'No,' Mara assured him. 'Why?'
'Never mind it's still locked down,' the officer muttered under his breath. For a moment he looked around the area, as if searching for some other reason Mara might have wanted to be back here. But there was nothing; and almost reluctantly, he brought his attention back to her again. 'I've got orders to give you transport down to the planet.'
'I know,' she nodded. 'I'm ready.' The shuttle lifted and turned and headed off into the sky. Standing by the Etherway's ramp, the stink of burned paving still thick in the air, Mara watched the Imperial craft disappear over the top of the landing pit.
'Aves?' she called. 'Come on, Aves, you've got to be here somewhere.'
'Turn around and put your hands up,' the voice came from the shadows inside the ship's hatchway. 'All the way up. Ai,d don't forget I know about that little sleeve gun of yours.
'The Imperials have it now,' Mara said as she turned her back to him and raised her hands. 'And I'm not here for a fight. I came for help.'
'You want help, go to your new friends upstairs,' Aves retorted. 'Or maybe they were always your friends, huh?'
He was goading her, Mara knew, pushing for a chance to vent his own anger and frustration in an argument or gun battle. 'I didn't betray him, Aves,' she said. 'I got picked up by the Imperials and blew them a smoke ring that I thought would buy us enough time to get out. It didn't.'
'I don't believe you,' Aves said flatly. There was a muffled clank of boot on metal as he came cautiously down the ramp.
'No, you believe me,' Mara shook her head. 'You wouldn't have come here if you didn't.'
She felt a breath of air on the back of her neck as he stepped close behind her. 'Don't move,' he ordered. Reaching carefully to her left arm, he pulled the sleeve down to reveal the empty holster. He checked her other sleeve, then ran a hand down each side of her body. 'All right, turn around,' he said, stepping back again.
She did so. He was standing a meter away from her, his face tight, his blaster pointed at her stomach. 'Turn the question around, Aves,' she suggested. 'If I betrayed Karrde to the Imperials, why would I come back here?
Especially alone?'
'Maybe you needed to get something from the Etherway,' he countered harshly. 'Or maybe it's just a trick to try to round up the rest of us.' Mara braced herself. 'If you really believe that,' she said quietly,
'you might as well go ahead and shoot. I can't get Karrde out of there without your help.'
For a long minute Aves stood there in silence. Mara watched his face, trying to ignore the white-knuckled hand holding the blaster. 'The others won't help you, you know,' he said. 'Half of them think you've been manipulating Karrde from the minute you joined up. Most of the rest figure you for the type who switches loyalties twice a year anyway.
Mara grimaced. 'That was true once, she admitted. 'Not anymore.
'You got any way to prove that?'
'Yeah-by getting Karrde out,' Mara retorted. 'Look, I haven't got time to talk. You going to help, or shoot?'
He hesitated for a handful of heartbeats. Then, almost reluctantly, he lowered the blaster until it was pointed at the ground. 'I'm probably scribing my own death mark,' he growled. 'What do you need?'
'For starters, a ship,' Mara said, silently letting out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. 'Something smaller and faster than the Etherway. One of those three boosted Skipray blastboats we brought in from Vagran would do nicely. I'll also need one of those ysalamiri we've been carrying around on the Wild Karrde. Preferably on a nutrient frame that's portable.'
Aves frowned. 'What do you want with an ysalamir?'
'I'm going to talk to a Jedi,' she said briefly. 'I need a guarantee he'll listen.'
Aves studied her a moment, then shrugged. 'I suppose I really don't want to know. What else?'
Mara shook her head. 'That's it.'
