Star Wars - Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu by L. Neil Smith

Author:L. Neil Smith
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780345311580
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 1983-06-11T23:00:00+00:00

• XIX •

“OFFICER,” VUFFI RAA demanded, summoning the first constabulary cop he saw on the street. The robot pointed a tentacle at Lando. “Arrest this man immediately. Orders of the governor.”

Lando stopped, stunned. They hadn’t taken three steps away from the side of the Sharu ruin they’d emerged from. He looked back—the aperture they’d walked through was gone. He held the Mindharp to his chest, walked back a step, another, until his back was against the wall.

“Why, you little—”

“That’ll be enough of that,” the cop ordered. “I can’t arrest a man on the word of a machine. I’ll have to check it out with H.Q.” He touched the side of his helmet, communed momentarily with the radio inside it, then waved off with one hand the small crowd that was beginning to gather.

Lando took a small, quiet step sideways. No one seemed to notice. He took another, and another. Only a few more steps to a corner where he just might be able to—

“Officer!” Vuffi Raa shouted. “He’s trying to get away!”

“Thanks a lot, you atom-powered fink!”

The policeman drew his blaster, held it steady on Lando’s chest. “Well—first time I’ve ever heard of a droid with a security clearance like that, but—hold still, you! We’ll have some transportation in a minute, then we’ll all take a nice little ride.”

The governor’s office looked much the same as it had before, even to the absence of Rokur Gepta the Sorcerer of Tund. With the Mindharp lying across the crystalline desk, Lando wondered why the wizard wasn’t present to claim the prize he’d sought so avidly.

He didn’t wonder very long.

“Good afternoon,” Duttes Mer said, entering from the right and easing himself into his chair. “I see you have the object. Very good. You could tell me one little thing, though, if you would be so kind.”

Lando was standing between two of Teguta Lusat’s finest once again. This time Vuffi Raa was present, standing beside the governor’s desk.

“Anything you want to know,” Lando said, trying hard for cheerfulness and not quite making it.

“EXACTLY WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN THESE LAST FOUR MONTHS?” The governor calmed himself down, straightened his neckcloth, blinked.

“Four months?” Lando asked, reeling from one astonishing development after—so that was it! The time differential. What had seemed like a couple of days to him had actually been sixty times that long. “Governor, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Ask your treacherous friend, here. He’ll tell you—unless he’s a congenital liar.”

“Don’t be too hard on the droid, Captain. He did what he was programmed to do: play the Emissary’s part so that the natives would help you find the Harp. Also, to report to me the instant the Harp was in your possession. It would seem I’ve had a stroke of luck in that respect, however. How is it that you flew to Rafa V and returned here without being picked up on planetary defense sensors? We really have a nice, modern system, you know.”

“You tell him, Vuffi Raa, since you’re such a blabbermouth anyway.

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