Cholly explained. "You mean smuggling," Siri said.

Adi peered into the opening. "Not much room, but I think we can all fit."

"You have to hide first. Then we load the droids," Weez explained.

"That means you have to unload the droids before we can get out,"

Siri observed with a frown.

Adi drummed her fingers on her holster. "Not the ideal situation.

You'll have to offer to unload the droids as soon as we get inside."

Cholly did not look happy at this, but he nodded.

"What about programming the droids?" Adi asked. "Did Zan Arbor already give you instructions?"

Weez shook his head. "She's going to program them herself."

"Offer to do it. Make something up," Adi suggested. "Then sabotage them in some way. Better for us not to face twenty attack droids."

"We'll do our best," Cholly said. "You'd better get inside or we'll be late for our appointment."

Adi folded her long, elegant body into the small compartment and lay flat. Siri followed. Obi-Wan squeezed inside.

"Oof," Siri muttered. "Watch your elbows." "I've got no place to put them," Obi-Wan responded.

"Quiet, you two," Adi said. "We won't be here for long."

Tup's cheerful face loomed above them. "I'm going to shut the panel now. Don't worry, there's plenty of ventilation."

"I hope so," Obi-Wan said softly as the panel slid closed just millimeters from their upturned faces. "I don't like having to put our trust in these three."

"Maybe because your friends seem so untrustworthy," Siri said.

"They aren't my friends," Obi-Wan muttered. Why did Siri always have to needle him?

For long minutes, they listened to Cholly, Weez, and Tup loading the droids, quarreling and fussing all the way.

"The more we fit, the more she'll take, if we're lucky!" Cholly exclaimed. "Don't put them in that way, Tup, you're taking up too much room."

"Woosh, I'm doing the best I can."

Adi sighed. "This is taking too long." She thumped on the top of the panel. "Hurry it up!" she shouted.

"Yes, yes, we're hurrying. Only a few minutes more," Cholly called.

Obi-Wan closed his eyes. Why was he always asked to be patient at the moment he was jumping out of his skin? Every second of delay was frustrating.

Adi spoke quietly. "Knowing Qui-Gon, I am sure that he has his own plan, Obi-Wan. We are not his only means of rescue."

"I am sure that he does as well," Obi-Wan said, grateful for Adi's words of reassurance.

"There is just one thing that troubles me," Adi murmured. "I only hope his plan does not collide with ours."

Chapter 3

For days, while he was stuck in the vapor-filled chamber, all Qui-Gon had wanted to do was get out and stretch his muscles. Thanks to his Padawan, he had been released from the chamber. But now, when he finally had his freedom, he found himself in an even tighter space — a ventilation shaft.

Jenna Zan Arbor had sealed herself into the room where she held the other prisoner. It had been a wise move. She knew that Qui-Gon would not dare to break in. She knew he would not gamble with the other being's life.

He could not use Obi-Wan's lightsaber to get through the door. He could not take any aggressive action. With a sensor in his body and one in the other prisoner's, both of them could be dead in an instant.

He would have to use stealth. He had found the ventilation shaft that ran through the ceiling. He had been crawling for what felt like a long time. He could not make a sound to alert her, and he had to be mindful of his direction as well. The various shafts were a maze. But if he was careful, he could wind up in the ceiling over Zan Arbor's head.

What then? Qui-Gon wondered. He could drop down on her from above.

But what if the trigger for the sensor was concealed in her clothing? Even if it were somewhere on a console, could he persuade her to disable the sensors? Could he believe her if she said she had?

He didn't know the answers to those questions. But he could not wait outside the door, wondering what was going on inside.

He spied a vent ahead and carefully moved toward it. He lowered his face and peered through.

He was over the lab at last. He saw the top of Zan Arbor's head. The same kind of transparent chamber he had been kept in was in the middle of the room. It was filled with a cloudy gas, so he could not see the occupant.

Zan Arbor paced back and forth with short, quick steps. He recognized the angry movement. Something else had gone wrong.

"Do not think you can fool me," Zan Arbor said furiously. "I know you are willing yourself to die. You refuse to access the Force. I will not let that happen!" She strode over to a bank of equipment. "You want to die?"

she asked shrilly. "Then know what it feels like to die!"

She turned an indicator knob. Qui-Gon did not know what she was doing. He could only imagine. Zan Arbor's goal was to break down the essential elements of the Force into something she could measure and control. Qui-Gon knew firsthand how ruthless she could be if her subject did not cooperate.

Hold on, he urged the prisoner silently.

She switched off the dial. "Well? Are you still so interested in dying? Now show me the Force!" Qui-Gon saw her send a sharp gaze to a chronometer to check the time. She was under some kind of pressure. Why?

"All right, then. If I cannot use you, you are just a liability. But I'll take all your blood before you die, just for being so uncooperative."

Her hand went for the dial again. It was time to act. Qui-Gon eased out Obi-Wan's lightsaber in one swift, practiced movement and reared back to kick through the vent.

But he checked himself just in time as an indicator buzzed and Zan Arbor hesitated. She pressed the communication button.

A voice blared, "Droid shipment."

"It's about time," she snarled.

She whirled and stalked from the room without another word. Qui-Gon settled back on his haunches, thinking. He could not release the prisoner until he knew that Zan Arbor was immobilized and unable to kill him. But any delay could seal his doom completely.

He was more trapped in his freedom than he'd been as a prisoner. What should he do?