Snipers could be placed almost at will, he told himself. Assas-sins without regard for their own lives could inflict incalculable injury.
"Do you sense anything, Master?" Obi-Wan asked from behind him.
"Only that we are fighting something unseen, Obi-Wan. Each time we draw close to identifying our adversary, it subverts and evades us." "Then it isn't Captain Cohl?" Qui-Gon shook his head. "There is an organizing hand at work here-one that moves Cohl about as effortlessly as it moves us." "Not this Havac." Qui-Gon pondered it momentarily, then shook his head again. "It has no name that I know, Padawan.
Perhaps the mystery owes to nothing more than my inability to see beyond the moment. What do you feel?" Obi-Wan's expression became serious. "I feel that we're close to resolving this, Master." Qui-Gon touched him on the shoulder. "That's comforting to hear." Adi Gallia and Vergere stepped down to the first tier to speak with them.
"Security assures us that the entry scanners are capable of detecting explosives, along with weapons-regardless of their composition," Adi said.
"Guards will be stationed on the floor of the hall, and circulating up top, along the walkways.
Security units and other droids will provide continuous surveillance of the roof areas." "That may hamper Cohl from initiating an attack here," Qui- Gon replied, "but what about outside the hall?" "The Supreme Chancellor's route will be determined wascomputer, at the last moment." "I'd rather that the route be by skycar to the rooftop pad." Adi shook her head negatively.
"I'm sorry, Qui-Gon. He insists on arriving by ground-effect vehicle. We'll have to trust in the same precautions that safeguarded him on the route from the spaceport to Lieutenant Governor Tarkin's compound." "Qui-Gon!" Master Tiin called out suddenly.
Qui-Gon turned to find him and Ki-Adi-Mundi hurrying across the floor toward them.
"Captain Cohl's freighter has been found," Tiin continued. "The Corellian freighter. Ten customs agents were found tied up in the rear cabin." Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan swapped brief looks. "How do they know it's the one Cohl piloted here?" "The navicomputer indicates that the ship jumped to Eriadu from Karfeddion space," Ki-Adi-Mundi explained.
"Cohl must have piloted the customs agents' ship to the surface," Qui-Gon surmised.
Tiin nodded as he came to a halt in front of Qui-Gon. "The customs ship has been located at the spaceport." "We should see for ourselves," Obi-Wan said in a rush. Then he stopped himself and regarded Tiin.
"What prompted anyone to conduct a search of the freighter?" Tiin appeared to have anticipated the question, along with Qui-Gon's look of wary concern.
"The authorities received an anonymous lead." c ohl's eyelids fluttered, then snapped open.
Boiny's blood — smeared face swam unfocused in his gaze. He felt nauseated and wired. He knew that he should be in great pain, but he was only vaguely aware of his body. Boiny had obviously dosed him with pain blockers.
Cohl tasted blood in his mouth, and something else-the syrupy astringency of bacta.
Boiny's features began to sharpen and come into focus.
A blaster bolt had burned a deep furrow in the left side of the Rodian's greenish skull. The wound glistened with freshly applied bacta, but Cohl doubted that the miracle substance would prevail.
His memory made a hurried return. He gave a start and tried to sit up.
"Wait, Captain," Boiny said. His voice was weak and raspy. "Rest for a moment." Cohl paid him no mind. He pushed himself upright, and immediately fell face first to the hard floor. He heard the tip of his nose crack and felt a trickle of blood course down over his mustache and drip onto his lower lip.
He began to drag himself across the floor, to where Rella's body lay unmoving-unmoving and cold when he stretched out his hand and grazed her face with his fingertips.
Boiny was suddenly beside him again.
"She's dead, Captain," he said, anguished.
"By the time I came to, there was nothing I could do." Cohl crawled the final meter to Rella. He threw his right arm over her shoulders, tugging her to him and weeping quietly for a long moment.
"You had to come back," he said quietly, between sobs.
Then he rolled over and glared at Boiny.
"You should have let me die." Boiny had clearly anticipated his rage.
"If you were close to dying, I might have been able to do that." He tugged Cohl's ragged shirt aside to expose the thick armorply garment beneath.
"The vest absorbed most of the charge, but you have internal injuries." He glanced at Cohl's tattered left thigh, then leaned over to examine his forehead.
"I did the best I could with your other wounds." Cohl raised his hand to his head. The bolt from Rella's blaster had burned away all the hair on the right side of his head and left a wound every bit as deep and ragged as the one that trenched Boiny's skull.
"Where'd you find-was "An emergency medkit in a cabinet by the door.
The bacta patches are a couple of months expired, but they probably have enough potency to sustain us for a while." Cohl passed the back of his hand under his nose, then took a stuttering breath. "Your head…" "Fractured, as well as burned. But I gave myself a healthy measure of the pain blockers I fed you. I came close to overdosing myself. But at least I'm seeing only one of you now." Cohl managed to sit up. Glancing around the room, he spied the man he had killed lying faceup on the floor, exactly where the blaster had dropped him. Otherwise, the room was empty. He looked back at Boiny.
"Why didn't they finish us?" "This wasn't supposed to happen. I figure that Havac panicked." Cohl thought about it for a moment. "No. The Jedi are on to us. He wants us to be found." He paused briefly, then added, "But he isn't fool enough to believe I'd keep quiet about this mission, out of some misguided sense of honor." "I'll wager that he's counting on the fact that you won't betray Lope and the others." Cohl nodded slowly. "Havac read me right.
But he's going to regret not killing me when he had the chance." With visible effort, he raised himself up on his uninjured right knee. "Are any of them still in the warehouse?" "Only the customs agents secured in the corridor. The cargo bay is deserted." Cohl extended his arm to the Rodian. "Help me up." He winced as Boiny tugged him to his feet.
Gingerly, he planted his left foot on the floor and nearly collapsed.
"I'm going to need a crutch." "I'll fix you up with something," Boiny said.