"Skrag! Where's Thyne?"
"I don't know -- we can't find him."
"Must have gotten out," Selty muttered.
"Or ducked into some private bunker," Grobber said. "All right, Control, we're on our way. Skinkner?"
"We're packing up, too," Skinkner's voice confirmed. "You want us to do anything with these other sleight boxes?"
"To blazes with the boxes," Control snapped. "We need you here."
"No, pack 'em up and bring 'em along," Grobber said.
"Grobber--"
"They're worth a fortune," Grobber growled. "Thyne'll have our heads if we leave 'em behind. Come on, how much trouble can a few Imperials be?"
Faintly over the comlink came the sound of a distant explosion. "That answer your question?" Control snarled. "Get the frink back here."
And with a sudden hiss, the comlink went dead. "They're jamming it," Grobber growled, shoving the cylinder back into his belt. "Selty, you take Promk and Bullkey and get these two and their landspeeder back to the fortress. Everyone else, back to the airspeeders. Move it!"
The others scattered. "Don't get any ideas," Grobber warned softly, glaring from under creased eyebrows at Riij and Maranne. "We're a long ways from being done with you two yet."
With that he stomped off after the rest of his mob, disappearing just as they had appeared back into the shadows again. "Get over here," Selty snapped, waving Riij and Maranne forward. Somewhere in the distance an avian or insect whistled, sounding strangely out of place in the urban setting. "Bullkey?"
"I'm on 'em," a deep voice came from behind Riij, the confidence backed up by a blaster nudge in the back. "Come on, move it."
Riij started forward; and as he did so, Maranne veered slightly toward him and nudged him with her elbow. "Get ready," she murmured, just loud enough for him to hear. At the landspeeder, Promk, under Selty's direction, had picked up the box containing the Durindfire gems and was carrying it back toward the storage compartment. The strange avian whistled again; and suddenly, inexplicably, one of the bottom edges of the box split open, spilling the gems out onto the ground.
And from behind Riij came a short gurgle and a muffled thump.
Beside him, he sensed Maranne preparing to charge. "Not yet," he muttered, touching her warningly as he lengthened his stride. Preoccupied with the spilled gems, Selty and Promk hadn't yet noticed what had happened over here. Another four paces... three... if they'd just fight with the box another few seconds... one...
"Now," he murmured; and jumping forward, he put his left palm down on the landspeeder's hood and leaped over the vehicle to slam both feet hard against Promk's chest.
The thug didn't even have a chance to gurgle as he hit the ground, the sleight box spinning out of his hands into the darkness. Selty did have time for a startled curse and a grab for his holstered blaster before he went down with Maranne on top of him. A savage jab with her knee, and he went limp.
"Are you injured?" Palror rumbled from behind them.
"No, we're fine," Riij assured him, regaining his balance and turning around. Behind the Tunroth, the third thug was lying in an unnaturally crumpled heap. "Nice job with Bullkey," he added.
"Not to mention the box," Maranne added, retrieving their appropriated blasters from Selty's belt and tossing Riij's back to him. "How'd you manage that one?"
"That was mine," Trell said, stepping out from behind one of the other parked landspeeders and crossing to them. "Just an exquisitely well-thrown molecular stiletto."
"A whistle code and a molecular stiletto," Riij said, shaking his head wonderingly. "You two are just full of tricks, aren't you?"
"The stiletto was a gift," Trell said, crouching down beside the sleight box. "Blast -- the blade's broken."
"Never mind the blade," Maranne said, crouching down beside him. "Get the gems."
"Forget the gems," Riij told her, peering off in the direction Grobber and the others had gone. The rescue had been remarkably quiet; but if Grobber took it into his head to fly over this spot on the way back to Thyne's fortress, the four of them could still end up fertilizing a patch of razor grass. "Let's just get out of here."
"But--"
"No, he's right," Trell said through clearly clenched teeth. "If whatever's going on back at Thyne's place dies down fast enough we could still find Grobber's buddies camping out in the Hopskip's cargo bay. Just grab the box and whatever's still left inside."
Maranne hissed something vile sounding, but she nevertheless stood up, the now half-empty box in her hands. "Fine," she said bitterly. "What about the spice?"
"Leave it here," Trell told her. "Corran said we wouldn't want to get caught shipping spice, and I'm rather inclined to agree with him."
"We can call CorSec on the way and tell them where to pick it up," Riij added. "Now let's go."
They all piled into the landspeeder. "Speaking of Corran and CorSec," Trell commented as he spun the vehicle around and kicked power to the engines. "Turns out they're one and the same."
"Corran's with Corellian Security?" Maranne asked, frowning at him. "You're joking."
