'I cannot make that promise,' Qui-Gon said. 'But I will promise that we will keep it safe. The Jedi will volunteer to hold the list as a neutral party until the government appoints a successor to Roan.'
Irini nodded reluctantly.
Obi-Wan caught sight of a blur in the sky. 'I think the probe droid is returning already.'
Qui-Gon looked up, his expression tense with expectation. The probe droid settled on the ground in front of him. He quickly bent to examine the readout.
'Balog has left the city,' Qui-Gon said. 'He's struck out over open country.'
'That's strange,' Lenz said. 'Why would he leave his base of support?
' 'Maybe he knows the Jedi are on his trail,' lrini said.
Qui-Gon programmed the droid to continue tracking and sent it off again. Then he programmed the coordinates of Balog's last stop into his shipboard computer. He gave Obi-Wan the coordinates, and Obi-Wan did the same on his swoop.
Mota emerged from a door concealed in the wall of the building.
'How do you like the transports?' he asked. 'They're fine. We have a deal,' Qui-Gon said, counting out the additional credits.
Mota placed the credits inside a pocket of his unisuit. Suddenly, the sensors on the wall began to glow. Mote watched as they beeped out a private code.
'Patrols in the vicinity,' Mote said. 'I suggest you leave.' Without another word, he swiftly made his way back to the hidden door and disappeared.
'Don't worry, Mota, we'll be fine,' Lenz muttered. 'Irini, we'd better get out of here.' He nodded at the Jedi. 'You should take off. If the security patrol sees you with black market transports, you'll be detained, possibly even arrested.'
'Thank you for your help,' Obi-Wan said hastily as he mounted his swoop.
'Will you be all right?' Qui-Gon asked.
'We know this area well,' Lenz assured them. 'There is an exit through that fence that will bring us safely home. If I were you I'd go out the back way and stick to the alleys.'
From a distance, they heard the sound of speeder engines.
'We'll be in touch,' Qui-Gon told them.
The two transports lifted into the air. Qui-Gon led the way out. The narrow alley snaked out from the backyard of Mota's building, twisting and turning past the back sides of the crumbling buildings. They could hear security landspeeder engines nearby, but could not see them.
Finally, they emerged on a deserted street. Qui-Gon headed east toward the outskirts of the city. He pushed his engine to maximum and Obi- Wan followed.
With the security patrol well behind them, they reached the edge of the city and took off over open country. Obi-Wan felt his spirits rise as the wind blew in his face. He couldn't help but feel that Tahl was within their reach.
Chapter 4
By the time they reached the coordinates that the probe droid had given them, the droid had not returned with Balog's next position.
Qui-Gon halted his speeder, which hovered over the ground. Obi-Wan pulled up next to him. They were well outside the city in an unpopulated area. It was flat and dry, with only a few trees clumped here and there. In the far distance, they could see hills.
'We could wait here for the droid,' Qui-Gon said to Obi-Wan. 'Or we could track ourselves. If we're wrong, we'd have to double back. It could waste time.'
Obi-Wan nodded. 'Then we can't be wrong.'
By the look on his Master's face, Obi-Wan knew it was the answer he'd wanted to hear.
Leaving the engines idling, the two Jedi jumped from their transports and examined the ground. Obi-Wan had been taught tracking at the Temple, but he'd also recently been on a tracking exercise with Qui-Gon on Ragoon- 6. He was glad he'd had a chance to brush up on his skills.
'The probe droid has told us that Balog is traveling in an armored hoverscout,' Qui-Gon said. 'We know he was last heading roughly east. If we can find some evidence of scorch marks from the engine, we can track him. A vehicle of that weight takes a bigger power drive. There's a predictable pattern of acceleration and release of excess exhaust.'
Obi-Wan examined the ground as he'd been taught, dividing it into sections and noticing each pebble, each disturbance of sand. He crouched down to examine a rock.
'Here,' he said. He moved a step on. 'And here.'
Qui-Gon leaned over to examine the trail. 'Yes. See how deeply the rocks have been marked. He accelerated here. Let's go.'
They jumped back onto their transports and took off. Every so often they stopped to examine the surrounding ground. True to the pattern, they found evidence of exhaust on the rocks and ground. They knew they were still on Balog's trail.
The suns began to slip down into the sky. Obi-Wan scanned the horizon ahead. He saw a black shape heading their way. He didn't say anything for a moment. He hoped it was the droid but wasn't certain.
