Thrawn: Treason (Star Wars) (Star Wars: Thrawn) by Zahn Timothy

Author:Zahn, Timothy [Zahn, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2019-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

As the group had prepared to leave Jeffrie’s place, Eli had noticed through the window that there were still a few gawkers loitering outside the storefront, apparently waiting to see which of the people who went in came out again under their own power. The fact that all of them were going to do so, he suspected uneasily, might raise as much curiosity as one or more of them being carried out in a body bag.

Fortunately, Sisay had apparently had the same thought. She avoided the whole issue by slipping them out the back, through a narrow alley filled with trash bins and ragged-looking people sifting through them, and beneath a pair of lifter droids that were waiting patiently for the scavengers to finish. Another back door, a trip through and out the front of a café, and they were on their way.

Eli had expected the trip to be short, with Sisay’s group based somewhere close to where Pik had landed their shuttle. But as they continued on through the noisy streets, it became clear that that wasn’t the case. Apparently Sisay had been outside their territory on other business and had just happened to pick up on the odd newcomers.

Or perhaps more likely, Admiral Savit’s pressure had the local pirate gangs enough on edge that they were all patrolling the spaceport on the lookout for the grand admiral’s agents.

A casual study of the people they passed along the way bolstered that theory. Eli had seen this sort of town before, back in the Wild Space systems where his family’s shipping business operated, and he knew how the unwritten status rules were structured and maintained. At the beginning of their walk, fewer than 10 percent of the people they passed seemed to recognize either Sisay or Skulk, and their subtle reactions suggested that about half of that number recognized them positively and the other half negatively.

But as they moved along, the recognition factor rose steadily. Half an hour after leaving the shop, it seemed like everyone they passed knew the gang.

On the downside, the percentages that looked at them favorably or unfavorably still hovered around 50 each. Unfortunately, an ambivalent status like that inevitably transferred to anyone in their company, which put him, Ronan, and the death troopers in that same precarious social position.

Thrawn had suggested that the death troopers’ aura of imminent danger would ward off unwanted trouble. With Savit’s sweep of the area, it looked like that plan had unfortunately backfired.

Finally, with the walls of the commercial part of the spaceport visible in the distance—the decent part, as Waffle had called it—they arrived at a somewhat decrepit building. Sisay led them through a faded lobby—the place had apparently once been a hotel—to a wide staircase leading to the second floor. They passed two men lounging lazily at the top of the stairs, their alert and penetrating eyes in sharp contrast with their feigned lethargy, and into a suite of rooms midway down the hallway.

“So why exactly are

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