'As soon as we're a safe distance away from here, I'll notify them of our destination, course, and that I'm okay.' She smiled. 'And of your change of heart, as well.'
'Better to say change of mind.' Everything that was previ ously familiar to him, Bulgan was now seeing out of new eyes. Harmless it might now be, having been rendered so by the Padawan, but the lethal packet embedded in his neck still itched. 'Get rid of this as soon as possible.'
'We will,' Barriss assured him as they turned a corner onto a much busier thoroughfare. The presence of so many sentients around them eased her tension. 'Until then, we'll simply tell anyone we meet to be careful what they say to you, because you happen to have an explosive personality.'
Prior to her discerning ministrations, Bulgan would have
simply gaped dumbly at this remark. Now, both he and his friend Kyakhta had the pleasure of laughing at the joke.
It was the kind of pleasure that had been all too long de nied them.
Sooner or later, a distraught Ogomoor felt, Bossban Soergg was going to grow tired of listening to his majordomo deliver bad news. When that happened, Ogomoor knew he had better be ready to run-or at least be standing well out of range of the Hutt's massive, powerful tail.
'Gone.' Soergg lay on the resting divan in his sleeping quar ters. He had been in the midst of his afternoon nap when Ogo moor, driven by urgency, had felt duty-bound to wake him. 'Vanished. And those two morons with her.'
'We do not know that they are with her, Great One. Only that she is missing, and so are they. The guard says he was at tacked from behind, in all likelihood by one of them. Why would they suddenly decide to go with her?'
'Who knows?' The Hutt grunted as he slouched his sagging corpus off the divan and onto the floor. Immediately, a pair of tiny geril servants commenced the odious task of grooming the sluglike shape. Soergg ignored them as he scowled down at his subordinate. 'I smell the stink of Jedi wiles behind this misfortune.'
'The devices that were supposed to ensure the loyalty of the two abductors?…' Ogomoor left the question hanging.
'Pagh! I activated those as soon as you told me what had happened. Either those imbeciles are now headless, or else more Jedi sleight of hand is at work in this.' As the gerils clung to his massive body, continuing their grooming without interruption, Soergg lumbered forward. Exhibiting courage he did not feel,
Ogomoor held his ground. His own head, he knew, remained at tached to his shoulders only because of his continuing value to the Hutt.
'Put out the word to every lowlife, criminal, lawbreaker, and felon in Cuipernam. A thousand Republic credits to anyone who brings the accursed Padawan back to me alive, or the head of a dead Jedi. Hurry! We may still have a chance if she can be intercepted before she can rejoin her companions.'
'I hear and obey, Bossban.' Too relieved at the dismissal to fear a shot in the back, Ogomoor whirled and fled unceremoni ously from the bedroom, his comlink already out and activated.
Behind him, the gerils reflexively sealed their nostrils as their misshapen employer voided his disgust in an exceptionally ghastly and malodorous manner.
What Ogomoor did not know was that his intimidating employer now had to report the failure to one far more important than his Huttish self. Soergg did not fear that individual-but he respected him. Almost as much as he respected the credits being paid into his own local account in the service of furthering the cause of Ansionian secession.
Who was behind the one making the payments? he often wondered. Not that it really mattered. It was the money, the credits, that were important. The Hutts had little interest in politics except insofar as these served their immediate interests. It mattered not at all to Soergg whether Ansion and the worlds to which it was tied via treaties and pacts remained within the Republic or pulled out.
Or even if something else, as yet unseen and unvoiced, arose to take its place.
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.
