Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters by Kevin J. Anderson Read Free Book Online Page A

breakdown on the far side of the planet, sirs. One of our agricultural harvester droid production facilities. Administrator Hekis must remain there until the situation is resolved.”
    Vader said, “I am not interested in your emergencies. I wish to speak to Hekis. Establish a vidlink now—or shall we go visit him personally?”
    Fourex paused again, hesitating, then finally he said, “I will establish a vidlink. I’m certain I can connect you. Have no fear.”
    Vader answered as if it were a question, “I have none.”
    Threedee-Fourex slipped through the door and returned in a moment, wheeling a tall, silvery vidplate, a square frame that the administrative droid connected with a series of cables to a wall computer. The screen fizzed with multicolored static, focusing and shifting as an image took shape out of assembled pixels.
    A pale-faced man with a long chin and sunken eyes smiled insipidly through the vidplate. Behind him smoke poured from broken-down machines in an assembly plant. The black hemispherical bodies of low-to-the-ground machines splashed reflected light from red alarm beacons. Diagnostic droids and repair droids busied themselves, digging through the smoking machinery.
    The alarms dampened in the background as the voice pickup emphasized Hekis’s words. “Lord Vader, this is an unexpected surprise!”
    “We have come to make certain that our probe droid order is fulfilled properly,” Gurdun said. “We are anxious to see these machines delivered and put into the service of the Empire.”
    Hekis seemed flustered but trying to hide it. He gestured toward the disaster behind him. “Don’t be concerned with this minor flaw,” he said. Harvester droids scuttled away from the site of the wreckage, their crablike multipurpose arms thrust up out of the way so they could travel smoothly.
    “We’ve had no problems with the probot order. In fact, the design has been completed, the assembly lines retooled. We’ll begin mass-producing them within the next two days. You should have your entire order within a week. I believe that is several days ahead of schedule.”
    “Excellent!” Gurdun said, rubbing his hands together. “You see, Lord Vader? I told you we could trust our man Hekis.”
    The image of the administrator stuttered on the vidplate,then another large plume of black oily smoke boiled out of a new control chamber on the assembly line. Hekis whirled in alarm and said, “There are matters I must attend to here, Lord Vader. Accept my sincere apologies that I cannot be there in person. Rest assured, your probe droids will be delivered.”
    Without another word the image turned into static.
    “You see, we had nothing to worry about,” Gurdun said, feeling quite relieved. “Shall we go now, Lord Vader? You must have crucial duties that are far more important.”
    Vader stood like a statue, though, for a few moments, his breath hissing hollowly through his respirator. He turned from side to side, staring at the blank vidplate, then at the barren walls of Hekis’s office, then at the silvery droid Threedee-Fourex.
    Gurdun swallowed, growing impatient and uneasy. “Uh, what is it, Lord Vader? I really think we should let these droids get back to work.”
    “I’m not certain,” Vader said, his voice ominous. “I sense that something is not right here … but I can’t determine what it is.” Finally, Vader snapped his attention back. Towering over Gurdun, he strode back to the turbolift and his personal shuttle. “Make certain those probe droids are delivered,” Vader said to the silvery administrative droid.
    Threedee-Fourex stood stiffly and proudly. “We would not wish to disappoint you, Lord Vader,” he said.
    Vader stood tall, a blot of blackness against the smoky sky on the landing platform. His cape swirled around him. “No. You would not.”
VII
    IG-88 stood at the end of the manufacturing line, listening to the sounds of metal clinking, hydraulic jets spraying, components