Star Wars - Thrawn Trilogy - Dark Force Rising 02 Read Online Free PDF

frustration. It was, he supposed, a generally useful trait for a Jedi to be able to see both sides of an argument. It did, however, make the machinations of politics seem even murkier than they already were. Another good reason why he'd always tried to leave politics to Leia.

    He could only hope that she'd be equal to this particular challenge.

    The medical wing was as crowded as the rest of the huge Sluis Van Central space station, but here at least a large percentage of the inhabitants were sitting or lying quietly off to the side instead of running around. Threading his way between the, chairs and parked float gurneys, Luke reached the large ward room that had been turned into a waiting area for low-priority patients. Lando Calrissian, his expression and sense hovering somewhere between impatience and boredom, was sitting off in the far corner, holding a medpack desensitizer against his chest with one hand while balancing a borrowed data pad with the other. He was scowling at the latter as Luke came up. "Bad news?" Luke asked.

    "No worse than everything else that's happened to me lately," Lando said, dropping the data pad onto the empty chair beside him. "The price of hfredium has dropped again on the general market. If it doesn't come up a little in the next month or two, I'm going to be out a few hundred thousand."

    "Ouch," Luke agreed. "That's the main product of your Nomad City complex, isn't it?"

    "One of several main products, yes," Lando said with a grimace. "We're diversified enough that normally it wouldn't hurt us much. The problem is that lately I've been stockpiling the stuff expecting the price to go up. Now it's done just the opposite."

    Luke suppressed a smile. That was Lando, all right. Respectable and legitimate though he might have become, he was still not above dabbling in a little manipulative gambling on the side. "Well, if it helps any, I've got some good news for you. Since all the ships that the Imperials tried to steal belonged directly to the New Republic, we won't have to go through the local Sluissi bureaucracy to get your mole miners back. It'll just be a matter of submitting a proper claim to the Republic military commander and hauling them out of here."

    The lines in Lando's face eased a little. "That's great, Luke," he said. "I really appreciate it-you have no idea what I had to go through to get hold of those mole miners in the first place. Finding replacements would be a major headache."

    Luke waved the thanks away. "Under the circumstances, it was the least we could do. Let me go over to the routing station, see if I can hurry things up a little for you. Are you finished with the data pad?"

    "Sure, take it back. Anything new on your X-wing?"

    "Not really," Luke said, reaching past him to pick up the data pad. "They're still saying it'll take another few hours at least to-"

    He caught the abrupt change in Lando's sense a second before the other's hand suddenly snaked up to grip his arm. "What is it?" Luke asked.

    Lando was staring at nothing, his forehead furrowed with concentration as be sniffed the air. "Where were you just now?" he demanded.

    "I went through the reception area to one of the public comm desks," Luke said. Lando wasn't just sniffing the air, he realized suddenly: he was sniffing at Luke's sleeve. "Why?"

    Lando let Luke's arm drop. "It's carababba tabac," he said slowly. "With some armudu spice mixed in. I haven't smelled that since:" He looked up at Luke, his sense abruptly tightening even further. "It's Niles Ferrier. Has to be."

    "Who's Niles Ferrier?" Luke asked, feeling his heartbeat start to pick up speed. Lando's uneasiness was contagious.

    "Human-big and built sort of thick," Lando said. "Dark hair, probably a beard, though that comes and goes. Probably smoking a long thin cigarra. No, of course he was smoking-you got some of the smoke on you. Do you remember seeing him?"

    "Hang on." Luke closed his eyes, reaching inward with the Force.

    Short-term