| abstract
| - Jett Rink, an employee of one of the politicians in Nalanda’s building, was returning from his night-time exploits shamefully later than he would have liked to admit. He was just parking his celebrated yellow, open-topped airspeeder when two Jedi burst out of the building. “Hi, we need to borrow your speeder,” the first one said, a human male with a blond rat-tail behind his right ear. He opened the door and pulled Jett out without much ceremony. “Thanks,” said the second Jedi, she smiled as she sat down in the speeder next to the first and they were off. The whole proceedings taking only a few seconds. Jett shook his head as he watched them go. Say what you will about Jedi, he thought, but they think they own everything. The assassin droid was clearly not designed to carry his weight, but it held Obi-Wan aloft if reluctantly, stinging his hands with hot sparks. Gritting his teeth, Obi-Wan prised one of the wires loose to try and make the uncomfortable ride more bearable. He managed to stop the sparks, but the wire also powered the motor and he plummeted in a matter of seconds. “Not good, not good,” he muttered, frantically re-connecting the wire. The droid started up again, once more cooking his hands every few minutes. As much as he sought for Jedi serenity, he wished wherever the droid was going it would get there soon. Zam waited impatiently waited beside her speeder for the droid, she would have preferred to be on her way but the only way she could be sure the operation was carried out was if the droid returned empty. And even then there were doubts, but it would be relatively easy to find out if the senator had been killed, given the false reports on her assassination only that afternoon. The sound of a disturbance in air traffic made her look up, but what she saw made her smile. One of the Jedi—it was unmistakable even at this distance—was hanging onto the droid as it made its way towards her. It meant that the droid had in fact made it to the senator’s, the Jedi would know what had happened but business was business. She removed her blaster rifle from her speeder and raised it to her shoulder, cocking it as she glanced down the scope. She aimed the first shot right at the Jedi but the bolt went wide. She fired again but it didn’t go anywhere near him. Was her aim off? Or, perhaps the Jedi had somehow evaded the bolts with his powers. Whatever the reason, Zam had no time to consider it, she aimed the blaster at the droid. “Block this,” she snarled, then pulled the trigger. Obi-Wan had surmised that whoever had shot at him was the assassin they were looking for. But the freefall following the droids destruction was not something he had counted on. Where is Anakin? he thought as he looked around, frantically looking for a hand hold, a platform, anything! But there was nothing but another five hundred stories between himself and the ground! “There he is!” Anakin threw the throttle all the way forward and forced the speeder into a deep dive. Padmé smiled secretly as she gripped the top of the windshield. She felt like screaming with the excitement of the moment. She caught a glimpse of Anakin’s face, he was enjoying it as much as if not more than she was. Anakin slowed then levelled the speeder out, after hovering for a few seconds a soft thump confirmed they had Obi-Wan. Then they set off in the direction he told them. “Hitchhiker’s normally stand on platforms,” Anakin remarked dryly, “but your approach is much more direct, Master.” “If you worked on your lightsaber skills as much as you did your wit, Anakin, you would rival Master Yoda,” Obi-Wan reproached. “I thought I already did,” his apprentice lightly challenged. “Only in your mind, my very young Padawan.” Obi-Wan quickly spotted the green speeder that belonged to the assassin. “There!” Anakin increased their speed and they were after it. It didn’t take Zam long to realise that she was being followed, fortunately this had happened before so she knew what to do. So it was nothing to increase her speed and made several haphazard turns. She smiled to herself, not even the Jedi could find her now. The speeder was in sight again, but it wasn’t long before it disappeared again. It simply had a bigger start on them even at this speed and Anakin’s manoeuvring style that made Obi-Wan remember with detail what he had for breakfast that morning. He had never liked flying and since he had become Anakin’s Master he liked it even less. “We’re not going to catch them this way,” Padmé murmured. Finally! thought Obi-Wan with relief, Someone with sense! But Padmé turned around and started to climb into the back seat. “What are you doing?” Obi-Wan asked, but before she could answer a violent swerve sent them crashing together. “Anakin!” “Sorry, Master,” Anakin replied wryly, “I forgot that you don’t like flying.” “I don’t mind flying,” his Master said as he and Padmé were thrown around again, “but what you’re doing is suicide!” He turned to Padmé who was looking for something compartment behind them. “What’s all this?” “Something different,” she replied, taking out a lurid green repulsor-board. “Anakin!” She had to raise her voice to be heard. “I need you to get as close as you can get!” “Don’t worry, I know a short-cut,” Anakin told her, turning suddenly and sending Obi-Wan sliding across the seat again. “Stars end!” Obi-Wan swore as he hit his head. The yellow speeder had not moved from its pursuit, but Zam knew that the Jedi would have realised that they weren't going to catch her like this. And by the time they had figured out a way to get to her she would be gone. Zam smiled as she cooled her engines, she was far enough ahead. This was going to be easy. “That’s near enough!” Padmé shouted after Anakin made several near-suicidal moves to get them closer. “But what are you—” Obi-Wan couldn’t do anything but watch Padmé secure her left foot to the repulsor-board and jump off the end of the speeder. Quickly, she fired her cable-launcher into the speeder’s hull and secured the other end to her belt. Anakin watched this all from the rear-vision viewscreen, when Padmé was secure he swerved wildly causing Padmé to spin like a toy on the end of a string. “Slow down, Anakin!” Obi-Wan told him as he slid into the seat next to him. “She’s only going to have one chance, Master,” Anakin replied, keeping half his attention on Padmé. “To do what?” his Master asked incredulously. “We still want to catch this assassin, don’t we, Master?” Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows but didn’t disagree.
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