"JAMES LUCENO. SABOTEUR" - читать интересную книгу автора

point where Maul had to strain to hear him. "Word has come down from Arrant on
how we're going to respond."
The stout man sat away from the table that bisected the booth. "Well, it's about
time."
"I'd say that calls for another round of drinks," his partner said.
Maul continued listening, but his eyes were no longer fixed on the men but on
something he had glimpsed on the wall above the booth. It resembled the
bioluminescent flitter he had captured earlier on. This one, however, wasn't
moving from its spot on the wall. The reason became apparent once Maul probed it
through the Force. Not only was it a fabrication, it was also a listening
device.
Maul scanned the room, then turned to face the mirror. The device wasn't very
sophisticated; its large size was evidence of that. Even so, that didn't mean
that whoever was eavesdropping on the security men had to be inside the cantina.
But Maul suspected that they were. Without looking at it, he focused his
attention on the artificial flitter and screened out all extraneous sounds-the
pulsing music, the dozens of separate conversations, the noises of glasses
clinking or being filled with one inebriant or another. Once he could discern
the muted beeping of the device's transmitter, he listened for signs of the
receiver with which it was in communication.
At a round table in the adjoining room sat a Rodian and two Twi'leks, ostensibly
engaged in a game of cards-sabacc, in all likelihood. Maul watched them for a
moment. Their playing was desultory. He observed their facial expressions as the
security agents continued to converse. When one of the men said something of
interest, the Rodian's faceted eyes would flash and his short snout would curl
to one side. At the same time, the Twi'leks' head-tails would twitch and their
pasty faces would flush ever so slightly.
The Rodian's left ear was sporting an earbead receiver, while the Twi'leks'
receivers took the form of dermal patches, disguised as lekku tattoos.
Maul was certain that the trio were in the secret employ of Lommite Limited's
onworld competitor, InterGalactic Ore. He recognized the Rodian from the disk
Sidious had given him. It was possible that they were the saboteurs themselves.
His eyes darted back to the listening device and the security men. Creatures of
habit, they probably occupied the same booth night after night, completely
unaware that their conversations were being monitored. Such carelessness
exasperated Maul to the point of fury. The men were deserving of whatever harm
would surely come their way.

The three security men left the cantina on foot and wended their way to a ribbon
of trail that wove through a dense stand of forest. Maul followed from a
discreet distance, keeping to the shadows when Dorvalla's moon came up, full and
silver-white.
The trail eventually arrived at a tight-knit community of flimsy dwellings, many
of them raised on stilts to keep them above pools of runoff water left by the
rain. The humidity was oppressive.
The dwelling that was the trio's destination was an elevated cube with a metal
roof angled to channel rainwater into a ferrocrete cistern. The cube's only door
was accessed by means of a ladderlike stairway. A rusted landspeeder with a
cracked windscreen was parked in a muddy front lot.
Maul kept to the trees while a thickly built human responded to the stout