She flicked a switch, and the tiny unit began to flash. Indeera and Bell exchanged a smile and sneaked from the ship.

Many systems away, Elzar’s console beeped. He smiled, feeding the coordinates into his Vector’s hyperframe. The frame’s navidroid bleeped a response, confirming the route was laid in.

Elzar raised an eyebrow as he read the data scrolling across the Vector’s scope. “This is going to be bumpy.”

“The way you fly?” Ty muttered from the jump seat. “Why am I not surprised?”

He chuckled, firing the thrusters. “The Force will be with us.”

“Good,” she replied. “It’ll need to be.”

Elzar swung the Vector around and shot into hyperspace.

CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

The Elegencia

The Elegencia’s navigational console exploded into a blaze of light and fire. Chell was dead before he hit the deck, his blackened corpse rolling to lie beside Pan’s lounger. He looked down into Chell’s dead eyes and cursed Lourna Dee’s name.

His ship … his beautiful ship … was outnumbered. The few Storms that had made it to the rendezvous were already gone. The Jedi didn’t shoot to kill unless they had to, but the rest of the fleet had no such compunction. Lourna had served him up to them on a plate, the little Twi’lek schutta!

The ship lurched, nearly throwing him from his seat. The guns were still firing, those loyal to him still at their posts.

More fool them.

Pan hauled himself up, his head spinning. He was sick, he knew that, and he knew what was killing him, but he wasn’t going to die here. He tried to make it to the back of the flight deck, his vision blurring. A young Bith ran up to him, one side of his face burned beyond recognition, as he babbled in his native tongue.

“Tempest Runner, what—”

Pan punched the Bith aside, hearing his bulbous skull crack. That’s what you got for standing in his way. That’s what Lourna Dee would find out for herself.

Had Ro been in on it? If that was the case, she was a bigger fool than he thought. The bastard was dismantling the Tempests one by one, remaking the Nihil in his own image. She would be next, unless he got to her first.

He was out in a corridor now, racing as fast as his bulk would take him. An Emmerian Cloud was blocking his way. Pan pulled the blaster from his leg holster, and the Cloud hit the deck, minus a head.

No one knew about the escape pod. Not Pan’s crew, not Lourna, and definitely not Ro. It was fitted with a Path that Ro’s father had given him years ago, programmed to return to the one place that no Dowutin ever wanted to go. Sure, launching it would rip the belly out of the Elegencia, but the ship was already dead.