Either way, it brought the taste of tin to my mouth. “I don’t want to die.”
He gave me a reassuring smile. “Give me a little more credit, yeah? You’re not going to die.”
The taxi settled on the platform. It was rusted yellow and long, with a closed cab and tinted windows, looking more like a racing pod than a taxi. I was used to seeing the open-air ones from the higher levels.
He instructed, “Go—now.”
I did, diving for the door to the air taxi as it arrived. The droid navigating asked, “Where to?”
“Hangar eighty-nine. Eastern spaceport. Topside!”
A blaster bolt pinged off the taxi call box. Sian pulled out his pistol again and fired twice before climbing in beside me. Noola was tucked into his jacket. He slammed the door closed.
“Go!” I cried.
The droid went nowhere. “Fare first.”
Sian rolled his eyes. “We’ll pay in the air!”
“Request denied,” the droid replied.
One of the people after us slammed their fists against the air taxi window, shouting at us to get out. Two otherscame around the other side. They weren’t dressed like the men pursuing us before. They looked a whole lot rougher.
Sian fumbled with the creds he’d stolen from the taxi box and dumped them all into the front. “There! Is that enough?”
“Denied. Too much.”
“Keep the change, you hunk of junk!”
The droid debated a moment, earning another dent in its speeder. Then its eyes blinked blue. “Accepted. Taxi en route,” it relayed, just as one of our pursuers pressed a blaster to the windshield.
We wereabsolutelygoing to die.
The air taxi shot into the air, tossing off two of the people, and quickly rose into one of the skylanes.
I bent over, putting my head between my legs. I was going to be sick. “I’m never leaving my ship again,” I promised myself.
But I didn’t get sick.
“Aw, this was nothing. Just a normal day on Coruscant,” Sian said lightly.
I don’t know what came over me—I just…
I started tolaugh. I threw my head back, holding my aching sides. The last hour had been so ridiculous, soimpossible, it was really the only thing my body could do that wasn’t crying, and I was terrible at crying, anyway.I knew he was staring—I could feel it—but I didn’t care. The laughter shook all the fear out of me, settled it back in the bottom of my soul like silt in an ocean.
“Oh, yes, that was just a pleasant walk,” I gasped between howls of laughter. “A little jaunt around the city, running for our lives!”
He chuckled, unable to hide the smile eating at the corners of his mouth. “We all need a little fresh air and impending doom.”
I laughed so hard, it brought tears to my eyes. “I can’t believe we survived getting shot at!Three times!”
“We’re either incredibly lucky,” he said, “or incredibly unlucky.”
“I almost hate to find out which of us is the unlucky one once we go our separate ways,” I replied.
His laughter stopped short. “Ahem. Yeah…about that.” He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “If those were people looking to collect a bounty…then they know you’re with me now.”
My own laughter caught in my throat. “I amnotwith you.”
