Star Wars - Kenobi

stay—”
    “Not a chance!” Annileen looked back at Orrin. “Trigger the Call, or I will!”
    Orrin wiped his hands on a rag from the bar. “No one will come at this hour. You’ll just scare the Tuskens farther into the wastes. Or push Plug-eye to do something desperate. You’re going to have to trust me, Annie. Nobody knows Pluggy like me. I’ve been chasing this guy for years!”
    Annileen glowered. “Some expert. Plug-eye’s a female!”
    “Huh?”
    “I met her again on the range with Ben that day!” she told him, grabbing a satchel.
    Orrin stared, puzzled. He started to ask more—but then returned to the immediate problem. He walked toward her, wary of where her rifle was pointing. “I promise you. Wait, and I’ll have the Grand Army of the Oasis out there.”
    Annileen shook her head. Nothing, it seemed, was going to keep her from searching. Kallie ran back in wearing warm clothes, and her mother passed her a rifle. Annileen looked back at him in anger. “Why didn’t you tell me this when you came in?”
    “I had to make sure you understood first,” Orrin said. “I can’t help you find Jabe tomorrow if I’ve got the Hutt’s goons showing up.” He walked to the gun counter and picked up a rifle of his own, figuring a physical show of support would be good now. “Look, I’ll ride out with you. We can have a quick look.” He turned to face Annileen. “Then we’ve got to come back here. Forget the business about the store. You’ll give me the money to make Jabba go away—”
    “Jabba?” Kallie repeated, stunned.
    “—and I’ll devote the rest of my life to finding Jabe.” Orrin struggled to look earnest. “And if it’s already too late, I’ll exterminate the lot of them. You lost Dannar to these monsters. I lost a son. Do it my way, and it’ll be—”
    At the front of the store, the door clicked open.
    Rifle in hand, Orrin looked up. Annileen and Kallie were already moving, dashing up the long aisle through the darkness. Their weapons clattered to the floor. “Jabe, Jabe!”
    Startled, Orrin followed. There, through the open doorway, Jabe was staggering in. A great brown robe, a bit too large for him, blew in the night wind as he entered. In a second, his mother and sister were at his side.
    “You’re hurt,” Annileen said, looking at the dried gash on his forehead.
    “It’s okay, Mom,” Jabe said weakly. “Ben looked at it.”
    “Ben?” Orrin and the women said it at the same time.
    “He brought me home,” the boy said, looking tired and bewildered.
    Orrin tromped forward, weapon raised. “Is Kenobi here?”
    “No,” Jabe said. “He saved me from Plug-eye. I don’t know how he did it, but he did.” He rubbed his bruises. “I guess I was wrong about him.”
    Annileen embraced her son again. “This is Ben’s cloak!” she blurted as she grasped his collar.
    “He … uh, thought I was cold,” Jabe said, pulling away.
    Orrin stood, dumbfounded. Kenobi had seen him in Tusken guise at the Ulbreck place, yes. But Orrin had assumed that the real Tuskens had killed both Ben and Jabe. If Ben lived, that changed everything.
    As the women turned back into the store for water and a medpac, Orrin sidled up to confer quietly with Jabe. “Where did Kenobi go?”
    “You left me out there,” Jabe said icily.
    “Never mind that! Where did he go?”
    “I don’t know,” Jabe said. “But he was in a hurry.” Looking first to make sure his mother and sister were still in the back, he slipped the cloak slightly open so Orrin could see that he still wore the Tusken costume underneath. “He didn’t want the locals here to see me in this,” he whispered.
    “Huh.” Orrin wondered at that. Why didn’t Ben want to expose Jabe? There could be sinister reasons. Kenobi thought he had something now. Leverage . How would he use it? To blackmail Orrin for money? Or maybe to stop him from marrying Annileen?
    Orrin decided it didn’t matter which. Something had to be done about him. “Don’t say anything about tonight,” he urged Jabe quietly. “Don’t tell—”
    “Don’t tell me what?” Annileen stood nearby, holding the chair she’d brought for Jabe. She dropped it on the floor. “There’s something else, isn’t there? Something you’ve done, to try to pay off your debts?” She looked at Jabe and then back at Orrin. “Was that what tonight was about? What have you done?” she demanded. “What else have you done?”
    “What I had to do,” Orrin said.