Luke hurried. He reached the control seat and sat, strapped himself down.

"Yeah? Anybody we know?" He was already reaching for preflight switches.

"I didn't get close enough to read nameplates, but the lead ship is a Star Destroyer."

"Victory-cla.s.s?"

"Bigger than that."

"Imperial-cla.s.s?"

"Try again."

Luke looked away from the controls at Lando, eyes going wide. "No."

"Yep. Super-cla.s.s."

"Is it... Executor?"

"Like I said, I didn't get that close. But how many of those are there?

They don't crank those babies up just for fun." Luke stared into infinity. Was it Darth Vader? What would he be doing here? "Let's finish the flight check fast," Lando said. "I don't think we want to stick around here."

"I hear that. Wait. Artoo is in my X-wing."

"I know, I spotted it. I've got a tractor beam with his name on it. I'll overfly the X-wing and pull it up; we'll stow it in the hull clips."

Lando pointed at the control screen. "We're going to slingshot out of here and hit lightspeed fast. Even if it isn't Vader on that monster, we don't want to tangle with it."

Luke nodded and reached for the comm. "Where are we going?"

"Back to Tatooine. That's where Leia wants us to go."

"Where is she?"

"Let's talk about that later, okay?" Lando touched controls, listened as the ship's engines came online.

"Better sit down back there, Goldie," Lando yelled. "We are about to be gone!"

25.

A hundred stormtroopers surrounded the building, blasters ready to cook anybody who twitched.

Darth Vader stood in the darkness staring at the breach that had been blown in the building's wall.

Night insects hummed, and the air smelled of burned insulation. He didn't need to go inside to know that Luke was not there; if the boy was anywhere within fifty kilometers he would certainly have felt him.

These bounty hunters had captured him-then they had lost him.

Vader was not pleased.

The commander of the stormtroopers stood nervously nearby, waiting for a command. Vader gave him such: "Bring me the highest-ranking survivor."

"At once, my lord." The commander waved, and a squad moved into the building. Shots were exchanged.

Time pa.s.sed.

Two troopers emerged, dragging a man between them. They brought him to where Vader stood and released him. The prisoner tottered but stayed on his feet.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Y-Y-Yes, Lord Vader."

"Good. Where is Skywalker?"

"H-H-He escaped."

Vader clenched his fist, and the man clawed at his throat. "I know he escaped, fool." The man choked; his eyes grew wider. Vader waited for a few seconds, then opened his hand.

The man gasped, sucked in air. "I was a-a-asleep, my lord. I awoke to blaster fire. I left my quarters and saw Skywalker in the hall. It-it didn't seem real. A dozen of us shot at him and he waved that lightsaber back and forth and blocked the bolts!"

Despite his anger, Vader was pleased. The boy's skill and power were increasing. "Continue."

"More of our men arrived. We were sure to overcome him, but then the wall blew in. We were attacked. I couldn't tell how many there were, fifteen, maybe twenty. We were outnumbered. When the fighting was over, Skywalker was gone."

Vader glanced up into s.p.a.ce. And offplanet, too, he would wager. He would take his shuttle back to the Executor; perhaps it was not too late to catch him.

He glanced back at the bounty hunter. "I understand that someone else wanted Skywalker. Who?"

"I-I don't know, Lord Vader-"

Vader raised his hand again, started to curl his fingers into a fist.

"Wait! Please! I don't know, we-we dealt with agents."

He looked at the bounty hunter. Felt something more there.

"You have a suspicion," Vader said. Not a question.

"I-some of us heard rumors. I don't know if they are true."

"Tell me."

"We-we heard that it was... Black Sun."

Vader stared at the man. Of course.

"And this other,.. bidder wanted Skywalker alive and well?"

"N-N-No, my lord. They wanted him dead."

Abruptly he turned away, the prisoner forgotten. Of course. He had unconsciously suspected it all along. Now that it was out, it made perfect sense. Xizor wanted to thwart Vader in any manner he could. What better way than to kill his son, and by the same act embarra.s.s him in front of the Emperor?

"Back to the shuttle," he said to the commander. "What about this sc.u.m?"

He waved at the building and the prisoner. "Leave them. They are worthless." Vader was already walking away.

The Falcon hung in high orbit, about to slingshot away. Artoo was safely on board, and Luke's X-wing was clamped in place. Luke didn't trust the haphazard rig that slung the fighter on the larger vessel, but it kept it out of the way of the guns, and it should hold. He hoped.

"Artoo! I didn't think I would ever see you again!" Threepio said.

Artoo whistled at Threepio.

"Yes, we have had our share of adventures, as well. I must say I don't like all this business the least bit. Couldn't we find a nice quiet planet and take a vacation? Someplace warm, with a deep pool of lube?"

Luke grinned. Artoo and Threepio were always amusing. Lando broke from orbit and headed out into interplanetary s.p.a.ce. "How long before we can make the jump to hypers.p.a.ce, Master Lando?"

"Couple of minutes," he replied. "And how's this for a change of luck-there aren't even any Imperial vessels on our tail. About time something went our way."

Luke nodded. While waiting for Lando to bring the hyperdrive online, he said, "How's Dash doing? He was pretty upset after we hit that freighter."

"Not so good. Pretty depressed. He can't believe he actually failed at something. Had to happen sooner or later, but he isn't used to it."

"Stuff like that goes on in war," Luke said. "You get disappointed." Like he had been with Dash. Too bad. "Yeah. What was in the computer that was so important, anyway?"

Luke shrugged. "I don't know. The Bothans had just broken it open when the bounty hunters. .h.i.t the safe house."

"Did the bounty hunters get the computer?"

"I don't think so. I don't think they even knew it was there. They were after me. Last I saw, one of the Bothan techs had the computer. I believe he escaped with it."

"If he did, the Bothans will get it to the Alliance," Lando said.

"They're pretty dependable. I guess we'll find out what it was eventually."

"Yeah."

"Stand by for the jump to hypers.p.a.ce."

Lando hit the control.

Nothing happened.

Luke turned to stare at him.

"Oh, dear," Threepio said. "There seems to be a problem."

"It must be one of Han's modifications!" Lando said. "My people supposedly fixed this thing on Bespin! It's not my fault!"

"Fine. What do we do now?"

"Find a place to hide and fix it before we b.u.mp into the Imperial Navy."

"That sounds like an excellent idea," Threepio said. Artoo whistled his agreement.

Guri led Leia and Chewie back into the Underground. They walked for hours, turning and twisting into narrower and narrower corridors.

Eventually they came to a heavy, locked gate that Guri opened. She locked the gate behind them, and they moved into what looked like a small repulsor train station.

A man waited there. He was short, squat, and bald, built like a freight handler from some heavy gee world. He wore gray coveralls and had a blaster strapped on his left hip. He smiled, revealing teeth he'd had done in what looked to be black chrome.

Guri said, "Go with him."

"Where are you going?"

"Not your business. Just do as you are told and you will see Prince Xizor soon enough."

She turned and walked away without another word.

The bald man came over to stand in front of Leia. "This way," he said.

Baldy led the way to a small motorized cart parked outside. There was barely enough room in it for the three of them. Fortunately, there was a convertible roof on the thing, so with the top down, Chewie could sit up without b.u.mping his head. They drove into a tunnel halfway around the circle of shops. Baldy touched a control on the cart, and a heavy metal grate covering the mouth of the corridor slid into the ceiling. Inside, the tunnel was clean, well lighted, no mold or graffiti on the walls, the floor free of dirt.

They drove for a long time; they probably covered ten or twelve kilometers. Finally the tunnel opened out into a large chamber, in the middle of which sat a bullet car floating on magnetic repulsors over a single rail track.

Wherever they were going, it must be a way off; maglev cars could cover long distances in a hurry, three, four hundred kilometers an hour, especially in a complete tunnel such as this one was. It didn't pay to get them up to speed for anything less than a fairly long run.

Chewie and Leia followed Baldy into the car. When they were seated and strapped in, Baldy said, "Go."

The bullet car moved smoothly away from the chamber and into a dark tunnel. It picked up velocity fast. A row of small yellow service lamps ringed the tunnel every few hundred meters, and it wasn't long before the yellow circle seemed to be flashing over them continuously.

Wherever they were going, they were going to get there pretty soon, even if it was halfway around the planet.

Leia looked at Chewie and wished she could read his expressions better.

He looked calm. Calmer than she felt.

She hoped she was doing the right thing, though it was a little late to worry about that now, wasn't it?

What's the problem?" Luke said.

From the service well below him, Lando's reply was more than a bit irritated: "The problem is that Han and Chewie have completely reset, rewired, and screwed up this whole ship! I'm looking at a serpent's nest of wires where there is supposed to be a pop-out circuit board! The schematics don't apply to anything here!"