others, and underneath the trees.
'Who are you hunting? Are you involved in the death of Samish Kash?'
'No!' Dane exclaimed. 'We're his bodyguards!' 'Obviously, you are doing an excellent job,' Anakin said. Floria burst into tears.
'Bounty hunting was getting too dangerous,' Dane said, handing his sister a cloth to wipe her tears. 'There were so many of us out there that all honor was lost. Some were using truly cutthroat techniques.'
'I've seen a few,' Obi-Wan concurred.
'So we decided to become bodyguards. It's simpler. Samish Kash hired us a couple of months ago for protection. He didn't want the usual big goons or guard droids. He didn't want anyone to know. So Floria posed as an aide, and I just used disguises. Then this meeting was called.
Samish told us to be especially careful. He's the glue that keeps the Station 88 Spaceport alliance together. Without him, it would fall apart. He's the one everyone trusts. So he thought if some group wanted to take over the spaceport, they'd go for him first.' Dane looked distraught. 'Then instead of staying in my sight, or Floria's, the way he promised, he disappeared. I followed, and. '
'You found him dead?'
'Lying there,' Dane said 'Shot in the heart.' 'And you saw nothing?'
'What does it matter?' Floria asked them. She had wiped her tears away and her face was pale. 'He's dead.'
Dane shook his head. 'I was too late.' He looked off into the trees.
'I should have — ' Dane stopped abruptly and squinted into the trees.
Without another word, Dane took off. He raced to his swoop hovering nearby in suspended mode. He leaped aboard and took off.
'Come on, Anakin,' Obi-Wan said, spurting forward. 'We'll have to follow on foot.'
The trees were dense here, and Obi-Wan could see ahead that Dane was having trouble navigating between the trunks. He had to continually slow his speed. He was obviously chasing someone ahead of him on a swoop, which appeared and disappeared through the trees.
They gained on Dane, hurtling through the spaces between the trees.
When they were meters away, Anakin leaped high to grab a tree branch.
Using the momentum, he swung forward and dropped neatly on the back of Dane's swoop. The swoop lurched and careened toward a massive tree trunk. Dane let out a piercing yell. Calmly, Anakin stood on the back of the swoop and leaned forward to grab the controls. He steered away from the trunk, circled, and came back to Obi-Wan.
'He'll get away!' Dane cried.
'Who?' Obi-Wan asked.
'I don't know! But I think he killed Kash!' Dane cried breathlessly.
'I don't know where I know him from, but I know him. He's a bounty hunter.'
'Mind if we take over?' Obi-Wan asked Dane.
He jumped off the swoop. 'Be my guest. Just be careful with my swoop!'
he yelled after them as Anakin sent the engines screaming to maximum.
Suddenly, Obi-Wan wished he were driving.
The suspect glanced back once and saw they were still following. He chose a difficult route through the trees. The narrow spaces were hard to get through, especially at high speeds. Anakin flipped the swoop, turning constantly to come at the openings at the best angle, never slackening speed. He crashed through leaves and branches. They were gaining, but Obi-Wan was positive he'd lose an arm or an ear in the process.
'Do you think you could slow down?' Obi-Wan yelled over the sound of cracking twigs and the screaming engines.
'And miss all the fun?' Anakin asked, executing a quick left turn, flipping the swoop, then flipping it back again. Obi-Wan tried to find his breath.
The ground was rising sharply. The suspect pushed his speed. He careened through two trees, lost control, and the swoop flipped over and scraped the side of the next tree, sending the swoop spinning wildly. The assassin leaped off a moment before the swoop crashed into a large tree. He hit the ground and ran.
'We've got him now,' Anakin said, gunning the engine.
Obi-Wan caught a blur of large brown spots speckling the tree trunks as they zoomed fast. A strange mold? he wondered. The spots had hairs that waved in the air like legs. They were legs, he realized.
Spiders. About the size of a small rodent animal. Obi-Wan had read about them in his briefing notes on the journey to Null. They weren't poisonous, but one had to watch out for their 'Anakin, watch out!'
Ahead the sunlight had just caught the silky threads of the giant web slung between the trees. The swoop hit it head-on. The web did not break. The reclumi species of spider had a web so strong it could stop a moving vehicle.
It did.
Chapter 23
