With a gasp Boba turned and sprinted for the door. But before he could reach it, an explosion sounded behind him. He looked back and saw Kos turning to stare at something below his airspeeder. There was the drone of a hoverbike, and another explosive burst that shook the speeder. An instant later, the hoverbike itself came into view. Riding it was a familiar, red-haired figure.
“Aurra,” said Boba in disbelief. As he stared she raised her blaster, her blazing eyes fixed on him.
“Got it in one,” she said, and fired. There was a second blast as the vice-chair returned her fire, and the hoverbike rocked slightly.
Without hesitation Boba lunged for the airspeeder, diving inside just as the craft shot away from the landing platform. Kos glanced down at him, one hand on the controls, the other on his blaster.
“That’s Aurra Sing,” the man said grimly. “If she’s part of all this…”
His voice trailed off. It seemed as though Aurra’s sudden appearance made him take Boba even more seriously. The speeder veered and then swooped into a heart-stopping dive. “Take the controls!” Kos shouted as another volley of fire surrounded them.
Boba nodded and jumped into the control seat. The vice-chair turned to monitor Aurra’s pursuit. “There are security forces all over Level Two,” he said, shaking his head. “There’s no way she can get away with this.”
“That’s not gonna help us if we’re dead,” retorted Boba. He steered the speeder around a sharp curve in the airshaft, then yanked back on the controls so that the vehicle abruptly shot up, up, into darkness. “I’ll see if we can lose her.”
Boba stared at the vast space around them, lines of windows and doors reduced to smears of white and green by their speed. Behind them the bike’s hum rose to a furious roar. Blasts of white-hot plasma spun past the airspeeder, giving off a scorched smell. As Aurra Sing scored a direct hit, the speeder gave a violent twist to the left. Boba corrected it quickly. He let the speeder go into a dive as Aurra swung in right behind them, then pulled out and soared up again, the bike screaming in pursuit.
“Are we damaged?” Boba yelled above the roar of the engines.
“Not seriously,” Kos shouted back. His blaster moved furiously back and forth, trying to get a fix on Aurra Sing, but she was too fast. “I’m going to call for reinforcements—”
Boba swallowed. If the vice-chair called for help, other soldiers would arrive. They’d take Aurra into custody—but they’d take him, too. He’d be questioned about what he had told the official, and—
Boba swallowed. He didn’t want to think about what would happen to him if he were brought in for questioning. If what he knew about Dooku and Tyranus became known to San Hill. If it became known to the Count…
He couldn’t let the lieutenant talk. He hunched over the controls, his hands like ice as they grasped the throttle, then punched commands into the panel.
“There’s a price on her head,” Boba said. “You’ll be well-rewarded by my master for bringing her in. I’ll set the comm unit to make a distress call,” he lied, pretending to press a small panel of red lights. He glanced back to make sure the vice-chair’s eyes were still on the hoverbike whipping through the air behind them. Then he looked up.
Ahead of them, gaps of deeper darkness appeared, more airshafts or maintenance tunnels. Boba kept his sights on one of these, a triangular opening that yawned bigger and bigger as the speeder raced toward it.
“Now!” breathed Boba. He hit the controls, and the speeder swerved suddenly, disappearing into the lightless tunnel.
“What are you doing?” Kos demanded.
“Evasive action,” said Boba. Behind them, Aurra’s bike swept past the tunnel’s entrance. Boba held his breath.
Sure enough, moments later the bike reappeared, barreling up the dark passage after them.
“Get her in your sights now,” Boba said, pointing at the figure on the bike, a black shadow against the brilliance of the tunnel’s opening. “I’ll keep the speeder steady.”
Kos fumbled with his blaster. “Hard to see her in this,” he muttered. “It’s so dark.”
“That means it’s hard for her to get a fix on you, too,” said Boba.
But that was another lie. Aurra Sing had a predator’s mind and instincts. She also had a predator’s skills. She could see in the dark as keenly as a tuk’ata—
But Kos could not.
Boba held his breath. He slid down as low as he dared, hoping the vice-chair wouldn’t notice. But the official was squinting into the darkness, still trying to get his aim fixed on Aurra.
“There she is,” he murmured. Boba heard the soft click of the blaster’s loading device. Kos raised his arm.
Boba ducked as an explosion ripped through the air beside him.
But it wasn’t the official’s blast. It was Aurra’s.
“Got him!” she crowed triumphantly. Boba grimaced as Kos’s tall form toppled over the side of the speeder, to fall soundlessly into the vast and empty shaft. Too late Boba thought of the vice-chair’s weapon—it was gone with him into the depths.
And now Boba was alone with Aurra Sing.
“Thought you could betray me? Think again!”
With a dull whine the hoverbike swept toward Boba’s airspeeder. He glanced around, hoping to find something he might use as a weapon.
Nothing. He kept his hands on the controls and stared defiantly across the empty darkness at Aurra.
“Everything is for sale on Aargau,” she said with a cruel laugh. “I bought myself citizenship. Too bad you won’t live long enough to do the same.”
Her laughter died, and she stared at Boba with hatred. “No one escapes from me, Boba. I’m the best at what I do.”
“My father was better,” said Boba in a low, calm voice. His gaze locked with hers as he continued to stare at her, unafraid. As he did, his hand moved slowly, silently, across the control panel. “My father didn’t kill for fun. Or out of fear.”
“Fear?” Aurra’s voice rose almost to a scream. Her eyes blazed, and two crimson spots bloomed on her dead-white face. “You think I’m afraid? I think it’s time I introduce you to the real thing!”
Her face twisted into a mask of rage. She raised her blaster before her face, the bike steady beneath her. “Good-bye, Boba,” she said.
Boba ducked. He jammed his hand onto the controls, hitting the REVERSE DIRECTION command. A flaming pulse from Aurra’s blaster zoomed a scant meter above his head. At the same moment, the speeder shot backward. He’d hoped it would slam directly into Aurra’s bike. Instead it sideswiped it. Aurra shouted furiously as her arms swung and her next blast went wide. Her bike rocked wildly, and she clung to it to keep from plummeting into the abyss.
“Yes!” cried Boba in triumph. The speeder veered back and forth through the passage, barely missing the walls. He finally got control of it, whipping it around so that it soared out from the tunnel and into the vast main shaft. Behind him he could hear Aurra’s angry yelling, and the dull thrum of her bike throttling down. He pointed the speeder in the direction he’d come. With a low roar it began to rush back toward the entrance to Level Two.