Attack of the Clones Read Online Free PDF Page B

of an army of the Republic, you have remained firmly in thecourt of negotiation over force. Would not the separatists agree with your vote?”
    When Padmé put her initial outrage aside and considered the point, she had to agree.
    “Count Dooku has thrown in with Nute Gunray, say the reports,” Panaka cut in, his tone flat and determined. “That mere fact demands that we tighten security about Senator Amidala.”
    “Please do not speak about me as though I am not here,” she scolded, but Panaka didn’t blink.
    “In matters of security, Senator, you
are
not here,” he replied. “At least, your voice is not. My nephew reports to me, and his responsibilities on this matter cannot be undermined. Take all precautions.”
    With that, he bowed curtly and walked away, and Padmé suppressed her immediate desire to rebuke him. He was right, and she was better off because he dared to point it out. She looked back at Captain Typho.
    “We will be vigilant, Senator.”
    “I have my duty, and that duty demands that I soon return to Coruscant,” she said.
    “And I have my duty,” Typho assured her, and like Panaka, he offered a bow and walked away.
    Padmé Amidala watched him go, then gave a great sigh, remembering Sola’s words to her and wondering honestly if she would ever find the opportunity to follow her sister’s advice—advice that she was finding strangely tempting at that particular moment. She realized then that she hadn’t seen Sola, or the kids, or her parents, in nearly two weeks, not since that afternoon in the backyard with Ryoo and Pooja.
    Time did seem to be slipping past her.
    “It won’t move fast enough to catch up to the Tuskens!” Cliegg Lars bellowed in protest as his son andfuture daughter-in-law helped him into a hoverchair that Owen had fashioned. He seemed oblivious to the pain of his wound, where his right leg had been sheared off at midthigh.
    “The Tuskens are long gone, Dad,” Owen Lars said quietly, and he put his hand on Cliegg’s broad shoulder, trying to calm him. “If you won’t use a mechno-leg, this powerchair will have to do.”
    “You’ll not be making me into a half-droid, that’s for sure,” Cliegg retorted. “This little buggy will do fine.”
    “We’ll get more men together,” he said, his voice rising frantically, his hand instinctively moving down to the stump of his leg. “You get to Mos Eisley and see what support they’ll offer. Send Beru to the farms.”
    “They’ve no more to offer,” Owen replied honestly. He moved close to the chair and bent low, looking Cliegg square in the face. “All the farms will be years in recovering from the ambush. So many families have been shattered from the attack, and even more from the rescue attempt.”
    “How can you talk like that with your mother out there?” Cliegg Lars roared, his frustration boiling over—and all the more so because in his heart, he knew that Owen was speaking truthfully.
    Owen took a deep breath, but did not back down from that imposing look. “We have to be realistic, Dad. It’s been two weeks since they took her,” he said grimly, leaving the implications unspoken. Implications that Cliegg Lars, who knew the dreaded Tuskens well, surely understood.
    All of a sudden, Cliegg’s broad shoulders slumped in defeat, and his fiery gaze softened as his eyes turned toward the ground. “She’s gone,” the wounded man whispered. “Really gone.”
    Behind him, Beru Whitesun started to cry.
    Beside him, Owen fought back his own tears and stood calm and tall, the firm foundation determined above all to hold them together during this devastating time.

T he four starships skimmed past the great skyscrapers of Coruscant, weaving in and out of the huge amber structures, artificial stalagmites rising higher and higher over the years, and now obscuring the natural formations of the planet unlike anywhere else in the known galaxy. Sunlight reflected off the many mirrorlike windows of those massive