The Forty-first were level with them now.

Fi smiled fraternally and got a bewildered nod or two in return. They don't recognize me! That felt strange. All his commando brothers knew him. And he could tell infantry from ship's crew by the way they walked. He walked between the men of the Forty-first with Sev like a marching band merging, and spun around at the back of the group to walk back toward the target.

She was still sitting there. But she was looking the other way.

She was staring at another group of clone troopers heading toward her from the other direction.

“I love being a familiar face,” Fi said. His anxiety gave way to a sense of heightened awareness, the thrill of the hunt. The woman's spine straightened as if she was going to jump up, but she sat tense for a few seconds until the clones drew level with her and met the group coming from the other direction. They stopped to chat. Fi and Sev melted into the group at the rear.

“I'm heading around the back of the plaza,” said Jusik's voice in their ears. “Niner's on station now. I'll give you some aerial recon.”

“Gotcha,” Fi said quietly.

It's bad personal security to cluster like this. But that didn't matter right then. The woman dithered, trying not to look at the group and failing miserably: Fi, like any clone, was exceptionally attuned to small gestures. Then she got up to walk briskly into the nearest shop.

“Maybe she owed Jango credits.” Fi shrugged and noted with a sinking heart that the shop looked to be exclusively for females. The garments on display were truly bizarre. “Or we're just not her type.”

“So, smart-mouth, you going to follow her in there?”

“I could.”

“What, tell them you're looking for a present for your girlfriend?”

“Don't push your luck. Is there a back way out?”

Sev stepped into a doorway and shielded Fi while he took a quick look at the holochart and snapped off the image quickly.

“No, but there's a landing platform for deliveries.”

Sev dropped to a whisper. “Bardan, you with us yet?”

Jusik's voice was almost a chuckle. “Fascinating,” he said. “I'm waiting at the delivery platform. A taxi is just what she needs right now.” Sev and Fi looked at each other. They could hear Jusik, but the taxi wasn't visible even when they stood back and glanced up discreetly at the roofline. Then they heard his voice, utterly level, utterly calm—utterly worrying. “Yeah? Yeah, I am, lady … where d'you want to go? I've got a booking, but …”

“Sev, tell me he isn't doing what I think he is.”

“He's doing it.”

“He's nuts.”

Sev lowered his voice to a whisper in the comlink. “Bardan, if we lift her now, we'll blow this op. Don't overplay it.”

“Okay, lady, but the spaceport isn't my regular run, so that'll be extra.”

There was the sound of someone getting into the taxi and a woman's voice. “Yes, just drop me off at the domestic terminal, please.”

Fi wondered for a moment if ordinary people had shared thoughts like the one he knew Sev was sharing with him. They'd been trained to think the same way, the soldier's way. Where was Jusik going with this? If he dropped her off like a normal taxi, they'd lose her in the terminal anyway. He couldn't follow her in there and check where she went without blowing his cover. And if he didn't drop her off …

Sev was staring past Fi. “Lizard on your six,” he said quietly.

Fi turned very, very slowly and stopped when he caught the Falleen male in his peripheral vision at the point where the plaza funneled into a spiral ramp down to another level. He was searching. So the woman hadn't caught up with him when he expected, and he was looking for her. And that meant she had no comlink, or she'd have used it.

“Now he's going to be bad news. He's carrying some serious cannon. Look at the line of his jacket.”

Jusik's voice was a quiet descant to Fi's pulse pounding in his head. “Oh, fierfek. That's great. Being rerouted again … this is going to cost, lady … another detour …”

“He's way too smart for his own good.” Sev looked exasperated. “Bardan, are you doing what I think you're doing? Are you heading back our way?”

“I pay good license money not to have to use automated lanes,” said Jusik's voice in their ears. He really didn't sound at all like a nice Jedi Temple boy now. And then I still get diverted. What do we pay our taxes for?”

“I'll take that as a yes.”

The Falleen moved off, pausing occasionally to look around, and ambled slowly down the ramp. Fi and Sev leaned on the edge of the parapet like any tourist might to take in the view below.

Fi dropped his voice. “He's calling someone.” The Falleen had the back of his hand raised to his mouth. Oh, for a helmet comlink. Fi might have been able to pick up the frequency. “Is it her? Or backup?”

“We could call this in and get Niner and Scorch to pick him up.”

“And then we drag another team off station. No, let's see this through.”

Sev sat down on a bench, looking suitably disoriented. “Bardan, where are you?”

“Let me try this shortcut, lady … hey, who you calling? You making a complaint about fares already?”

“I bet she's calling Lounge Lizard. Great.”

“Yeah, and now that our driver's got a very dodgy passenger, has he thought what we're going to do with her?”

“Same as we did with Orjul and the Nikto,” Sev said, getting up to walk across to the taxi platform at the end of the plaza. They had to get in fast when Jusik appeared and opened that hatch. Fi had visions of the potential grief that would be unleashed if a passenger was screaming her head off when the taxi hatch opened in a very public place.

“Land at ninety degrees, Bardan. Sev will access via the port hatch and I'll go in the other, and we'll pin her down.”

“Yeah, I think Fi can manage to subdue a civilian,” Sev said.

“Remind me to show you my unfunny side later, ner vod.”

“Skirata's going to kill us for this—”

“Better get it right then,” Fi said.

“Here he comes …”

“Steady, Bardan.”

“Too fast.”

“He's a Jedi. There's no such thing as too fast.”

The battered taxi, its anti-surveillance gauze now showing a human driver that wasn't Jusik, dropped onto the platform scattering dust and grit. The two commandos ran to their respective sides.

Jusik's voice filled their heads now. “Hatches in three … two … one!”

They threw themselves in. The hatches snapped shut so fast that Fi felt his pant leg snag in the seal but he was flat on top of a squealing, struggling woman and then she went quiet because Sev clamped his hand over her mouth.

“You waiting for a tip?” said Fi.

The taxi lifted in a straight vertical and nearly shaved the paintwork off another cab trying to drop off passengers. It was just as well that Enacca had done something creative about the identity transponder.

“Fi, I don't suppose you brought any restraints?”

“No, but this usually works.” Fi freed his right arm and put his blaster to Jiss's head. “Ma'am, shut up and stop struggling. I have no problem shooting women.”

No, he didn't. Enemies were enemies. Females were soldiers, too.

Jusik took the taxi high into what appeared to be a commuter lane and shot off in a complex loop that first took them away from Qibbu's and relative safety, and then dropped down between lanes where the layers of traffic overhead gave some protection against visual surveillance.

“We've been tagged,” Jusik said. He shut his eyes, far too long for Fi's comfort. It was the first time he'd seen the Jedi fly with his eyes closed, and the fact that the good ones could do that didn't reassure the simple animal part of him that said it shouldn't be possible. “Yes, we're being followed.”

Fi wanted to ask how he knew but Jiss had no reason to know Jusik was a Jedi, and the less she knew, the easier it would be to process her, as Skirata put it.