Jedi Quest 9: The False Peace

Chapter Sixteen

Anakin's head whipped around. One moment Obi-Wan was there, standing over Roper Slam, and the next, he was gone.

Anakin whirled and charged out the door of the vault, into the Core Bank building itself. He was just in time to see his Master racing out the front door.

Anakin put on a burst of speed. Obi-Wan was doing three things at once. He leaped over four chatting security officers straight onto an unattended swoop, even while he slipped his comlink out of his belt and spoke rapidly into it. At the same time, he started the swoop engine.

Anakin jumped onto an empty swoop and revved the engine, lifting into the sky just as a security officer yelled, "Hey!"

Within seconds, he had caught up to his Master.

"What's up?" Anakin asked easily, even though they were going the wrong way down a space lane.

Obi-Wan went into a screeching dive to avoid a crowded airbus. When Anakin caught up, he said, "I think Omega's real goal is to use the Zone at the Senate and assassinate Palpatine. I've already tried to call Senate security, but I can't get through. All of security is caught up in the ceremony."

"Which is probably what he's counting on. We'd better hurry, then."

Anakin pushed the speed on his swoop. Obi-Wan did the same.

They looped, dove, and flew flat-out, dipping out of the space lane to do some highly illegal flying over the pedestrian walkways leading to the Senate. Obi-Wan leaped off the swoop as it was still flying and held out a hand, using the Force to guide it to a safe stop. Anakin followed.

They ran into the Senate building, past the enormous statues. As he ran, Obi-Wan contacted Siri and told her what he suspected., "I'll contact Master Windu and head to the Senate. We'll need backup.

The head of security is here, I'll talk to him."

"Do what you can." Obi-Wan shoved his comlink into his belt.

"How do you think they'll do it?" Anakin asked as they ran along the elevated walkway leading to Palpatine's private office.

"They'll use the Zone to impair the opposition Senators. They will have figured out a way to target them somehow, maybe by inviting them to the meeting first. That's why Bog is going to be late. Then they'll call for a vote and oust the Jedi Order. In the meantime, they'll assassinate Palpatine."

"So they will have eliminated Jedi interference and Palpatine in one day," Anakin said.

"And Sano Sauro will be Supreme Chancellor."

They raced into Palpatine's outer office. Sly Moore gazed at them forbiddingly, her pale eyes showing her disapproval. "Not another emergency meeting. The Supreme Chancellor is busy."

"This is life or death," Obi-Wan told her.

She hesitated a fraction of an instant. "He has already gone to the Jedi vote in the Senate. He took the South Corridor!" she shouted after them as they ran.

They raced down the hallways. They couldn't be too late. They couldn't let Omega win.

Ahead they saw Palpatine walking. Obi-Wan skidded up to him and pushed him into an empty meeting room. When he touched his arm, he was shocked at how thin the Supreme Chancellor was. Yet his arm was like a braiding of durasteel, ropy and strong. Something clanged along Obi-Wan's nerves, some feeling, some instinct that made him want to recoil. He felt dread well up in him, and he wondered if he was too late, after all. Perhaps there was something he had not seen. Was he missing something? Obi-Wan felt suddenly confused.

"Master Kenobi, what is it?" Palpatine asked. He had moved his arm away quickly and was now adjusting the high collar on his cloak.

"An assassination plot against you, Supreme Chancellor," Obi-Wan said.

"Granta Omega is behind it. I am sure of it. Sano Sauro would be nominated by Bog Divinian as your successor."

Palpatine thought this over. A small smile crossed his thin, bloodless lips. "Of course. That would be the inevitable next step."

"You don't seem very concerned about your potential assassination,"

Anakin said.

Palpatine waved a hand. "My personal safety ceased to be an issue the moment I took on this position."

An odd thing to say, Obi-Wan thought, for a man who had developed his own security force, the Red Guard, whose masked members used force pikes as weapons.

"I'll order a lockdown," Palpatine said. "That means every door will open only with a retinal scan."

"Omega and Zan Arbor are probably already in the building," Obi-Wan said. "My guess is that Teda got them past security."

"I have monitors on the water system," Palpatine said. "There are no reports of sabotage."

"I advise you to shut down the entire system," Obi-Wan said. "We can't take a chance."

Palpatine hesitated. Then he got out his comlink, notified Mas Amedda, and gave the order.

"And now I will go to the assembly," he said.

"But Supreme Chancellor, you can't," Obi-Wan argued.

"But Master Kenobi, I must," Palpatine said softly. For the first time in his acquaintance with the Supreme Chancellor, Anakin sensed something underneath his composure — just a hint of anger, striking as fast as a serpent, and then gone.

A red light began to glow on Palpatine's comlink.

"The most serious alert," he murmured, and accessed it. He listened for a moment, then shut it down.

"It could be nothing. A valve in a water tunnel won't function. They wouldn't have noticed it, but when they shut down the water system, the valve came up as non-functioning."

"Where?"

Palpatine gave him the coordinates, and Obi-Wan turned to Anakin.

"Stay with the Chancellor."

"But Master — "

"Anakin, stay! Don't leave him!" Obi-Wan's order floated back to Anakin as his Master ran off.