped forward, the droid bodyguards snapped upright. Their
empty, glowing eyes burned even brighter. Boba moved to one side, heading
for the arch that led out. As he did, he caught a glimpse of his reflection
in a monitor screen. At the same time, the bodyguards s
poke.
"Durge!"
Boba almost yelped with joy.
His friend had scanned Durge's image into the holoshroud!
And that was what the droids saw: not Boba Fett, but the hulking
figure of one of the galaxy's most feared bounty hunters!
"Destroy him!"
An icy commanding voice thundered through the chamber. Grievous
pointed at his bodyguards. As one, they lunged forward, firing. Boba leaped
aside, and the blasts struck the wall behind him. It exploded in shards of
plasteel and oozing fungus. One of Mazariyan's tentacles poked out from the
pulsing heart of the citadel. Grievous turned and raised a hand
threateningly. The tentacle shrank back.
"I said, destroy him!"
The droids stalked across the room. Boba fired back at them. His
blasts bounced off their armored forms. He yanked out his ion stunner and
fired. A surge of ionic plasma flared from it. One of the droids fell back,
A New Threat Page 9