“Delay,” Obi-Wan said. “The Jedi can help you. More are arriving.”
“I did not call for the Jedi.”
“I did,” Obi-Wan said. “The Senate has approved.”
Joylin stood. “This is my world,” he said, his voice steely. “I have worked and sacrificed for twenty years to stand here. I will not risk the collapse of a government by the people.”
“Excuse me,” Obi-Wan replied. “From where we are standing, it appears that you are the government.”
Joylin planted his fists on the desk and leaned forward. His face was composed, but his eyes shone bright and hostile.
“Your interference is unwelcome. I have nothing more to say. Go, or I’ll have you thrown out.”
Obi-Wan was perfectly aware that no one in the palace had the power to throw them out. Yet a battle now would do no good. He and Siri turned and walked out.
On the way back to the villa, they talked over what to do next. It was clear that they had antagonized Joylin. They didn’t know how much longer he would allow them to remain on Romin. That didn’t mean they had to leave. It would just make things more difficult.
“I think our best bet is to find Teda,” Obi-Wan said. “If Zan Arbor is with him, it will solve two of our problems.”
“Agreed,” Siri said. “But where can we look where Joylin’s people haven’t already?”
They walked past the gates of the villa. Ferus hurried toward them.
“We just received a message,” he said. “It’s from Teda and Zan Arbor. They request a meeting with the Slams. And since the revolt took place before the real Slams met Teda, that’s us.”
Chapter Fourteen
Teda and Zan Arbor were at a safe house well outside the city. The Jedi borrowed a Gian airspeeder from one of the refugees they’d taken in. The house was in a forest so densely wooded that they had to abandon the speeder and hike in to the prearranged coordinates. They were met by General Yubicon, Teda’s chief of staff.
“It’s just a quarter kilometer this way,” he said.
Anakin could tell that the general led them in a way designed to confuse them. He did not realize he was dealing with Jedi. Anakin knew he could find his way back easily.
They came to a small clearing. The house in front of them was made of prefabricated plasteel materials so it could be dismantled and moved quickly. That must have been Teda’s secret. His safe house never stayed in the same place.
Guards encircled the house. Anakin knew more were positioned in the woods. He couldn’t see them, but he knew they were there. Obviously, Teda had retained at least part of his army.
A guard at the door ushered them in. They were expected.
The house was tiny compared to the palace, but it was not rustic. It was furnished sparely but lavishly, with plush seating and thick rugs. The rooms flowed into each other, forming a square around a central courtyard that was open to the sky. They were led to the courtyard, where they found Teda and Jenna Zan Arbor waiting for them.
Teda seemed a bit shaken, but Zan Arbor was composed. Not a hair of her perfect coiffure was out of place. Wearing his mask once more, Anakin kept to the rear with Ferus as Obi-Wan and Siri moved forward. As one of the lesser members of the Slam gang, he hoped to escape Zan Arbor’s notice completely. He still remembered the intense focus she had given him as she questioned him about the Force. He wasn’t afraid of her, but he wouldn’t mind staying out of her way.
As Anakin expected, Teda and Zan Arbor were totally focused on Siri and Obi-Wan, the leaders of the gang. The Jedi had changed back into their Slam wardrobes. Siri was wearing another revealing robe, this time in a pale pink. She had complained about having to don her attire again, but you’d never know it now by the way she drifted forward and let her hand rest in Teda’s in greeting. You’d never suspect that she held the leader in contempt as she smiled, turned so that her skirt flared out, and settled herself in a chair, coyly crossing her legs. Obi-Wan, too, managed to continue his part of the farce, smiling graciously as he sat to the sound of his jingling robes.
“Thank you for coming,” Teda said. “Of course you realize that this so-called revolt of the people is a temporary situation only. It will all go away, I assure you.”
“But that is not why you are here,” Zan Arbor said, obviously bored by the subject of the revolt. “You came to me yesterday and offered me a chance to join you in an enterprise. Unfortunately, I had to refuse you. Now I ask for the chance to tempt you instead.”
Obi-Wan tilted his head. “I’ll try to forgive you for refusing me. Please continue.”
Siri gave Teda a glance through her eyelashes. “I love to be tempted.”
Zan Arbor looked annoyed at Siri’s flirtatiousness. “Teda and I have been working together on a certain enterprise—”
“Excuse me,” Teda said. “But I haven’t lost my title, you know.”
Out of Teda’s sight line, Zan Arbor rolled her eyes. “Great Leader Teda and I are partners together in an enterprise. Because of the sudden, surprising nature of the revolt, even though there was enough warning if you were clever enough to catch it, and the complete inability of Romin’s supposedly great army to retaliate—”
Interesting, Anakin thought. Zan Arbor isn’t afraid of Teda in the least. She’s taunting him, right to his face. And he’s taking it.
“—we find ourselves in a situation in which we are in need of your help. Thus we are able to offer you a chance to join with us. In short, we need false text docs, very complete, which I understand is your specialty.”
“That would not be a problem,” Obi-Wan said. “We just need access to our ship and our files. Our ship has survived the revolt, I’m happy to say.”
“Mine did not,” Zan Arbor said, flicking an angry gaze at Teda. “It was a Luxe Flightwing. Completely destroyed.”
“Ah. So you are stranded on Romin.” Obi-Wan clucked his tongue. “How unfortunate.”
“Naturally, we will pay you your normal fee,” Teda said.
“Or a little more,” Obi-Wan said with a grin. “Considering the circumstances.”
Zan Arbor nodded, an acceptance of Obi-Wan’s point that they had no one else to turn to. “We also need your heist skills for a particular job. Or rather, this is not just a job. It’s an opportunity to change your lives. The scope of it means that if we are successful, you can retire and live very well for the rest of your lives.”
“We already live well,” Siri pointed out.
“You will live better,” Zan Arbor snapped.
“And you will not be a fugitive,” Teda said in a voice like honey. “You will have plenty of systems to choose from to live in.” He winked at Siri. “Just tell me where you choose, so I can visit.”
“In other words, you are in the right place at the right time, for once,” Zan Arbor said. “You have a chance to change your destiny as small-time crooks.”
“Jenna, Jenna,” Teda chided. “You are talking about the Slams. They are brilliant masterminds.”
Zan Arbor waved a hand. “I mean no disrespect. I speak the truth. I am offering them something they would never be able to contemplate by themselves. Slam, even though you lie for a living, you should respect that I won’t lie to you. Now, where is your ship?”
“It’s at the main landing platform. Fueled and ready.”
“Good. So, are you in?”
“Whoa, let’s pull back on the throttle a bit. I haven’t heard enough yet,” Obi-Wan said. Anakin knew what his Master was thinking. He had to get more information, information that Zan Arbor and Teda wouldn’t want to part with. This must be the scheme that Zan Arbor was working on with Granta Omega.
“We’re intrigued,” Siri chimed in. “We need a few more details. What is the nature of the job?”
“You don’t need to know that yet,” Zan Arbor said.
“Are you well financed?” Obi-Wan asked.
“That is not a problem,” Zan Arbor assured him.
“Do you have other p
artners?” Obi-Wan asked.
“One other,” Zan Arbor said reluctantly.
Siri fixed her blue gaze on Teda. “I hope that this partner’s stature is as great as yours. Though I can’t imagine it.”
“It is,” Teda boasted, before Zan Arbor could stop him. “He is the most powerful business power in the galaxy. He—”
“That is enough,” Zan Arbor interrupted. She turned to Obi-Wan. “Now, our first step is to get off-planet. We must get to your vehicle.”
“Have you heard Joylin’s ultimatum?” Obi-Wan asked Teda. “He is threatening to execute your loyal officers. Hansel is the first.”
“I heard. Oh, poor Hansel. I feel so very badly for him,” Teda said with a sigh. He rubbed his hands together. “Now, are you sure you have enough fuel? We are traveling to the Core, to Coruscant.”
“Coruscant?” Obi-Wan asked.
“Teda, be quiet,” Zan Arbor snapped, her voice hard. “Who is your text doc expert?” she asked Obi-Wan.
“Waldo,” Obi-Wan said, indicating Anakin.
Zan Arbor turned. The sun came out from behind a cloud, and Anakin felt suddenly exposed in the bright light, even with his headgear disguise.
A long moment ticked by. Anakin felt uncomfortably warm. The Force suddenly surged. A warning.
“I know you,” she said.
“I don’t believe so.”
“We have crossed paths.”
“Perhaps,” Obi-Wan said. “We’ve traveled widely.”
“Joylin has closed down the spaceport, but we have received permission to leave,” Siri interrupted. “However, we must do it within the hour. Can you be ready?”
“I am ready now,” Zan Arbor said. Her attention slid away from Anakin. There were more pressing matters to deal with.
“Then let us go,” Obi-Wan said.
There was a commotion outside. Teda leaped to his feet, a blaster in his hand. The Jedi turned.
The real Slam and the rest of his gang burst into the courtyard. Slam pointed a finger at Obi-Wan.
“Impostors!” he cried.
Chapter Fifteen
Teda looked alarmed, but Zan Arbor suddenly smiled, as if she had just figured something out. She turned back to Anakin.
“Jedi,” she said. “Now I remember.”
Now Teda looked panicky. “Jedi?”
She rose and drew closer to Anakin, ignoring the Slams and the other Jedi. “Good disguise. But it isn’t your face that beings remember. It’s your manner. Your power. The way you move. I remembered you after our visit together on Vanqor. I asked about you. Teda, don’t you admire me for recognizing that this scruffy prisoner, one among so many, was different? You’re Anakin Skywalker.”
She gazed at him with a hungry expression. Anakin felt unnerved.
“I have studied the Force for so long,” she murmured. “Never did I expect such a prize.”
“I’m not your prize,” he spat out.
“Well, you’re my prisoner, and that’s the same thing. Do you know how many guards are surrounding you right now?”
Obi-Wan shot Anakin a look. The Jedi could fight. They could escape. But Obi-Wan was telling him to wait. They had more to discover. The stakes were too high.
“We can take them to the prison and have them executed on the spot,” Teda said.
“Don’t be so hasty,” Zan Arbor said.
“Look, you don’t have to kill them,” Slam said, looking uneasy now. “Just tell them to stop impersonating us.”
Valadon, as tall as Siri and as blond, shot her an icy look. “And give us our clothes back.”
Zan Arbor had not taken her eyes off Anakin. “Do you know what we have here, Teda?”
“Yes,” he moaned. “A big headache.”
“Leverage. Remember our discussion before? If we bring a great prize to our partner, he will look at us differently. We can negotiate a different split.”
“What are you talking about, Jenna?” Teda asked impatiently. “Prizes? Leverage? Please remember I am a ruling ruler who was just kicked out of his palace. I’m not in the best of moods!”
“The Chosen One,” Zan Arbor said softly to Anakin, so that no one else could hear. “I was told about you. My interest in the Force is deep. Enough to know how your destiny is your burden. Do you remember the Zone of Self-Containment? I can bring that back to you.”
He remembered feeling content, a contentment without a tether to sadness or guilt. There was just the sun and serenity, a serenity he had never achieved as a Jedi. The Jedi had promised him that, and it had not happened. Perhaps it never would.
“Ah,” she said softly, “speaking of temptation…”
He pulled off the mask. There was no need for it now. “I’m not tempted by you,” he responded.
“I saw how you enjoyed it,” she said. “I can make all your burdens disappear.”
“My only burden at the moment is having to talk to you,” Anakin shot back.
She smiled. Anakin could see that once, before evil had twisted her, she had been seductive. Her smile was lush, appreciative, inviting.
“You remind me of someone I knew a long time ago,” she said.
Obi-Wan overheard that. “Qui-Gon Jinn,” he said.
Zan Arbor whirled around. She walked closer to Obi-Wan. “Do I know you?”
“Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
She laughed in delight. “Obi-Wan! But you were just a boy! You’ve grown up well,” she said, appraising him. “I heard Qui-Gon died on Naboo. And Yaddle has recently ‘joined the Force,’ hasn’t she—a Jedi Council member? It makes you think, doesn’t it?” She shook her head. “What is happening to the Jedi? Their strength diminishing, their best leaders struck down. And yet they don’t see that they are declining. Such a pity to watch. So intriguing to study.”
Anakin saw Siri’s eyes flash. She did not speak. He knew from experience that she did not spar with villains. She just waited her turn. She was absolutely certain at all times that she would prevail in the end. He liked that certainty. He held an image in his mind of Zan Arbor back on a prison world while he, Obi-Wan, Siri, and Ferus watched her being led away. He needed to hold on to that vision.
“Jenna, we need to plan a plan,” Teda said irritably.
“Oh, Roy, relax,” Zan Arbor said. She waved at the tea table, indicating the Slams. “Slam, Valadon, have some refreshment. We need to talk. You are going to transport us off the planet—don’t worry, we know where your transport is—and we have a proposition for you that the Jedi have already accepted on your behalf.”
Easygoing as always, Slam pulled a chair up to the table and poured himself some tea. “This is sounding more promising. How happy I am that your messengers found me.”
“Meanwhile,” Zan Arbor said, “Teda, call the rest of your guards—and I mean all of them. I want General Yubicon in charge.”
“But he’s my personal bodyguard now!”
“Oh, don’t be such a baby. I am tired of your whining.” She turned to the Jedi. “They have superior weaponry, I assure you. And if you don’t want anyone else harmed, you’ll do best to comply.” She gave a pointed look at the Slams. It was clear she would sacrifice them if the Jedi did not cooperate.
The guards moved closer. Teda spoke into a comlink and they heard the humming of swoops as more guards took to the air. They hovered above the courtyard. Anakin saw blaster rifles pointed at them—and Slam, Valadon, and the other members of the gang.
“Your lightsabers,” Zan Arbor said. “Give them to General Yubicon.”
Obi-Wan slipped his and Siri’s lightsabers out of his belt and handed them over. Ferus and Anakin followed. Anakin knew his Master would never hand over his lightsaber unless he was fully intending to get it back shortly.
“Put the lightsabers in the prison vault,” Zan Arbor ordered the general. “I’ll want to study them. Put the prisoners in the holding cell for now and have them guarded severely. We’ll pick them up as soon as we finish here.” She leveled her icy gaze on Ge
neral Yubicon. “Don’t let them out of your sight, don’t listen to them, and don’t make any mistakes. Go.”
General Yubicon’s eyes flickered as he stuffed the lightsabers into a satchel that he slung on his back. Anakin could see that he did not like taking orders from Zan Arbor. Teda didn’t say a word. Anakin realized who was truly in charge. Zan Arbor had Teda under her thumb.
Slam cocked his head at them. “Sorry. I didn’t mean for it to go quite this far. But all’s fair.”
“That’s very true,” Obi-Wan said. “If you join up with these two, you’ll get what you deserve.”
The Jedi were roughly herded out of the house and pushed along a rutted road that ran through woods with branches so thick with dark green leaves that they blotted out the sun completely.
They were marched farther down the path—playing along for now, waiting for the right moment to turn the tables. The area felt desolate and dank. Over the thump of footsteps and the buzzing of the swoops overhead, Anakin saw General Yubicon speaking to his assistant as they walked. He called on the Force to help him tune out the noises around him and focus on what the officer was saying.
“…thought we had a strong leader, but he is just as much a sham as they say he is. Am I supposed to pledge my loyalty now to Great Leader Zan Arbor?”
“What can you do?” the other officer asked in disgust. “One day we’re living in a palace in Romin, the next in the middle of a swamp. It’s enough to make me join the resistance.”
“And what would the resistance do to you if they found you?” the first officer said. “Look what they’re doing to poor Hansel. Listen, we’re safer with Teda. Or at least I thought so. Now I suspect that Zan Arbor is planning to take off with him and without us. Teda said he would take his first officers, but will she let him? They’re planning something big. Teda said they will have the Senate to do their bidding.”
The Senate? Anakin gave a quick glance at Obi-Wan. He could tell his Master was listening, as well.
“Here we are,” the other officer said. “Mind yourself. The prisoners know something is up, somehow. They’re restless. Not to mention starving.”