Star Wars: Shadow Games by Michael Reaves Read Free Book Online Page A

Tatooine.”
    “What did you think I was doing? This
tour
, as you like to call it, is my way of making sure we’re secure. If I don’t go over every centimeter of this ship, how can I foresee problems?”
    She aimed those violet laser cannon eyes at him for a moment more, then ordered Leebo to follow her back to the upper decks.
    “Nervous little thing, isn’t she?” Dash murmured.
    Somehow she heard him. She turned on her heel and marched back to meet him nose-to-nose, eyes narrowed to slits. “Who’re you calling
little
, space-monkey? I’m not little. I’m almost as tall as you are.”
    He glanced down. “You’re cheating. You’re standing on your toes.”
    She let herself down to her heels with a bump, pivoted, and marched away again, pulling Leebo into her wake.
    “These schematics you mentioned,” the droid said as she led him away, “would they happen to be holographic schematics? Three-dimensional schematics?”
    “Sure.”
    Dash, Eaden, and Captain Marrak continued making their way from stem to stern, even going out over the fantail on the observation deck to gaze back at the hull from that extreme point. Dash cocked his head to one side and eyed the lower hull.
    “She seems … deeper than the average 3500. More girth below the centerline.”
    “Indeed,” said Eaden, tilting his head in the same direction.
    The captain joined them in peering down the ship’s graceful flank. “Another modification the boss made. Increased stowage. Takes a lot of equipment to stage one of her shows. And a good-sized crew. Of course, we’re only part of the picture.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “We recently split the setup between two vessels: the
Nova’s Heart
and a freighter—the
Deep Core
. Each carries just enough equipment for her to be able to pull off a creditable performance if something should happen to the other ship or its cargo. Javul hates to let her fans down.”
    “Has she ever?” Dash asked.
    “No, but we had a near disaster about six months ago when one of our containers turned up empty. It was supposed to house a setup for a big cityscape performance framework that she uses. But somehow that got left behind … or stolen.”
    Dash wondered how much the captain knew of more recent developments. “Has Charn told you why we’re here?”
    “Of course. You’re security consultants.”
    Dash nodded. “So you’ll understand why I’m asking you if anything else … suspicious or strange—or even dangerous—has happened recently.”
    Marrak gave him a knowing look. “You mean the sort of thing that might have led to hiring a security consultant?”
    “Yeah. That sort of thing.”
    The Zabrak captain showed the first sign of emotion since Dash had met him. The emotion was unease. “Well, she will have told you about the black lilies … yeah, Ithought so. So I knew perfectly well that if the person who arranged that little present understood the symbolism … let’s just say it could be construed as a threat. But before that—about three weeks before that—we had a stowaway. A fan concealed himself in one of the containers and wasn’t found until we reached our next port of call. I understand he was in pretty bad shape when they found him. No food, water … little oxygen.” The Zabrak shuddered, his ritual tattoos horripilating as though momentarily imbued with life.
    “Really? Anybody aboard now who’d know more about the incident?”
    Marrak shrugged. “Dara would. And of course, the cargo master—Yanus Melikan. Since that incident he’s double-checked every container.”
    “Well, I may just have him triple-check it,” Dash said and drew a droll sidewise look from Eaden.
    “Would they have informed Javul Charn of this incident?” the Nautolan asked.
    Captain Marrak snorted. “Don’t know. Farlion will go to great lengths to keep our holostar from being rattled by stuff like that. She can be very protective.”
    “Really? I hadn’t noticed,” said Dash