Star Wars: The Last of the Jedi, Volume 3 by Jude Watson Read Free Book Online

nowhere to go.
    And anything he could do to destroy the Empire that had destroyed his family—he’d do it.
    “We know now that Malorum believes the Jedi is alive and on Coruscant,” Ferus said. “We’d better ditch this speeder fast and start looking.”
    “Now?” Trever asked as Ferus piloted the speeder to a landing at a crowded platform. “Don’t you ever stop?”
    “Not having a good time?”
    “Food and sleep would be nice.”
    “No sleep, not yet. But I can get you some food where we’re headed. If he’s still there.” So much had changed, Ferus thought—he didn’t expect anything to be
the same. But he couldn’t stop hoping.
    It was gone. Where Dexter’s Diner once occupied its tiny space there was now an empty lot. Ferus stood, looking at the space where it had been. It had been razed.
Why?
    He didn’t know Dexter Jettster all that well. He’d only met him a couple of times. But Obi-Wan had told him to look up Dexter if he ever needed information or help, and to tell him
that Obi-Wan had sent him. The fact that Obi-Wan trusted Dexter with the fact that he was still alive meant something.
    Ferus kicked at a piece of rubble. He wasn’t the only one who knew Dexter Jettster. His diner was known throughout Galactic City. Someone had to know what had happened to him.
    A woman in a red cloak passed by and smiled at him. “I’ve seen that expression on so many faces,” she said. “Looking for sliders, right?”
    “They were the best in the galaxy. What happened?”
    “Disappeared,” she said. “Happened the same night the Empire destroyed his diner.”
    “Why?”
    “Accused of subversion, aiding and abetting enemies of the Empire.”
    “The usual,” Ferus said bitterly.
    The woman gave him a sharp look. “Be careful what you say,” she said softly.
    There was a human man walking near them. Probably just someone on his way home after a long day of work. But you never knew who could be an Imperial spy.
    Ferus waited until the man had passed. “Do you know what happened to Dexter?”
    “Rumors,” she said. “Coruscant is always full of rumors. Some say he was arrested. Some say he is dead. Some say he travels the galaxy, just as he used to, going from job to
job on energy-harvesting freighters. And some say he’s joined the Erased.”
    That term again. “‘The Erased’?” Ferus asked.
    She gave him a curious look. “You don’t know about them?”
    “I...I left Coruscant a long time ago.”
    She gave him an appraising look. “Well, if you’re back here, you should know about them. The Enemy Eradication Order of Coruscant was issued shortly after the Emperor took over. It
was specifically designed to target those who had been active in the Republic. At first, it was just surveillance. They’d have to check in with an Imperial officer every week. They were
forbidden to travel. But soon surveillance led to arrest, arrest to death or a living death, so...some engineered their own disappearance. They help each other now. You can get rid of your name and
your ID docs and any record of your existence and simply...”
    “Disappear.”
    “As if you’d never been born. They say they live below. Far below, in one of the sublevels.”
    “I see. I’m glad for Dexter, if he did make it out. He was a friend.” Their words had passed back and forth, but something else was going on underneath. She was sizing him up,
trying to decide what he was. And he was telling her, with every word, that she could trust him. He knew that she knew more than she was telling.
    “It’s dangerous,” she said. She glanced around furtively.
    “Everything is dangerous, these days.”
    Her brown eyes were wary, and she appeared to make a decision. “My advice, of course, is not to go in the orange district near sunset.”
    “Thank you for the advice,” Ferus said, as she nodded briefly and walked away. Did he imagine it, or did she breathe “good luck” as she passed him?
    Most of his missions