Star Wars - Darth Maul - Saboteur by James Luceno

Author:James Luceno
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-05-16T11:01:54+00:00

Maul waited until the moon was low in the sky before he went to Lommite

Limiteds headquarters at the base of the escarpment. The incidents of sabotage

had caused the complex of buildings to be placed on high alert. Armed sentries,

some accompanied by leashed beasts, patrolled, and powerful illuminators cast

circles of brilliant light over the spacious grounds. A five-meter-high

electrified stun fence encompassed everything.

Maul spent an hour studying the movements of the sentries, the periodic sweeps

of the illuminators, the towering fence, and the motion detector lasers that

gridded the broad lawn beyond. He was certain that infrared cams were scanning

the grounds, but there was little he could do about those without leaving

evidence of his infiltration. A probe droid would have been able to tell him all

he needed to know, but there wasnt time and he wanted to do this personally.

To test the possibility that pressure detectors had been installed in the

ground, he used the Force to propel stones over the fence. As they struck

specific places on the lawn, he waited for some response, but the guards

stationed at the entry gates simply continued to go about their business.

When he was satisfied that he had committed the results of his reconnaissance to

memory, he shrugged out of his cloak and leapt straight up over the fence,

landing precisely where some of the rocks he had tossed rested. Then he sprang

to a series of other sites that ultimately carried him to the wall of the

principal building, moving with such speed the entire time that whatever

holorecordings were being made wouldnt show him unless they were played in slow

motion.

He reached one of the doors and found it locked, so he began to work his way

around the building, testing other doors and windows, all of which were

similarly secured.

He tested the buildings flat roof for motion and pressure detectors as he had

the lawn. Vaulting to the top, he was confronted with an expanse of solar

arrays, skylights, and cooling ducts. He moved to the nearest skylight and

ignited his lightsaber. He was ready to plunge the blade through the

transparisteel panel when he stopped himself, and peered more intently at the

panel. Embedded in the transparisteel were monofilament chains, which, when

severed, would trip an alarm.

Deactivating the blade, he reclipped his lightsaber and sat down to think. It

was unlikely that Lommite Limiteds central computer was a stand-alone machine.

It would have to be accessible from outside locations. Bruit would have remote

access. Maul berated himself for not having recognized that fact earlier. But it

wasnt too late to rectify his oversight.

* * *

Maul returned to Bruits dwelling just before sunrise. Unlike the headquarters

complex, the stilted house had no security. The chief of field operations either

didnt have enemies or didnt care, one way or the other. Perhaps Bruit was that

resigned to fate, Maul thought. It scarcely mattered, in any case.

He circled the house, occasionally chinning himself on the windowsills to peer

inside. In a rear room Bruit was sprawled atop a knocked-together bed, half in,

half out of a net tent that was meant to keep nocturnal insects from feasting on

his blood. He was fully clothed, snoring lightly, and dead drunk.

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