Vision of the future

his right. Stepping around the stack, he found Klif waiting. 'Report,' he murmured.

'We're set,' Klif murmured back. 'She went in about an hour ago and shut things down. I shorted out one of the glow lamps to give us an approach.'

Navett edged an eye around the crates for a cautious look. The old woman's Sydon Pacifier was squatting silently in its landing circle, with nothing but parking lights showing. A long strip of shadow thrown by another stack of crates led nearly to its sealed hatchway. 'Looks good,' he said. 'What about the New Rep agents?'

'Well, now, that's an interesting question,' Klif said. 'I did a quick slice into the spaceport computer; and according to its records, they're gone.'

Navett frowned. Gone? Now? 'Where?'

'No idea,' Klif said. 'But I ran a global against both their registration and engine ID, and there's no indication they might have circled around and landed again, not here or anywhere else on Bothawui.'

'Interesting, indeed,' Navett murmured, stroking his chin as he gazed at the Pacifier. 'Either we fooled them completely, or else they suddenly had something more urgent to do. Rogue Squadron's attached to Bel Iblis these days, isn't it?'

Klif nodded. 'You think Bel Iblis is up to something?'

'That walking sack of annoyance is always up to something,' Navett growled. 'However, he's not our problem. We'll send word to Bastion and let them figure him out. Right now'—he slid his blaster out of its concealed sheath —'we've got our own sack of annoyance to deal with. Come on.' They slipped out into the concealing shadow and headed for the Pacifier, eyes and ears alert for any sign of trouble. None came before they reached the ship, dropping into combat crouches on opposite sides of the hatchway. 'Pop it,' Navett muttered, blaster held ready as he tried to watch everywhere at once. Antilles could conceivably have sent in other New Rep agents on his way out... There was the muffled clicking of Klif's lockjim followed by a soft hiss, and the top of the hatchway swung smoothly down to the permacrete, its inside surface forming a ramp. Giving the area one final scan, Navett rose from his crouch and ducked up the ramp into the ship. Inside was darkness, with only dim walk-lights marking the corridors. He could hear Klif's soft breathing behind him as he eased down toward the living section. Still no signs of life; the old woman must already be asleep. He eased to the first door in line, eased it open... And abruptly, all around them, the lights blazed on.

Navett dropped instantly into a crouch, cursing under his breath as he blinked against the sudden glare. There was a bump against his shoulders as Klif dropped into a mirror-image crouch at his back.

'No one here,' Klif hissed from behind him.

'Not here, either,' Navett said, frowning as his eyes finished adjusting to the light and realizing that what had seemed so bright when they came on were apparently only the normal shipboard lights. No gunmen, no automatic weapons, not even any eye-burning flash-flare defensive lights. What was going on?

'Good evening, gentlemen,' a voice spoke up into the tense silence. The old woman's voice.

'Klif?' Navett hissed, looking around again. There was still no one visible in his direction.

'Anyone?'

'No, I'm not here,' the voice assured him smugly. 'I'm a recording. You wouldn't hurt an innocent little recording, would you?' She snorted. 'Of course, considering who you are, maybe you would.'

'There,' Klif said, pointing. Half hidden behind a cable conduit was a small datapad with a recording rod sticking out of it.

'You must think you're pretty hot stuff,' the woman continued. 'Strutting around in plain sight, bamboozling the bumbling Bothans—hey, that's kind of cute—and in general running rings around everyone and everything.'

Navett stepped over to the datapad. It was jammed into the space between the conduit and the wall as if hurriedly slapped in there.

On the other hand, it had been keyed to come on with the lights...

'Well, I'm sorry to so rudely pop your bubble,' she said. 'But you're not as smart as you think. Not nearly as smart as you think.'

Navett caught Klif's eye and nodded toward the sleeping rooms. Klif nodded back and slipped down the corridor toward the farthest one. Putting his back to a wall, Navett leveled his blaster along the corridor leading to the flight deck. This could still be nothing but a distraction.

'You see, I talked to a couple of friends this afternoon,' the recording went on. 'They tell me that every time they try to get a handle on this big, loud Vengeance organization that's been making so much noise, it just kind of evaporates into nothing. Kind of like the bubble I just mentioned—nothing but hot air. Hot air blown by—dare I say it?—a handful of Imperial agents.' There was a flicker of movement at the corner of Navett's eye. He glanced over to see Klif emerge from the sleeping room area and shake his head. He nodded in the direction of the cargo hold