"Ma'am, if I may suggest-"

"Get moving," the young woman cut him off, stepping back beside the wrecked ship and crouching down.

"If you can lure him close enough, I should be able to bring him down."

Bring him down? LaRone frowned in disbelief. Then, belatedly, he noticed the slender cylinder gripped in her hand.

A lightsaber.

He looked at her youthful face again, a sudden shiver running through him. An Imperial agent, a lightsaber- the rumors were true after all.

This woman was the Emperor's Hand.

"You have your orders, stormtroopers," he said between suddenly dry lips.

"Move it."

There were a dozen stormtroopers visible a block ahead, striding purposefully along the walkway, when Luke came to a sudden stop. "What's wrong?" Han demanded, his eyes on the Imperials.

"Nothing," Luke said. "We're here."

Han frowned, focusing for the first time on the dingy door and faded window menus beside him. A tapcafe? "She's hiding here?"

"You think maybe we can get inside?" Luke pressed, nodding toward the approaching stormtroopers.

Han shook his head. Her Royal Highcla.s.sness, hanging out in a place like this? Luke's mystic Jedi tricks must have popped a circuit breaker.

Still, anywhere out of sight of stormtroopers was a good place to be.

Pulling open the door, he stepped inside- And came to a sudden, disbelieving stop. Across the murky dining room and the clumps of alien heads, he saw her. Not just sitting in a back corner, either, trying to hide with a hood over her head. She was on her feet moving deftly through the crowded room, serving drinks.

Her Royal Perfectness was actually dressed in a cover-gown, serving drinks.

"There she is!" Luke said excitedly. "Yeah, I see her," Han said, giving the room another, more careful look. There had been no abrupt silence or turned heads, but the air in the dining room had suddenly taken on a static charge. Everyone had spotted the new arrivals, and they didn't seem at all happy about it. "Well?" Luke asked impatiently. Han braced himself. "Nice and easy," he muttered to the kid. Keeping his hand as close to his blaster as he could without being obvious about it, he started threading his way between the tables.

He was halfway there when a pair of Adarians in dusty workers' clothes stood up silently in front of him.

"Easy," Han soothed, holding up both hands, palms forward. "Just dropped in to see a friend." "Han?" Leia called.

Han looked between the two Adarians to see her coming toward him, surprise and relief" on her face. "We interrupting anything?" he asked casually.

"I'm so glad you're here," she breathed, her eyes flicking past his shoulder to Luke. "Both of you. How did you know I was in trouble? Never mind-we have to get out of here."

"Yeah, no kidding," Han said. "This place got a back door?"

"Yes-this way," Leia said, taking Han's arm. The two Adarians stepped aside, and Leia led the way between the tables and into the kitchen.

An orange-eyed Mungran female was waiting by the back door. "Safety in travel to you, Leia Organa," she rumbled. "We will not forget you."

"Neither will I forget you, Vicria," Leia said, bowing her head to the other. "Someday, when the slavery of the Empire is finally over- "We'll buy you a drink," Han cut in. Taking Leia by the shoulders, he hustled her through the door. Beyond was an alley, narrow and poorly lit and-for the moment, anyway-deserted. "Come on," he said, shifting his grip to Leia's arm and dragging her toward the alley's north end.

"Han, that was rude," she said accusingly. "These people helped me hide-"

"You want to be standing there thanking her when Vader comes in the front door?" Han interrupted. "That'll make good reading at her interrogation.

Come on-Chewie's waiting at the s.p.a.ceport,"

They were nearly to the end of the alley when Luke suddenly grabbed Han's arm. "Behind us-someone's coming," he hissed.

Han glanced around. As far as he could see the alley was still deserted.

But the kid had been right way too many times on this trip for Han to start doubting him now. "Over here," he said, drawing his blaster as he pulled Leia toward a stack of trash bins at the side of the alley.

Pushing her behind them, he pressed himself against her to give himself some cover as he peered down the alley. "Han-," Leia began. "Shh!"

"Han, you're crushing me," Leia complained, the words sounding like they were coming out between clenched teeth.

"You want me to get shot?" Han countered. There was something moving down there in the darkness now, coming up on them fast. They pa.s.sed beneath a dim light- "Scout troopers," Han muttered, feeling his stomach tighten. So that was the pattern of the day: the main body of stormtroopers searching the buildings from the main streets, scout troopers on speeder bikes patrolling the back alleys watching for runners. Neat and clean and personnel-efficient.

And Han had about thirty seconds to figure out how to take them out.

At his side, Leia was pushing against his shoulder.

"Stay put," he growled, looking around for inspiration. There was no other cover he and the others might get to, certainly nothing that would really hide them.

Which meant he would have to shoot the Imperials. Problem was, while he could probably take out one target from ambush without trouble, the second wasn't going to obligingly sit still for his next shot. But he was just going to have to risk it. From somewhere in the near distance, a sudden volley of blasterfire drifted across the quiet night air. Setting his teeth, Han lifted his blaster and lined it up on the first scout trooper.

With a final push, Leia shoved her way between him and the trash bins.

"What the krink are you doing?" he demanded quietly.

"Give me your blaster," she ordered, looking out at the approaching scout troopers.

"Look, Your Worship-"

Without another word she reached over and twisted the blaster from his hand. Han started to s.n.a.t.c.h it back, but she evaded his grasp, pushing him away with her elbow. He looked at Luke, but the kid was frowning down the alley toward the approaching scout troopers, his forehead creased in concentration. The distant blasterfire seemed to be getting worse, and Han saw the two scout troopers glance at each other across their speeders and accelerate.

Leia fired.

Not at either of the troopers, but up along the side of the building across the alley. Han looked up, frowning, and to his surprise saw a twenty-meter length of drainpipe lean ponderously out from the wall four floors up. With a splintering crack it broke free and tumbled toward the alley below. It hit the permacrete in front of the speeder bikes and bounced up just in time to catch both troopers squarely across their faceplates.

They flipped backward off the speeders, one of them slamming flat onto the ground, the other managing another quarter rotation before joining him. The speeder bikes, now riderless, coasted to a hovering halt; the scout troopers themselves didn't move at all.

"Let's go," Leia said, thrusting the blaster back into Han's hands.

"Which s.p.a.ceport did you say you were at?"

"Greencliff," Han said, giving the troopers and the mostly shattered drainpipe a final puzzled look. Someday he would have to ask Leia how she'd pulled that one off.

"Well, come on, then," she repeated impatiently, grabbing at his arm.

"Before they miss these two."

"Hang on a second," Han said, eyeing the idling speeder bikes. It was risky, he knew-civilians on military speeders would absolutely catch the eye of any roaming stormtroopers. But the time value might just be worth it, at least for a few blocks. "You ever ride one of these things?" he asked, nudging her toward the nearest bike.

"No," Leia said warily. "Han, I don't think-" "No, he's right-we can do it," Luke said. He went over to one of the bikes and gingerly climbed on.

"Okay," Leia said, clearly still not convinced. "But I'm driving."

"You said you'd never done it before," Han reminded her.

"Have you?" she countered.

"Well, not the military versions-"

"Then I'm driving," she concluded. "Besides, you need your blaster hand free in case we run into trouble."

Han made a face. Female logic. Still, she had a point. Drainpipe sharpshooter skills notwithstanding, he was still a better shot than she was, especially on the fly. "Absolutely, Your Worshipfulness," he said.

"Get on,"

They climbed onto the other speeder, Leia taking the saddle while Han balanced himself on the emergency gear storage bag behind her. He wrapped his left arm around her waist, noting with private amus.e.m.e.nt that she squirmed a little at his touch. This might turn out better than he'd thought.

It took both her and Luke a minute to figure out the controls, and the first twenty meters were pretty jerky going as they tried to fine-tune the throttle settings. But after that both of them seemed to get the hang of it and they were off, sticking to the back alleys. Fortunately, the other scout trooper patrols didn't seem to have gotten this far north yet.

Or else all the stormtroopers in the area had suddenly found more important things to worry about than a Rebel fugitive. The blasterfire coming from the northwest had intensified, with several different models of weapon in play. A major battle was taking place over there, right about the spot where LaRone had kicked him and Luke out of the speeder truck.

But if the stormtroopers were in trouble, they were on their own, at least for the moment. Maybe once he and Luke had Leia safely aboard the Suwantek they could come back and find out what was going on.

They'd made it about three blocks, and Luke and Leia were finally settling into a decent ride rhythm, when out of the comer of his eye Han spotted something flying south just above rooftop level to the west. He looked up- "Stop!" he barked, squeezing Leia tighter around her waist. "Luke!"

"What is it?" Leia called over her shoulder as she braked to a halt.

"That's our ship," Han told her, pointing toward the spot where the Suwantek had vanished over the city-scape.

"What?" Luke asked, sounding stunned. "Where?"

"Where all the blasterfire's coming from," Han said grimly. "Chewie's headed straight into the middle of it."

"That doesn't sound good," Luke said.

"No kidding," Han snarled, yanking out his comlink and thumbing it on.

Only to instantly shut it off again at the burst of static that erupted.

"They're jamming everything," he bit out, shoving the comlink back into his belt and pointing ahead at the next cross street. "Come on-that way.

We need to head him off."

"Right," Leia said, turning the speeder in that direction. Luke was already on the move, heading toward the cross street.

Han grimaced, hanging on tightly as Leia rounded the turn and kicked the speeder bike to full speed. It was LaRone and his friends in trouble, all right-he'd bet the Falcon's starboard cargo bay on that. And so naturally Chewie was there, too, charging to the rescue.

If they got out of this one alive, he promised himself darkly, he and Chewie were going to have a long talk about this sort of thing. A very long talk.

The scout trooper took off down the street, weaving his sluggishly evasive path as his underslung blaster spit defiant-and useless-fire at the approaching AT-ST. Mara crouched close beside her burning freighter, blinking against the smoke swirling around her as she mentally crossed her fingers. The AT-ST's chin blaster cannons depressed to track toward the trooper, and for a moment she thought Caaldra was going to fall for it.

But then the cannons lifted again, and the side-mounted light cannon turret swiveled around and opened fire. The trooper swerved around the blasts, ducked between the two huge jointed legs, and shot out the other side. The side turret swiveled around, continuing to lay down fire; as the scout veered to Mara's left out of the turret's range, the launcher on the AT-ST's other side hurled a concussion grenade at him.

The grenade hit the permacrete with an explosion that shattered half a block's worth of windows and slammed across Mara's face like a velvety hammer. She peered though the smoke, tensing, but as the air cleared she saw the scout trooper, still on his speeder, disappear around a building and down a side street. Safe, or at least not seriously injured, and coming around for another try.

The other stormtroopers were meanwhile not standing idle, but had settled into a rhythmic fire pattern that was pouring a withering barrage at the AT-ST's joints and sensor cl.u.s.ters and viewports. But the walker had been designed for exactly this kind of combat, and it shrugged off the fire with ease. Indeed, it almost seemed that Caaldra was enjoying the battle, especially the one-sidedness of it. Instead of throttling the AT-ST for top speed, which would have quickly run down his opponents, he had the walker moving almost casually along, daring his opponents to take their best shot.

There was a motion at her side, and Mara saw the squad commander drop into a crouch beside her. "I ordered you to fall back," she said.

"I needed to consult," he said tightly. "We think we may have a way to knock him out." "Explain."

"The gyro system is layered between the underside of the command module and the leg platform," the commander said. "If I can get my sniper up into one of the buildings ahead of it, he may be able to get a clean shot."

Mara looked back down the street behind the retreating stormtroopers.

Yes, there were several buildings back there that should work.

The problem was that the sniper would get exactly one shot. If he missed, or if the gyro was tough enough to survive the attack, Caaldra would simply swivel the command module around and blow both him and the building to rubble.

Which the commander and sniper both knew full well. "Get him set up,"

Mara ordered. "Let's hope we won't have to use him."

"Right." The commander gathered his feet beneath him, preparing for a sprint.

But before he could move, something suddenly roared past overhead, fire from the AT-ST's entire array of blaster cannons spattering across its underside. Reflexively, Mara ducked, her eyes tracking the intruder. Had Vader's scattered searchers finally decided to investigate all the noise coming from this end of town?

Only it wasn't a stormtrooper transport up there. In fact, it wasn't an Imperial vehicle of any sort. It was some kind of freighter, its features blurred by the smoke and darkness and its own speed. Even as she watched, it veered around and came back again, slowing down on its repulsorlifts as if studying the extraordinary street scene below. "Get him out of here!" Mara ordered.

'The comms are being jammed," the commander reminded her.

"I know that," Mara snapped. "Wave him off, then- do something. He's a sitting avian up there." "I'll, try." The commander stood up and lifted his hands high.

And at that moment there was a multiple flicker of blasterfire from somewhere behind the AT-ST.

Luke arrived at the main street and wobbled his speeder bike to a halt at the edge of the building on the corner. Leia stopped behind him and Han jumped off, running the last couple of meters. Blaster ready, he peered around the corner.

Less than half a block away was an Imperial AT-ST, its back to them, striding ponderously southward down the street. A block beyond it was some kind of smoking wreckage, probably the freighter he and the others had seen being shot down. Through the billowing smoke he could see someone standing up in plain sight, apparently unaware of the approaching walker, while beyond him some even vaguer figures seemed to be firing at the AT-ST.

And wheeling around over their heads, looking for all the world like it was thinking about ramming the walker, was Chewbacca in LaRone's Suwantek.

"I guess they're more serious than I thought," Leia said tightly from his side.