Free Inferno by Troy Denning Page A

Jaina helped by using the Force to slide blasters away from a few semiconscious attackers.
    Without looking away from the men—whoever they were—Jaina tipped her head toward Orame and asked, “Gokobs?”
    “You might say that,” she replied. “I was trying to tell you the situation stinks, but they’re friendly.”
    “Don’t seem very friendly,” Jag said. He was pressing a knee into the back of one of the men he had stunned, binding the fellow’s hands while making certain his prisoner could not attack. “Friendlies don’t fire blasters at you.”
    A deep voice spoke from several meters to the right, almost behind Jaina. “They were stun bolts—and Jedi Solo did make a rather alarming entrance.”
    Jaina looked toward the voice and found a tall human ducking through the doorway from Orame’s private office. He had a long face with sunken eyes and a blade-like nose, and he was wearing the black uniform of a GAG major. He stopped a pace outside the office and spread his hands, palms out, to show he was unarmed.
    “Now I would appreciate it if you would allow my men to resume their duties.”
    Jaina continued to hold her lightsaber at middle guard. “I don’t think so.” She cocked her head toward Orame. “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on here?”
    Orame waved a blue, long-fingered hand toward the major. “Allow me to present Major Serpa,” she said. “Apparently, he’s here to protect us.”
    Serpa spread a smile that made ice seem warm. “You never know what those terrorists might attack next.”
    A dark storm boiled through Jaina’s veins, and she very nearly didn’t stop herself from Force-hurling the smug major through the nearest durasteel wall. “Jacen is holding the academy hostage ?”
    Serpa continued to smirk in her direction. “There’s no need to look at it that way.” He held his hand out toward her lightsaber. “But it would be wise to surrender your weapons before there are any more…misunderstandings.”
    “Not going to happen,” Jaina said. “But I will give you an hour to take your men and clear out of here.”
    Serpa’s smile vanished. “I’m afraid that isn’t going to happen, either. The colonel entrusted the safety of this facility and everyone in it to my battalion, and I won’t abandon that duty—no matter who gets caught in the crossfire.”
    Jag’s eyes narrowed with the same outrage that Jaina found herself struggling to contain. He started toward Serpa, circling the holodisplay opposite Jaina so their quarry would be trapped, saying nothing.
    Serpa merely watched him come, his Force presence betraying more excitement than fear, and Jaina suddenly realized why her brother had chosen the major for this particular duty.
    “Hold on, Jag,” she said. “I don’t think the major is right in the head.”
    Serpa’s eyes darkened, and he turned to Jaina with an air of disappointment. “That would depend on how one defines right, but if you mean to suggest I’d enjoy destroying this facility rather than risk having it fall into, um, unfriendly hands…”
    He extended his arm toward the man Jag had been binding. A hold-out blaster slid out of his sleeve into his hand, and he fired one bolt into the man’s face. Orame and several GAG troopers cried out in shock. Serpa merely looked back to Jaina and smiled.
    “You’re absolutely right,” he said. “I’m happy to kill anyone. ”
    Jag glared at Serpa like a bug that needed crushing, but Jaina deactivated her lightsaber and motioned for Jag to lower his blaster. She could tell by the eagerness in Serpa’s Force aura that he was fully prepared to order the academy’s destruction—actually hoping they’d give him an excuse to do so.
    “I can’t believe what my brother has come to,” Jaina said, “calling on the likes of you.”
    “You know what they say…desperate times and all that.” Serpa cocked his arm, and the hold-out blaster vanished into his sleeve. “Now perhaps you’d care to