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A moment later the door slid open. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan walked inside and were met by Didi as he hurried down a curving ramp from upstairs.
"Is everything all right?" Qui-Gon asked, clipping his lightsaber back onto his utility belt.
Didi nodded. "I suppose. At first we were glad to be here. We felt safe. The place is so remote and hidden. But now the isolation is getting on our nerves. I think we would feel safer back on Coruscant."
"Where is Astri?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Here." Astri appeared from the other room. "I am so happy to see you both. The hours have been very long."
"No sign of trouble?" Qui-Gon asked. "Nothing out of the ordinary?"
"Nothing," Didi said.
"We keep a lookout," Astri said. "We watch out the windows for cruisers. We saw you approach. We weren't sure who it was." She tapped a blaster strapped to her hip. "I was ready."
"Have you ever used a blaster before, Astri?" Qui-Gon asked cautiously.
"How hard could it be?" Astri said. "Point and shoot. Easy as making a meal."
After having seen her kitchen, Qui-Gon was not sure he trusted Astri's shooting. "I'll give you a lesson in a moment," he told her. "How about you, Didi? Do you have a weapon?"
"Are you serious?" Didi shook his head. "I don't like Astri having one, either. How do you think I managed to stay out of trouble all these years?"
"We must speak to you both seriously," Qui-Gon said. "You must tell us the truth. Your safety depends on it."
"But you said we were safe here," Didi said nervously.
Qui-Gon shook his head. "I did not. This only bought us time. I'm afraid time has run out."
"What do you need to know?" Astri asked. Qui-Gon turned to Didi. "Fligh stole two data pads. We think one of them is the key to your problem. He must have given one to you, Didi. Did he leave a case, or a bin, or anything with you? Could he have hidden something when your back was turned?"
"I would never turn my back on Fligh," Didi said. "You have asked me this already, my friend. I give you the same answer. Fligh gave me nothing."
Obi-Wan noticed a flush spread over Astri's cheeks.
"What about you, Astri?" he asked.
She glanced at her father. "Well. Sometimes I used Fligh for more than sweeping."
"You used Fligh?" Didi asked, incredulous. "After you told me I should not associate with him?"
Astri looked uncomfortable. "We were not getting enough business. I'd spent so much money on the cafй. If it closed you'd never let me forget it. And I knew that Fligh hung around the Senate. I paid him to pass along tips to me about which Senators would be hosting important di
"You paid him for information? Ha!" Didi cried. "I am not the only one in this family to stretch the truth a bit!"
"This isn't the time to reproach Astri," Qui-Gon said sternly.
"I am not reproaching! I am congratulating," Didi insisted.
Astri's cheeks were pink. "Anyway, Fligh gave me a data pad for safekeeping. He told me he had just traded for it. He asked me to keep it for him. I was in the middle of something, so I stuck it in one of the ovens. The oven was broken," she added hastily. "To tell you the truth, I forgot about it until the night we left."
"Where is it now?" Qui-Gon asked urgently.
"Here," Astri said. "I brought it with us. My data pad was smashed, so I thought I'd use this one."
She reached over to a nearby table and handed it to Qui-Gon. "I haven't had a chance to see what's on it yet."
Qui-Gon quickly accessed the files on the data pad. A strange code streamed across the screen.
"The files are all coded," he mused.
"They must be Je
"Yes. Let me send it to Tahl. She can take it to our code experts." Qui-Gon jacked into the data pad and transferred the files to his own corn-link. He then contacted Tahl.
"Sure, send it along," Tahl said. "I'll get right on it and contact you as soon as we break it."
"This is high priority," Qui-Gon told her. He switched off the co
"I won't mind leaving this place," Astri said with a shiver. "It's awfully lonely. Just us and the lonesome wind. The caretaker told us there's no one here at this time of year. At first we thought this an advantage."
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon froze.
"Caretaker?" Qui-Gon asked.
"She came with the place," Didi said. "Relax, Qui-Gon. She's at least a hundred years old."
"Where is she?" Qui-Gon asked, his hand on his lightsaber.
Astri looked puzzled. "She brings provisions once a day. She's not here now."
Qui-Gon's uneasy feeling changed to alarm. Simultaneously, the two Jedi activated their lightsabers.
"Let's get to the cruiser," Qui-Gon said. "But our things —" Astri began.
"Leave them."
They started toward the door, but it was too late. At that moment, durasteel coverings on the windows slid down with a clang. They heard the harsh sound of locks snapping throughout the house. The snug hideaway had turned into a prison.
They were trapped. And Qui-Gon had no doubt that the bounty hunter was in the house with them.