Riij winced. "In the middle of Thyne's fortress? They haven't got a chance."
"That was also our estimation," Palror agreed. "But counting the number of Thyne's warriors here and those fighting the Imperials outside his stronghold, it seems likely the core areas within may have been nearly deserted."
"'Nearly' might not have been good enough," Maranne said. "And what about Kast? He was still there, wasn't he?"
"I've given up trying to guess what kind of game Kast is playing," Trell said, twisting the landspeeder hard to get around a Herglic-parked speeder truck. "All I know is that he's the one who gave Corran the molecular stiletto that got us out of there."
"And we do not believe it was merely a trap," Palror added. "We were challenged by Imperial TIE bombers as we left the stronghold; yet upon identification, we were permitted to pass."
"That had to be Corran and Hal's doing," Trell said. "CorSec's supposed to be working pretty closely with the Imperials these days."
"Yes," Riij murmured, thinking back to the brief argument he'd had with Corran about the Rebellion. And now to find out Corran was actually CorSec. Could he have guessed Riij's true loyalties from that conversation?
"We were both permitted to pass," Palror reminded him softly.
"I understand," Riij told him. "I also understand that the way everything else here's been going, that doesn't mean a whole lot. If we get to the Hopskip without running into an ambush -- from any of the sides of this crazy powerplay -- then maybe I'll believe we've gotten away with it."
"Gotten away with what?" Maranne asked.
Riij spread his hands. "With whatever in blazes we did here."
* * *
There was indeed no ambush poised outside the Hopskip. Nor were any of their former companions -- Corran, Hal, or Kast -- waiting there.
What was there was a single datacard.
"Looks like the same stuff that Kast used to stick the molecular stiletto to Corran's cell bars," Trell commented, poking experimentally at the bits of adhesive residue that had been left on the datacard. "Should we read it here, or inside?"
"Inside," Riij said firmly, taking the datacard from him and glancing around. "And not until we're out of here. You and Maranne get the pre-flight started; Palror and I'll check to make sure no one left us any surprises."
Trell had the engines nursed and sputtering to life, and Maranne had the nav computer working on their course, when Riij and Palror returned from their tour of the ship. "Looks clean," Riij told the others as the two of them took their seats. "Or at least, there's nothing obvious. You talked to the tower yet?"
"We're third in line to leave," Maranne told him. "You want to read us a sleepy-time story now?"
"Sure," Riij said. From behind Trell came a faint rubbing sound -- Riij getting the last bits of adhesive off the datacard, probably -- and then the brief scraping as he slid it into his datapad. "It's from Kast," Riij said. "`To the crew and passengers of the Hopskip: well done.
"Well done?" Maranne growled. "What in blazes--?"
"Shh," Trell cut her off. "Go on."
"`You have adequately completed the mission that was assigned you,"' Riij continued. "`You may return now to the Admonitor and retrieve your cargo. This datacard will serve as proof to Captain Niriz that you have fulfilled your side of the bargain and may have your cargo returned to you.' Then it's signed with his name and what looks like some kind of ID mark."
"So he's not going back, huh?" Trell said, an odd feeling stirring in the pit of his stomach. "I'm not sure I like that."
"He must have arranged his payment to be delivered somewhere else," Maranne said. "It didn't look like he and Niriz got along very well."
"Perhaps his payment is in the remainder of the sleight boxes," Palror said.
"I wouldn't count on it," Riij said. "There's a postscript: 'Do not return to the Dewback Storage yard for the other sleight boxes. They are empty.'"
"What?" Trell growled, half turning to glare back at Riij over his shoulder. "Come on, now, that's just crazy. You're telling me the two boxes you happened to take to the Mynock's Haven were the only ones with anything in them? What are the odds of that happening?"
"Not too bad, really," Maranne said grimly. "Not when you consider that they were the only two we knew we could open and then reseal again. They were leading us around by the nose the whole way, weren't they?"
"The whole way," Riij agreed. "'And don't bother with either the Durindfire gems or the spice. Both are counterfeit.'"
Trell looked across the cockpit, to find Maranne looking back at him. There didn't seem to be anything to say.
There was another faint scraping behind him as Riij pulled the datacard from the datapad. "Look, we got in and out again alive," he reminded them, reaching over Trell's shoulder to hand him the datacard. "My instructors used to say that no mission you walked away from was a complete failure. Maybe we'll meet Corran and Hal someday and find out what this whole thing was all about."
Trell turned the datacard over in his hand. "I doubt it," he said. "I'd say chances are good that neither of them knew what was going on, either."
He slid the datacard into a storage slot on his board. "Come on, Maranne. Let's get out of here."
* * *
