The Approaching Storm

Chapter 6

No one was surprised when Luminara was the first of the anxious searchers to find Barriss and her new allies. They met in the middle of a secondary marketplace. The two Alwari looked on with interest as Master and Padawan embraced unashamedly. Intent on the day-to-day grind of business, everyone else, shoppers and merchants alike, ignored them.

"And who might these two stalwart-looking locals be?" Lumi nara eyed the Alwari with interest. Kyakhta felt Jedi eyes burning into his own. For no reason at all, he began to shuffle his feet.

"My kidnappers, Master." At the look on Luminara's face, Barriss had to laugh. "Don't gauge them too harshly. Both suffered from cerebral infirmities. In return for my curing them, they helped me escape."

"A temporary escape, I'm obliged to remind you, Barriss," Bulgan said. Straining to see over the heads of vendors and customers alike, he was scanning the multitude for signs of imminent assault. "Even as you enjoy this happy moment, I'd wager my last good credit that Bossban Soergg is sending a host of cutthroats in pursuit of us all."

"Then we must hasten to leave." Pulling a comlink from her belt, Luminara addressed it briefly, listened to a reply, spoke again, and replaced it. "Obi-Wan and Anakin are hurrying to join us." She pointed. "We'll gather by the fountain on the far side of this square." Putting an arm around her Padawan's shoulders, she guided Barriss in that direction.

"I'm glad you've had a chance in the field to use your skill in the healing arts. In the future, I wish you would try to find practice subjects other than kidnappers. I should be upset with you for letting your guard down so badly, but I'm too happy to see you safe and returned to us to be angry."

They had to wait only a short while on the steps of the lorqual fountain before a swirl of robes in the crowd marked Obi-Wan's arrival. Anakin was not far behind him. Both greeted Barriss in the traditional Jedi fashion: ceremonial, yet affectionate.

Bulgan observed the proceedings in silence. Only when the formalities had been concluded did he venture to inquire, while swatting away a hovering green-winged pekz, "What are you going to do now?"

Luminara turned to him. "We have secured an agreement with the Unity of Community to make peace with the nomads, if the Al-wari will consent to share a percentage of their traditional lands with the city folk. In return, the city folk will agree to provide the Alwari with all manner of advanced goods and services, and will not try to intrude on or otherwise alter the time-honored Alwari way of life. Each will respect the other and the Senate will stay, insofar as it is possible for bureaucrats to do so, out of Ansionian affairs. In return, An-sion will remain within the Republic, which will ensure its economic and political independence from the Commerce Guild. Among others." Her tone darkened. "Ansion will not become another Naboo."

Kyakhta scratched at the bare skin of his neck, careful not to irritate the explosive still buried there. "Sounds complicated to me."

"So it is," Obi-Wan admitted. "More complicated than should be necessary. But that's the way of things these days."

"Do you think the Alwari will accede to such a proposal?" Barriss was watching her friends and the crowd simultaneously.

The two nomads exchanged a look. "It depends on how it is put to them," Kyakhta finally decided. "If you can get the most prominent of the overclans, the Borokii, to agree, the others will follow their lead and fall into line. Among the Alwari, it has always been so."

Luminara nodded thoughtfully. "Then we must get their representatives to come to Cuipernam so we can talk with them in person."

Bulgan started to laugh, stopped when he saw that the Jedi was serious. "No chieftain of the Borokii will come within a hundred huus of Cuipernam, or any other city of the Unity. They don't trust the city folk, or their representatives. I speak now as a Tasbir of the Southern Hatagai. Albeit," he added painfully, "one who is presently clanless."

Leaning toward Obi-Wan, Luminara whispered something that soon had the other Jedi smiling and nodding. She turned back to Barriss's new friends. "If you are clanless," she said sternly, "it means you have nowhere to go. No responsibilities, no place to call home."

"Haja, that is all too true," Kyakhta exclaimed mournfully. "One who is clanless is as rootless as the blowing irgkul bush."

"Then," she continued, winking at Barriss, "you're free to work for us, to lead us to the Borokii."

"Ou, I suppose we…" Kyakhta paused, blinked, and stared back at the Jedi. As he did so, his mouth parted slightly, the thin lips moving farther and farther apart, showing more and more whiteness of tooth. "You mean-you would take on two such clanless ones as Bulgan and myself as your guides? Even after what we did to your Padawan?"

"That's in the past," Luminara told him. "And besides, Bar riss says it wasn't really your fault, and that you're cured. I accept her conclusion on that."

"Guides for Jedi! Us!" Bulgan could hardly believe the change in their fortunes that had taken place in a single day- from working for a slime-tracker like Bossban Soergg to escorts for Jedi Knights.

The ever-wary Anakin leaned close to Obi-Wan. "Master, do you think it wise to place our trust and requirements in such as these?"

Obi-Wan pursed his lips. "I sense no danger in these two."

"Neither did Barriss," Anakin pointed out sagaciously, "until they abducted her."

"That was before she performed her healing. I think we shall be well looked after by this grateful pair. And they offer us an advantage we could not have hoped to obtain from the city folk: being Alwari themselves, they should find the right path and make the eventual necessary introductions as well or better than any others we could hire here in Cuipernam."

Anakin mulled this over. "Are in the final analysis all relationships between sentients ultimately reduced to politics of one kind or another, Master Obi-Wan?"

"It is thought so by many. Hence my continual attempts to hammer into you the basic principles of skillful diplomacy. Who knows? One day they might serve you in personal as well as professional relationships."

That thought was sufficient to quiet the Padawan, and to set him on an entirely unrelated line of thinking. Meanwhile, the two older Jedi discussed details with their new guides as together they strode from the crowded square.

"The first thing," Luminara declared, "is to have these wicked devices removed from beneath your respective scalps."

"I know a healer who can do it in minutes, and will not be afraid to, now that they have been deactivated." Kyakhta flashed bright, sharp teeth at Barriss. "He is a fine craftsman, but he would never even have thought of treating us-before. To do so would have meant incurring the wrath of Bossban Soergg."

"Good." Luminara sidestepped a trio of wandering Mielps, bent down beneath the weight of shopping bags nearly as large as themselves. "Then we can hire a landspeeder, and proceed to-"

"No, no!" Bulgan cautioned her. "No landspeeders. We must take with us as few examples of galactic technology as possible. All Alwari are die-hard traditionalists. As you already know, this argument between them and the people of the towns centers largely on differences between long- established customs and new ways of doing things, of living. If you wish to gain the trust of the Borokii, to prove from the beginning that you do not favor the city folk, then you must approach them with reverence for the old ways."

Obi-Wan nodded amiably. "Very well then. No landspeeders. How do we travel?"

"For traversing the great prairies, there are many riding animals that are suitable."

Anakin made a face. "Animals!" He'd always been far more comfortable working with machines. If they gave him enough time and access to sufficient equipment and spare parts, he could have built them a vehicle that would perform as required. But the native had been insistent-no landspeeders.

"By far the best is the suubatar." Kyakhta's enthusiasm was palpable. "If you can afford them, they are the preferred means of travel for Alwari highborn. Arriving in a camp atop one immediately marks the rider as a person of consequence. Not to mention taste."

Luminara considered. "The Jedi Council prefers that we travel modestly. We have at our disposal only limited means of exchange."

"I think we might manage it," Obi-Wan told her. "Given that we've been told to resolve this business as quickly as possible, no one should object to our spending a little to achieve that aim. The sooner we leave Cuipernam in search of these Borokii, the better our chances of quick success, and the safer we all will be."

"Riding a suubatar is like riding the wind." An eager Bulgan leapt over a dozing crowlyn. As he cleared its wide jaws, it pawed at him indifferently and went back to sleep.

Anakin shrugged. "I'm a champion Podracer. I'm afraid no organic riding steed, no matter how 'noble' it might be considered locally, is going to impress me very much."

But he was wrong.

If there was one thing advanced technology had largely eliminated from modern transportation, it was smell. The latter was present in abundance at the travel market, where an amazing variety of domesticated riding creatures was to be found. While the two older Jedi went with their new guides to find suitable animals, the pair of Padawans were placed on guard.

"I've already apologized to my Master for allowing myself to be abducted." As she spoke, Barriss's eyes were never still, regarding every vendor and shopper, every merchant and animal trainer, as a potential threat.

Having already been lulled once by the apparent tranquillity of his surroundings, Anakin was equally alert. He stood alongside his counterpart, wishing she were someone else but never less than properly and politely respectful of her already established bravery and talent.

"There's no need to be embarrassed. I've done plenty of stupid things in my life, too."

"I didn't say it was stupid." She turned away from him.

He hesitated momentarily. "Look, I'm sorry. We've managed to get off on the wrong foot somehow. All I can say in my defense is that I've got a lot on my mind."

"You're a Jedi Padawan. Of course you've got a lot on your mind." Eyeing a seuvhat driver heading purposefully in their direction, her hand strayed toward her lightsaber. When he turned his vehicle, her fingers fell away from the weapon.

"I mean I'm preoccupied." Reaching out, he put a hand on her shoulder, hoping the gesture would not be misconstrued. He needn't have worried. "If I hadn't been, if I'd been doing my job, I would have been paying more attention to the shop you went into. I might have followed up in time to prevent your abduction."

"The fault was mine, not yours. I was guilty of thinking of only one thing at a time. Besides," she added briskly, "if events had unfolded differently, I wouldn't have been able to help those two unfortunate Alwari, and we would still be looking for guides to take us to find this overclan. As Master Yoda says, there are many paths through life, so it is best to be happy with whichever one we finally decide to take."

"Ah yes, Master Yoda." He slipped deep into thought.

Along with watching the crowd for signs of trouble, she also stole occasional glances at her fellow Padawan. A hard one to read, this Anakin Skywalker. Strength boiled within him. Strength, and-other things. Already, she saw that he was far more complicated than anyone else she had trained with at the Temple. That in itself was unusual. Once chosen, a Jedi's path was straight and uncomplicated. That was not what she perceived within Anakin Skywalker.

"You said you were preoccupied," she finally said to him. "I sense that it's an unhappy preoccupation."

"Do you, now?" She couldn't decide if he was being sarcas tic, or merely agreeable. Behind them, Jedi and guides continued to haggle for mounts. He found himself wishing they would get on with it. He was tired of this place, tired of this assignment. What did it matter if Ansion, or even several dozen allied worlds, seceded from the Republic? Given the current state of galactic governance and of the Senate, with its proven record of corruption and confusion, who could blame them? It might serve as a wake-up call to the rest of the Republic, a warning to clean things up or risk worse to come.

Strong thoughts for a Padawan. He smiled to himself. Obi-Wan was wrong. I do think about the state of things, sometimes, and not just about myself.

"Yes, I do," Barriss continued. She was not in the least in timidated by him. "With what are you so preoccupied, Anakin Skywalker? Why are you always so pensive?"

He thought about telling her the truth. In the end, he decided to explain only part of it. With a wave of one hand, he took in the travel market, the surrounding streets, the mixed throng of An-sionians and offworlders, and the city beyond.

"Why are we here? Master Obi-Wan has tried to explain it to me, but I'm afraid I'm not very sympathetic to the intricacies of politics. I find them difficult to understand, even irrelevant to life. Ever since I was a child, I've always had to be a direct sort of person." He looked over at her. "Where I grew up, the way I grew up, if you dissipated your energies, idled away your time, you didn't last long. You want my sincere opinion of this assignment?"

She nodded, watching him.

"It's a waste of time. A job for jabbering diplomats, not Jedi."

"I see. And what would you do if you were in charge, Anakin?"

He didn't hesitate. "I'd round up the leaders of both fac tions, city and nomad alike, lock them all in the same room, and tell them that if they didn't make peace within a week, the Republic would send a full task force and assume direct control of local affairs."

She was nodding slowly, an infuriatingly tranquil expression on her face. "And how would the Commerce Guild respond to that, given its extensive interests in this sector?"

"The Commerce Guild does what is profitable. War with the Republic is not profitable." He looked convinced. "That much I've learned."

"And if the Ansionian Unity of cities and towns, in conse quence of this action of yours, makes good on its threat to join the new secessionist movement, and the other worlds that are allied to Ansion decide to join in-?"

"It wouldn't make any difference to people's daily lives. Trade would continue, everyday life on the worlds involved wouldn't change," he huffed.

"Are you so certain that you would risk thousands of lives to

find out? And what would happen to the Alwari, who disagree with the present path of the Unity? Would not the Commerce Guild and its allies come down hard on them?"

"Well, I'm not sure that…" Under her relentless reasoning, his wall of certainty was beginning to crack.

She looked away from him, returned to studying the lively crowd. "Better, I think, to send a pair of Jedi and their Padawans to try to fix things. Far less threatening than a task force. Also cheaper, a course of action that always pleases the Senate."

He sighed. "You argue plausibly. But Ansion is such a no where world! Even Obi-Wan wonders if it is very important. He's spoken to me about it several times, as well as about what he thinks is wrong these days with the Republic itself."

"Flashpoints," she shot back. "Surely he has also spoken to you about flashpoints, and the need to stamp them out before they can grow into uncontainable conflagrations."

"Interminably." He sighed resignedly as he resumed surveying the crowd with her.

"It is a fair price." The mane of the Ansionian trader had been painted with alternating silver and black chevrons that ran down his spine to disappear beneath his low-cut collar. Convex lavender-hued eyes studied his clients blankly, giving away nothing. "Nowhere else in Cuipernam, or on the Sorr-ul-Paan Plateau, will you find six such splendid steeds of such grace and quality! Not for thrice the price!"

"Be not overinsistent," Kyakhta told him, "lest your inces sant haranguing curdle the stomachs of my masters." Turning away from the broker, he lowered his voice as he and Bulgan conferenced with their new employers.

"He is right, Master Luminara. The price he asks is a fair one. Slightly high, perhaps, but the animals are in excellent condition."

"To ride such mounts!" Bulgan could hardly contain his anticipation.

"Give us a moment." Turning away, Luminara left the two Alwari to continue with the negotiations, although by now these were no more than a matter of trying to shave minuscule amounts off the broker's final offer. "What do you think, Obi-Wan?"

He surveyed the surrounding market, ever alert for signs of impending aggression. "I think we should rely on the native expertise of our new guides. After what your Padawan did for them, I believe they would cheat themselves before they would take advantage of her." A glance back showed the two Alwari still arguing agreeably with the seller. "Besides, I'm rather looking forward to riding one of the beasts. One of these days, I have a feeling I'll have no choice but to ride around in old skimmers and beat-up landspeeders." Looking up, he studied the clear blue sky.

Luminara eyed the Padawans. "There is still tension between Barriss and Anakin."

"Yes." Obi-Wan sighed. "I've noticed it, too. But they appear to be getting on better since her ordeal. A fine student, Barriss. The Force flows strongly within her."

"So it does, but not like it does in young Anakin. He is a wild river, your Padawan, full of repressed energy that needs channeling."

"He came unreasonably late to training, and was raised by his mother to a greater age than the usual apprentice."

Luminara looked again in the Padawans' direction. "He knew his mother? That is a bond Jedi apprentices do not normally bring with them. It presents all manner of potential com plications and difficulties."

"I know. For that reason alone I would have not accepted him, but he was taken up by my own Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, whose dying wishes I vowed to respect. Among other matters that had to be dealt with subsequent to his passing, that meant dealing with and bringing along this unusually volatile youth."

"How has it gone?" she asked earnestly.

Obi-Wan stroked his beard absently. "He's often impetuous, which is worrying. Sometimes it carries over into impatience, which is dangerous. But he has gone through and survived a great deal, and he is an avid student of Jedi lore. There are subjects in which he excels, such as lightsaber combat. And he's a natural pilot. But he has little time for the intricacies of history or diplomacy, and politics positively make him ill. Yet he perseveres. A trait he gets, I believe, from his mother, whom Qui-Gon knew but briefly as a quiet yet strong-willed woman."

She nodded thoughtfully. "If anyone can turn such unwieldy raw material into a polished Jedi Knight, I suspect it is you, Obi-Wan. Many have the knowledge, but few the patience."

"You could do it, I think."

She regarded him straight on. Face to face, the two Jedi gazed into each other's eyes. Each saw something different but worthy there. Each saw something distinctive, even exceptional. When they finally looked away, it was simultaneously.

Turning, Obi-Wan moved to consult with the gently bickering Alwari. She watched him for a long, contemplative moment before turning back to resume her scrutiny of the crowd.

At Obi-Wan's urging, Kyakhta and Bulgan concluded their negotiations for the six animals. At the shoulder, the magnificent suubatars stood thrice the height of a human. They were six-legged, with long-splayed toes that seemed wholly out of place on a creature designed for running through open grasslands.

When Anakin pointed out this seeming evolutionary disparity to Kyakhta, the Alwari laughed.

"You'll see what they are for, Jedi Padawan!" Pulling back on the double set of reins, he effortlessly turned his own newly acquired mount.

The lightweight but thickly padded saddle was cinched be tween the front and middle shoulders. Between middle shoulders and rear haunches, a second swayback would accommodate a sizable pack of supplies. Having been negotiated for and priced, these were in the process of being loaded onto the complaisant animals by the merchant's busy underlings.

"Food, water, accessories: all has been acquired and ac counted for, Master Barriss." Bulgan had his own booted, long-toed feet thrust forward in stirrups that were slung on either side of the suubatar's neck, instead of hanging downward. The smooth arch of the saddle behind him cradled his crippled back. "Ahhhh-haja!" he exclaimed with evident pleasure. "To sit like this brings back many memories."

Following Kyakhta's instructions, Luminara straddled her own mount. Despite its height, she had no trouble doing so. First, because it was presently crouched down awaiting its rider, and second, because the body was lean and narrow. The reason for the saddle became immediately apparent. Without it, one would be seated directly atop the line of protruding vertebrae.

"Elup!" Kyakhta barked. Starting from the front, the suu- batar rose one set of legs at a time: front, middle, and finally rear. The reason for the high-arching leather curve at the back of the saddle was now clear. With no support behind her, the angle of ascent would have sent Luminara bouncing down the creature's spine all the way to the ground.

Though each boasted its own pattern of dark green stripes set against short soft fur, all six animals were the same underlying light bronze color. The combination would allow them, despite their size and visibility, to blend in well with their prairie land surroundings. Expecting the suubatars to be typical grazing herbivorous creatures, Luminara was surprised to learn that they were in fact omnivores, able to survive on a wide variety of foods. Their long, slim jaws were hinged at the bottom, allowing for an enormous if narrow gape that could swallow astonishingly large fruits or prey in a single gulp. The four front canines protruded above and below the jaws, giving their owners a fearsome appearance that belied their placid nature.

"Of course, these are domesticated individuals," Bulgan told her, divining her thoughts. "Wild suubatars have been known to attack and destroy entire caravans."

"That's reassuring." Bobbing from side to side atop his pa tient mount, Anakin was struggling to maintain his balance. Kyakhta noted the trouble he was having and came alongside.

"You're sitting up too straight, Master Anakin. Lean back into the viann, the saddle support. There, that's it. See how your legs now thrust naturally into the forward stirrups?"

"But I can't see as well in this position," the Padawan com plained, struggling to hang on to the double set of reins.

"I think we're high up enough to see anything of impor tance," Obi-Wan told him. He lay back in the saddle as one to the manner born. "Look on this as another unexpected episode in your education."

"I'd rather be educated in a late-model landspeeder," Anakin grumbled. But Kyakhta was right. The more he leaned back and trusted the saddle, the sturdier and more stable he felt. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

Could he trust himself to a strange, alien animal? The suu batars were certainly handsome creatures, with their protruding silver-flecked eyes, single wide flaring nostril, and smooth skulls. Their ears were set flush against their skulls and unlike the Ansio-nians, they had no manes. The striped fur was short and dense, evolved to provide maximum insulation with minimum wind resistance. Tails were leg- length but as slender as the rest of the beast. Everything about the creatures spoke to one end.

Speed.

"Everyone ready?" Holding his steed's reins effortlessly in one hand, Kyakhta looked back at his companions. Bulgan sig naled that the last of the supplies had been loaded. "Then let's go and find the Borokii!" Facing forward, he slapped his mount on the smooth back of its neck and shouted sharply, "Elup!"

The suubatar seemed to rise from the ground. In reality, it had simply launched into the requested gallop. The six- legged gait was extraordinarily smooth, Luminara noted delightedly. There was little sensation of jouncing or jolting. Leaning back in the saddle's viann, her fine, strong legs thrust calf-length into the deep leather stirrups, she watched the city fly past. Sluggish pedestrians had to scramble to get out of their way.

Far sooner than she expected, they sped beneath the high- arching Govialty Gate of the old city and found themselves on a dirt road leading westward. Kyakhta came pounding up alongside her. Despite what struck the Jedi as an extreme pace, she noted that his mount was not even breathing hard.

"Are you comfortable, then, Master Luminara?" The guide shouted to make himself heard.

"It's wonderful!" she yelled back. "Like riding on a cloud made of spun Dramassian silk!" Outside the city walls, they were exposed to the near-constant winds that circled the planet endlessly. Cool air rushed past her face, the suubatar's long, narrow, slightly triangular skull parting it like the prow of a ship.

A glance back showed Barriss hanging on for dear life, while Anakin's expression alternated between grim determination and youthful alarm. She would have laughed, had it not been unseemly. As for Obi-Wan Kenobi, he sat serenely in his embroidered saddle, arms crossed over his chest, eyes closed. His reins lay secured to the pommel-like brace in front of him. He might as well, she thought with some astonishment, have been sitting in a first-class seat on a starliner. She had known many Jedi, but never one so composed in the face of the unexpected.

"Kyakhta!" she called out to the rider galloping alongside her. "It's good to leave the city behind so swiftly, but aren't you concerned about overexerting our mounts? Won't this pace tire them quickly?"

"Overexerting? Tire?" From his saddle, he eyed her quizzi cally. Then realization dawned. "Ou, you do not understand. But that is reasonable. None of you have ever seen a suubatar before, much less ridden one." Pulling his slim legs and feet free of his stirrups, he stood up on the back of his pounding steed and looked back the way they had come, holding on to the crest of the viann for balance. "No one pursues us, but of one thing I'm sure: Bossban Soergg is not snoring this business away." Sitting back down and resuming his former riding posture, he smiled at her anew. "You're sure you are comfortable?"

"It feels almost natural. As I told you, I'm enjoying it."

He performed the Ansionian equivalent of a nod. "Then there's no need for us to continue dawdling here." Raising his voice and freeing his feet from the stirrups, he leaned forward once again and shouted, "Elup!" At the same time he kicked his mount sharply with his heels, making contact simultaneously on both front shoulders.

"By the Force!" Anakin exclaimed as he grabbed for something to brace himself with. Barriss started laughing wildly, the acceleration sending her cowl and the folds of her robes streaming backward like flames. Obi-Wan deigned to wake up.

Until then, it seemed, the suubatars had only been trotting. At Kyakhta's command, they broke into a six-legged sprint of such speed that their long-toed legs seemed not to touch the ground. When they did, six long powerful clawed toes dug into the hard-packed dirt and flung it backward. Thirty-six such digits propelled each ground-thundering suubatar forward at a velocity that left a thoroughly exhilarated Luminara momentarily breathless.

Which was not surprising, since they were now outpacing the wind.

Far behind them, a motley coterie of assorted thugs, brutes, and ruffians assembled atop the city wall by the very gate through which the Jedi and their guides had departed. Off in the distance, a very faint cloud of dust could be seen dissipating atop a low, rolling, grass-covered hill. To Ogomoor it might as well have been poison gas.

"That must be them." He turned to the hulking Varwan stand ing at his side. "Get your people together. We're going after them."

"At that speed? You heard what the people in the market said. They're riding suubatars. Purebloods, at that." Behind them, the other members of the hastily assembled troop of cutthroats had begun to mutter among themselves.

"We'll take an airtruck. No suubatar can outpace an airtruck."

"Not outpace, no. But outmaneuver. ." The Varwan's eyes leaned closer to Ogomoor's. "You ever try to corner an Al- wari mounted on a good suubatar? A quick way to die."

"Bastasi!" the impatient Ogomoor exclaimed. "As you will. What besides an airtruck will persuade you to follow my order and go after those six?"

The Varwan considered, rubbing one eye as he studied the wispy remnants of the distant dust cloud. "Heavy weapons," he finally declared.

"Don't be stupid!" Ogomoor barked at the hireling. "Not even Bossban Soergg can engage heavy weapons in Cuipernam! There are some limitations that even he-urk!"

Clutching the squirming majordomo by the collar, the Varv- van had lifted him off the ground and was holding him in that position. "Don't-call-me-stupid."

Aware that he might have let his anger and annoyance get a teensy bit the better of him, Ogomoor hastened to calm the mercenary. "It was just a blurted exclamation-I meant nothing personal by it-now please let me down and-could you perhaps retract your eyeballs? They're oozing."

With a hiss, the Varwan set him down. Straightening his jacket, Ogomoor turned to gaze longingly at the distant rise over which his quarry had disappeared. "Why the worry, anyway? The visitors are being led by a couple of clanless morons!"

Shouldering his compaction rifle, the Varwan hissed again and turned away. His kind were brave, even fearless-but despite Ogomoor's assertion, they were not dumb.

"Say you. But I, and my associates, know only what we see. And what I see are four visitors and two escorts who do not ride like clanless morons." He started down the steps that led back to the city streets. "They ride like Alwari."

Frustrated beyond words, Ogomoor turned his attention away from the useless mercenaries and back to the beginnings of the endless grasslands beyond Cuipernam. Where, he wailed silently, could he find assassins worthy of his orders? Where could he find beings willing to take up weapons against the unmentionable Jedi? Where could he find the kind of quality help that, at every turn, seemed to be denied him?

Most importantly of all, where could he find someone else to tell Soergg the Hutt that the Jedi and their Padawans had, once again, flown free of his intentions and beyond his reach?

Much to Ogomoor's surprise, Soergg listened quiedy to his majordomo's report. "Once again, too late. Punctuality is the hallmark of the successful assassin."

"There was nothing I could do, Bossban. Those I had hired refused to pursue the fleeing Jedi."

"Yes, yes, so you told me." Soergg waved a dismissive hand. "Riding suubatars, you said. Given that, I'm not surprised at the lack of enthusiasm on the part of your puerile hirelings." He rubbed his vast chin, the flesh quivering like the sulfurous outfall of some particularly noxious thermal vent. "First a bungled killing, then a bungled kidnapping. The Jedi are on their guard now."

"They cannot be taken by surprise," Ogomoor added, unnecessarily.

"Perhaps." Huge slitted eyes looked past the assistant, toward distant places. "Certainly not by us."

"I don't understand, master."

Soergg did not reply. He was still gazing at that distant place, thinking Huttish thoughts.