Free Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore Page A

added. “I could see it in the way she walked and held herself.” Supremely pleased with himself, the executor headed for his private quarters, Shok Tinoktin moving to follow.
    “Make sure that their course away leads them past the square,” Nom Anor said to him on sudden insight. “I want them to witness the devotion.”
    Shok Tinoktin bowed and turned away.
    Nom Anor went into his room. He started for the two Villips he had concealed in his closet, but changed his mind and went to his viewscreen instead, staring up at the images of the stars that were just beginning to peek out as the sun disappeared. Had they made contact? he wondered. Had the yammosk set up the controlling base?
    “He looked like Darth—” Jaina started to say.
    “Don’t even talk about it,” Leia cut her off, her tone leavingno room for debate. “Try to keep up, Threepio,” she said, more sharply than she had intended, when the droid came bounding around a rounded corner in full flight, nearly crashing into one of the metal support girders that lined the hallway like a giant rib cage. “And try not to get lost.”
    “Oh, never that, Princess Leia,” C-3PO said, as sincere as he had ever been, and he glued himself to Leia’s side.
    They continued along the winding maze of corridors, up stairwells and through heavy doors, and it occurred to all of them how defensible this place truly was, a bunker more than a statehouse. Also, given the number of stairs they climbed, and where they eventually came out, they realized that Nom Anor’s private chambers were quite far below ground, something that had been lost on them in their trip down, a journey that had followed a more meandering route, along corridors they now understood to be gently, almost imperceptibly, sloping.
    They arrived at the
Jade Sabre
without incident, and the guards standing before the shuttle’s hatch briskly stepped aside.
    “I wish that it could have gone better,” Tamaktis Breetha remarked to Leia after Jaina, Mara, and C-3PO went aboard to begin departure preparations.
    “Perhaps you should tell that to Nom Anor,” Leia replied, and the gentle-eyed old man bowed.
    “You must understand that Osarian has been ruling us as a virtual slave colony for decades,” Tamaktis began.
    “I know the history, and the current standing,” Leia replied. “Your intractable leader does not help the situation.”
    Tamaktis, obviously unconvinced, didn’t respond.
    Leia shook her head and moved into the ship, Bolpuhr gliding in behind her, the Noghri never taking his wary gaze from Tamaktis or the two sentries.
    “We’ve got a course change,” Mara informed Leia as soon as she joined the others on the bridge, taking her customary seat behind Jaina.
    “They want us to fly low across the city, then vector out from the west,” Jaina explained.
    “A trap?” the wary Leia asked.
    “I don’t see the point,” Mara said. “They could have taken out the shuttle while we were with Nom Anor, and could have easily captured us inside the complex.”
    “Unless they’re trying to make it look like an accident,” Jaina put in.
    Leia nodded, reflecting her similar concerns.
    “They haven’t got a thing that will take us out of the air once we’re up and fully powered,” Mara said firmly.
    “Nothing that we know about,” Leia added, and that truth gave Mara pause.
    “We could signal the
Mediator
for an escort,” Jaina offered.
    Leia shook her head. “Just follow their course,” she offered. “But be ready to blast out of here at the slightest sign of trouble.”
    They heard Bolpuhr give a low hiss in the hallway, apparently not pleased with that choice.
    “Maybe your Noghri noticed Nom Anor’s resemblance to Darth Vader, as well,” Mara said with a tension-breaking grin.
    But Leia shuddered visibly at the awful thought.
    The
Jade Sabre
lifted off and skimmed across the city, barely above the rooftops, as the departure controller ordered. A few moments later, Leia