“Thanks, Em Teedee. I’m glad to see you, too,” Jacen said. “I’ll try not to do it again.”
Lando, Jaina, and Zekk emerged from the Lady Luck, blinking in surprise as the other young Jedi Knights remained clustered around Jacen instead of greeting them upon their return from Clak’dor VII.
“Hey, did I miss something here?” Lando said.
Em Teedee answered for them all, speaking loudly in his tinny voice. “You certainly did, Master Calrissian. And you don’t know the half of it.”
Anja came up to Jacen, trembling. He could see the relief in her eyes, which she tried to cover up with a bland imperturbable smile. “Now, this is one story I’ve got to hear,” she said. “Don’t tell me Jedi Knights can fly now?”
Jaina and Zekk ran to join their friends as Lando sealed his space yacht behind them. “Wild trip. We got a lot of information,” Jaina said. “Found out what’s going on here in Cloud City.”
“Ah, we found out a few more things, too,” Jacen said. “And I discovered exactly what happened to Cojahn on that balcony.”
Tenel Ka couldn’t cover her gasp of surprise. Lowie growled. Lando’s interest was obviously piqued. “Looks like we’ve all got some talking to do.”
Anja seemed unaccountably disturbed. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave Jacen a shaky smile. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”
“Hey, never underestimate a Jedi,” he said.
As they sat together sipping hot broth drinks in a quiet cantina that overlooked the thranta practice for the upcoming sky rodeo, they all shared their separate stories.
Lando, Jaina, and Zekk recounted what they had learned from Figrin D’an and his band about how Black Sun was trying to infiltrate the workings of Cloud City. Tenel Ka, with additions from Lowie, told of the assassin attack after they had followed the fired Ugnaught construction boss, while Jacen described his rescue by M’kim the thranta rider, and how M’kim had seen a visored man with algae-green hair murder Cojahn… an angry, ruthless man who was almost certainly Czethros himself.
“But you can’t prove it’s Czethros,” Anja said. “It’s a big galaxy. There are plenty of other people with moss-green hair.”
“And the laser visor?” Jaina asked skeptically.
“Certainly not enough evidence to convict anyone,” Anja said firmly. “I prefer solid proof myself, instead of hearsay from an ‘eyewitness’ who was flying around with the setting sun in his eyes. If M’kim was so close that he could make out the facial features of the person who allegedly boosted Cojahn over the side of the balcony, how come he wasn’t close enough to catch the man as he fell?”
“I already explained that,” Jacen said. “There were storms—”
Lando raised a hand for peace. “It’s easy enough to determine whether or not Czethros was here. I still have my old Baron-Administrator access codes. Let’s just find a nice quiet business area, and we can check Cloud City’s central computer banks. Lowie, I think you might help me with that.”
The young Wookiee chuffed in agreement and nodded his shaggy head.
“We can check the records. Everyone coming in or out of Cloud City has to leave some sort of passport information. Docking records, passenger manifests, tariff documents. It’ll be quite a search….”
“Czethros is kind of hard to miss,” Zekk said.
Lowie stood up from the table, his ginger fur bristling, the dark streak prominent on his forehead. Em Teedee said, “If I can be of any help, I would most gladly offer the assistance of my circuits.”
“Thanks, Em Teedee,” Lando said. “Let’s see what Lowbacca can find first.”
As the other young Jedi Knights gathered around the computer terminals, Lowie bounced through the public records databases, scanning for the name Czethros. The search ultimately turned up nothing.
“See, he never came here,” Anja said. “Your thranta rider made a mistake.”
“I thought you told us we were gullible,” Zekk answered. “Any man who’s got that many connections and is involved in illegal activities would know how to hide his tracks.”
Next, Lowie looked through docking records, credit receipts, list of purchases made and transmissions sent. It was a monumental task and required all of the Wookiee’s concentration as well as the full access given to him by Lando’s high-level security codes.
“Sure glad you were Baron-Administrator,” Jaina said. “We would’ve hit a dead end right away if you hadn’t opened some of those passworded files.”
“We may still hit a dead end,” Lando said. “Just a lot farther along the way.”
Anja watched, arms crossed over her chest, still skeptical. She had so obviously been relieved, even overjoyed, to see that Jacen still lived…. Now, perhaps out of embarrassment, she hid behind a haughty mask.
Lowie’s golden eyes narrowed in suspicion as he stared at the images that flickered by from docking bay holocams. He plugged Em Teedee in to help him monitor the data. Some of the video snapshots stuttered and wavered. Em Teedee suddenly blurted in a shrill voice, “Oh dear, these images have been tampered with! I’m detecting skillful erasures and fine video cuts. Most sophisticated.”
Lando watched as Lowie worked furiously, his long fingers tapping the controls. He growled something, and Em Teedee said, “Master Lowbacca is attempting to move beyond the obvious. If someone has assisted in covering up the arrival of Czethros, they most likely have sanitized recordings from the docking bay… but they may have overlooked other holocams….”
Images flowed by in a rapid blur. Jaina peered over Lowie’s shoulder. Everyone intently studied the screen. Finally, Lowie growled in triumph.
“There! I see it, too!” Jaina said an instant later.
“That’s him,” Jacen agreed. “Good old respectable Czethros.”
An external holocam from one of the Port Town gambling casinos had managed to catch the image of a tall man with moss-green hair and a narrow silver laser visor; the man emerged from a docking port and ducked into the shadows between buildings, trying to lose himself in the crowd.
“He couldn’t clean up everything,” Lando said.
Lowie froze the image and enlarged it.
“Now do you have any doubts?” Zekk asked Anja. She avoided his gaze as he continued. “Any man who intentionally removes all record of his presence here has got something to hide.”
“It doesn’t mean he murdered anybody,” Anja said.
Jacen looked at her in surprise. “Maybe not. But he was here at exactly the right time, in secret, and tried to erase all evidence of his presence from Cloud City records. We know that a criminal organization has been blackmailing and threatening professionals here on Bespin—a criminal organization that has ties to Ord Mantell, where Czethros lives. And we also have an eyewitness who says he saw Czethros throw Cojahn off the balcony. How much more proof do you want?”
Tenel Ka nodded grimly. “Do you believe Czethros is involved with Black Sun criminal activities?”
Lando frowned. “More than that, I’m afraid. From his background and from what I’ve seen here, I think Czethros may well be one of the key figures behind Black Sun. Worse yet,” he added, “the fact that all these records and images have been doctored tells me that he must have some pretty important people in Cloud City’s administration under his thumb.”
“Figrin said Cojahn had tried to report the danger to the authorities, but they never did anything about it,” Zekk pointed out.
“We’ve got to report this,” Jaina said in a determined voice. “But this time to someone who’ll take it seriously. If Black Sun is on the prowl again, we’ve got to do something before they get too powerful to stop.”