Star Wars: The Last of the Jedi, Volume 5 by Jude Watson Read Free Book Online

charge, he lobbed it toward the first bin. The tiny explosion was covered by the noise of the hangar.
    The charge blew a small hole in the fuel container. The fuel began to dribble out. It formed a small stream that snaked toward the sparking tool. Trever backed up slowly, then dashed toward
Solace and Oryon.
    He felt the explosion at his back. It lifted him through the air and slammed him down on the permacrete. He felt his breath leave his body.
    “Galactic,” he breathed. He rolled over and took cover.
    Droids converged by the fire. With no automatic fire protection equipment or hoses, they had to scuttle back and forth between the fire stations and the blaze. The labor droids turned to monitor
the situation, but the confusion overwhelmed them.
    Oryon was already moving, leaping toward the dataport. Solace moved to guard him in case he was spotted. Trever decided to stay where he was. He watched Oryon’s fingers fly over the
datakeys.
    Something alerted him, a flicker at the corner of his vision. It was a security droid, trying to get a fix on his position. Trever reached for a charge in his belt, but Solace had already seen
the droid. She leaped up to slash it in two with her lightsaber.
    And just like that, they were spotted.
    Security droids wheeled and advanced, firing at them. Oryon raced from the dataport, Solace covering his retreat with her lightsaber. She moved like wind and water, with no trace of effort. Her
lightsaber was a revolving circle of light. Trever waited, knowing that Oryon and Solace would come for him.
    They did, running quickly, Oryon’s blaster firing, Solace’s lightsaber arcing and moving. Trever tossed a few half alpha-charges and then ran.
    Solace motioned to them and they charged into a small shuttle. Oryon jumped behind the controls. Trever leaped for the laser cannon. He blasted away at the droids as Oryon fired up the engines
and they zoomed out of the hangar and shot up into the atmosphere. In moments, the landing platform was a spot on the surface of the planet. A thin trail of gray smoke marked where the fire
was.
    “So much for not attracting attention,” Oryon said.
    “Can’t be helped,” Solace answered. “Did you get any information?”
    “Not enough,” Oryon said. “The ship’s location is coded, and I didn’t have enough time to break it. I did learn something interesting, though—the ship is the
pet project of a Senator named Sano Sauro. There’s a direct comlinkage between his office and the vehicle.”
    “Never heard of him,” Solace said. “I stay away from Senate politics.”
    “He’s in the Emperor’s inner circle,” Oryon said. “A nasty piece of work. Maybe Keets and Curran can help us from their end.”
    “I’ll send them the information,” Solace said, taking out her comlink.
    “Sorry I couldn’t get more,” Oryon said.
    Trever looked around the cabin. “No sweat. At least we got a nice ship.”
    “There’s nothing more we can do at the moment,” Solace said. “We’ll have to play hide-and-seek with the Empire for a while. We’ll see what Curran and Keets
can come up with.”

The atmosphere at Dex’s hideout was tense. Dexter Jettster had finally left Curran and Keets alone in the study, unable to put up with their bickering. They were going
through information sheets on any link between Samaria and either the Senate or the Empire, and it was rough going. There was plenty of information to study, but no links that stood out. The search
was wearing on both Keets’s and Curran’s nerves. They both needed to be doing something, and this felt like a waste of time.
    After Solace finished her brief request, Curran shut off the comlink. He fixed Keets with his sharp, penetrating gaze. His nose twitched.
    “What did I do now?” Keets threw a wadded-up paper from a muja muffin on top of the pile of durasheets on his table. He brushed the crumbs off his tunic.
    “We almost missed that communication. The comlink should be