Raynar studied his uncle for a second. "I believe him. He'd never
damage his own facilities like this."
"No, Dengar doesn't work for Tyko," Zekk agreed. "He's after Tarkona's
bounty. He intends to bring in Boman Thul, dead or alive--it doesn't
matter which." He frowned, his green eyes hard as emeralds.
"I outwitted him once, but I wouldn't count on it again. Dengar's one
of the best."
The broad windows rattled with the thunder of Dengar's passage as he
swooped past the administrative headquarters. As if to taunt them, the
bounty hunter loosed another explosive... but detonated it in midair,
so that the walls of the office buildings merely shuddered.
Jacen looked at Raynar with concern, "Hey, we promised to keep Raynar
safe on this trip--and it's not very safe just to sit here in an office
while we get bombed. I think we should head for the Rock Dragon and get
out of here. If we all leave Mechis III, Dengar won't have any reason
to stay and cause more damage."
Zekk looked over at Jaina. "The Lightning Rod is
closer. We could get to my ship and harass him, create a diversion so
the others can escape." He raised an eyebrow hopefully.
"I could use a good copilot, Jaina . . . if you wouldn't mind coming
with me."
She hurried to Zekk's side. "What are we waiting for? Em Teedee, you
go with Jacen--he's a fair pilot himself, but he and Tenel Ka may need
your assistance getting the Rock Dragon out of here."
The little droid floated upward in his excitement, barely managing to
keep his new microrepulsors under control. "Oh my! This is a sobering
responsibility--I will do my utmost not to let you down, Mistress
Jaina."
Jaina grabbed Zekk's hand and they raced out of the offices together,
toward where he had docked the Lightning Rod. Jacen, Tenel Ka, and
Raynar headed for the door as well.
Tyko Thul stood all alone, looking sickened.
"But . . . but I can't leave here. This is my factory planet! I got
Mechis III up and running when all the systems had fallen into
disrepair. I won't abandon it just because some... some vandal comes
in shooting."
Raynar spluttered, "But you can't stay here, Uncle Tyko--you'11 be
killed. You've got to come with us."
"No! I'm going down into the reinforced lower levels. I'll be
perfectly safe there. You children go on now." Leaving his office, Tyko
turned and jogged out of sight down the corridor.
Jacen looked after him, but Tenel Ka gestured for them to hurry.
"Jacen, we must get to the roof or our plans will be wasted."
The three ran toward the nearest turbolift. Em Teedee floated after
them, still working to control his new repulsorjets. "Wait!
Wait for me!"
Breathing hard, Jaina secured her crash webbing as Zekk lurched the
Lightning Rod into the air, roaring out of the overhang-covered shipping
area where he had landed. She glanced at the dark-haired young man as
he worked, his gaze intent on the controls.
"Sure is good to fly with you, Zekk," she said.
"You seem to be making this a habit--getting into situations where I
have to come rescue you," he said, smiling slightly.
"Hah! I'm not half-bad at rescues either, you know. Watch it, or I
might just turn the tables on you one of these days."
"I don't suppose I'd mind that so much." Zekk punched the engines for a
new surge of acceleration.
They streaked up between tall manufacturing centers and into the open
air. Jaina leaned forward to the cockpit windows, trying to see through
the thick cuds of smoke.
Dengar dropped a thermal shock-wave generator
onto the roof of the building adjacent to Tyko's administrative
headquarters. The weapon burned its way downward like a luminous diving
bell, incinerating floor after floor after floor until it impacted the
building's foundations.
'Tll concentrate on flying," Zekk said. "You take the weapons
controls."
"Sounds like a plan. Let's go," Jaina said.
As if out of nowhere, they soared in. Jaina fired the laser cannons
without mercy, targeting the hull of the bounty hunter's ship.
They skimmed past so close that Jaina could have kicked Dengar's craft
if the Lightning Rod's access hatch had been open.
Zekk sped onward, and Dengar launched after them in hot pursuit.
Wrestling with the piloting controls, Zekk rolled the battered old ship.
He took them into a downward loop and flew beneath his enemy, jerking
sideways and up. Jaina could see that subconscious instincts made Zekk
use his Force skills to dodge, but she said nothing to interrupt his
concentration.
Dengar followed, blasting away furiously with his ship's weapons.
"Think he'd hold a grudge against me for what I did to him on Ziost?"
Zekk said.
With a touch of irony, Jaina said, "At least he's stopped damaging the
buildings. Our goal was to distract him so the others could get away to
safety."
"Of course, I'd like to get away, as well," Zekk
said. "Hang on." He headed in the direction of the smoldering buildings
Dengat had already blasted.
"That looks like a good prospect."
Sagging and ready to collapse, twin skyscrapers blazed side by side in
parallel infernos. With the bounty hunter still clinging to their
afterburners, Zekk artowed the ship directly toward the blazing columns.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Jaina muttered.
The Lightning Rod shot into the gap between the burning towers as a
network of connecting girders broke loose. Damaged beyond repair, the
skyscrapers began to topple ....
Up on the rooftop, the smell of fire saturated the air. Jacen and Tenel
Ka ran side by side, with Raynar close behind them. "There they are!"
the Alderaanian boy said, pointing. The polluted wind rippled the
sleeve of his Jedi robe.
With Dengar's ship perilously close behind them, firing its blasters,
the Lightning Rod plunged recklessly between two collapsing buildings.
Fire and smoke raged upward as the towers crashed together, and Zekk's
ship vanished into the inferno.
Dengar broke off his pursuit at the last instant, hauling his ship
around and up, away from certain death. He left the wreckage behind and
came about.
Tenel Ka drew a breath of dismay as the Lightning Rod vanished into the
billows of smoke and debris. But Jacen shook his head. "I'm sure they
made it, somehow. Zekk's too good a pilot--and I'd sense it if Jaina
got hurt."
"This is a fact," the warrior girl said.
Jacen looked over his shoulder toward the stair-well, trying to locate
Em Teedee. The little floating droid had not managed to keep up with
them. When Dengar spotted them and soared toward the rooftop, Jacen
forgot about Em Teedee and thought instead about their own survival. "To
the Rock Dragon-quick!"
The Hapan passenger cruiser sat where they had landed it on the opposite
side of the roof. Tenel Ka sprinted along to the sheer edge, running as
if she were simply doing her morn
ing workout. Tossing her red-gold
braids behind her shoulders, she glanced down, observing the extreme
height with interest. "Lowbacca would have enjoyed being up here."
"Yeah, I'd rather he was here to pilot the ship, too. Em Teedee !"
Jacen called. "Where can he be?"
Dengar's inelegant ship circled low. Before they could reach the safety
of the Rock Dragon, the bounty hunter landed defiantly at the edge of
the roof, blocking the way.
Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Raynar staggered to a stop, looking grimly at each
other.
The bounty hunter opened the hatch and leapt
out. His shoulders were broad, and he carded two massive blaster
cannons--each of which usually required two arms to lift, though Dengar
easily held one in each hand. The mouth on the bounty hunter's
bandage-wrapped face sagged like his loose-fitting clothes, which were
dirty and stained from a thousand fights and a thousand quick repair
jobs on his ship.
Dengar's sunken eyes flicked from side to side as he scanned the three
young Jedi Knights like a targeting computer assessing damage potential.
He aimed both blaster cannons at .the companions.
"Hostages. Expendable." He scowled. "Where is Boman Thul? Tell me."
Raynar crossed his brown-robed arms and put on a brave face. "I am
Raynar, son of Bornan Thul. My father isn't on Mechis III. He never
was."
Dengar's expression did not change. "Then you will tell me how to find
him, or I Will begin eliminating hostages." His sallow face showed no
sign of regret or anticipation. "I hope one of you cooperates before
all three of you are dead."
Around the metropolis, emergency-response droids cruised through the
damaged areas. Smoke poured into the sky, blacker and more noxious than
the pollution belched out by the manufacturing centers.
Jacen and Tenel Ka exchanged glances, but no one spoke.
Dengar waited precisely five seconds. Then he raised his blaster
cannons, both pointing at a single target--Jacen.
The young man's heart thudded, and his hand groped for his lightsaber.
He wondered if he could possibly use its blade to deflect such
high-powered explosive bolts. He was sure his uncle, Luke Sky-walker,
could have done it.
"You will not kill my friend," Tenel Ka said, stepping in front of Jacen
to shield him with her body. She drew her own rancor-tooth lightsaber
and flashed its turquoise blade. Jacen saw her lips part in a feral
grin, filled with challenge and menace toward anyone who would threaten
him.
Jacen glanced over at Raynar, who stood concentrating, his gaze fixed on
Dengar's ship. Jacen felt a ripple in the Force and instantly knew what
the blond boy was trying to do.
"Doesn't matter to me who I start with," Dengar answered coldly.
He readjusted his aim toward Tenel Ka. She didn't flinch.
Jacen added his own Jedi abilities to Raynar's, concentrating on the
bounty hunter's ship. The craft had landed close to the edge of the
rooftop, and its rear support pad rested . . .
"Let this first one be a lesson to you," Dengar said. The bounty
hunter's finger tightened on the firing stud. Defiant and fearless,
Tenel Ka held up her lightsaber, ready to block the shot.
Jacen squeezed his eyes shut and focused. He had to help her!
With every ounce of his concentration, Jacen drew on the Force to nudge,
push, shove.
Dengar fired both blaster cannons.
Using the Force, Jacen jostled the weapons. Both shots went wide,
missing Tenel Ka. Behind him, Raynar was still focused on one goal.
"And let this be a lesson to you, Dengar," Tenel Ka said. Sensing that
she was joining her efforts to Raynar's, Jacen lent his assistance as
well.
Dengar's ship slid backward, scraping across the rooftop. Its rear
support pad dropped over the side of the building. The craft tipped and
lurched, its hull grating against the rough edge of the roof.
The bounty hunter whirled in alarm. "What--?"
Suddenly the rooftop door burst open. The towering bulk of IG-88
strode out, arms extended, weapons powered up.
Em Teedee, hovering above the assassin droid's body frame, amplified his
normally tinny voice to a commanding boom. "I suggest you leave our
friends alone, you arrogant bully!"
Tyko Thul in his colorful robes confidently followed the two droids out
onto the rooftop.
"IG-88, I order you to protect us!" The assassin droid aimed his
built-in weapons.
Dengar reacted with lightning speed, whirling away from Tenel Ka and
letting loose a volley of blaster bolts. Most ricocheted harmlessly off
the
assassin droid's durasteel torso, leaving cherry-red spots of absorbed
energy.
However, one bolt glanced off IG-88's skeletal frame and hit Em Teedee's
outer casing. The little translating droid shrieked as sparks flew from
his side; his optical sensors flickered wildly. Spinning in the air
like an asteroid after a collision, he let out an electronic wail.
IG-88 opened fire again and again, but with such precision that instead
of blasting the bandage-wrapped human off the rooftop, his weapon
discharges tamed one of Dengar's heavy blaster cannons to slag in his
fist.
Jacen remembered that the assassin droid's new programming prevented him
from shooting down the bounty hunter outright, even to protect his
masters. But IG-88 was resourceful enough to find alternatives.
Behind him, Dengar's ship teetered precariously on the edge of the roof.
Still expressionless, Dengar tossed the smoldering firearm away and
grabbed his remaining cannon with both hands. But IG-88 targeted
carefully with a volley of shots that blew away the muzzle of the second
blaster, leaving Dengar unarmed.
Then the droid bombarded the roof plates at the bounty hunter's feet.
Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Dengar dove for his ship.
Off balance, it groaned and tilted toward an inevitable crash between
the buildings.
IG-88 fired once more just as the bandage-wrapped bounty hunter
scrambled through the hatch. Blaster bolts sizzled off the frame as
Dengar sealed himself in.
With a final shriek of protest, the ship fell from the rooftop.
Jacen gasped, and Raynat raced to the edge of the building to look down.
The ship plunged and spun, like a paving stone dropped off a cliff.
At the last instant, Dengar managed to power up his engines and wrench
the ship out of gravity's clutches. Spinning the craft sideways, the
bounty hunter thundered through the narrow gaps between buildings. From
the rooftop IG-88 launched grenades toward the stern of Dengar's ship in
an attempt to disable the engines as he departed. The explosives fell
short as the bounty hunter whirled and dipped, zigzagging skillfully
along a random course.
"No more grenades," Tyko yelled at the assassin droid. "If you can't
bring yourself to actually destroy his ship, at least wait until he
comes back into range, or you'll damage my buildings."
Before Dengar could circle ar
ound and come back again, though, the
Lightning Rod shot up out of an alleyway, gaining speed as Jaina blasted
volley after volley of laser fire into Dengar's already damaged craft.
"All right, Jaina!" Jacen cried. "Go!"
Facing Zekk's unexpected and relentless pursuit, Dengar made a logical
choice. He set course for escape, and with an angry roar, his ship
careened into the sky.
Standing beside Tenel Ka, Jacen watched the bounty hunter's craft jet
upward at high speed until it was swallowed by the swirling black smoke.
.Dengar disappeared into orbit, leaving behind the smoldering wreckage
of his devastating attack.
Planting one fist on each of his hips, Raynar observed the bounty
hunter's departure with defiant satisfaction. "That'll teach him not to
tangle with young Jedi Knights!"
IN THE AFTERMATH of Dengar's attack, Zekk brooded, trying to find
answers to the question that now haunted him: how had the bounty hunter
found him? Despite this worry, Zekk was delighted when Jaina offered to
spend two days helping him recalibrate the Lightning Rod's systems.
Delusions of Grandeur Page 15