The star that warmed Naos III was a white blur, low on the horizon. Ominous clouds obscured the mountains to Obi-Wan's right.
Snow was falling harder.
Tearing into it as fast as the sled would carry him, he felt as if he had run smack into a blizzard. The lovely, crystalline flakes would have been like pellets against his face and hands if not for the Force. Even so, he could barely see, and the ice—gray, white, and sometimes blue—was nowhere near as smooth as he had thought it would be. Pebbly where surface water had thawed and refrozen countless times; mounded up over debris trapped during the freeze; pocked by fishing holes; heaped high with ice that had filled the holes …
Matters weren't helped any by the fact that he was being shot at. Bolts from the repeating blaster on the bridge had him weaving all over the river, slaloming around ice dams and leaping small mounds. The repulsorlift would have allowed him to fly over the obstacles; something Anakin was doing exceptionally well albeit farther downriver. Unfortunately, Obi-Wan just couldn't get the hang of it. He could only imagine the insults Anakin would be hurling his way and the questioning of why he wasn't used to being a pilot at this stage. More to the point, engaging the repulsorlift required using two hands, and just now he had none to spare. His left was gripped on the control bar/throttle; his right, tight on the hilt of his ignited lightsaber, as he fended off bolts from above and behind.
For a moment he was back on Muunilinst, jousting with Durge's speeder-freak lancer droids.
Except for the snow.
A vacillating roar in his right ear told him that one of the pursuit sleds had caught up with him. Out of the corner of his streaming eye, Obi-Wan saw the sled's human pilot bend low over the control bars to provide his Rodian rider with the clearance he needed to send a blaster bolt through Obi-Wan's head. Braking, Obi-Wan allowed the sled to come alongside more quickly than the Rodian had planned. The rider's first shot raced past Obi-Wan's eyes; the second, he deflected slightly downward, straight into the sled's engine.
The machine exploded instantly, flinging pilot and rider head over heels in opposite directions. Quickly, however, a second sled was catching up.
This one carried a pilot only, but a more skillful one. Twisting the throttle, the pilot drove his sled into Obi-Wan's, trying to send it spinning out of control or, better still, into the trunk of a massive tree that was protruding acutely from the thick ice. Narrowly missing the latter, Obi-Wan went into a sideways skid. Overcorrecting, he added spin to his slide and couldn't resume his course until the sled had whipped through half a dozen counter rotations. By then his crashhelmeted pursuer was well positioned to ram him a second time, but Obi-Wan was ready for him. Turning sharply, he steered into the pursuit sled, hanging on through the jarring collision, then directing a Force push at the rebounding pilot.
The sled shot forward as if supercharged, with the pilot all but dangling from the control bars. Speeding up the face of a hummock, the craft went airborne, then ballistic, plummeting into a thinly icedover fishing hole at an angle that took machine and rider both deep under solid ice.
Water geysered into the air, drenching Obi-Wan as he raced past. The third sled was still clinging to his tail, and blaster bolts were whizzing past his ears. Up ahead, he saw Anakin and Fa'ale lean their sled through a sweeping turn to the south, between two of Naos III's many hills. Lethal hyphens of light streaked down from the bridge that linked the hills, but not one found Anakin or Fa'ale.
Unable to replicate Anakin's deft turns, Obi-Wan was falling farther behind with each quarter kilometer, and was now making himself an easy target for the assassins on the bridge. With no hope of negotiating the hail of fire, he maneuvered the sled through a long turn away from the span. But no sooner did he emerge from his half circle than he found himself on a collision course with the last of the pursuit sleds.
The inevitability of a head-on crash left him no choice but to abandon his machine for what was going to be a very long slide on the ice. But just short of his leap, a bolt in the jagged line the bridge gunners were stitching along the river caught the pilot of the onrushing machine in the chest, hurling him into the air. Twisting the throttle, Obi-Wan swerved around the pilotless sled and continued to race upriver, out of range of the blasters.
To his right a clamor built over the hill, and the shadow of something large and swift fell over him. A repeating blaster clacked repeatedly, fracturing the ice directly in his path and opening a wide, surging breach of agitated water.
Uncertain he could leap the gap even if he wanted to try, Obi-Wan applied the brakes. Hard!
The sled was ten meters from the ice-chunked fissure when a metal claw dropped over him, snapping shut and plucking him from the seat. Wrenched from his hand, his lightsaber flew onto the ice, and the sled sailed off into the frothing water.
"Stars' end," Obi-Wan muttered.
Suspended on a swaying cable, the claw began to ascend toward the open belly of a graceless snow skiff.
Red hands clamped around Anakin's waist, Fa'ale whooped and shouted, clearly enjoying herself. Even through the daze of too many drinks, or more likely because of them.
"You missed your calling, Jedi," she shouted into his right ear. "You could have been a champion Podracer!"
"Been there, done that," Anakin said over his shoulder.
It was then that he caught sight of Obi-Wan being lifted from his sled. Bringing brakes and thrusters to bear, Anakin powered the sled through a fast 180 and shot back upriver, under the bridge they had just left behind, dodging the unrelenting fire of hand blasters.
"Sharptooth collector," Fa'ale explained when she saw the snow skiff. "Gathers catch, so the fishers won't have to ferry their loads into the city. That's what I do here, or did. It was a decent enough job."
The claw that had Obi-Wan in its grip was halfway to the skiff.
"I don't see any way of reaching him in time," Fa'ale said.
"Get ready to take the control bars!" Anakin said.
Fa'ale's hands clutched his robe. "Where are you planning to go?"
"Up!"
Pouring on all speed, Anakin steered the sled up the side of the hill that supported one half of the bridge. At the zenith of the climb, he engaged the repulsorlift. Then, leaping from the now rocketing sled, he called on the Force to propel himself toward the swaying cage. The pilots of the skiff saw him coming, and banked hard to starboard, but not soon enough to prevent Anakin from latching onto the claw. A Rodian in the copilot's chair cracked open the door and began firing down at his moving target.
"I had a feeling you'd show up," Obi-Wan said from inside the claw. A lucky shot from above hit the cage and ricocheted.
"Hang on, Master! This isn't going to be pretty."
Obi-Wan heard the snap-hiss of Anakin's lightsaber. Peering through the metal fingers of the claw, he saw what was coming and was filled with dread.
"Anakin, wait—"
But there was no stopping him, as always. As the claw came within reach of the cargo hold, Anakin swung his lightsaber and sliced open the floor of the skiff's cockpit. Sparks and smoke poured from the rend, and almost immediately the craft slued to starboard. Passing within a meter of one of the bridge towers, it began to twirl toward the hillside. An instant before the crash, Anakin severed the claw cable, and the cage plummeted, striking the slippery ground and racing down to the frozen river, out onto the ice, spinning crazily, with Obi-Wan bouncing around inside and Anakin Force-fastened to the outside through all the unpredictable pitches and tumbles.
The skiff crashed into the hillside. By the time the claw came to a rest on the far side of the river, the two Jedi were so covered in snow they looked like wampas. Anakin's lightsaber made short work of the fingers of the claw. ObiWan scrambled out, spitting snow, and shaking like a hound, hoping that his stomach wouldn't give out on him from the naseous wave that hit him.
"Where's Fa'ale?" he asked with a groan.
Anakin scanned the hillsides. The assassins on the bridge had packed up and fled, no doubt deciding that this quarry was too dangerous to hunt. Ultimately, he pointed toward the opposite bank of the river, where a sled was wedged between two mounds of ice. When they reached her, Fa'ale was laying facedown a few meters from the machine, which had been holed by blasterfire. Gently turning her over, Anakin saw that one bolt had amputated the Twi'lek's right lekku. Her eyes blinked open, focusing on him as he cradled her in his arms.
"Don't tell me," she said weakly. "I'm going to live, right?"
"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news."
"A week in bacta and you'll be good as new," Obi-Wan said.
Fa'ale sighed. "I won't hold it against you. You did your best to get me killed." She gazed around. "Shouldn't we be looking for cover?"
"They're gone," Anakin said.
Fa'ale shook her head. "After all these years, they finally—"
"I don't think so," Obi-Wan interrupted. "Someone more important than Raith Sienar doesn't want us to learn too much about the star courier."
"Then I had better tell you the rest. About Coruscant, I mean."
Anakin raised her up. "Where did you deliver the ship?"
"To an old building in the industrial quarter, west of the Senate. An area called The Works."
"You can't be serious!" Vos bellowed!
Plo Koon watched as a fire kindled behind the eyes of the Kiffar as he stared into Master Windu's hologram. Though not nearly as impressive as the projector they secured from the Viceroy's mechnochair, there was enough detail to reveal the scowl that Mace was offering Vos. Though he felt compelled to step forward, he couldn't help but sympathize with the frustration he felt. He wasn't quite the expert negotiator that Kenobi was, who was a hologram opposite himself. Having just reported his findings on Naos III, Obi-Wan was now en route to Belderone and was meeting with the council members discreetly.
Still, things were starting to traverse from tense to hostile. Vos wasn't taking the decision to remain away from Coruscant well.
"Last I checked the enemy was Sidious and his underlings, not us" Obi-Wan spoke aloud, trying to calm the atmosphere for which Plo Koon was grateful.
"There are more than enough Jedi on Coruscant to investigate what Obi-Wan reported from his findings" Mace continued, unmoved by Vos' opposition. "You will escort Master Koon to Cato Neimoidia and investigate whatever leads you discovered personally. If the ship belonging to Darth Maul is on the planet surface, recovering it could be a vital lead. As for you, Obi-Wan, you and Skywalker will remain on Belderone until further notice when we have more leads to go on. Furthermore, your attack fleet will stand vigilant so that we can continue to counter any moves the Separatists make in the Outer Rim."
"Of course," Obi-Wan agreed. "Hopefully, Anakin will be more than willing to keep himself occupied on the battlefront."
"But you don't understand!" Vos pressed, leaning hard on the holoprojector aboard the control terminal within an orbiting MedStar station. "I've been to the Works! Back when I was at Dooku's side we rendezvoused on Coruscant. At first I thought it was somewhere out of the way, where there wouldn't be any prying eyes. But now I understand. It was always a secret lair for him! I can point it out better than anyone!"
"You met Dooku on Coruscant during your mission?" Windu demanded, his face going dark and almost malevolent. "And you never thought to tell us?"
Biting back his lip, Vos must have realized that he spoke too much and his voice dampened. "It was back when I was wasn't who I was now. I was trying to forget about that part of myself if it matters so much" Vos answered. "The point is, I can follow his trail if he has one! I might be able to follow Sidious' trail!"
"All the more reason you shouldn't go there," Obi-Wan answered, his voice more controlled and tempered than Windu's, who growing less furious and more conserved in his emotions. Plo Koon couldn't help but wonder if Mace was purposely judging Vos' actions as if he were an inspector looking for signs of contamination. "You might be opening wounds that expose you to the threads of the dark side. Leave this to us."
"I have Shaak Ti organizing a party of padawans" Mace chimed in. "Together, we will get to the bottom of this and find whatever clues might exist planetwide."
"I still think we could be more help there than out here" Vos argued.
"Vos, please-" Plo Koon attempted.
"You will adhere to the wisdom of the council." Mace said with finality.
"Damn it, Mace" Vos snarled, unconvinced. "This is our mission! We started this investigation, not you! Not Obi-Wan! I finally helped uncover a lead to Sidious as I always wanted and you're all holding grudges like I'm the enemy! Well, I'm not! I should be allowed to finish-"
Plo Koon raised his hand and halted Vos from stepping forward, recognizing what the Kiffar was doing before he did. His intense glare went wide with confusion as he glanced to his side and saw an unignited lightsaber in his hands. Mace frowned condescendingly and even Obi-Wan was taken aback. Releasing a breath he didn't think he was suppressing, Vos backed away and stormed out of the briefing room, pushing past two clones that stood guard and breaking into a sprint.
It was Obi-Wan that broke the uncomfortable silence that hung over the atmosphere. "I've seen Anakin angry but that was something else. It almost felt like resentment."
Dwelling on his own thoughts, Mace looked back to Plo Koon speaking coolly. "Finish your investigation on Cato Neimoidia and uncover any leads you might find, then bring Vos back to Coruscant. His placement within the order needs to be discussed, and I suspect it goes deeper than this...performance."
"I'll speak with him" Plo Koon answered. "He's processing."
"In any case, we're returning the pilot that we rescued to a medical bay so she can recover. What of Thal K'sar?"
"I saw no reason to detain him, so I gave him leave to escape to the Outer Rim" Plo Koon answered, his spirits lifted after evading the subject of Quinlas Vos. "I doubt that he would have any reason to return to the Confederacy."
"Very good" Mace Windu spoke. "Obi-Wan is right. We have to remain united in this investigation. When I contact you, we'll hopefully have new leads to explore. Or even Sidious himself."
"In the meantime, we must proceed with caution" Obi-Wan suggested.
Concluding the meeting, Plo Koon was left in his own thoughts and hung his head in silent contemplation, the surrounding Republic staff manning the various terminals and relays paying him no mind. If they had thoughts on the meeting that transpired, they didn't reveal it. Thankful that his mask could hide his discomfort, Plo Koon finally trailed in the direction of the door Vos exited from. Informing the clones that they were relieved of attending the control room, he dispatched them to tell Vos to join him on the Allegiance, the Venator-class Star Destroyer manned by Jan Dodonna that would take them back to Cato Neimoidia where this entire quest began.
Macrobinoculars pressed to his eyes, Mace studied the distant building top to bottom, his gaze lingering on broken windows, fissured ledges, canted balconies.
Central to a complex of half a dozen structures, the building was more than three centuries old and going to ruin. For two-thirds of its towering height it was an unadorned pillar with a rounded summit. Support for the superstructure was afforded by a circular base, reinforced by massive fins. Where the superstructure and the sloped tops of the buttresses met, the building was fenestrated by windows and antiquated gear-toothed docking gates. Many of the permaglass panels and skylights were intact, but time and corrosion had done their worst to the vertical hatches of the docking gates.
An investigation was under way to determine who had raised the building, and who owned it. Judging by its location and prominence in The Works, it appeared to have served as corporate headquarters for the factories and assembly plants that surrounded it.
Mace and his team of Jedi, clone commandos, and Intelligence analysts were a kilometer east of the structure, in an area of squat, peak-roofed foundries, lorded over by smoke-belching permacrete stacks. A more dispiriting place this side of Eriadu or Korriban would have been hard to find, Mace told himself. Five hours spent here could take five years off someone's life. He could feel the damage with every breath he took, every grimy surface he touched, every vagrant poisoned whiff that wafted his way. The acids in the air were fast digesting everything, but not quickly enough for some. Ambitious developers and urban realtors had deliberately introduced stone mites, duracrete slugs, and conduit worms to aid and abet the caustic rain, without heed for the risk such vermin posed to the nearby skyscrapers of the Senate District.
All in all, the perfect environment for a Sith Lord.
"Probe remotes are away, General Windu," the ARC reported.
Mace trained the macrobinoculars on the flock of meter-wide spherical droids that were maneuvering with purposeful unevenness toward the building.
The Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee had attempted to interdict the use of commandos and probe droids. In the minds of the committee members, the idea that a Separatist stronghold could exist on Coruscant was absurd. Fortunately, and admittedly unexpectedly, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine had overruled the committee, and Mace had been allowed to compile a dream team that included not only ARC commander Valiant and Captain Dyne of Republic Intelligence, but also Jedi Master Shaak Ti and several capable Padawans.
"No indications that the probes are being targeted," the ARC updated.
Mace watched the black spheres begin to drift through shattered windows and into areas of the superstructure where the building's façade had disintegrated and the bones of its plasteel skeleton were exposed.
Moment of truth, he thought.
The Lethan pilot Obi-Wan and Anakin had searched out on Naos III hadn't been able to furnish anything more than a portrait of the building to which she had delivered the star courier. A product of Sienar Advanced Projects Laboratory, the craft had been modified according to the findings from Plo Koon and Quinlan Vos, for the Sith who had killed Qui Gon Jinn. The pilot had been provided with landing coordinates on Coruscant, but, in fact, the courier itself had homed in on those. Paid in full for her services, she had been taxied to Westport, and had left for Ryloth soon after. The physical description of the courier's destination hadn't given the Jedi much to go on. Though more horizontal than most areas of equatorial Coruscant, The Works sprawled for hundreds of square kilometers and contained thousands of buildings that could have fit the description.
Though Vos' remarks in the meeting he participated in just minutes before were disturbing, Mace admitted that given his background it was unsurprising that he responded with an appropriate level of intensity. Still, his behavior was unfitting for a master of the Order and as such it had to be tempered...or removed. Given the tensions that were starting to arise on Coruscant with each passing day, someone like Vos could be a loose end that could damage the reputation of the Jedi just as much if not more than those who left such as Dooku. He was reminded more than once that he was once a Jedi himself, as if the constant remembrance of him was a solution to the wound that festered with the war's initiation and progression. Furthermore, Mace admitted that the more disturbing implication from Vos' remarks was the idea that Dooku had managed to arrive at and depart Coruscant without detection. If that were true...
No, Windu thought. Whatever it takes, Sidious must be stopped.
"Holoimages of the interior coming in," Valiant said.
Mace lowered the macrobinoculars and shifted his gaze to the field holoprojector. Dazzled by diagonal lines of static, the 3-D images were of forlorn rooms, stretches of dark corridor, vast empty spaces.
The crucial piece of evidence wasn't Vos' remarks even. It was the conversation that Mace had with Yoda just before, in which Yoda revealed how he had a vision of facing off against Sidious in The Works. Though the Grand Master believed that it was a machination of the dark side to suggest that Sidious was able to infiltrate Coruscant and reveal just how vulnerable the Jedi were, army or not, together Mace and Yoda rationalized that there was the potential for at least some truth to the vision. Mace didn't question Yoda further out of pity, seeing the pain in the Grand Master's eyes when he recalled the tests he faced to delve deeper into the mystery of the Force. Mace even apologized for doubting his wisdom at the time, understanding that there were things that even the Korun master needed to learn.
"The building appears to be completely abandoned, General. No signs of droids or living beings, other than varieties common to similar manufacturing slums."
"Abandoned, perhaps, but not forgotten," Captain Dyne said from behind Valiant. "The building's live. It has power and illumination."
"Doesn't mean much," Mace said. "Many structures in this district were self-powered, often by dangerous, highly unstable fuels." He gestured broadly. "They're still belching smoke."
Dyne nodded. "But this one shows periodic and recent use of power."
Mace turned to Valiant, deciding that this operation was a risk worth taking, damned what any detractors say. "All right, Commander. Give the go-ahead."
Valiant turned to the troopers who made up Aurek Team. "Listen up, boys. The building is a free-strike zone. We could be walking into enemy territory for all we know. You are to consider anyone we find inside to be hostile. "
He slammed a fresh power pack into his short-stocked blaster. "Troopers: find, fix, finish!"
No matter how often he heard it, the grunting, communal response to the ARC's rallying cry continued to disturb Mace on some level. Although it was probably no different from what the clone troopers heard when the Jedi said to one another, May the Force be with you.
He swung and waved a signal to Shaak Ti. "I'll ride with Aurek Team. You have Bacta."
As beautiful as a flower, as deadly as a viper, Shaak Ti was the Jedi Master one wanted by one's side in chaotic circumstances. Graced with the ability to move quickly through crowds or tight spots, she was often the first to wade into close-quarter engagements, her striped montrals and lengthy head-tail alert to distances, her blue lightsaber quick to find its mark. She had proved instrumental in the defense of Kamino and Brentaal IV, and Mace was glad to have her with him now.
Aurek Team's gunship was already packed with commandos and Padawans by the time he clambered inside. Lifting off, the LAAT/i aimed straight for the summit of the building. The strategy was to work from the top down, in the hope of flushing hostiles out through the lowest levels, where infantry and artillery units were already taking up firing positions around the buttressed base. The entire area was undermined with tunnels that had been used for transporting workers, droids, and materials. While it wasn't possible to monitor every entrance and egress, many of the principal tunnels that opened on the building's sub-basements had been outfitted with sensors capable of detecting droids or flesh-and-bloods.
No functioning docking bay large enough to accommodate a gunship had been discovered. The commandos had advocated blowing a gaping hole in the side of the superstructure, but engineers feared that an explosion of the strength required could very well collapse the entire structure. Instead the LAAT/i carried the team to the largest of the blown-out windows below the summit, and hovered there while everyone was inserted.
Leaping the gap, Mace activated his lightsaber and instructed the Padawans to follow suit. It wasn't lost to Mace that, according to Yoda's vision, the strike force sent to capture Sidious and Dooku was swiftly executed upon arrival. He would make sure that such an event wouldn't happen in the worst case scenario.
Weapons raised to their chests, the commandos spread out in fireand-maneuver squads and began to move deeper into the building, checking out each room and alcove before declaring any level secure. Mace's blade glowed amethyst in the gloom. Stretching out with the Force, he could feel the presence of the dark side. The only explanation for Quinlan Vos not having felt it was that he, too, had gone dark.
Yoda had warned Mace that the dark side might cloud his mind to certain rooms and passageways, places that the Sith Lords didn't want Mace to discover, but he felt alert in all ways. Besides, that was what the commandos were for.
They worked their way down and down, without encountering resistance or finding anything of interest.
"Quiet as a tomb, General," Valiant said when the top ten levels had been secured.
Mace studied the 3-D map displayed by the ARC's wrist gauntlet projector.
"Inform Bacta Team that we will rally with them in designated sector three."
Valiant was about to speak when his comlink toned. "Commander, this is Bacta Team leader," a voice said. "We have a functioning docking gate on level six that shows evidence of recent use. And, sir, wait until you get a look at the landing zone."
The floor that served as a landing area was scarcely large enough for a gunship, but it gleamed as if scrubbed and polished daily by custodial droids. Parallel to the long sides of the rectangle were banks of slender blue illuminators.
"Everyone stay exactly where you are," Captain Dyne said when Mace and the rest of Aurek Team appeared at the mouth of a corridor that intersected the docking bay at its lengthwise centerpoint. Deployed in a circle formation, Shaak Ti and the Padawans who had entered with Bacta were clustered in the middle of the floor. Thirty meters to Mace's right, Dyne and two other Intelligence officers were interpreting the data being sent to them by several probe droids meandering with design throughout the room, some of them misting the floor with a highly volatile substance. The well-lubricated vertical docking gate was open, revealing an oval of blackened sky.
"A Huppla Pasa Tisc sloop occupied this docking bay less than two standard weeks ago," Dyne said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "The arrangement of its landing gear and aft boarding ramp match the footprint of the Punworcca 116–class that launched from Geonosis during the battle there."
"Dooku's ship," Mace said.
"A reasonable supposition, Master Windu," Dyne said loudly. After several moments of gazing at the monitor screens of his equipment and conferring with his associates, he added: "The floor reveals traces of two beings who were here contemporaneous with the sloop."
Green light from one of the drifting droids played across the alloy floor panels. Dyne directed the droid to concentrate on certain areas, and studied the data again. "The first being exited the sloop and walked to this point." He indicated an area close to the open gate. "Taking into consideration trace impressions and the length of the being's stride, I would hazard that being one stands one hundred and ninety-five centimeters in height, and was wearing boots."
It was Dooku! Mace thought. He actually arrived on Coruscant without anyone noticing!
The droid focused its lights on another area, and Dyne continued. "Here, being one met with being two, lighter in weight, perhaps shorter in stature, and wearing—" Dyne consulted what Mace assumed to be some sort of database. "—what can best be described as soft-soled footwear or slippers. This unknown being came from the direction of the building's east turbolifts, and accompanied … Dooku, for all intents and purposes, to a balconied niche above the docking gate. Following the same route, the pair returned to the docking bay and separated: Dooku to his ship; our unknown quarry, presumably to the turbolifts."
Tasking the probe droids to track the prints of the second being, Dyne began to trail them, waving for Mace, Shaak Ti, and the commandos to follow. "Single file behind me," Dyne cautioned. "No straying out of line. These tracks get contaminated and we could be stuck here for hours."
Mace and Shaak Ti took the point, with the Padawans and commandos strung out behind. By the time the two Jedi Masters caught up with Dyne and his droids, the Intelligence analyst was standing at the door to a dated turbolift.
"Verified," Dyne said, grinning in self-satisfaction. "Being two used the turbolift."
Turning to the wall, he pressed his gloved right hand to the call stud. When the summoned car appeared, he affixed a scanner to the control pad inside.
"The car's memory tells us that it arrived from sub-basement two. If we fail to discover evidence of our unknown quarry there, we'll have to work our way back up, one level at a time, until we do."
The turbolift was just roomy enough for Dyne, his associates, Mace, Shaak Ti, the two team commanders, and two probe droids. Comlinking troopers outside the building, Valiant ordered them to make their way to sub-basement two, but forewarned them to stay clear of the east turbolift and any nearby corridors or tunnels. The probe droids were first to exit the car when it stopped, misting the corridor in both directions. One of the droids hadn't gone five meters before it stopped in midflight and began playing its detection lights across the floor.
"Footprints," Dyne said with enthusiasm. "We're still on track."
Stepping carefully from the car, he followed the probe droids to the entrance of a wide tunnel. After the droids had disappeared inside and returned, Dyne swung to Mace, who was waiting with everyone else at the base of the turbolift.
"The prints end here. From this point on the unknown used a vehicle, certainly a repulsorlift of some sort, although the droids aren't detecting any phantom emissions."
Mace and Shaak Ti joined Dyne and his teammates at the tunnel entrance. Shaak Ti peered into the darkness. "Where does it lead?"
Dyne consulted a holomap. "If we can trust a map that's older than any of us, it connects to tunnels all over The Works, to adjacent buildings, to the foundries, to a onetime landing field… There must be a hundred branches."
"Forget the branches," Mace said. "What's at the far end of this one?"
Dyne called up a series of displays and studied them in silence. At last, he said: "The principal tunnel leads all the way to the western limit of the Senate District."
Mace walked two meters into the darkness, and ran his hand down the tunnel's tiled wall.
Hundreds of Senators are now under the influence of a Sith Lord called Darth Sidious, Dooku had told Obi-Wan on Geonosis.
Turning to face Shaak Ti and the clone commanders, Mace said: "We're going to need more troops."