Chapter 160 · The Sweep

For half a second, nobody moved.

Then everyone did.

Vela rounded on Eli. “You brought them here.”

“No.”

“You arrive nine days late and two Imperial destroyers drop out of hyperspace while you’re sitting in my safehouse?”

“Vela.” Tarin was already on his feet, reaching for the comm unit on the table.

She ignored him. “How long have they been tracking you?”

“They haven’t!”

“You don’t know that!”

“No. But I know we weren’t followed to Stygeon.”

Stent had stood without Eli noticing. He was looking at the young woman in the doorway, not Vela. “Where did they revert?”

She hesitated.

Vela snapped, “Don’t answer him.”

Stent’s eyes shifted to her. “If you intend to evacuate, you require the answer more than I do.”

That bought him exactly one second.

Then the main room erupted.

Someone shouted for the burn kits. Another voice called for secondary comms. A door slammed open somewhere beyond the partition and two people ran past carrying a locked equipment case between them.

The young woman looked at Vela. “Control says both ships came in above the northern hemisphere. Military spacing. They’re already launching.”

“Launching what?”

“Unknown. Control lost one of our people before he could finish.”

Tarin looked up sharply. “Lost?”

“His channel went dead.”

Vela swore.

The accusation did not disappear from her face. It simply had competition now.

Tarin activated his datapad. “Protocol Ash. Everyone moves.”

That changed things faster than the Star Destroyers had.

The room outside became organized chaos.

Equipment vanished into bags. Drives came out of terminals. One of the portable comm units hit the floor and was opened with a tool rather than switched off. A man Eli had seen beside the medical station began emptying drawers into a canvas sack while another wheeled the entire cabinet toward a rear exit.

Nobody asked what to take.

They already knew.

Eli looked toward the door. “Where’s the package?”

Vela’s head snapped around. “Not your concern.”

“It became my concern again when two destroyers arrived.”

“The delivery was accepted.”

“Yes. Which means if the Empire takes it now, this becomes everybody’s concern.”

Tarin was already moving. “It’s in verification.”

He left the room.

Vela pointed at Eli and Stent. “You stay here.”

Eli looked past her at people stripping the safehouse around them.

“That seems optimistic.”

Her hand dropped to her blaster. Stent did not react. Eli did. Not visibly, he hoped. Vela saw enough anyway. “Sit down.”

“No.”

“Eli,” Tarin called from outside. He reappeared with the technician from before. The technician was carrying the opened case.

Eli stared at it. Not because it was open. Because the contents were already being dismantled. The encryption unit lay exposed inside the foam insert, one access panel removed. Beside it, the authentication modules had been pulled from their protective housings and stacked on a metal tray.

Vela turned. “Destroy it.”

The technician nodded once.

Eli felt something in him object on principle. Nine days late. A week looking for a stolen ship. Three days in a queue. One miserable temporary job. Half a dozen arguments with Tee. And now they were going to burn the entire reason for coming here.

He kept that to himself.

The technician carried the case away.

Tarin caught Eli looking. “Once the raid starts, nothing sensitive leaves intact.”

“I know.”

“You look offended.”

“I’m thinking about the mileage.”

Tarin almost smiled.

Then a warning tone sounded from somewhere in the main room. One tone. Then another.

A voice shouted, “South relay is gone.”

Vela turned. “Gone how?”

“No response.”

“Could be comm disruption.”

“Could be.”

Another voice from farther away: “Contact from Dock Nine. Security teams just sealed the freight district.”

Eli looked at Stent. Stent was already looking back. Freight district. Not here.

Vela heard it too. “Which sector?”

“East.”

This time Tarin stopped moving.

Eli saw the calculation happen. The safehouse sat west of the main commercial port.

Dock Nine was nowhere near them.

Stent spoke quietly. “How many known sites do you have in the east district?”

Vela glared at him. “I told you—”

“Tarin.”

Tarin hesitated. Then: “Three.” Vela turned on him.

“One of them is Dock Nine?”

“Yes.”

A third report came in before she could respond. “Movement at the river depot. Local security plus military transports.”

Tarin went still.

Eli did not know where the river depot was. He did not need to.

Stent did. “They are striking multiple locations.”

Vela looked at him. “So?”

“So they were already coming.” The room seemed to contract around that sentence.

Vela’s expression hardened. “You expect me to accept that because you say it?”

“No.”

Stent stepped closer to the table and looked at the map on Tarin’s datapad. “Your freight district has been sealed. Another location is under movement. A third has gone silent. Two Star Destroyers reverted less than five minutes ago.”

Tarin understood first. “Preselected targets.”

“Yes.”

Vela’s eyes moved between them.

Stent continued. “They did not follow one ship to one landing field, identify an organization, select several sites across the city, assign forces and begin coordinated action in five minutes.” No one answered. “They had the network before we arrived.”

The accusation did not vanish. But it changed. That was enough. For now.

A deep impact rolled through the building. Not close. Still enough to rattle the metal partition.

Dust drifted from somewhere above. Everyone in the main room stopped for half a second.

Then the comms came alive at once.

“Explosion near Transit Four—”

“—they’re jamming civilian bands—”

“—repeat, do not use primary route—”

“—TIEs over the north blocks—”

Vela drew her blaster. “Everybody out!”

The safehouse changed again.

No more packing carefully. Now people grabbed whatever was already in hand and left the rest.

Tarin took the datapad, pulled its data core and snapped the casing against the edge of the table. The screen died.

Eli stared. “That seemed personal.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Shame.”

Tarin threw the broken shell into a burn bin.

Vela was already at the door. “Mera! Secondary exit. Joss, get the med kit. Burn everything else.”

Eli followed into the main room. The package was on a workbench.

Or what remained of it.

The technician had placed the authentication modules inside a compact disposal unit. A white flash pulsed behind the shielded lid. One by one, the indicator lights went dark. The encryption hardware followed.

Eli stopped just long enough to watch.

Tarin passed him. “Satisfied?”

“No.”

“Good.”

Another impact. Closer.

The building lights flickered. The overhead strips went out. Emergency lamps came on red. Someone swore near the rear door.

Then the first unmistakable sound of TIE engines screamed overhead.

Eli had heard that sound from both sides. It had not improved.

The pitch climbed, swept across the warehouse and vanished into the rain.

A second fighter followed. Then blasterfire cracked somewhere outside.

Vela looked toward the ceiling. “They’re too close.”

Tarin was at the rear exit. “Could be overflight.”

A burst of fire answered him. Not overhead. Street level.

Everybody moved.

“Back route!” Vela shouted.

The rear door opened onto a narrow service corridor between warehouses. Rain blew sideways through it.

One of the rebels leaned out.

A blaster bolt hit the wall beside his head.

He dropped back inside. “Blocked.”

Vela swore. “North?”

“Unknown.”

“Then check it.”

Joss ran.

Eli looked toward the direction of the Faded Glory. Wrong side of the building. Of course.

Stent caught the glance. “Not yet.”

“I know.”

They could not run straight for the ship with Imperial forces already in the district. Even if they reached it, lifting now would paint a target around them visible from orbit.

Tee would hate that analysis.

Eli did too.

A blast struck somewhere close enough to shake the warehouse floor.

This one had weight. A stack of empty containers toppled in the front section with a metallic crash.

Someone yelled.

Then came the sound Eli had been waiting for: troopers.

Not voices at first. Boots. Many of them. Fast.

Vela heard it too. Her face changed. No accusation now. Just calculation. “Front entrance.”

Tarin drew his blaster. “How long?”

“Less than a minute.”

Mera appeared from the side corridor with two rifles. She threw one to Vela. The second went to Tarin.

Nobody offered Eli anything. Fair. Stent stepped beside him.

The main doors shuddered.

Once.

Twice.

A cutting charge began whining against the lock.

Vela pointed toward Eli and Stent with the rifle. “You stay where I can see you.”

Eli looked at the door. Then at the side passage. Then at her. “You can either watch us or watch them.”

“Don’t test me.”

“I’m not. I’m counting.”

The cutting charge stopped. Silence. Half a second. The doors blew inward. The first stormtroopers came through behind smoke and sparks.

Everything happened at once. Vela fired. Tarin fired. The rebels nearest the partition dropped behind cover.

Blasterfire filled the warehouse.

Eli grabbed Stent by the sleeve and pulled him behind a cargo lifter as three red bolts crossed the space where they had been standing.

Stent hit the ground beside him.

“Still think we brought them?” Eli shouted over the noise.

Stent looked at him. “This is not the time.”

“I know, but I had to say it.”

A bolt struck the lifter above their heads. Molten metal sprayed across the floor. Eli ducked.

Across the room, Vela was yelling for the north exit.

Joss appeared from that direction. “Clear for now!”

“Move!”

The cell broke. Not routed. Evacuating. There was a difference.

Tarin covered the retreat while Mera dragged one of the wounded toward the side passage. Vela fired twice more, then turned.

Her eyes found Eli. “Move!”

That was the first order she had given him all day that he was entirely happy to follow.

He and Stent ran.