Hundreds of faces stared out at them through the transparisteel windows of the spaceport. Behind the faces, he saw security droids and blue-uniformed security officers speeding along the autowalks. Some of the gawkers turned to the officers, pointed fingers outside at Vrath and his men. He could hear sirens in the distance.

“Time to get clear, boss,” said Deron.

Vrath nodded. He regretted leaving his dead behind, but their identities would tell the authorities nothing. They’d all been surgically altered several times over. Their current identities would not be traceable to the Hutts.

Keene set the speeder down on the landing pad. Vrath, Deron, and Lom hopped in.

“Move,” Vrath said.

Keene brought the speeder up and punched the acceleration. The wind whipped over them. Keene kept the speeder low and mixed with the traffic in the heart of Yinta Lake. Vrath kept an eye behind them for pursuit but saw none.

“We are clear,” he said.

Keene slowed the speeder and changed course, heading for their safehouse.

Lom started a stream of expletives that lasted three minutes. When he finished, Deron said, “The Hutts said nothing about Jedi involvement.”

“No, they didn’t,” Vrath agreed, though he doubted his contact with the Hutts had known.

“What are the Jedi doing with a spicerunner?” Deron asked.

Vrath shook his head, pondering. Jedi involvement made no sense, unless …

“Maybe the Jedi want to put their agent on Coruscant and they’re using a spicerunner to get her there.”

Deron harrumphed, seemingly unimpressed with the explanation.

“So how do they get through the Imperial blockade and get to Coruscant? He can’t just fly up to an Imperial cruiser.”

“No,” Vrath said, still thinking. “He can’t. But he’s got to have something in mind. The spice needs to get there and get there fast.”

“Right.”

Vrath made up his mind. “Keene, get me to Razor.”

“Why? What are you going to do?” Deron asked.

“I’m going to fly right up to an Imperial cruiser.”

“Huh?”

Vrath did not waste time with further explanation. The authorities would be searching for them once they analyzed video of the battle in the spaceport. Probably The Exchange already had the video, too. They’d be hunting Vrath and his team also.

“Get to your ships and get offplanet,” Vrath said. His team had landed in the bush outside Yinta Lake, and had not registered with planetary control.

“We rendezvous in three standard days at the usual place on Ord Mantell.”

He would get one more chance at stopping the engspice.

ZEERID FOUND ARYN limping through the corridors toward the cockpit.

“We’re away,” he said. “Safely, it seems. I got nothing but normal traffic on the scanners.”

“Good. Now what?”

“Now we go to Coruscant.”

She said, “How will we get through the Imperial blockade?”

“Ah. Well, that’s complicated. Why don’t you go take care of that leg?”

“Why don’t you take care of that arm?”