Smada's stronghold was not difficult to find. As her uncle had told her, it lay just inside the forest on the far side of the village. Two towers of ugly brown stone rose up out of the trees. From a distance they looked like misshapen giants. By Hutt standards it was a small place, more like a summer cabin than a fortress, but to Tash it looked like a mansion.

It was nearly dark by the time Tash arrived there. Again she wondered what had happened to the day. Was it just later than she thought? But, no, she had only been awake for a few hours. Yet the day was all but gone.

She walked right up to the front door and knocked.

The Ganks let her in. They searched her thoroughly and made her leave the skimboard beside the door. Beyond the door was a large audience hall, just big enough to fit a Hutt's ego. There were six Gank bodyguards in the room. Smada the Hutt lolled atop his hoversled, chuckling to himself. In one corner, in a small cage, sat her brother.

"Tash!" he called out.

"Welcome," Smada said. "I've been expecting you."

"Let my brother go," Tash demanded.

The Ganks laughed.

"Certainly," Smada said. "As soon as you tell me where Hoole is."

Tash was stunned. "I don't know where he is. I thought you had captured him."

"Me?" the Hutt replied. "Don't be a fool, girl. If I had your uncle already, I wouldn't bother with you and your brother. You two are meaningless, but Hoole's Shi'ido powers will make me millions!"

"Your millions won't mean anything if you're dead," she said defiantly. "Do you have any idea what's going on around here? Didn't you feel the groundquake?"

Smada shrugged. "A tremor. Nothing significant."

"Have you been to the village? Everyone's gone!"

Smada sniffed. "As I said, nothing significant. Those villagers don't concern me. I wouldn't care if the ground opened up and swallowed them all. As long as I get my Shi'ido."

Tash tried again to convince him. "You're in as much danger as we are, Smada. People are disappearing. And the Enzeen are evil. They tried to kill me."

Smada laughed. "I will kill you, if you don't tell me where your uncle is. No, wait, I have a better idea."

He motioned to one of his Gank bodyguards. The enormous Gank plucked Zak out of his cage and dragged him to Smada's hoversled. "Let go of me, you ugly- "

"Silence," Smada growled threateningly. Zak glared at him but said nothing.

Pointing his blaster at Zak, Smada turned to Tash. "Tell me where your uncle is, or I will kill your brother."

CHAPTER 14.

Tash didn't know what to say. How could she save Zak when she didn't know the answer to Smada's question? But she had to say something.

Tash opened her mouth to speak. And as she did an enormous roar blasted through the chamber, echoing off the walls and deafening them all. Smada dropped his blaster and tried to cover his ears with his flabby hands. Even the ruthless Ganks shrieked and covered their ears. It was like nothing they had ever heard.

Except Tash, who recognized it.

It was the sound of a krayt dragon roaring.

Deevee stood in the doorway. He was battered and dented, but he was functioning. "Catch!" he called out, and slid something toward them.

It was Zak's skimboard. It clattered along the floor until Tash stopped it with one foot. "Zak, come on!" She stepped on board and felt the stick- strips cling to her feet. Zak was still a little disoriented, but he managed to hop on board as well. "Brace yourself," he warned.

He activated the repulsors, and Tash felt her stomach drop out.

They were suddenly floating three meters in the air. "C-can't you fly any lower?"

Zak actually laughed. "Nope. This is the lowest setting."

"Get them!" Smada roared. The Hutt and his bodyguards had recovered quickly from the shock of the dragon roar, but they were startled again to see their two prisoners suddenly floating so high off the ground.

"Blast them!"

The Ganks opened fire.

Zak and Tash saw white-hot energy beams flash around them. They heard blaster fire sizzle the air, and they smelled the acrid odor of ion burn.

But not a single shot touched them. "These guys are lousy shots!"

Zak laughed.

Tash remembered the gangsters' attack on Bebo. "It's not them, Zak.

It's this!" She pulled out the pendant she still wore. "This is what Bebo was wearing. It protected him from disappearing. And I think it protected him from the blasters!"

But there was no time to examine the device. The blaster bolts were missing them, but they came awfully close. Zak kicked the skimboard into gear and slashed toward the exit, where Deevee waited. Some of the Ganks continued to fire, while others leaped up, trying to grab them out of the sky. Zak twisted and turned the skimboard to dodge them.

"We have to get Deevee!" Tash said. "Are you sure this thing will lift all three of us?" she asked.

"Are you kidding?" Zak replied. "The way it's supercharged, it could carry a Hutt! But there isn't room for three people on board."

Tash yelled down to Deevee. "Grab hold of the bottom!"

Now that they were closer, Tash could see how badly damaged the droid was. Wiring was exposed where his silver covering had been torn away. Every inch of his body had been dented.

With a tremendous leap, the damaged droid launched himself upward and grabbed hold of the skimboard. He was hanging on the underside of the hoverboard, and the repulsors blasted him, but he held on.

"Can you make it, Deevee?" Tash called out.

"I don't seem to have much choice!" the droid replied. "Go!"

Zak hit the accelerator, and they zoomed out the open door. They were going to escape!

"You're all useless fools!" Smada the Hutt snarled at his Gank bodyguards.

He had not become a crime lord through ruthlessness alone-he had a brilliant and devious mind. He knew it was impossible that all his Gank bodyguards were missing their targets.

Smada picked up his blaster and took careful aim at the receding skimboard. He squeezed the trigger twice.

The high-velocity energy bolts covered the distance in an eye-blink. The first shot pa.s.sed right over Deevee's head and between his arms. The second shot creased the skimboard's underside, cutting off the propulsion that kept the board aloft. The microengines whined once, then the skimboard bucked wildly and dropped.

"Look out!" Tash cried. The hoverboard disappeared from beneath her feet and she was falling through the darkness. The ground rushed up to meet her and she struck it hard.

The wind had been knocked out of her, and she gasped. Next to her, she heard Zak suddenly shriek, "Help! Help!" Instinctively she grabbed for him and touched his arm. Instantly his shrieking stopped.

"What's wrong?" she yelled.

"I-I don't know," her brother said in utter confusion. "I felt something grab me. Then when you touched me, it stopped."

"Did you see it?"

"Tash, I can barely see you! It's pitch black out here."

It was true. Night had fallen. Which was impossible... unless the planet had begun to spin faster in s.p.a.ce.

Tash stood up, and immediately Zak screamed again. Tash felt his hand clutch desperately at her. "Don't let go! Don't let go of me again!"

he whimpered.

The fear in his voice terrified her. "What is it?"

Zak the daredevil, Zak the risk taker, was trembling with fright.

"I don't know. I don't want to know. But it's strong. And it will get me if you let go!"

CHAPTER 15.

"Deevee, can you see anything?" Tash asked. "Use your infrared."

"It's not functioning," the droid replied. "Most of my systems are offline, thanks to that beating the Enzeen gave me. Thank goodness they left me for sc.r.a.p before the job was done!"

"The Enzeen?" Zak asked, bewildered. "They attacked you?"

Tash quickly told her brother about the laboratory. The groundquake. The empty village. And that Hoole was missing.

Zak's voice was trembling as he said, "Great. What do we do?

Smada's behind us somewhere. The Enzeen are trying to kill you. Uncle Hoole's gone. And there's something in this darkness that's after us!"

"Is the skimboard working?" Tash asked.

Deevee had a tiny glowrod hooked into his photoreceptors, still functioning, which he lit for Zak. In the small beam of light, Zak examined his board. A long black scar ran across the board's main repulsor vent. The sharp smell of ozone lingered where Smada's shot had struck. "It's not going anywhere now. The micro-alluvial damper's shot.

But I think I can fix it if I get a minute to rewire it."

"We'd better make a run for it then. Deevee, can you run?"

"No," the droid said matter-of-factly. "You'll have to leave me behind."

"Not this time," Tash said. She put one arm around his waist. Zak a.s.sumed a similar position on the droid's other side.

"Which way?" Zak asked.

"Toward the s.p.a.ceport. Maybe together we can fly the Lightrunner out of here."

"I think not." A bright beam of light fell across them. Smada and his men had found them already.

The Hutt sat atop his hoversled, with his six Ganks around him. He glared at Zak and Tash through narrow slits. "Bring them here."

One of the Ganks lunged forward to grab them.

Then he vanished.

"Aiiiiiieeeeee!" A piercing scream sliced the air. "Help! Help me!

It's got me! Aiiiieee-!" It was suddenly cut off.

Smada shined his searchlight onto the spot where the thug had been.

But there was nothing there.

Not even a footprint.

"What is it?" Deevee cried. "What's going on?"

Out of the darkness, Smada answered. His voice was still powerful and commanding, but there was fear in it as well. "Something is out there." He shouted to his guards. "Bring those brats to me and let's get out of here!"

Cautiously another Gank stepped forward, while the others kept their blasters ready. This time Smada kept the searchlight trained on his henchman's back.

And this time they saw it. In the blink of an eye, a hole opened right under his feet and he dropped down. "Help!" the thug screamed.

The Gank threw his arms out wide as he was sucked downward, stopping his fall at his shoulders. He tried to scramble out of the hole, but it snapped shut around him like a jaw closing tight. The ground itself squeezed around his chest and he grunted in pain.

By that time the other Ganks had reached him. They grabbed hold of his hands and arms and tried to pull him out of the hole. But instead something far, far stronger pulled him another inch into the ground.

"Aaiiiiii!" the Gank screamed. It was terrifying to hear that sound come from the battle-scarred thug. "It's hurting me! It's hurting me!"