The School of Fear Read online

  the connection to Rana Halion. What if she got him to kidnap Gillam? All

  the pieces fit. Why did he lie to you about this mission? Don't you want to

  get to the bottom of it?"

  Marit looked sad. "I wish you'd told me."

  "I'm telling you now."

  "You don't understand anything. Gillam - " Marit hesitated.

  "So tell me," Anakin said, exasperated. "What about Gillam?"

  "What about Gillam?" A mocking voice suddenly came from behind him.

  Anakin whirled around. Gillam Tarturi stood, leaning against the wing

  of a starfighter. He was the same height as Anakin, and their eyes met

  across the space. Anakin felt shock and dismay ripple through him.

  Anakin looked back at Marit. She nodded slowly.

  "Gillam is the squad," she said. "It was his idea. He formed it. He

  made up the bylaws. He recruited us. We wouldn't have done anything without

  him. We would have been a bunch of miserable outcasts."

  "You faked your disappearance," Anakin said to Gillam. "Why?"

  "I have my reasons," Gillam replied lightly.

  Marit spoke into her comlink. "We need you," she said crisply.

  "What's going on?" Anakin asked.

  For his answer, he heard the soft sound of her blaster leaving its

  holster. He could have stopped her easily, but he didn't. Marit pointed the

  blaster at him, a reluctant look on her face. Within seconds, the rest of

  the squad rushed into the hangar. Their blasters were drawn. They were all

  pointed at Anakin.

  "I'm sorry," Marit said.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Marit's gaze was sorrowful. Rolai and Gillam looked hardened with

  purpose. But the others - Hurana, Tulah, and Ze - looked afraid. Why were

  they afraid? Anakin sensed that there was a conspiracy here. Gillam and

  Rolai were together, and they had roped in the rest of the reluctant squad.

  Except for Marit.

  There is something going on here that even Marit doesn't know.

  "He disabled the laser cannons on two of the starfighters," Marit told

  the others. "It's all right - I know how to fix it." She turned to Anakin.

  "We're going to have to restrain you until we're safely away."

  Anakin looked at Gillam. "Is that so, Gillam? Why don't you tell her

  what you really have in mind?"

  "Sorry, Marit," Gillam said easily. "That's not quite the plan."

  "What's the plan, Gillam?" Anakin asked.

  Marit gave Gillam a questioning look.

  "How would the kidnapping disgrace Senator Tarturi if he wasn't

  implicated in something terrible?" Gillam said to Marit.

  "And we get a very large bonus from Rana Halion, too," Rolai said.

  "Think about what it will do for the countermovement, Marit," Gillam

  said. "The Senator kidnaps his own son to throw suspicion on the lerians.

  And then something goes wrong, and his son dies - "

  "And it's his fault," Rolai chortled. "He sacrificed his own son so he

  could keep his power!"

  "I don't get it," Marit said.

  "I do," Anakin said. "They want to kill me." Shocked, Marit looked

  from Gillam to Rolai. "That can't be true."

  "Actually, we were going to hand you over to Rana Halion for that

  particular step," Gillam said. "But as long as you pushed the issue..." He

  flourished his blaster and smiled at Anakin.

  "But you're not Gillam - they'll figure that out," Marit said.

  "They have a plan to disguise the body somehow," Anakin said. "I'm

  sure Rana Halion can find ways. I'll be taken for Gillam. And Senator

  Tarturi will not only be disgraced among his own people, he'll have a war

  on his hands. He won't be able to investigate, even if he wants to."

  "Which he won't, because he won't care," Gillam said. "He'll just care

  about his Senatorial privileges being threatened."

  "It's a brilliant plan," Rolai said.

  Marit stared at the two of them. "You're both insane."

  Gillam shook his head sadly. "Poor Marit. You lost your nerve on

  Tierell. That's why we couldn't trust you."

  Marit looked at Tulah, Hurana, and Ze. "Are you going along with this?

  "

  The three of them looked uncomfortable.

  "Gillam says we must be warriors," Hurana said. "This is the only way.

  "

  "I just do the tech stuff," Ze said.

  "This has nothing to do with me," Tulah said.

  "Ah, one thing I should point out," Gillam said. "Because of the

  disappearance of another student, the school has gone into security code

  green. And that means that all passes have been cancelled. You've missed

  three of the hour check-ins."

  "I knew I should have extended the range on our comlinks," Ze

  muttered.

  "Which means we've been expelled," Hurana said.

  "Which means, dear friends, that we have nowhere to go," Gillam said.

  "It's a big galaxy out there. We only have one another. And that's a good

  thing. Together, we can be the best. We can have everything we want, if we

  just stick together. At first we did it because nobody wanted us. But now

  we can do it because we're the best. We belong together."

  Gillam's voice was low and compelling. Anakin saw the charisma and

  charm that had led these students to join him.

  "Maybe nobody wanted the others," Anakin said. "Or you convinced them

  that it was true. I don't know about that. But what about you? You're the

  son of a powerful Senator. Who didn't want you?"

  Gillam's face went white with sudden rage, and for the first time,

  Anakin could see that he was quite capable of killing him. "My father!" he

  shouted. Gillam regained control of himself with an effort. "And now he'll

  realize how wrong he was. Everyone will realize who underestimated my

  resolve. Well, Marit? Are you with us?"

  Marit turned to Anakin. "I have nowhere else to go," she said.

  "Marit, we're not doing anything wrong," Gillam said. "We're doing

  what we set out to do. We knew what the stakes were."

  Anakin held Marit's gaze. "Did you know the stakes would be murder?"

  "No one is asking you," Gillam snapped at Anakin. "You're already

  dead."

  "He's a Jedi," Marit said. "If you think your plan will be easy, think

  again."

  Gillam shrugged, coming closer to Anakin. "He has six blasters pointed

  at him. Even if you don't fire, I don't think we'll have a problem. I know

  the Jedi. I've seen them around the Senate all my life. They are basically

  servants of the Senators. Whatever power they had is gone now."

  Anger coursed through Anakin. He saw the privilege Gillam had been

  brought up with, and how it had corrupted him. He saw that Gillam had

  counted on the feelings of the others, how they had felt lost and alone in

  a world he knew and they didn't. He had taken their minds and hearts and

  fashioned them into a weapon aimed at his father. The squad wasn't about

  justice. It was about revenge.

  Anakin jumped up and kicked out with one foot in a spinning arc,

  booting the blaster from Gillam's hand while he held out a hand and, using

  the Force, tore Rolai's blaster from his grip. He landed on one leg and

  used the other to disarm Tulah with another well-aimed kick, grabbing the

  blaster from Ze's hand at the same time. He used his knee to dis
lodge the

  weapon from a surprised Hurana and then simply took Marit's from her hand.

  The entire series of attack moves took only seconds. The squad barely had

  time to blink.

  Now they stared at him, or down at their empty hands. There was a

  beat, a moment of silence and surprise. Anakin pulled out and ignited his

  lightsaber, holding it in a posture any Jedi would recognize as offensive.

  He was ready to strike. He did not want to hurt anyone. That was his first

  concern. But he had to stop the squad's mission.

  "Just don't move," he told them.

  Anakin sensed movement behind him and turned slightly. Rana Halion had

  taken a step inside the hangar. As soon as she saw the lightsaber, she hit

  a button on her cuff.

  Gillam smiled. "Looks like your luck has run out, Jedi."

  "Jedi don't need luck," Anakin said, just as the attack droids swarmed

  into the hangar.

  Blaster fire erupted from the droids, aimed at Anakin but scattered

  enough so that he feared for Marit and the others. The squad dropped,

  scrambling for their blasters. Anakin saw at once his problems. Gillam and

  Rolai had found blasters and were trying to aim at him as he moved. Fire

  from the droids was heavy. Marit had ducked behind a starfighter. He did

  not think he could count on help from her. She seemed dazed.

  He saw the smile of triumph on Gillam's face as he retrieved and aimed

  his blaster, and Anakin's anger returned. He reached out to the Force. He

  remembered the lessons he had learned from Soara Antana, the great Jedi

  Master. The Force comes from stillness, she had said. Find your still

  center, even in the midst of battle.

  He saw time unspool before him like a ribbon. He saw it freeze like

  ice on a river. He saw that he had infinite time to do everything he

  needed.

  With an outstretched hand he knocked the blaster from Gillam's grasp

  and sent it flying across the full space of the hangar. It hit the wall so

  hard it shattered. Gillam's smile disappeared.

  At the same time he was moving, diverting the droids' blaster fire

  from where Tulah and Hurana had taken cover, pushing Ze behind a durasteel

  container, and knocking out one attack droid with a thrust to its control

  panel.

  Suddenly the laser cannons from the starfighter on his right began to

  fire. Gillam had slipped inside the cockpit.

  Anakin did not lose his sense of frozen time. He was the master of

  time. He did not worry about the laser cannons any more than he'd worried

  about the attack droids. It all seemed so easy. He seemed to see the fire

  before it came, and he knew how to move to avoid it. His movements were

  like shimmersilk, so fluid it was as though he did not have muscles and

  bones, only will.

  Now his Master was here. He could feel that, too. But he did not need

  him.

  He spun in midair, taking out two battle droids while he leaped

  through the laser cannonfire straight at the cockpit of the starfighter.

  With one backward slash he took out the final droid. He had a flash of

  Gillam's shocked face as he cut through the windscreen with one slice. With

  one hand, he threw Gillam out of the pilot's seat and then dropped into it.

  He turned off the engines and disabled the laser cannons.

  Siri and Ferus stood, lightsabers drawn, guarding Rolai, Marit,

  Hurana, Tulah, and Ze. Obi-Wan had captured Rana Halion.

  Across the space, he looked at his Master. He waited for Obi-Wan to

  acknowledge him. The mission was over. He had been successful. He had found

  Gillam and thwarted an invasion.

  He waited, standing in the cockpit, looking down. He could feel the

  flush of triumph on his cheeks. Siri glanced at him, as did Ferus. He could

  see the astonishment on their faces. But his Master never looked up.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Never had Obi-Wan seen such a display of the Force from a Padawan.

  From the great Jedi Masters, yes. From Qui-Gon, near the end of his life.

  But from someone so young? Anakin's power astonished him. He had glimpsed

  it before, but now he had seen it unfurl, and it staggered him.

  He had not had a chance to move, to help. Anakin had been a blur. He

  had seemed to be everywhere at once. He had destroyed ten attack droids,

  disarmed his aggressors, and disabled two laser cannons without hesitation,

  with even a slight smile on his face.

  He could see that Siri and Ferus had been just as astonished at

  Anakin's deep connection to the Force, the way he had seemed to know what

  was going to happen before it happened, the way he was able to dodge fire

  before it occurred. Astonished, yes - and disturbed.

  Unease settled into Obi-Wan's bones, joining his disappointment and

  the anger he had tried to eliminate from his heart. To have a Padawan so

  gifted who was capable of being so wrong - it was his gift to be able to

  teach him. It was his burden as well.

  At first he could not even look at Anakin. He had to concentrate on

  the matter at hand.

  Rana Halion tried to glide away from him, but with a lifted lightsaber

  he stopped her. "How dare you!" she cried. "I assure you, I have no idea

  what this renegade band is doing here. My security team alerted me that

  there was a break-in and I arrived to see a battle." Her eyes swept the

  secret squad as if she had never seen them before.

  "And why did you send in droids to attack a Jedi?" Siri asked.

  "How ridiculous. I didn't know there was a Jedi here," Rana Halion

  said. "We sent in the droids because it is the usual procedure when there

  is a security breach."

  The girl called Marit raised her chin and fixed Rana with a

  contemptuous stare. "She is lying," she said. "About everything. I'm not a

  student anymore, but I can see I've learned my first real lesson today.

  Betrayals are the way the galaxy works." She looked at Anakin.

  He shook his head at her, as if to apologize. "I believed in what you

  believed," he said.

  "Then you were as foolish as I was," Marit said softly.

  "You'll take her word over mine?" Rana Halion huffed.

  "This is a matter for the Senate to sort out," Siri said. "These

  students will testify, no doubt. They've already been expelled, so they'll

  certainly be available."

  "Expelled? I don't think so," Gillam said. "I want to talk to my

  father!"

  "Your father might not want to talk to you after he discovers that you

  were trying to set him up for murder," Obi-Wan said.

  "Who told such lies?" Gillam asked. "I barely escaped my captors with

  my life. She kidnapped me!" he shrilled, pointing at Rana Halion.

  "You scrawny brat!" Rana cried.

  Ferus held up Gillam's datapad. "You might want to reconsider what

  you're saying, Gillam. Do you recognize this?"

  Gillam went pale, but only for a moment. "I don't know what he's

  talking about. I don't even know him. I've never seen that datapad. He's

  just another jealous student, no doubt."

  "No, he is a Jedi," Siri said.

  Gillam looked alarmed. "He's a Jedi, too?" "They're everywhere," Tulah

  said, dazed.

  "I never realized how much
you lie," Marit said to Gillam. "You

  breathe, you lie. This squad was never about us. It wasn't about banding

  together to do something good. It was really all about you. And if you

  think the rest of us are going to support your lies, you're not only a

  liar, you're crazy. Like you said, Gillam, we all have nothing left to

  lose."

  "Affirmatively true," Ze said, and Tulah nodded.

  Gillam looked flustered. He opened his mouth and then clamped it shut.

  He crossed his arms. "I want to see my father," he repeated.

  "You'll see him soon enough," Siri said. "We're taking you all to

  Coruscant. The Senate authorities can straighten out this mess."

  Siri led a protesting Rana Halion away. Ferus herded the squad toward

  the open doors of the hangar.

  Obi-Wan was left alone with Anakin. At last it was time for him to

  speak to his Padawan. Yet he could not find the right words. He knew,

  glancing at his Padawan's eager face, that Anakin meant well from the

  bottom of his heart. If Obi-Wan saw a shadow on that heart, he knew it