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At the last moment before the cruiser hit, a cargo door opened and a swoop zoomed out. They could see that Mol Arcasite was astride it.
The cruiser crashed into the mountain with a whoosh and roar of fuel. Obi-Wan and Anakin kept under the shelter of a ledge as flaming metal rained down below.
The swoop took off into the distance, became a black speck, and disappeared.
Obi-Wan and Anakin lowed themselves to the ground. Floria and Dane rushed toward them.
"That was incredible," Floria said. "You defeated Mol Arcasite! I'm not betting on Hunti Pereg anymore."
"You're rid of Mol Arcasite for good," Dane told them. "She's good, but she's known for not sticking around if her first strike fails badly. She just lost a ship. Her own survival is her first priority."
"That doesn't sound like good business for a bounty hunter," Anakin said.
"She seldom fails," Dane said. "So it doesn't matter. No doubt she has a backup plan. She'll be on to her next assignment by nightfall."
"So we've paralyzed one bounty hunter, and another one took off," Obi-Wan said. "That leaves two."
"We know that Wren didn't leave the clues for us to follow," Obi-Wan said. "The question is, who did?"
"I'm betting on Teleq," Dane said. "It's just his style. He's clever, and he's fond of traps."
"Whoever it is doesn't know that we know we're being hunted," Obi-Wan pointed out. "As a matter of fact, he's probably still leaving clues for us to follow."
"So what should we do?" Floria leaned forward eagerly.
Obi-Wan noted her eagerness. Now Floria was on their side. Or else she was hoping that once the Jedi eliminated all the other bounty hunters, she and Dan would find a way to take the prize.
One way or another, it didn't matter. He wanted to keep Floria and Dane close.
"We give him exactly what he wants. We follow them, of course," Obi-Wan said.
Chapter Ten
Obi-Wan and Anakin retraced their steps, climbing the mountain again. Floria and Dane trudged behind them, unused to the quick pace the Jedi set.
"I'm begi
Anakin stopped in order to fall into pace next to her. "How did you and Dane get into this line of work?" he asked. "Where are your parents?"
"Where are yours?" Floria snapped. Suddenly her face shut down and became defensive and angry.
"My mother lives on Tatooine," Anakin said. "She is a slave."
Floria's face softened slightly. "Oh. I'm sorry. Our parents are dead. I don't come from Aaeton. That was a lie. Dane and I are from the I
Floria told the story in a monotone, her eyes on the mountain trail. Ahead of them, Dane did not turn or acknowledge he was listening, but Anakin saw his neck flush red.
"Dane and I had to make our way as best we could," Floria said. "We had lost everything, so we had to work. We found jobs in a caf© at a space station, washing up and serving food. Our boss we a very cruel man. We discovered he was wanted by the security forces of a nearby planet. We tricked him into getting caught. We got the reward, but we had to leave the planet. So we kind of fell into bounty hunting. We've been moving around the galaxy ever since."
"When you find something you're good at, you stick to it," Dane said with a cocky assurance Anakin did not quite believe.
"It sounds like a hard life," Anakin remarked.
Floria cocked an eyebrow. "And is yours so easy, Jedi?"
Anakin took the question seriously. "In a way, it is," he said slowly. "I know I am being of service. That makes the path easy to walk."
"Well, I'd rather go down my path in a nice, techno-maxed cruiser," Floria said. "So I guess I'm stuck with bounty hunting."
"Here we are," Obi-Wan called from a short distance ahead. "We left the path here, when we thought someone was following us."
"That was me," Floria said.
Obi-Wan nodded. "Let's find the next clue, Anakin."
Anakin left Floria's side. He pushed their conversation out of his mind. Earlier, finding clues had been fun. Now, it would be serious.
It didn't take long to find the next clue. After a fork in the path, they found a few crumbs from a blumfruit muffin left near flat rock alongside the trail.
"He is clever," Obi-Wan told Anakin, squatting by the clue. "He is leading us on without tipping us off. But we know that Wren would never have left this clue."
Anakin briefly tasted the crumbs. He looked up at his Master, his face grave. "These are from the Temple."
"Are you sure?" Obi-Wan asked.
Anakin nodded. "I'd know Jedi Knight Alicka's muffins anywhere. This must mean that — "
"The bounty hunter definitely has Wren. He has raided his survival pack."
They hurried on. They had lost a good deal of time, and Anakin could tell that his Master was worried about Wren's fate.
They followed the path until it curved along a ridge that overlooked a meadow full of tall, slender, flowering trees. From above, the flowering branches formed a solid carpet of pink. Anakin stopped and examined a large boulder on the side of the trail. He hopped from one boulder to the next.
"This way," he called to Obi-Wan. "He went down from here to the meadow."
He looked back up at his Master. Obi-Wan's gaze swept the trees below. "wren is near. I can feel it. Let's proceed carefully."
Then they made their way carefully down the slope, jumping from rock to rock. Floria and Dane followed at a distance. When they reached a meadow, the perfume of the flowering trees hit their nostrils. Under any other circumstances, Anakin would have paused to drink in the beauty of the spot. After growing up on desert world, he was often overwhelmed by simple things such as flowers and grasses.
The trees had slender triangular trunks, but the branches were thick and wide. The flowers were so large and dense that the top of each tree was a waving mass of frothy pink.