The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Forty-Eight: Rendezvous Replanned

KAYA TI AREEKO

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Ahsoka's voice cut through the still, ashy air in the abandoned building where she and Kaya Ti had taken temporary refuge. The tall Togruta woman stood with her back to Kaya, looking out past the broken shards of glass still clinging to the window frame down onto the street below. Her fingers were clenched tightly into her palms where they were crossed behind her.

"I didn't think it would matter," Kaya lied. "It was so long ago, I thought maybe they would've forgotten–"

"Of course it matters," Ahsoka growled, spinning around to face her. "My Padawan has a death penalty on her head from one of the most powerful gangs in the spice cartel, and when do I hear about it? After they've attacked us."

"It's not something people ask!" Kaya fired back, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "What, did you think I'd just put 'has death threat from one of the most powerful gangs in the spice cartel' on my Padawan resume?"

Ahsoka was right, but Kaya Ti wasn't about to admit that. But, in her defense, when she had chosen to return to the Jedi path, she had decided she would do her best to put the past behind her. And for a while that had included old enemies, though in retrospect perhaps burying her hand in their hostilities in hopes that they would eventually forget theirs had been a mistake.

Using spice containers filled with explosives to blow up Pyke flagship all to save a group of alien slaves that had cost them a lot of money probably wasn't an easy thing to forgive.

Kaya Ti sighed and brushed past her, lifting a pair of binoculars to her face and setting the tracker to search for incoming Pyke patrols. She hissed a curse under her breath as a green circle appeared on the image of the street, zeroing in on a group of Pyke soldiers approaching from a nearby alley.

Ahsoka opened her mouth again, armed with another reprimand, but Kaya held up a hand for silence. "You can yell at me later. This place wasn't as safe as I thought: they're coming down the street in..." She shifted the binoculars' focus down the street. "Two directions. That's our cue to leave. They're gonna try to box us in."

Ahsoka nodded, and they took off running down the rotting old steps. Soon they were outside again, this time in the side street back behind the old building, but it didn't take Ahsoka long to realize that they weren't running back the way they had came.

"Wait – we're going the wrong way!" she said, her breath turning to fog around her face in the cool air of late afternoon as she pulled Kaya Ti back. "The inn we're meeting my contact in is back to the north, and not to mention the ship."

"The north? No way. No. That's the heart of Pyke territory; right near their base. They caught us both on their helmet scanners, and it's beyond a doubt they've transmitted it to Central Command by now. Going up there now would be suicide."

Ahsoka exhaled a long breath through her nose. "Is there no other way?" she asked, but apparently the look on Kaya Ti's face was answer enough. Wordlessly, she entered a code into her wrist comm, and before long someone had answered.

"This is Fulcrum," she said. "We ran into some local trouble. We can't make it to the rendezvous. Hang on – I'll check with my associate if there's another place." Ahsoka covered the comm for a moment, turning back to Kaya. "You know your way around here better than I do. Where would it be safe to meet him?"

"Uh..." Kaya thought for a moment. "The Dancing Krayt. It's another inn. It may not be pretty, but it's as far from the Pykes' base of operations as you can possibly get. And as far as I know they don't send patrols into that area very much."