Star Wars - Love is a Warm Blaster - Unpublished (5 page)

Love leaned over the bar to take a look and winced.

Everyone in the cantina was now staring at him.

“So,” Love asked, “who else do you have to kill to get a drink around here?”

As if on cue, an entire table of scarlet-cloaked Rodians stood up and took aim with nasty-looking blaster carbines.

Love paused, looking rather nonplussed. “Uh, that was more of a rhetorical question.”

Daniera stepped beside him. “Those look like more of Mah-Luu’s hired goons!”

“Oh yeah… did I forget to mention he owns this place, too?”

The other patrons had sidled away, leaving Love and Dani exposed. Even drunks know trouble when they see it.

“Then why in the name of Byss did you want to meet here?”

“I just told you.” Love’s hand was a blur as he tossed a small vial through the air. Blue-tinted liquid sloshed inside as it spun gracefully through the air and landed amidst the Rodians. The vial shattered, spraying the mercs. One second they were standing there ready to shoot… the next second, all six had hit the floor, apparently dead.

Daniera just stared. “Love, you are a living manifestation of the dark side.”

“Thank you.”

Daniera carefully walked over to the bodies.

“Don’t worry. That stuff evaporates in a second or two after being exposed to a non-liquid medium. Like the air. Of course, it does its job in a quarter of that time.”

She touched the toe of her boot to the broken vial. “What is it?”

“A highly concentrated derivative of the Fex-M3 nerve toxin. They call it Blue-8118 because of the color of its liquid agent. Once introduced into the bloodstream, death follows in microseconds.”

Daniera look back at him. “But the Rodians didn’t have it injected…”

“Exactly. But Blue-8118 is so powerful, mere contact with the skin is enough to cause a massive systemic overload that shuts down the body.” Love grinned. “They should be up and about in ten minutes or so, but I wouldn’t wish that bodyache on anybody.”

“Where did you get it?”

Love nodded his head toward the bar. “I just picked up my order in the back room. And I’m not the only one who made a recent purchase.”

“Grieve.” Daniera stared at him. “But how did you know?”

“I didn’t. I suspected.” Love joined Daniera, picking up a piece of the vial. “I smelled something exotic on Odaay’s body. Very sweet and flowery. At first I assumed It was a girl’s perfume, probably Induki’s; but when we found her it wasn’t the same. But I detected the same sickly-sweet smell on her, too.”

Love sniffed the vial and then held it out to Daniera. She took a cautious whiff, eyes widening. “The Blue-8118…”

“I guarantee if you check the bodies for that specific genetic sample, there’ll be trace elements of the poison in each victim’s bloodstream.”

“But how was it introduced? The vibroblades?”

“No. This stuff is too fragile. Even with a liberal coating of the Blue-8118, the air would have eaten it away. There had to be a more precise delivery system.” Love held up a tiny, near-transparent dart. “I pulled this out of Induki. Apparently her killer didn’t have time to cover up his handiwork this time with us on his trail.”

“That explains the huge blaster holes in the other victims. Grieve was trying to get rid of the evidence.” Daniera shook her head. “It all fits, but it doesn’t make any sense. Why would Grieve suddenly change his methods?”

“He didn’t.” Love started for the door, glancing back over his shoulder. “You know, when you first came in I thought you were going to shoot me.”

“Why?”

Love continued out the door. “Oh, no reason.”

“This is an excellent bit of detective work, Love, but we’re still no closer to our killer.”

“Wrong again.” He glanced at his chronometer. “I better get going.”

“Where?”

“There’s an assassination attempt masquerading as a charity ball that I have to attend.”

“You mean we, don’t you?”

Love touched her arm and smiled. “No.”

Daniera suddenly felt light-headed. She glanced down at her arm, and the blue liquid smeared there by Love’s gloved fingertip.

“Love, you are a—” Her next words faded away with her consciousness and her last memory before the blackness engulfed her was the sound of Love’s voice…

“Thank you.”

Daniera finally awoke to the piercing beep emitted by her jacket. Still groggy and aching all over, she fumbled with her datapad. The screen read: “decryption complete.”

She touched the pad and waited for the results to appear. Moments later, the datapad tumbled from her shaking fingers. Daniera was already sprinting to her speeder bike before the pad had even hit the ground.

The Grand Ballroom of the Imperial Palace was filled to absolute capacity. Moving around in the dense crowd required patience, good timing, and prudent use of elbows. By all appearances, the Maltesara Masquerade Benefit was going to be a rousing success. The elite of Coruscant were all in attendance: politicians, businessmen, society matrons, and even some alien royalty. Vivid costumes and extravagant masks lent an air of colorful elegance to the proceedings.

The New Republic Defense Force personnel stationed around the ballroom were unobtrusive but highly vigilant, as were the costumed NRI agents scattered throughout the crowd.

The thunderous echoes of conversation and laughter suddenly died down at the blaring of regal synth-horns. All eyes focused on the towering double doors of the ballroom’s main entrance as they slowly parted.

The Chief of State finally made her entrance, attended by a phalanx of Defense Force guards dressed in bulky ceremonial armor. Leia Organa Solo looked resplendent in a simple ivory gown, star ruby medallion, and an intricate Alderaanian vizard mask. She began the long journey to the podium, moving down the long greeting line of important guests.

Down near the end of the greeting line, General Cracken stood at attention, patiently awaiting the Chief of State. Beside him, Cabe adjusted his mask.

“I wonder where they could be,” Cracken asked.

“Daniera had better be okay,” Cabe said. “I trust that Love about as much as a wampa in a tauntaun pen.”

“I have every confidence in him.” Cracken glanced nervously at his chronometer. “Well… I used to.”

Tucked in the shadows of a large column 20 meters from the receiving line, Love watched the proceedings silently. As the Chief of State moved closer, he slid the heavy blaster from its holster. He noted with satisfaction that the weapon was fully charged.

Good.

Because he was probably only to get one shot at this, and he’d have to make it count.

Daniera ignored the ache gripping her body and sprinted through the palace hall toward the Grand Ballroom. Defense Force guards stationed at the entrance reached for their blaster rifles as they saw her wild approach.

She slowed down a bit as she reached the bio and weapon scanners. Daniera hurriedly waved her identification with one hand and lifted her jacket to show them the holstered hold-out.

“This is an emergency. The Chief of State’s life is in grave danger!”

The guards exchanged glances…

Leia Organa Solo had just about reached the end of the line. Luckily, her mask hid the relief on her face. She endured the overly eager compliments of the prex of Taldan Enterprises, reminding herself as she had done a thousand times tonight that it was all for charity.

As the businessman rambled on, she absently fingered the small star ruby set in the gold medallion. It had been a last-minute gift from a secret admirer, which was unusual to say the least. But it was so beautiful, she could hardly resist. Besides, it wasn’t a good idea to offend a contributor the day of a charity ball.

She turned and offered a genuine smile to her next admirer… General Cracken.