Cloak Of Deception

"You sit tight for a while," Rella said, squatting to eye level with the woman. "We won't be long." She and Boiny went aft to the picket's small rear compartment. Cohl and the mercenaries were already there, pressed in among a half-dozen two-meter-tall cargo tubes that had been conveyed from the freighter.

All of them were wearing rebreathers and extravehicular suits, with armorply vests beneath.

"Is this necessary?" one of the humans was asking Cohl, gesturing to the upright cargo tubes.

"I suppose you'd rather blast your way through customs, is that it?" "No, Captain," the man answered sullenly.

"It's just that I don't like tight spots." Cohl laughed ruefully. "Get used to it. It's going to be nothing but tight spots from this point on.

Now, in you go." Reluctantly the man opened the cargo tube's narrow hatch and squeezed inside. "It's like a coffin in here!" "Then just be happy you're still alive," Cohl said, securing the door from the outside.

With similar aversion, the others began to secrete themselves.

"You, too, Cohl," Rella said.

"Wish I could be joining you, Captain," Boiny said with a smile.

Cohl scowled. "You're lucky there was a Rodian on the inspection team, or I'd have you sharing a canister with Lope." He turned to Rella. "I don't know exactly how we would have pulled this off without your help." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Save it, Cohl. I just want to get us out of it in one piece." He stepped into the canister. "Seriously. I don't deserve you." "That's the first true thing you've said. But that's just who I am." She reached into the canister to fasten the collar of Cohl's space suit. "We can't have you catching a chill." Cohl gri

She sealed the cargo tube and looked at Boiny.

"Ready the ship to leave orbit." As promised, a half-dozen hoversleds were on hand to meet the customs ship when it touched down at Eriadu's overtaxed spaceport.

Now fettered only by stun cuffs, the chief was the first to step from the picket's hatch. She took one look at the humanoid and alien operators of the hoversleds and inhaled sharply.

"Who are you people?" She asked in utter dismay.

"You don't really want to know that," Rella said from just behind her.

She nodded to Boiny, who placed a small styrette to the chief's neck and injected her with a measure of clear fluid. Instantly, the woman slumped back into Boiny's arms.

"Stow her in one of the empty cargo canisters," Rella said. "We'll take her with us for safekeeping." She hopped down onto one of the hoversleds. "We have to work fast," she cautioned Havac's downside contingent of terrorists.

"It won't be long before the freighter is discovered and searched." Rella rode one of the repulsorlift flatbeds to the picket's aft hatch, which was already open. There, she leapt into the rear compartment and rapped her knuckles against the matte surface of Cohl's container.

"Not much longer," she said quietly.

When the coffinlike canisters had been loaded, the flotilla of hoversleds moved across the spaceport's duracrete apron to the customs warehouse, where more of Havac's terrorists were guarding the roll-away doors.

To all sides, ships were arriving and launching.

Closer to the spaceport terminals, passengers were disembarking from the shuttles that had carried them from transports anchored in orbit. PK and protocol droids were everywhere, as were teams of security agents, waiting to hustle diplomats and dignitaries through immigration. Massed along the spaceport's stun-fenced perimeter, mobs of demonstrators were declaring their discontent, with chanted slogans and crudely lettered signs.

The hoversleds streamed into the warehouse in single file, the roll-away doors closing behind them. At once, the humanoid and alien pilots began to unseal the canisters, which opened with a hiss of escaping atmosphere.

Cohl climbed from his coffin, pulled off his rebreather, and jumped to the sawdust-covered floor, gazing around expectantly. The place smelled of spacecraft exhaust and hydrocarbons.

"Punctual, as ever, Captain," Havac said, as he and a group of his cohorts emerged from behind a palisade of stacked cargo bins. Sporting a colorful headcloth and scarf that left only his eyes exposed, the Nebula Front militant started for the now motionless sleds, coming to an abrupt halt when he saw Rella.

"I thought you'd retired." "I had a memory lapse," she told him. "But I'm about to get over it." Havac appraised the gathered mercenaries and turned to Cohl. "Will they follow orders?" "If you feed them regularly," Cohl said.

"What do we do with this one?" Lope asked, indicating the still- unconscious customs chief.

"Leave her there," Havac answered. "We'll take care of her." He swung back to Cohl.

"Captain, if you'll follow me, we can conclude your part in this." "That suits me fine," Cohl said.

Havac glanced at Lope and the others. "The rest of you wait here. I'll brief you when I return." I n a restricted area of the spaceport, Adi Gallia met Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan as they stepped from the sharp-nosed shuttle that had brought them downside.

"The High Council's favorite Jedi," Adi said as Qui-Gon approached, his long hair and brown cloak stirred by the wind. "I half expected you and your loyal Padawan to come bolting overhead in Captain Cohl's gunship." "We left the Hawk-Bat in orbit," Qui-Gon replied without humor. "What's the situation here?" "Master Tiin, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Vergere, and some of the others are on their way from Coruscant." Qui-Gon planted his hands on his hips. "Did you ask security to run a check on Corellian freighters?" Adi gave him a long- suffering look. "Do you know how many Corellian freighters are in orbit just now? Unless you can provide a registry or a drive signature of some sort, there's little anyone can do. As it is, it will take customs and security a week to search every vessel." "What about Captain Cohl?" Adi shook her head, the tails of her tight-fitting bo

"No one fitting Cohl's description has passed through Eriadu immigration."

"Could we have arrived first, Master?" Obi-Wan asked. "The Hawk-Bat is about the fastest ship I've ever flown in." Adi waited for Qui-Gon's response, which was to shake his head negatively.

"Cohl is here somewhere. I can feel him." The three of them glanced around, reaching out with the Force.

"There is so much disturbance just now, it's difficult to focus on any one thing," Adi said after a long moment.

Determination quickened Qui-Gon's gaze. "We must prevail on the Supreme Chancellor to allow us to take the place of his Senate Guards. It's our best hope." Havac led the way down a long corridor. Against one wall were slumped a dozen or so bound, gagged, and blindfolded customs agents, who voiced muffled exclamations of fury as Cohl, Rella, and Boiny passed. Havac continued on to a room that housed the warehouse's small power plant.