Although Kaevee couldn't understand Huttese, the mention of Lannik Mai's name was enough to tip her off that they were about to get into what Atton called "a situation." As well, the Force had warned her of danger just before the Gran's arrival. The one who had hung back by the door was largely blocking her view, but she could sense the other three as they stomped toward Atton and the two Intelligence agents. She knew Cole was still at the bar, but a line of other patrons there hid him as well.
Fearful anticipation quickened her blood. The mantra of her old life—I am a Jedi, the Force is with me—seemed to tingle on her lips, and for a bare second or two her concentration blurred. Then, wiping those words from her mind, she laid a hand on the blaster pistol at her belt. Not so long ago she had looked on such crude, common weapons with disdain, but that had begun to change when she used one to kill a Sith Marauder on Malachor V.
In fact, a lot of things had begun to change on that day.
The three Gran reached their quarry. Kaevee could partially hear an argument break out, with one of the aliens barking orders and threats, and either Atton or one of his companions protesting. Kaevee did her best to control her breathing and stay centered in the Force, stay ready to act. She hoped Atton would be able to talk his way out of the situation; they'd been skulking through the Gordian Reach's underbelly for weeks before reaching Gulvitch, and this wouldn't be the first time they'd narrowly avoided a shootout with some local vermin. And despite the character of the people filling this cantina—calling them innocent seemed too generous—it was not a place where Kaevee wanted to see blaster bolts flying.
More generally, on several occasions Kaevee had killed people before—not only scum like these Gran, but also Sith—and so far she had no taste for it at all. Still, she was ready to do it again if she had to.
Mostly.
Nearby, the Gran who'd stayed by the door shifted on his feet and let loose an impatient snort, unaware that the little woman in the booth behind him was contemplating shooting him in the back.
Please, Atton, she thought. Please just say the right thing...
"You scum-sucking, mynock-kriffing MURGLAK!"
Kaevee's head pivoted toward the bar—as did nearly every other head in the room—to see Cole Terrick moving frantically away from one of the stools there, shielding his face with his hands as a peculiarly elegant-looking woman doused him with a drink. Not satisfied with that, she flung several more expletives and finally her empty glass as well. In his half-blind retreat, Cole swatted it out of the air with a flailing arm, sending it arcing over several heads to shatter against the floor meters away.
As the barkeep, a strange bear-like alien, shouted and attempted to calm the livid woman down, Cole somehow lost his footing and fell against a nearby empty table. Failing to brace himself against it, he instead managed to knock it over with a crash, along with several chairs.
There were hoots of laughter as he lay crumpled on his side, groaning like a swoop bike had run him over. Seconds passed as he put a hand on the edge of the overturned table, which partially hid him from the jeering bystanders, and unsteadily got to his knees. Kaevee stared at him, so appalled that she could not look away—until she realized with a jolt that the Gran, particularly the three who had been in the process of arresting Atton and the Intelligence agents, were doing the exact same thing.
Cole made another agonized sound and brought a hand to his side, slipping it beneath his red flight jacket. No sooner did he pull it out than a bolt of crimson flashed across the cantina. There was a strange, weighty thud-puff as the Gran in front of Kaevee lurched back, then fell face-first to the floor.
The room rang with screams and shouts. Kaevee drew her pistol, but a stream of bodies heading for the exit checked her before she could leap out of her seat. Through the blur of shadows, she caught glimpses of Atton and the two agents brawling with the remaining Gran. Flashes and pulses testified to several more blaster shots.
The stampede was over in a few seconds. Free at last, Kaevee slid from the booth and crouched behind a newly overturned table. The last few patrons ignored her as they crawled or ran past. On the other side of the room, two Gran were already dead, and the third was grappling with Atton until Cole shot him in the back.
Atton was beginning to say something when the bear-faced barkeep, who had seemingly disappeared, now leaped into view from beneath the bar. He leveled a large, multi-barreled weapon at Cole, who stood just under two meters away. "Drop them! Hands up!"
Cole's blaster fell from his fingers, while Atton and the two agents behind him froze. Waving the gun at them, the barkeep commanded, "You too! Now! You start a firefight with Kolzaar's men—in my cantina? Are you out of your fraggin' minds?!"
The creature's wild rage was palpable, and Kaevee, hidden and out of his line of fire, had little doubt that he would soon fire, regardless of what Atton and the others did. Bracing herself against the table, she took aim with her pistol, only for an overwhelming, arctic wave of nameless doubt and fear to sweep through her mind and paralyze her. Its presence was as fleeting as it was unbearable, a second or two; then, without any conscious deliberation, she freed her off-hand from her blaster's grip, pointed at the barkeep's weapon, and yanked hard with the Force.
Her lack of concentration perhaps cost her some precision. As the gun went skittering down the bar to eventually topple over and land among the stools, its owner lurched in roughly the same direction, slamming his head against the counter's edge before falling out of sight. Not a quarter of a second later, a burst of laser bolts tore down the length of the drink dispenser behind him, spraying the vicinity with multicolored fluids.
"Aw, you made me miss," Atton pouted.
Kaevee shrugged and moved to rejoin her companions. Emerging from the mind-fogging tension of the crisis, she found herself perplexed, and her eyes lingered on the ruined bar.
She snapped back to the present moment as Atton brushed past and bent over to pick up the barkeep's fallen weapon. After turning it over this way and that, he dropped it like a child losing interest in a toy and sauntered back to the group. "Scattergun. Has its uses, but give me a blaster almost any day."
"She did do that, right?" said an unfamiliar voice. "I didn't imagine that?"
Kaevee, who had been watching Atton, now turned and noticed that Lannik Mai and his fellow agent were staring at her with stony, wary faces. "Uh, excuse me?"
Lannik gestured at the scattergun. "That trick of yours. Never seen anyone do that before. I didn't know there were Jedi left anywhere, much less in the SIS."
"Yeah, speaking of which, Kira," Atton put in, using the fake name Kaevee had been given, "you're not supposed to do any of that unless you really got to."
"I know, you're right. Low profile." Regarding the two agents, Kaevee added, "Also, I'm not a Jedi. I'm just a person with some Force powers."
Saying that out loud felt strange. Everyone else aboard the Ebon Hawk took the Force for granted, so she'd never needed to make it clear to anyone that she wasn't a Jedi—except to herself.
"And with that out of the way, what say we get the hell outta here?" snapped Cole, taking a rag away from his face and tossing it over his shoulder. He was trying to put on his usual slimy, easy-going smile, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. Moreover he looked ridiculous, with his short hair still wet and close to his scalp, a sticky sheen clinging to his face, and the chest of his undershirt stained with a burgundy blotch. No doubt it was more than he'd expected to get in the course of creating his distraction. Kaevee tried hard not to be amused.
"Yeah," Atton said to Lannik, "where's your ship?"
"Hangar Bay 21. You?"
"Bay 4—same end of the spaceport. Let's go."
They all checked their weapons and made for the exit. In a nearby corner, the jukebox was still piping away—until Cole redrew his pistol and hollowed it out with a laser bolt.
