Star Wars: Shadow Games Read Free

you
remember
any of our so-called adventures on Tatooine? That Zabrak spacer who thought you’d make the perfect little wifey. That guy who wanted to buy outChalmun and set you up as the house chanteuse? The stormtroopers who—”
    Javul raised her hands against the volley of words. “You’re right. Of course, you’re right. I should have said something before. But … well, at first I was thinking it was just an overzealous fanboy and then … I don’t know. I figured if the guy was on Coruscant—I mean, Imperial Center—and we were leaving …”
    “Yeah, well, apparently he’s taking his show on the road, too.”
    The truth of that statement made Javul’s throat tighten. She clasped her hands together in her lap, flexing her fingers to make the rainbow stones inlaid into each nail glitter and flash. “So now you know. What do you think we should do?”
    Kendara tilted her head to one side in thought. Then she said, “Two things. One, I’d split us into two travel parties. Second, I’d hire bodyguards.”
    “Okay on the splitting up—but bodyguards?”
    “Yeah. Steely-eyed, laser-toting, massively intimidating bodyguards.”
    Javul shook her head. “I don’t know, Dara. It’s already freakishly hard to keep a low profile in this business, and if we contract with a security company, we increase our footprint, our baggage … and the number of people who have to have oversight.”
    “I’m not thinking of hiring from a security firm.”
    “Then where am I supposed to come by these steely-eyed, laser-toting … characters?”
    A smile curved Kendara Farlion’s lips and her teeth showed, white and even in her face. “I never thought I’d say this, but there are advantages to being from Mos Eisley. I know
exactly
where to look for that kind of character.”

THREE
    L EEBO OBJECTED TO THE IDEA OF JUMPING TO HYPERSPACE at the very edge of the Maw. Vociferously.
    “Stop shrieking like a stuck mynock and secure the weapons battery,” Dash ordered, while inwardly kicking himself for ever thinking that having a droid whose subroutines included a fear of mortality that bordered on paranoia was in any way a good idea. Especially subroutines so deeply embedded in its firmware that it would require major restructuring to root them out, and would likely leave Leebo the cybernetic equivalent of a ripe purnix.
    Still, at times like these it was hard to see that as a downside …
    To Eaden, Dash said, “Give me a mark at …” He checked the tactical. “Point-oh-three.”
    “A bit close.”
    “You think? Leebo, prepare countermeasures.”
    “You want me to jettison some junk, boss?”
    “Yeah, but
prepare countermeasures
sounds more professional.”
    “They are continuing to fire on us,” said Eaden.
    “Good. In a moment, they’re going to think they got lucky.”
    “Mark,” said Eaden dubiously.
    Dash adjusted their attitude and increased their speed again. The tactical display tracked the cruiser’s last shot. The ship shivered as it glanced off her shields.
    “Release countermeasures.”
    “Junk away.”
    In the rearview screen, Dash saw the debris field spread across their wake in an arc as gravitational waves and eddies tugged it this way and that. A second later the
Outrider
began to fight him, the yoke pulling at his hands as if she were yearning to be at the heart of one of the singularity fields—which, in a manner of speaking, she was. He gritted his teeth harder and began to count: “One-one-hundred, two-one-hundred, three-one-hundred, four-one—”
    “Mark point-oh-three.”
    Dash yanked back on the yoke and accelerated, yet again, hauling the ship out of her dive into a shallow reverse arc. They were about as close to superluminal speed as they could get without jumping to hyperspace. The Maw pulled at them like an undertow, drawing the little ship toward its crushing depths. The
Outrider
quivered; the quivering became a steady vibration that increased until the vessel