Chapter Six: Assassin
This definitely was not one of my best ideas, Obi-Wan thought as he clung to the droid. It was certainly well programmed – in order to shake him off, it sent stinging electric shocks over its surface. He almost lost his grip. Yes, he thought grimly. Not the best idea I've ever had. He reached into the back of the droid and pulled out a wire. He sighed in relief as the shocks subsided – then immediately panicked when the droid began dropping like a stone.
"Not good, not good!"
Obi-Wan managed to reconnect the wire, and the droid took off again, trying to lose the Jedi clinging to it. It manoeuvred its way towards a yellow speeder. Obi-Wan saw a figure leaning against the speeder pull out a laser rifle at his approach.
"I have a bad feeling about this," he muttered, and his feeling was not unreasonable – seconds later, shots exploded about him.
Well, that's definitely the assassin, he thought – then a shot hit the droid and it exploded, and Obi-Wan was thrown up into the air before plummeting hundreds of stories.
Then a speeder swooped in under him, and he grabbed the back end, struggling his way to the passenger seat.
"I almost lost you there," his Padawan said from the driver's seat.
"What took you so long?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Oh, you know, master, I couldn't find a speeder I really liked," Anakin said casually with a cocky smile. "One with an open cockpit, and the right speed capabilities. And then, you know, I had to hold out for just the right colour."
He pulled the speeder up and followed the yellow one the assassin had been leaning against.
"If you'd spend as much time working on your saber skills as you do on your wit, young Padawan, you would rival master Yoda as a swordsman," Obi-wan remarked as Anakin dodged in and out of traffic, trying to evade the bounty hunter who was firing a blaster pistol at them.
"I thought I already did."
"Only in your mind, my very young Padawan," Obi-wan shot back. He clutched the sides of the speeder as Anakin dived down, narrowly avoiding collision with several other speeders. "Careful! Hey, easy! You know I don't like it when you do that!"
"Sorry, I forgot you don't like flying, master!" he said distractedly as he pulled out of the dive and shot after the assassin.
"I don't mind flying, but what you're doing is suicide!" Obi-Wan retorted.
"I've been flying since before I could walk. I'm very good at this," Anakin boasted confidently.
"Just slow down!" his Master ordered weakly.
Anakin paid no heed to the instruction and followed the assassin's every move at breakneck speed.
The chase went on, each pilot trying to out-manoeuvre the other, dodging into convoys, speeding in and out of tunnels and zipping through impossibly sharp turns and narrow gaps.
This bounty hunter is almost as good a pilot as me, Anakin thought.
But then the yellow speeder disappeared to the left. Anakin turned to the right – he had an idea.
"Where are you going? He went down there, the other way." Obi-Wan was clearly annoyed.
His Padawan glanced at him. "Master, if we keep this chase going, that creep is going to end up deep-fried. Personally, I'd very much like to find out who he is and who he's working for. This is a shortcut." He hesitated. "I think."
"What do you mean, you think?" Obi-Wan demanded. Anakin didn't respond.
"Well, you lost him," Obi-Wan sighed.
"I'm deeply sorry, master," Anakin replied automatically. He began counting under his breath.
"Some shortcut!" Obi-wan scolded. "He went completely the other way. Anakin –"
"Excuse me for a moment," Anakin interrupted, and stood and leaped over the side of the speeder into the air.
Impeccable timing, Anakin congratulated himself as he landed on the assassin's speeder. The pilot accelerated, and Anakin slid backwards, trying to claw his way up the speeder. The speeder halted abruptly, and Anakin slipped forwards, just managing to grab onto one of the speeder's twin forks in time. The pilot began to fire at him as he slowly crawled up to the roof. Anakin pulled out his lightsaber, and began to melt a hole in the roof. A blaster shot knocked his blade out of his hand, nearly taking off his hand.
Obi-Wan's not going to let that one go, he thought gloomily.
He plunged his hand through the hole in the roof and used the Force to yank the pistol from the assassin's hand to his own. Distracted, the pilot looked up, and Anakin was surprised to see a woman's eyes. Her loss in concentration caused her face to change – She's not human, Anakin realised. She's a Clawdite! His grip on the blaster slipped, and it shot a hole in the floor of the speeder.
The craft spun out of control towards the street, the Clawdite bounty hunter desperately trying to regain control and Anakin hanging on for dear life. At the last minute, the assassin managed to pull the nose up just enough for the speeder to skim across the ground, emitting sparks and scattering pedestrians. Anakin flew over the speeder and managed to land on his feet in the street. He looked up in time to see the bounty hunter jump out and race away.
He hurried to follow her, pushing people and droids out of the way. Just before he reached her, she ducked into a nightclub. When he reached the door, a familiar-looking speeder with an even more familiar pilot dropped down. Obi-Wan stepped out, Anakin's lightsaber in hand.
"Anakin!" he said.
Anakin tried to distract him. "She went into that club, Master."
"Patience," Obi-Wan said to his Padawan. "Use the Force, Anakin. Think."
"Sorry, Master," was Anakin's automatic response. Think? The assassin is escaping, surely that's clear!
"He went in there to hide, not run," Obi-Wan sighed.
Of course. How obvious. "Yes Master," Anakin agreed, a little embarrassed.
His Master held out the lightsaber. "Here. Next time, try not to lose it."
Can't put the lecture off forever, Anakin thought as he nodded and reached for his weapon.
Obi-Wan pulled it back. "A Jedi's saber is his most precious possession."
"Yes, Master." He reached for it again, but Obi-Wan pulled it back again.
"He must keep it with him at all times," Obi-Wan lectured.
"I know, master," Anakin said, exasperation creeping into his voice.
"This weapon is your life."
This time, Anakin's frustration was obvious. "I've heard this lesson before."
"But you haven't learned anything, Anakin," obi-Wan countered. He held out the lightsaber and Anakin took it.
"I try, Master." Anakin was sincere.
Obi-Wan turned to the nightclub. "Why do I think you are going to be the death of me?" he asked blandly.
"Don't say that, Master. You're the closest thing I have to a father. I love you. I don't want to cause you pain," Anakin said emphatically. He meant every word.
Obi-Wan looked at him and asked, "Then why don't you listen to me?"
"I am trying."
Obi-wan had to admit this was true. He paused and looked around the club.
"Do you see him?" he questioned his apprentice.
"I think he's a she, and I think she's a changeling," Anakin corrected him, also looking around the room.
"Then be extra careful," obi-wan cautioned him with a smirk. "Go and find her."
"But – but where are you going, Master?" Anakin said in surprise, watching as Obi-Wan moved away.
"To get a drink," he informed the young man over his shoulder.
Anakin blinked, then turned and began to search the faces staring at him.
"Wanna buy some death sticks?" a voice came from Obi-Wan's right at the bar.
"Nobody's got better death sticks than Elan Sleazebaggano," the speaker continued with a smile to match his name.
"You don't want to sell me death sticks." Obi-Wan waved his hand, using the Force.
"I don't want to sell you death sticks," Elan agreed.
Obi-Wan waved his hand again. "You want to go home and rethink your life."
"I want to go home and rethink my life," Elan stood and walked away.
Anakin kept working the crowd, scanning each face. He could feel something was not right, a feeling that some evil, some menace, was hanging about the room. Suddenly, he sensed the evil condensing to a single spot, he sensed the blaster being raised…
He whirled around just as Obi-Wan spun to see his Master igniting his lightsaber and gutting a graceful arc, slicing off the assassin's arm at the elbow. He set himself up as bait! Anakin thought, feeling a little shaken. He pushed his way over to his Master. The crowd was frightened and angry – he could sense it clearly.
"Easy," he told the patrons, bringing the Force into his voice. "Official business. Go back to your drinks."
The two Jedi carried the assassin out to the street as the club complied with Anakin's words.
"Do you know who it was you were trying to kill?" Obi-Wan asked her.
"The Senator from Naboo," she answered matter-of-factly.
"Who hired you?"
She glared at obi-Wan. "It was just a job. And the next one won't make the same mistake I did."
We need answers! Anakin thought. "Tell us!" he demanded, inserting the weight of the Force in his words. "Tell us now!"
"It was a bounty hunter called –" She never finished. She twitched and simply died, her feature changing back to her true Clawdite form. The two Jedi looked up and saw an armoured man with a jet pack fly up and disappear into the night.
Obi-Wan turned to the dead assassin and took something from her neck.
"Toxic dart," he confirmed, showing it to Anakin.
So much for answers, Anakin thought, sighing. We foiled one attack only to find out that another unknown killer is hiring more people to kill Padmé. And who knows – another assassin could have hired the bounty hunter. It could be a never-ending chain of killers.