BODHI ROOK was having an awful day. He’d finally managed to pull off a plan weeks in the making to escape and betray the Empire, but he’d spent so long as an Imperial pilot that the people Galen Erso had sent him to didn’t believe a word he told them.

The supposed rebels he’d found had turned him over to a hairless Tognath mercenary they called Two Tubes. Bodhi figured he’d gotten the name because of the breathing apparatus he needed to survive in what Bodhi thought of as perfectly acceptable air. Two Tubes could allegedly take Bodhi to Saw Gerrera, the man Galen had given Bodhi a message for. Instead of greeting Bodhi as a friend, though, Two Tubes had insisted on tying him up and pulling a sack over his head. Then the supposed rebels had marched him away to someplace far off, abusing him the entire way.

Now they had him kneeling on a rough stone floor while a man raged nearby. It was all he could do not to tremble.

“Lies!” the angry man said. “Deceptions!”

The others in the room snapped to their feet, and Bodhi wondered if this was it. Would they shoot him as a traitor before he even had a chance to deliver his message?

“Let’s see it.”

After a moment’s pause, the man spoke again. “Bodhi Rook. Cargo pilot.”

His captors hauled him to his feet. He sensed the man right in front of him. He could smell his sickly breath.

“Local boy, huh?”

Two Tubes responded in Tognath, but Bodhi understood him just fine. “There was this. It was found in his boot when he was captured.”

That must have been the holochip Galen had given Bodhi!

“Okay! I can hear you! He didn’t capture me.” Bodhi nodded in the direction of Two Tubes’s voice. “I came here myself! I defected!”

The man in front of him wasn’t impressed. “Every day, more lies.”

Bodhi knew his life depended on convincing that man to take him to Saw Gerrera. Saw would see through all this. He’d watch Galen’s message, and he’d know Bodhi was one of the good guys. Right?

“Lies? Why would I risk everything for a lie? We don’t have the time for this! I have to speak to Saw Gerrera before it’s too—”

Right then, someone pulled the sack off Bodhi’s head, and he realized that the man in front of him—the one he was already shouting at—could only be Saw Gerrera. His face was old and worn. He had white in his beard, and an oxygen mask hung from the front of his armor.

“Okay. You’re, um…” Bodhi brought his voice down and nodded at the holochip in Saw’s hand. “That’s for you.”

He glared at Two Tubes. “And I gave it to them,” he added. “They did not find it! I gave it to them.”

Saw didn’t say a thing. He just fixed Bodhi with a dead-eyed stare.

“Galen Erso.” Bodhi hoped those were the magic words that would persuade Saw they were both on the same side. “He told me to find you.”

Saw put his oxygen mask on his face and took a deep breath from it, never taking his eyes off Bodhi. As he exhaled, Bodhi could see how much it hurt him. It was clear that something had nearly destroyed Saw, but he seemed to be clinging to his defiance—of the Empire, of death—as hard as he could.

Saw said two words to Two Tubes. A name, Bodhi thought, although one he’d never heard before.

“Bor Gullet.”

“‘Bor Gullet’?” The sack came down over Bodhi’s head again, and someone started to drag him away. “What? Wait! No, no, wait! Galen Erso sent me!”

But Saw and his friends didn’t care one bit.