The Seventh Star (novel)/Chapter 12

Jali had no idea where they were going, but it was still a relief when the driver stopped and said, “We’re here, boss.”

The guard opened the door Nuada, then roughly pulled Jali out of the speeder, jamming a blaster pistol into his solar plexus.

“Relax, Jules,” Nuada said, making a gesture. “I can take it from here.”

During this brief exchange, Jali took a brief look around him. They were in some sort of back alley behind a street of buildings. There was a door, and several garbage disposals, but by the look of things they could be anywhere on Coruscant. He could head the hum of talking from the other side of the line buildings. Somehow, he could hear a voice quite clearly.

“…ly ladies here for your pleasure at Luba Luft’s…”

Luba Luft’s was a strip club on Vos Gesal Street, so they had to be taking him to…

Nuada opened the back door of the Seventh Star and pushed Jali roughly through it. “Narks!” he shouted. “Get her in here! I think Jali and the lady need some quality time.”

Lady? Thought Jali. Then it was all as he had suspected.

“Just one question,” Jali said as Nuada shoved him into a seat. “Why here, of all places?”

“Why end it here?” Nuada asked with a sneer. “’Cos this is where it begins.” He took out his blaster pistol and cocked it, turning around to where Narks was bringing a woman with blonde hair into the room. She turned around, her knees shaking as she looked at Jali.

Jali looked her up and down. Was there any reason to be surprised? “Tira.”

She nodded weakly. “It was me, Jali, I'm sorry,” she said, wavering on the spot as if she was going to faint.

“But why?”

“You won’t understand,” Tira replied.

“Try me,” Jali suggested.

He could see it, everything, now. Tira, stealing the information the night they were at Tollan’s when Verda was out of the kitchen…Tira, meeting Tollan later at the gas processing plant…Tira, strangling Nami Kotour with her own leku…Jali shook his head, it was all there, he has just refused to believe it.

Until now.

Nuada nodded to Narks. “You can go, Narks,” he said. “I’ve got her covered.” He turned to the guard who had followed them in. “You go too, Jules.” He nodded to Jali. “Dawler’s not going to try anything as long as he wants answers.”

When both of them had left, Nuada grabbed Tira by the arm and pulled her close. He put his free hand around her, forcing her mouth towards his. Jali watched, disgusted but wouldn’t move as the blaster was still trained on him. Finally, Nuada pushed Tira back. She stared at him fearfully, gasping for breath from his kiss.

“What you don’t know, Dawler,” Nuada said, his eyes trained on Tira, “is that this little girl here has been working for me all along.” He smiled at Tira. “I even got her that cushy little job at the senator’s office when she got tired of taking her kit off in this dump.” He put a hand on her shoulder, stroking her neck. “She owes me.”

Tira continued to stare at him, breathing in short gasps. Her face showing her revulsion as Nuada touched her.

Jali forced himself to look away. “Why didn’t you tell me all this earlier, Tira?” he asked her. “If I had known you were in this mess with this thug I’dve…well, I would have found someway to get you out!”

“There wouldn’t have been a way, Jali,” Tira said, her voice barely above a whisper. “You saw the way he tracked you down so easily, you would have been dead already if it wasn't for me.” She looked up at Nuada fearfully. “He wanted you dead after you put Senix Breen away for life, I had to convince him.” She shuddered.

Jali had some idea how Tira had ‘convinced’ Nuada. He put this out of his mind. “So, you killed Tollan when he found out the truth?”

“It was an accident!” Tira exclaimed. “He was chasing me, I climbed into the tank and fell onto the controls after I jumped out!”

For a moment Jali was going to buy this, then he remembered what the Duro had said: Anyone who put him in there knew what they were doing. “No, that’s not what happened,” Jali said, he turned to look back at Tira. “You might have been panicking, but you deliberately closed the tank as you didn’t want him to tell me. I just don’t understand how you got him to go there…”

“That was me, Dawler,” Nuada explained calmly. “I just made a few calls, can’t let Tira have all the credit, can we?” He stroked her chin as he smiled down at her, then looked at Jali. “And it was also Nami that told me that you had gone to see her, that was foolish of you, Dawler. I actually liked her even though it was Tira finished her off.”

Jali looked at her. “You grabbed her by the…” His face screwed up in disgust. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

Tira shrugged. “Neither did I,” she said. “It wasn’t that hard.”

“That’s what makes it so fragged up,” Jali spat. “So I guess you planted the bomb in my apartment too, hey? That wouldn’t have been that hard either.” She didn’t answer him. “And if it wasn't for our good friend Balor, you would have done me in good and proper.” He stared at her with contempt. “I guess there’s not much more to say to you.”

“But...but, Jali you don’t understand!” Tira shouted.

“Oh, I do understand,” Jali interrupted. “But I still don’t understand is why you’re still working for this Gamorrean.” He nodded to Nuada.

“Watch your mouth, Dawler,” the Miraluka warned.

“You've never lived in the underlevels, Jali,” Tira explained to him. “You don’t know how desperate I saw to get out, Nuada helped me.”

“Nice sort of help, innit?” Jali asked, he turned to Nuada. “Is this the part where you kill me, now? Or do I get to walk away with a good behaviour?”

“You’re not going to walk out of here,” Nuada answered. “But I'm not going to do it.” From an inside pocket of his cloak, he got out Jali’s blaster pistol. He gave it to Tira. “Afterwards,” he said, touching her again, “you know where to meet me.”

He then left him alone, Jali sitting down facing Tira who had a blaster in her hands. Tira raised the pistol so the barrel was pointing at him; he heard her flick off the safety catch and set it to ‘kill’. Jali slowly raised his hands and spoke in a low voice.

“Tira,” he said, looking her in the eyes, “you don’t have to do this.”

“You’re wrong, Jali,” Tira said quietly. “If I don’t, Nuada will kill me. I don’t have a choice.”

“No, you always have a choice.” Jali paused for a moment, he knew the more he kept her talking the less likely she would pull the trigger. “You had a choice when you didn’t ask me for help, when you told Nuada to have me arrested rather than killed.”

“I'm starting to think that was a mistake,” Tira said shortly, her arms wavering slightly. “I’m not going to do that again.” She raised her hands slightly.

Sweat was building up on the back of Jali’s neck. “Wait one moment, was it you that told Balor about the bomb in my apartment so you could get me out?” Tira nodded mutely. “I thought so, and that’s the second time you spared me when you didn’t have to.”

“That was meant to be a warning!” Tira shouted. “To get you to stop poking around!”

“Well, you don’t know me that well, do you?” Jali asked her. “I never would have stopped until I found out who was behind Tollan’s death, and since you killed Nami as well…” He gave a shrug. “I don’t know, I guess you’re feeling pretty bad now that you’re responsible for two deaths.”

“It’ll be no different when there’s a third,” Tira said, tears trickling down her face. “This is the hardest thing I have to do Jali, but I’m still going to do it.”

“But how are you going to live with yourself after you’ve killed me?” Jali asked. “Tollan you didn’t like, Nami you didn’t know, but this is different Tira.”

“No, it’s not!” Tira insisted, the gun wavering from side to side as she held it.

“Yes, it is.” Jali got to his feet with his hands still outstretched. Slowly, keeping his eyes on her the whole time, he walked towards her until the barrel was level with his chest. “You’re not going to kill me, Tira, you would have done it already. Now,” he kept his eyes on her and spoke very slowly, “give me the gun.”

Trembling, crying, her eyes half-shut, she let him take it off him. Jali put his arm around her and set her down in a chair just as the front door was broken open. In burst several Security Officers with blasters at the ready.

“Freeze!” the one in the lead shouted.

Jali put both his hands up so they could see his weapon. “How in seven Corellian hells did you know to come here, Kian?” he asked angrily. He nodded to Tira. “Your other birds have flown, but this one killed Tollan Antilles.”

Kian stared at Jali as if he had suddenly grown a second head. He looked at Tira. “Is that true?”

Tira nodded, her eyes red with tears. Kian nodded to the other officers. “Take her in, two of you check upstairs in case there’s anyone else.”

Jali watched Tira being stuncuffed and led out of the bar. He caught her by the arm and stopped her, there was still one thing he had to know.

“Tira, that information you got the night we were at Tollan’s, where is it?” Tira nodded to the wall of the bar. “Thanks,” he said, letting her go.

While Kian directed the officers to look around the place, Jali went to the wall of the bar with the circle of stars on it. Six plas-steel stars in a circle with the seventh in the centre. He removed the centre one, which came away quite easily, and turned it over.

Attacked to the metal mounting for the plas-steel was a single datachip, Jali had no doubt that this was the information that Tollan had wanted to give him all along. Had Tollan known that it was hidden there and that was the meaning of his last message? Tira could have told him where she had hid it the night she killed him, but other than that the Seventh Star itself was the centre of all the events that surrounded his arrest.

“What’s that you got there, Dawler?”

Jali turned to face Captain Vantel. “Nothing much,” he said nonchalantly. “It just happens to be something proves my innocence.”

Vantel raised an eyebrow. “Oh, just that, is it?” He turned to go. “By the way, it was your friend that told us you were here.”

Jali looked at him quizzically until he noticed someone else come through the doorway.

“Jalis, friends, Dawlers!” Balor was pumping his arm up and down in that embarrassing way of his. “Hows ares yous nows that’s I’s saveds yours lifes agains?”

“Pretty good, considering,” Jali replied, smiling sheepishly. “I know what happened with the bomb, Balor, but how did you know I was here?”

Balor laughed. “Yous don’ts knows mes Jalis,” he said, putting his hand on Jali’s shoulder. “I’s knows theses thingses, yous onlys hads toos asks.”