The Jedi Purge

Chapter Two

Choose your friends carefully – Your enemies more so…

The local news channels had a twenty second item on the antics at the space port.

It screamed at the recklessness of the fugitives at opening up the sub-light drives. There were a pointless eight seconds on the principals of the sub-light drives, the way un-consumed quarks came together to form protons and neutrons.

The only good news for the group of four was the fact that the Solars were reluctant to admit failure. They were withholding the news of their quarry's escape, hoping that the media would loose interest. When the storm blew over there would be an announcement.

Would the public look out for this man? and this man? and so on... report them to the planetary police if you should happen to see them, you will be rewarded; thank you.

Until then they would have to avoid the police, but only the police.

They had found sanctuary in a grubby motel. It wasn't much, but it was exactly the type of place where no one would report them, and the police wouldn't look until they had to.

Here in a filthy room with bald concrete walls, they gathered. The four of them sat around a ruined table discussing their strategy.

Petri thought they would stand a better chance if they split up.

Mos and Kelly disagreed.

Chainy thought that they should find away to get off world before they discussed splitting up.

Petri was on the point of just walking out when Kelly asked how he intended to get off the planet.

"Chainy's not the only smuggler on the planet." Petri told him.

"He may be the only one you can trust."      

"Without a ship he's not much use, whether I trust him or not."

"Let him go, he's no use to us." put in Chainy, who resented being called useless. Kelly ignored him.

"I don't think you'll find it as easy to charter a flight as you think." Kelly had the bounty hunter's attention. "We left someone with egg on their face back there. They, whoever they are, will have to admit that we escaped. Eventually. They've probably already had their boss jumping all over their face for this morning's fiasco.

"Now, suppose that boss lets this, this butterfingers try and redeem himself. He knows that there will be a thorough, desperate, search.

"We've already given them the slip once. There was no reason why their first trap shouldn't have caged us, so Boss will probably think that there's a good chance of us staying free. We've certainly got more of a chance now than we had a few hours back.

"If Butterfingers catches us, then Boss has someone who owes him big time. If we get away, then the Boss has a fall guy for both the botched search and the space-port. Taking over the search can only make him seem as incompetent as his underling."

Three pairs of eyes stared at him, soundlessly. Then, Mos broke the silence: "Butterfingers?"

"Poor catcher." Chainy explained.

"You still have to explain why we shouldn't split up."

"Any search for us now is going to be desperate. They have no idea where we are this moment, so they're going to go mad trying to run down every smuggler on the planet. They know we can't stay here, and they have our ship."

Petri pulled away his helmet, startling Chainy with his youthful appearance. Kelly smiled, thinking that Petri looked like a choir boy gone to the dark side of the Force. The young bounty hunter scratched thoughtfully at the stubble that had gone unchecked for the last few days. "Security at the space port will be stepped up to stop us from stealing a ship." he said.  

Mos twisted his fingers in annoyance. Stealing a ship was to have been his suggestion.     

"You can bet that there's not a smuggler on the planet it's safe for us to go to. The places they hang out are probably under surveillance."

"We can't just sit here." stressed Chainy.

Kelly looked to the smuggler and the bounty hunter. "Isn't there anyone either of you could go to?"

"Everyone I'm on speaking terms with is a bounty hunter or hangs out around bounty hunters."

Chainy remained silent for a moment, glancing from friend to friend. "Karo-Than." he announced after a moment.

"Who?" asked Kelly.

"Local crime lord. Crime lady, I should say." Petri told him. The bounty hunter looked distinctly displeased by the pilot's suggestion.

"Does she owe you a favour?" Kelly asked.

"No, but she runs most of the smuggling out of here. This search for us must be hitting her hard." Chainy thought it over for a second, while the others looked dubious. "Even so," the ex-smuggler continued, "I don't think that she'll help us for nothing."

*

Midnight was not the lonely, silent time it was made out to be. Party goers wandered through the streets, lights blazing around them.

Petri, Kelly and Chainy were quickly absorbed into the sea of beautiful faces and bodies. All who saw them quickly forgot them. Moss, the most distinctive of them, had elected to stay in his room. His interests would be looked after by Chainy in the evening's negotiations.

Petri had spent the hour before twilight applying a fresh coat of paint to his now unrecognisable armour. The helmet he had left behind, and he walked a little away from Kelly and Chainy.

Karo-Than was a shadowy figure, even by the standards of the underworld. Little was known of her, other than what she allowed to be known.

She was a Twi-Lek, with olive green skin and skull-tails running halfway down her spine. Her graceful, willow-like limbs often decived the on-looker into underestimating their sinuous strength. Strength the rumour-mill said had been put to lethal use in the name of self defence.

Her nightclub was a concrete dome four stories high. The entrance was a semi-circle four meters wide, with steps leading down into a tunnel.

Petri made for the steps, but he found his way blocked by a man built like a wall. Tall and wide.

"No weapons." the doorman said.

Petri squared up to the bouncer, but before he could do any serious good Chainy wedged himself between them. Kelly laid an unwelcome, soothing hand on the bounty hunter's shoulder.

"He's had a bad day." Chainy excused to the doorman. "He's looking to unwind."

Chainy nodded to the others and handed over his Hawkeye point four. The weapon was squat and ugly. It seemed to be made of cheap cream plastic and chrome alloy.

Petri snarled at the doorman as he handed over his Killpower point five.

Kelly claimed poverty, saying that he couldn't afford the permit for blaster. That drew a smile from the bouncer, who ran a sensor pack over him.

As his friends tensed, Kelly picked out the location of the doorman's hidden weapons and assessed the girl at the counder as a possible threat. He raised his eyebrows resignedly. He noted the sensor pack was top of the line.

The sensor pack failed to detect the light-saber.

The three descended the short flight of steps and entered the tunnel. Amber lights gave everything a brownish tinge.

Despite their instincts, the three men found them selves walking together in a tight group. Kelly led them, reaching ahead with the force. He sensed beings ahead, humans and many things that were not human, yet were here for the same reasons.

Behind Kelly, Petri nudged Chainy to get his attention. With a gesture he showed the pilot the eye level camera on the end wall.

"Feeds to a wall screen in the public bar. Just so none of the patrons gets a surprise visit." Chainy mumbled.

Petri nodded. There would be a back exit as well, no doubt. Blaster fights on the premises would be costly for the management.

They entered the public chamber, which was filled with the sounds and smells of chemical entertainment. The room was shaped like a key hole, a circle with a triangle sticking out of one side. The furthest wall to the right, the base of the triangle, had the bar counter against it. The neer circular wall was lined with booths that were too shrouded in shaddow to tell whether or not they wee occupied.

A huge blue creature rose from an open, square table on their right. It was clearly worse for whatever it had taken, and swayed uncertainly as it approached them.

"You, bounty hunter." it vocalised clumsily.

Petri felt dangerous, hostile eyes turn on him. The creature was big, two legged and with in easy reach.

"You're drunk!" Petri exclaimed, taking a step forward. He planted both palms on the creature's chest and pushed hard enough to unbalance it.

The blue being crashed against the side of the table, a free arm knocking it's original chair away. The blue creature tried to stand.

With a swift, fluid motion Petri plucked a bottle off the table and sent it base first into the alien's head. The alien crashed back to the floor.

Petri began to sweat. This was getting messy. If he couldn't end it soon, someone would get hurt.

The blue creature tried to stand a second time, it's face twisted. Then a reassuring hand came down on it's shoulder, restraining it.

Petri nodded to the sober being that sat behind the blue creature, a silent gesture of thanks.

Chainy passed the table, headed for the bar. He was known here. A little talk with the right people would soon sort things out.

"Captain Chainy. You will come with us."    

Chainy's eyes snapped forward, away from the trouble-makers.

The speaker was a tall black man; Chainy recognised him from his last time at Karo-Than's place, but couldn't put a name to him.          

Flanking him to the left and right were two goliath-like gaurds. They held their energy pikes with the practised confidence of veterans. At their hips were blaster carbines of military grade.    

Chainy wasn't reassured when he heard Kelly and Petri step up on either side of him, matching the positions of the two gaurds. He had seen what these gaurds could do, and he didn't fancy their chances in a face-off.        

"I want to talk to Karo-Than." Chainy forced the words out through a sudenly dry mouth. The black man nodded, his expression changeless. 

Chainy hoped that ment he was being summoned to the meeting he wanted. Given the circumstances he ddn't have much choice.          

He waved to his two companions. "What about them?"   

"They may stay and enjoy the entertainments provided." Or not if they so chose, the man seemed to imply.   

Abruptly the man turned and strode past his two gaurds. They remained, towering over Chainy. Slowly, reluctantly, Chainy followed the messenger.      

Like a lamb to the slaughter, thought Petri.   

If Kelly had any reservations about the smuggler's course, he didn't give them form.         

Chainy was lead through a doorway that stood opposite to the one the party had entered by. The doorway slid shut behind the gaurds, who took up sentry positions.          

The space pilot looked back at them, noting that they were nearly invisible in the gloom of the corridor. The sounds of his guides footsteps grew distant. Chainy turned and hurried after him.      

He hadn't gone far when he realised he had lost his guide. With difficulty Chainy peered forward into the darkness. When the voice slipped through the air like a knife into his back, it was all he could do not to scream.       

"Welcome, Captain Chainy."    

Chainy spun before he recognised the smooth, feminine tones. Looking back he realised he had missed a small branching in the hallway.      

She stood quietly in the darkness, waiting for him to get a grip on himself. As though to give him time, she continued the thought: "Though I hear you're a Captain without a ship now."      

"Yes." He agreed. 

Karo-Than took a step forward, into the partial light of the larger corridor.    

"The security clamp down has crippled my shipping opperations. Can you tell me why you expect to be welcomed here?"

Chainy struggled to get his mouth working again. "It's in your interests to be rid of us." he said. 

"Yes." Karo-Than seemed saddened to admit it.    

Two gaurds followed her out into the hall with Chainy. They held their weapons in a way that made the first two gaurds look like raw recruits, hiding behind training pikes.  

Chainy tried again. "We want to get off the planet. Your business interests are harmed as long as the security forces are searching for us.        

"The police could take months to decide we've escaped, or to catch us. Unless you help them.  

"But you can't do that because there are four of us, and if you betray us the fourth one will make sure everyone knows about it.  

"In the long term that will cause you more damage than the security clamp down."  

"I can't encourage the kind of antics you pulled at the spaceport by bailing you out either. Others might expect the same treatment." Karo-Than warned him.  

"You could distance yourself from our escape. We'd make it clear that we had slipped past the net. The siege would be lifted."   

The crime lady seemed to consider his reasoning. "That's what I liked about you." She said at length. "You always considered all the angles before you leaped."  

Her use of the past tense sent chills down Chainy's back. His breath hitched and his heart was in his desert dry mouth. He fought for control.       

"All I'm asking is that you loan us some money and give us the name of a ship that's for sale. We'll do the rest."      

Karo-Than became statue like. When she lifted her eyes she seemed to have hope again.   

Hope for him?      

He didn't speculate.        

"How much money?" she asked.        

"Six thousand."    

"Chicken feed."    

"Each."       

"You realise that people who are facing a life sentence on Hadyon are very poor risks... but then, if I turned a profit on all such deals people would call me a loan shark."    

Karo-Than turned away. Despite the poor light Chainy could see from her heel to the cheek of her derriere, all seductively revealed by the daring slit of her dress.   

"Come with me." she said. "We need to discuss this further."    

He followed her without question.                

*

Petri and Kelly sat in silence, waiting for their companion to return. They were at an open table. Everyone already knew where they were, so a private booth would be little more than a trap if trouble started.     

At first they had been approached by prostitutes; a blonde and a brunette, when they were turned away a young man offered his services.     

Then conversations around them had died down for fear that they were eavesdropping. They weren't talking themselves, what else could they be doing?      

Petri was brooding over the missing Chainy, and his chances of escaping the Imperial net.          

His right hand fondled the butt of his Streetmaster point three three. It's squat, thumb-like barrel could only hold full focus for ten meters, but if trouble started that would be all he needed.

He hadn't liked the way Chainy had just been marched away, or the fact that no one seemed to care about them.      

He wasn't surprised when he saw the three men making their way towards them across the crowded room.    

His grip on the blaster tightened.        

His eyes risked the time it took to look across the table, at the Jedi. No help there, the fool had his eyes closed.       

Kelly was meditating. His eyes were closed and his hands lay loosely folded on his lap.    

He could feel Petri playing with the blaster and the suspicion at the neighbouring tables. He knew when Petri's eyes turned to him, and the crowds parted to make way for someone or something as it moved across the room.     

When he noticed Petri's attention settle in the same direction he reached out with his senses. Three men. Big. Focused on them. Felt like they could be real trouble in a fight.

Perhaps he should open his eyes...

The smallest of the men, who was still taller than Petri, towered over their table. Kelly could feel the man reaching for something in a hidden pocket. With his magnified senses he heard the click of Petri pulling back the safety on his back-up piece, and knew that the bounty hunter had seen the gesture.

"Captain Chainy will be negotiating terms with Mistress Karo-Than for the rest of the night." the major-domo announced. "He directed that this money should be turned over to you. Karo-Than expects your repayments to be prompt.

"I am also to give you a name. The name is Mendez, docking bay sixty one at the west side spaceport."

Two bundles of money landed on the table, between the Jedi and the bounty hunter. Kelly opened his eyes, serenely. Petri's eyes bugged.

What the hell goes on here, wondered the bounty hunter? Did Chainy actually work something out?

Realising that the presence of such wealth was attracting the wrong kind of attention, Petri spirited the bundle of money away. As he did so he weighed it in his hands, trying to gauge it's worth. About five thousand, he thought. Between four and eight, certainly.

Glancing across at Kelly, he saw the other bundle of credit notes had disappeared. He could only hope that Kelly had done the disappearing. While his eyes were on the Jedi the majordomo turned and stalked away.      The upper levels of Karo-Than's dome were a mystery. Popular rumour had them as everything from a dungeon to a starfighter hanger. In fact they were a luxuriant mansion.

Chainy entered the chamber with the confidence of someone who already had what he wanted. Anything he got now would be a bonus.

The room was square and five meters across. The walls were bare concrete, the furnishings unbelievably refined.

On one wall was a depth screen, the most advanced type outside the galactic core. It was surrounded by a white granite frame, carved in three layers of exquisite detail.

Chainy knew that he was looking at the highest levels of art and technology combined. It didn't surprise him in the least that Karo-Than would decorate her mansion with such treasures. He had seen the inside of her starship, the Crystal Dome, four years ago.

There, as here, she had brought together possessions unlike anything he had seen elsewhere.

Everything was in the gray area where Chainy could recognise the quality, but never dream of ownership. He looked across the room, taking in the splendour with almost hungry eyes,... and froze when he came to the bed.

It was a magnificent bed. Repulsor cushions. Built in sonic masseur. Hypnotic sleep/dream inducer. The frame was wooden, made from an oil-fruit tree.

Magnificent. But it didn't change the fact that he was in her bedroom.

"When you left my employ I learned that it was because you had heard rumours that I was... infatuated with you.

"Normally I couldn't care less about idle gossip,... but your reaction was... insulting." Than's eyes were intense, penetrating.

Chainy had been around, had shared affection on a dozen worlds with a hundred women. For love. For money. For the hell of it. This was something that left him cold.

Some people would do anything for kicks, others would do anything for money - but he wasn't one of them. Karo-Than was beautiful, but he always stuck to his own species.

"Look, I didn't mean to offend you..." He began.

"You can apologise later;... when I'll be more inclined to forgive you."

He felt his stomach shrink as she came towards him. His mouth was dry again. She smiled and he saw that every tooth was canine.

"I'm not inclined... I try not to get involved with business contacts."

"Do you think me any less professional?" she enquired coldly. "It's been two years since you worked for me, and I haven't loaned you any money yet."

Chainy's thoughts became confused, cascading over each other in their hurry to be heard.

She was trying to turn him into a cheep hooker. Worse. She expected him to return the fee with interest.

Karo-Than was closer now than Chainy remembered her ever being. How very human her body was!

Maybe it was like she said. Just a loan. He didn't owe her anything yet.

She kissed him. Suddenly his mouth wasn't dry any more.

He kissed back.    

The money had drawn attention like iron filings to a magnet.

Petri wasn't bothered.

He'd sized up the competition already, and no one would try anything here. Not while they were under Karo-Than's roof.

It was just as well. There were dangerous people in the place tonight. Petri could have picked up sixteen thousand from the bounties on two faces alone.

Niros Keems and Douglas Cove.

They were there separately; Keems in his stylish clothes, Cove in heavy armour. Each had his back to a wall; but while Cove had a Slayer carbine strapped to his thigh, Keems had a tiwn barrel hold-out blaster, crammed into his sleave.

Neither would start anything tonight.

Cove was on retainer to Karo-Than, and wouldn't dream of risking his nice, soft position.

Keems was looking to enjoy himself, and never did anything he hadn't planed three months in advance.

The real danger was the chance a cheep punk would follow them when they left. Petri could hold his own against, maybe four of those.

Unless they started shooting first.

That was why Petri wanted to leave when the majordomo delivered the cash. He had two reasons for waiting.

Firstly, with no contacts, no plan and a security alert on for him he wasn't sure he could get off the planet, with or without eight thousand credits.

Secondly, he had to know whether Chainy was safe. It was the only way to be sure no one was coming after him.

"Honoured,... sirs."

The voice came from behind Petri. It had a whispering quality, and a harsh, electric undertone. He turned.

"There are police in the area."

The voice came from a droid, about two feet wide and three feet tall. Petri hadn't seen it enter the room, which was odd; he was keeping an eye on all the ways in.

"My colleagues are warning the other patrons. It would be convenient if you left via the door opposite the entrance."

By pure reflex he looked to where Meeks and Cove were sitting. Meeks was already gone, had left while his attention was on the droid. Petri hoped that Meeks had noticed he was being watched, and had snuck out just to prove that he was worth his reputation.          

Cove was still seated. Drink in one hand, the other caressing the butt of his Slayer carbine. Petri hoped to hell Cove wasn't going to choose tonight to go out in a blaze of laser-light and glory.        

Petri didn't want to think that Meeks habitually moved with the silence of a ninja, or that Cove was as sentimental as rumour said his old age was making him.

He looked back to the droid, which hung in mid air as though it had to catch it's breath before it could fall.    

When they were in the private corridor Petri asked the droid about Captain Chainy. They were told that the Captain was with mistress Karo-Than, and would return to them in the morning.   

Petri heard the Jedi surpress a laugh, he looked round in surprise. A second later the implications filtered through to him and he filed it away for later use.       

He was being slow tonight.       

Why else should a space tramp like Chainy think he could come here for help? He had been freelance for two years and nothing special to before that.     

As he followed Kelly down a flight of hidden steps Petri wondered how he could have been slipping so much.        

First he hadn't turned the Jedi in when he had the chance. Then there was the pointless fire fight with the police, at the spaceport. Sure, the sergeant had said they were on the way to pick up Chainy; that if Petri had a prisoner on the ship he could kiss his bounty goodbye. But that didn't merit a pitched battle and a price on his head.          

Today he had missed the reason for Chainy's visit, the arrival of the droid and Keems slipping past him. And those were just the things he knew he'd missed.     

The tunnel came up in a building across the street. It's front door faced away from Karo-Than's dome.          

"Do you think she'll give Chainy Mos's share of the money?" Kelly asked as they stepped into the street.       

"I think she'll give him something, alright." Petri replied, watching for Kelly's reaction.       

"Yes."        

Nothing. Goddamn poker-face. Either the Jedi had got use to the idea or he'd been thinking the same thing himself.  

They headed back the hotel, keeping at least forty feet between them. As a pair they could jog someone's memory. And then they waited for Chainy to return.