Fate of the Jedi 09: Apocalypse by Troy Denning

Author:Troy Denning
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780345519603
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2012-03-12T13:00:00+00:00

THEY HAD FINALLY CLIMBED HIGH ENOUGH INTO THE TEMPLE TO ESCAPE the acid-dripping mold and the fungi with poisonous, razor-sharp edges. This passage was just a typical undercity corridor, with corroding durasteel walls, layers of grime, and the reek of decay. And since there were no more man-eating vegetables, Han was no longer in fight-or-flight mode. Now he was just angry—furious, even.

During the ambush in the loading dock, he had glimpsed a brown-haired girl standing in the entrance to the access tunnel. She had been wearing Jedi combat armor, so at first he had assumed she was a prisoner or was fleeing the enemy. Then he had noticed the thermal detonator in her hand, and he had started to think spy. The clincher had come when she had stepped into the loading bay and tossed the detonator toward the Falcon’s boarding ramp, where Allana stood talking with Bazel and Leia. That was about the same time that he got a good look at the little scar at the corner of her mouth, and he had recognized her instantly.

Vestara Khai.

The little smooka had been playing Ben all along, using the girl-in-danger ploy to make him fall for her. Then, after she had gotten inside the Jedi Order and learned as much as Luke was going to allow, she had seen an opportunity to take out Allana and had slipped back to the Sith to set up the ambush in the loading dock. That much was clear. She had used Ben and fooled Luke.

The only thing Han did not understand was how. How had Vestara learned about the drop-off—and that Allana would be aboard? How had she set up the attack so quickly? She had already been inside the Temple when the Falcon arrived on Coruscant, and even if she had had some means of eavesdropping on Bwua’tu’s headquarters, there had been less than an hour to get into position.

But at least Han knew why the Jedi had been running into so much trouble inside the Temple. There had been a spy in their ranks. And someday Vestara Khai would pay for what she had done. Han would make sure of that, if it was the last thing he ever did.

“Grandpa!” Allana whispered from behind him. “Be quiet!”

Han glanced down at the grime-caked floor, trying to see what he might have kicked or snapped. In the weak glow-panel light, he could see compressed dust and not much else—no stray fusioncutters or beamdrills, no slashrat skeletons or breemil carapaces. He couldn’t even see any dead muxi carcasses, and as bad as the place smelled, there ought to have been a thousand of them.

Still walking, he twisted around enough to look back. Leia and Anji were about ten paces away, bringing up the rear. Allana and R2-D2 were following closer behind, almost on his heels. They were both coated top-to-bottom in dust and grime, and Allana looked every bit the combat veteran she had become in the last few days of running, skulking, and fighting.

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