Jedi Masters Adi Gallia and Vergere rushed forward, their swords ignited.
Then a figure plummeted from one of the walkways.
From the Trade Federation's side of the hall, the chair of the directorate watched open-mouthed as a blaster fight erupted in the overhead trusses and gantries. On the floor, at the same time, three Jedi and several judicials were moving quickly if surreptitiously toward the directorate rostrum.
The Kuati glanced between the ceiling and floor. Had the summit been engineered to trap the directorate? he asked himself. Would the Republic be so bold as to attack them in public?
The security droids had gone from standing at attention to postures of readiness, crouching slightly, with arms crooked and left legs extended behind. They were programmed to answer to any or all of the directorate members-or at least relay a directorate member's commands to the central control computer on board the Trade Federation vessel-but the droids responded best to the Neimoidians.
The Kuati chair looked around for Viceroy Gunray and realized that he hadn't returned. At a loss for what to do, he swung to one of his aides.
'Activate the force field!' he ordered.
The sounds of blasters and panic on the floor infiltrated the media booth Havac had secured.
Seated in a chair with a hand weapon leveled at Havac, Cohl heard the holocam click on and saw Havac glance at it.
'Am I correct in assuming that you intend to kill me?' Havac asked.
'Killing is what you are good at, after all.' 'You're doing pretty good for a beginner, Havac.' Havac snorted in disdain. 'I'm prepared to die for the cause, Captain.' 'Maybe you are,' Cohl said. 'But I'm not going to give you that privilege. You're going to die for killing Rella. Besides, your cause is lost.' Havac glanced at the cam again. 'You think so?' Cohl gestured toward the transparisteel window.
'You hear those blaster bolts? The Jedi found your shooter-the one controlling the droid. Valorum is out of danger. I never thought much of the plan anyway, seeing how Valorum is trying to dismantle the Trade Federation, the same as you are.' Havac laughed shortly. 'You failed to see the truth, Cohl. You really are too old for the game.
What makes you think that we were ever after Valorum?' Cohl's grin straightened.
Grimacing in pain, he pushed himself out of the chair and limped to the window. The blaster fight had thrown the hall into utter chaos. The members of the Trade Federation Directorate were standing behind their curved table, surrounded by their security droids, everyone safe inside a shimmering force field.
Off to one side, a group of Jedi and judicials were closing on the Federation's rostrum.
Cohl swung to Havac, his eyes blazing.
'You're after the Trade Federation!' Havac couldn't restrain a triumphant smile.
'It was just a matter of getting them to activate the force field.' He indicated the devices that were aimed down at the hall. 'The scanner detected the activation. The holocam is going to do the rest.' 'The remote,' Cohl said, as if in a daze.
He lunged for the cam, meeting Havac halfway.
They slammed into each other and fell grappling to the floor of the booth. They rolled toward the door, each man fighting for superiority, the blaster between them, in the clutch of four hands.
Cohl swung his elbow into Havac's face, knocking him sideways, then used Havac's momentum to pitch himself on top of Havac, pinning him to the floor with his knees.
Havac squirmed, but held tightly to the blaster, triggering a bolt into Cohl's abdomen. Cohl fell partially back, then slumped forward, bringing all his weight to bear on the weapon and forcing it down into Havac's chest.
With what little of his strength remained, Cohl squeezed out a final bolt.
Dangling by one hand from the swaying walkway, Qui-Gon looked down at the floor of the hall.
The trumpeters had stopped midfanfare and were scattering for cover, abandoning their horns as they ran. Everywhere else delegates were fleeing their seats, literally climbing over one another in a desperate attempt to escape.
Valorum was on his feet, but completely encircled by Senate Guards and Jedi Knights.
Saesee Tiin, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and Obi-Wan had taken up positions in front of the Trade Federation rostrum, their lightsabers lifted to deflect fire from the droids.
But the directorate members had raised their force field, which meant that no bolts could enter or leave the translucent energy shield.
The thirteen droids reached over their right shoulders for the blaster rifles secured to their backpacks.
The judicials loosed a storm of blaster bolts, which the force field simply consumed.
Then, all at once, the droids pivoted through an ab-face.
The members of the directorate mouthed commands and curses and began to back away from the curved table.
The droids fired.
As the Jedi and judicials watched helplessly, bolts tore into the table and chairs and into the flesh of the members, shaking them about and hurling them to all sides of the rostrum.
The firing ceased as abruptly as it had started.
For a moment, the droids stood with their cooling blasters, then they put them back over their shoulders and turned to face the hall.
