Obi-Wan swung into the chute and let go. He bumped down past the remnants of rotten vegetables and food. His hand slid in something slimy, and then he tumbled out onto a large bin full of garbage. A moment later, Qui-Gon slid out next to him.
"That was a treat," Qui-Gon said, picking a rotten leaf off his tunic. "Thanks."
"My pleasure. This way," Den urged.
They climbed out of the garbage bin and followed Den through a hallway that was lined with shelves crammed with food tins. "Fifty years ago Telos had a famine," Den explained. "My landlady was only ten at the time, but she never forgot it. She's crazier than I am."
At last the dark hallway ended at a slanted door. "This will bring us up into the gardens," Den explained in a whisper. "It doesn't look as though it belongs to the house, so ten to one they won't have it surrounded."
"Ten to one?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Good odds!" Den assured him. "Look, you still don't trust me? Kill me now. Go ahead. Put me out of my misery. Run me through with that glowy tube thing if I'm wrong. No? Okay, come on."
Qui-Gon shot an amused look at Obi-Wan, which Obi-Wan answered with a frown. He didn't know why Qui-Gon always seemed to give his trust to the scoundrels they met. Yet when it came to Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon was strict and unbending.
Den eased open the slanted door overhead. They climbed up a short flight of stairs and slipped outside. They were surrounded by tall rows of a green-leafed plant.
Den jerked his head to indicate which way they should go. They could hear the security police kicking in the doors of the rooming house as they quickly made their way through the rustling plants, trying not to stir the leaves any more than the wind did.
When they reached the end of the field, Den hesitated.
"What do we do now?" Obi-Wan asked.
Suddenly, blaster fire ripped into the row of plants to their right.
"Um, let me think. Run?" Den suggested.
They took off, zigzagging through the remaining fields. Qui-Gon glanced back and saw the security police giving chase.
"We have a good lead," Den shouted. "We can outrun them. At least they're not on speeder bikes."
Just then, three speeder bikes took off after them.
"Oops," Den panted.
"Activate your lightsaber!" Qui-Gon called to Obi-Wan.
They did not slow their pace, keeping up with Den. The Force told them when to turn back and deflect the fire with their lightsabers.
Den zigzagged down a maze of alleys. The speeder bikes gained on them. "Just hang on, almost there," he called back.
They came to a field with a drainage pipe rising out of the grass. Den flattened himself and crawled in. Quickly, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon followed. The speeder bike engines buzzed angrily overhead. Blaster fire peppered the pipe but did not penetrate the metal.
"This goes underground and leads into a basement nearby," Den said. "They'll never find us."
"You said that before," Obi-Wan grunted.
"I said ten-to-one," Den corrected. "I'll give you better odds this time."
On their hands and knees, they crawled through rusty water with a skin of muck on top.
"Den, what used to drain through this pipe?"
Qui-Gon asked. The smell was worse than the garbage chute.
"Don't ask," Den said cheerfully.
At last they saw a faint beam of light. They spilled out onto a basement floor, their tunics stained with rust, garbage, and a substance Obi-Wan did not want to identify.
Den led them upstairs and out a side door into an alley. He looked both ways, then overhead. "You see? Saved."
"Will you be safe from here?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Joke, right? You can't leave me now!" Den protested. "I'm not finished saving your necks yet. Come on, I led you into trouble. Let me lead you out again. I have a safe place for you to stay."
"Safe like the last place?" Obi-Wan asked.
"This place is different," Den assured them. "It's a hideout of a friend of mine. Look, the security police will be everywhere. You need to lay low, even for a few hours."
"And why should we trust you?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Because you have no choice?" Den said.
"One always has a choice," Qui-Gon said. "But we'll follow."
Chapter 6
Obi-Wan couldn't believe it. Den was obviously a criminal. Why was Qui-Gon trusting him with their lives?
When Den walked ahead, he posed the same question to Qui-Gon. The Jedi only sighed.
"Think about it, Obi-Wan. We are criminals, too, at least in the eyes of the security police. Who can hide us better than those who are already in hiding?"
Qui-Gon put his hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder. "Don't worry. The core of him is pure."
"Kill me now, because I can't feel it," Obi-Wan grumbled. Still he liked the comforting hand on his shoulder. It almost felt as though Qui-Gon and he were Master and apprentice again.
Den led them to another part of the city, well off the wide boulevards of the city's center. Here the buildings huddled together as if a cold wind had driven them closer for warmth and protection.
Den led them to a building in the middle of the block. Instead of entering, he slipped down an alley. A broken pipe hung down the side of the building, swinging free. Den pulled himself up and straddled it.
"It's easier than it looks," he said. He grinned at the exasperated expression on Obi-Wan's face. "Hey, kid. You've gone down a garbage chute and climbed through a drainpipe. I think you can do this."
With an irritated glance at Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan grabbed the pipe. From the street it had looked ready to fall on the first unsuspecting head, but he found that it was actually anchored firmly to the wall. There were small metal bolts screwed in the sides, undetectable from below but big enough to serve as handholds and footholds. Den was right? it was easier to climb than it looked.
Obi-Wan hoisted himself up and over the edge of the flat roof. A water tank rose in a corner, a rusting spiral staircase circling it up to a platform at the top.
"Don't tell me," Obi-Wan said. "We're going to jump in that water tank next."