Star Wars: The Last of the Jedi, Volume 3 (5 page)

“I’m starting to get used to this,” Trever grunted as he jumped down onto the catwalk.

There. Ferus saw the small, grated door at the end of an open stairway. He ran up and put out a hand, hoping that the Force would be there. The grated door popped off. He and Trever jumped
inside, and he replaced the grate.

The tunnel was dark, but after a moment he could see. Avoiding the circuits and wires, they began to crawl down the tunnel.

“This runs in the wall,” he said in a whisper. “So tread lightly.”

He pictured where they were now, on the same level as Yoda’s private quarters. When he thought they were near the door, he held up a hand and Trever stopped behind him. There was a grate
just ahead. Ferus bent down and looked. He was directly opposite Yoda’s quarters. He could see the slats of the window blinds. The hallway was empty. He curled his fingers around the grate,
ready to ease it off.

Ferus suddenly heard approaching footsteps.

Malorum. Striding in his Inquisitor’s robes, an assistant hurrying by his side. Stopping outside the door of Yoda’s chambers.

Ferus felt it, a slight disturbance in the Force. Obi-Wan had picked up on what he’d suspected: Malorum was Force-sensitive. He cloaked his own connection to the Force, even though Ferus
doubted Malorum was adept enough to feel it.

“Don’t sound the general alarm,” Malorum snapped. “By all means look, but look quietly. Lord Vader has decided to pay us an unannounced visit. I don’t want him to
know about this until the intruders are caught.”

“Yes, sir.”

Ferus felt the dark side of the Force surge in a sickening wave, so powerful he inadvertently shrank back. He knew what it meant.

The Sith Lord had arrived.

Ferus’s breath felt sucked from his lungs. Darth Vader was on the other side of the wall. From his position near the floor he could only see the Sith Lord’s boots,
but he could hear the rasp of his breath mask.

Their only hope was that Vader wasn’t looking for them.

“The situation is normal, you say,” Vader remarked in a deep, booming voice.

Malorum had taken a few steps forward so Ferus could no longer see him. “Yes, as you can see. I arrived a day early—I like to do that, surprise them. It keeps everyone on their toes,
and it’s a good way to learn things that—”

“You came back a day early because I ordered you to. If you can stop complimenting yourself long enough, perhaps you can explain why squads are patrolling the hallways.”

“Strictly routine. I believe in constant readiness.”

“Malorum, do you think I’m a fool?”

“Excuse me, Lord Vader?”

The power of Vader’s anger filled the hallway. “This is a waste of time, and I hate wasting time. I put up with you because you are useful...for now. So I give you a choice. Tell me
the truth, or continue your lies.”

Ferus could almost feel Malorum’s calculations. The beat went on a little too long.

“Two intruders were spotted and are being tracked,” Malorum finally said. “I assure you they will be found. You see, in a way, this proves the success of my plan to trap the
Jedi. One of the intruders has a lightsaber.”

“Really.”

“So the rumors we spread worked.”

“In order for a trap to work it must capture its prey. You do not have a Jedi in custody. Instead, someone is still on the loose.”

There was a note of false lightness now in Malorum’s voice. “Temporarily, Lord Vader, I assure you.”

“Assurances don’t interest me.”

Lord Vader sounded almost...bored. He treated Malorum with contempt. Ferus had heard that Malorum was Lord Vader’s special pet, his protégé. Obviously this was a piece of
unfounded gossip.

“And I recall,” Vader continued, “that you let a Jedi slip through your fingers on Bellassa. And now there is another Jedi somewhere on Coruscant.”

“I have a spy who has infiltrated that Jedi’s group. I am waiting for a report—”

“Your tedious obsession with trapping Jedi has led you to neglect your orders. I have given you a simple task—to clean up Coruscant, level by level, down to the very crust, until it
is totally under our domination. You were to ferret out every possible pocket of resistance. You were to plan a strike and wipe out the Erased. We can’t have resisters turning into
heroes.”

“Now just a minute, Lord Vader,” Malorum said. “Coruscant is hardly an ordinary assignment.”

“If you are not capable of the job, I’ll find someone else to do it.”

“Of course I am capable, Lord Vader—”

“Then do it and do it now. You want to rid yourself of intruders? Blow up the Temple.”

Ferus stiffened.

“Blow it up?” Malorum asked.

“Why not?”

“But my private office is here! Valuable records would be lost.”

“You overemphasize your own importance.”

Ferus could actually hear the breath that hissed out of Malorum’s lungs. “I see what you’re doing. You’re trying to discredit me in the eyes of the Emperor. You want to
destroy my work, my files...” Then he stopped. “Wait. I see now. You weren’t serious.”

“Interesting what has just now emerged, isn’t it? You have files here that have not been banked with Imperial security? That is a violation of the Emperor’s
directives.”

This is a battle
, Ferus thought.
Malorum wants Vader’s job. He wants to be the Emperor’s pet. And Vader knows exactly what he’s up to.

Now there was an element of smugness in Malorum’s tone. “I have permission from the Emperor himself to keep files private that I feel could jeopardize an ongoing
investigation.”

“Do I need to remind you of your own inferiority?”

Vader’s anger served to quash Malorum’s assurance. It was a frightening thing to feel it turned on you, Ferus reflected. He was glad he was behind the panel.

“I have no secrets from you, Lord Vader. There are reports that you haven’t seen yet, files that need additional notes...I have spies everywhere on Coruscant, as you know. Reports on
our progress on surveillance in the sublevels...”

“At last you’re telling me something I want to know.”

“Not to mention certain delicate matters I’ve been pursuing for your sake alone, Lord Vader. For example, the rumors about Polis Massa...”

Ferus strained to hear. There it was again—Polis Massa. Something was at stake, something big, but he didn’t know what.

If Malorum thought he was going to impress Darth Vader, he was wrong. His boast had the opposite effect. Ferus could feel it now, the slow burn of Vader’s rage as it built.

“Lord Vader—”

Malorum’s voice was hoarse, as though he was gasping for breath. Still, Ferus could hear the fear in it.

“I...beg...you—”

A strange thing was happening. The grating in front of Ferus was vibrating. Then the actual wall was vibrating. He heard a cracking sound. Vader was allowing his rage to build.

“Do not ever mention that place again.”

“Of course, Lord Vader.”

Across the hallway, Ferus could see that the windows of Yoda’s quarters were vibrating. Suddenly the door blew in. He saw a chair sail across the room and heard it slam against a wall.
Part of the ceiling cracked and cables crashed down.

Ferus signaled to Trever and began to crawl backward.

The windows shattered. The grate blew out, along with a large chunk of the wall. Ferus and Trever were exposed.

Ferus and Trever tried to pull back amidst shards of glass and looked straight up into the black breath mask of Darth Vader. Malorum was hanging in the air, a victim of
Vader’s wrath, his face almost purple.

Vader released his Force-hold, and Malorum fell to the floor with a croaking sound.

For a moment, no one moved.

Vader looked down at him, and Ferus looked up, and everything inside him dissolved into pure fear. He looked into that black mirrored mask and wondered who the being behind it really was. Half
living, half mechanical? He didn’t know.

Somehow training kicked in. He had a moment, and it spun out into enough time. Ferus knew he didn’t have enough power to fight a Sith. Not even close. But he couldn’t let Darth Vader
dominate the Force, either. He reached out for the Force and was hit by a surprising wave. It grew in intensity and power, the most powerful surge he had ever felt, as if Yoda himself was here to
help him. It felt almost as though it was
directed
at him, emanating from Yoda’s room.

Ferus rode a wave of the Force, grabbing Trever with one arm and jumping out to snatch at the flexible cable that had fallen from the ceiling. It was still attached above, and it gave him
something to swing on. Together with Trever he swung out through the broken wall of glass, and then let go. He knew the Force would carry him.

He and Trever soared over the atrium and landed on the other side. He could feel the dark side of the Force behind him, but he paid it no mind. He simply ran, all the while knowing that if Vader
wanted him, he would have gotten him. Simple as that.

Perhaps he was letting Ferus and Trever go in order to humiliate Malorum. Or test him. Or because he didn’t care that much. Whatever the reason, Ferus grabbed on to it and ran with it.

Alarms sounded.

Now the entire Temple was on alert. Ferus switched to a hallway that he knew was a shortcut to the analysis rooms. It was dark and dusty; the Imperials didn’t use it. Using his lightsaber
for light, he led the way. This could buy them a few precious seconds. In his mind, he was forming a desperate plan. The only way they were getting out of here was if they did it fast; Ferus knew
he wouldn’t be able to hide for very long. There was no question that Malorum wouldn’t allow himself to fail in front of his master.

“What’s the plan?” Trever asked, breathing hard. “The sooner we get away from that Vader guy, the better. Can we review? Scary! Creepy!”

“We have to steal a ship,” Ferus said. “The new landing platform lies directly below a playroom that the younglings used. During surveillance I saw that the window is partially
blown out.”

“I’m sort of sensing that we’ll be jumping out a window again,” Trever said.

“Well, I’m hoping there will be a nifty little speeder underneath us.”

“You know, you keep forgetting something. I’m not a Jedi. I can’t do all this leaping and landing.”

“You’re doing just fine. Hurry up.”

Ferus slowed down as they reached the playroom. He crept forward. Just as he’d hoped, the room wasn’t being used. A cold wind blew in from the broken window. Followed closely by
Trever, he stepped inside.

A wave of horror hit him, hard, directly in the chest.

Something happened here.

The younglings...

How had he pushed that thought away? He had imagined, somehow, that the Empire wouldn’t target the young. He had imagined the younglings had simply...run away.

They did not run away.

Youth, age, the sick, the weak…they do not enter into the Sith’s calculations. They simply go after what they want.

Don’t think of it. If you think of it now, it might break you.

He walked slowly to the window. It felt as though he was kicking through ashes. The toys were still scattered about, the climbing apparatus the younglings had used, the practice lightsabers, the
lasertoys, all broken now.

What kind of monster would be capable of this?

Trever lurked behind a fallen column, keeping well out of sight as he spied out the window. “They’re closing down the landing platform,” he said. “Must be a security
measure.”

Shaking off the dark memories in the room, Ferus joined him. While they’d been inside the Temple, dusk had fallen. Lights were blinking on all over the levels below them. “Look at
that officer, arguing. The code is yellow, not red. See the light at the side of the platform? So my guess is that they let him go.”

The Force surged. It was a warning. Ferus was startled at its directness. Much of the time he felt he was groping for the Force through a fog. He realized that his Force connection was stronger
while he was here. Something in him still responded to this place, still gained strength from it.

Malorum was close.

He looked around the room. He had seconds. There had to be something here he could use. His mind was working fast. He needed something to distract the pilot below. All he needed was an
instant.