Tales from the New Republic by Peter Schweighofer Read Free Book Online

over and smiled broadly at him. She took the datapad from her left hand into her right and thrust it into the vehicle, stabbing toward the datapad he had mounted in the dashboard holder. “Our maps look different.”
    The driver studied her map, then his own, taking her datapad into his hands to do so. Moranda crossed her arms and let the datacards in her left hand slip, one by one, down into the window well of the landspeeder’s door. She coughed lightly to cover the minute clicks as they descended, and was pretty certain that the driver would take any sounds he heard to be key clicks from the datapad.
    The driver handed her back her datapad. “See, this is East Ryloth Street. Your map was showing West Ryloth Street. You were five kilometers off, that’s why you couldn’t tell where you were.”
    “Oh, thank you very much.” Moranda studied the datapad, then shook her head and smiled. “I can’t tell you what a big help you’ve been.” She backed away from the vehicle and headed off the way she had come, valiantly resisting the urge to burst out laughing. The prize he came here for is now ten centimeters from him and he has no clue .
    Unable to help herself, Moranda spun around in midstreet, thinking to thank the man again. As she came around, she looked up and locked eyes with Hal Horn.
    Seeing Moranda Savich there, in the middle of the street, capering around in a circle like a child, sent a jolt through Hal Horn. He started to move after her, but the Darkknell Security woman’s hand became a claw on his arm. Moranda had already turned and begun to run when Hal looked at his escort. “She’s getting away.”
    “Trabler,” the woman snapped, “get her.”
    The driver’s door on the landspeeder in front of the store opened and a huge man piled out. Hal knew he was huge not only because he towered over the roof of the landspeeder, but his massive paw dwarfed the blaster he drew from beneath his jacket. Hal recognized it as a Luxan Penetrator, favored by many because of its concealability and the serious power it packed. Most models didn’t even have a stun setting and that, combined with a cool sense of lethality rippling off the man, prompted Hal to act.
    He took a second to focus, then used a trick his father had taught him long ago, before the Clone Wars and before the Jedi hunters had come. He pushed his consciousness into Trabler’s mind. He saw through Trabler’s eyes, watching the Penetrator come up and center itself on Moranda Savich’s back. He watched Trabler track her for a second and knew she’d never reach the safety of the alley in time.
    Drawing on the Force within himself, he projected a blurred image of Moranda into Trabler’s mind.
    Trabler’s finger tightened on the trigger. A red-gold beam stabbed out and caught Moranda in the shoulder just as she reached the alley. Hal heard her scream and watched her tumble down into a pile of debris. He started to go after her, but Isard held on to him again.
    Hal batted her arm away. “What are you doing? She’s down, either dead or seriously wounded. I need to check.”
    The woman’s eyes narrowed and though their color did not match, the venom in them did. “We will have the locals find her and bring her to the morgue. We have more important business to attend to.”
    Hal frowned, wishing he could get a solid read off the woman. His use of the Force had left him a bit drained—it had been far too long since he had done anything that active, and he was grossly out of practice. As a result, he couldn’t even get the menace that had to be roaring off Trabler as the man turned and aimed his blaster at Hal. “What’s going on here?”
    Glasc’s face tightened. “I couldn’t tell you in there, but we have a Rebel operative on the loose and I need your help in tracking him.”
    “Look, you got me out here saying you were helping me with my case, and now your man has killed my suspect. I’m not here to hunt Rebels.”
    Her chin came up.