EXT. ENTERTAINMENT STREET – NIGHT

Anakin picks himself up off the pavement and see Zam exiting the crashed speeder. She runs. He after her down the very crowded street.

It’s the seedy underbelly of the city. Broken sidewalks, garish lights reflected in filthy puddles. It’s pretty crowded with various ALIEN LOW-LIFES, PANHANDLING DROIDS, and the occasional group of UPPERCLASS SLUMMERS.

Yes, there are panhandling droids. Let that sink in for a second. I’ll understand if you want to bang your head on your keyboard. I would, but I got to continue the shredding.

Anakin barges into several of them as he chases after the fleeing Zam. He loses the Bounty Hunter in the crowd, then sees her again. Above, Obi-Wan sees them and looks for a place to land. The young Jedi is having a very difficult time getting through the crowd. Obi-Wan lands the speeder on the nearby street. He gets out and runs through the crowd toward Anakin. Ahead, Zam turns in through a door and disappears. A nightclub sign is flashing over the door. Anakin is just about to follow Zam into the nightclub when Obi-Wan catches up to him.

OBI-WAN: Anakin!

ANAKIN: She went into that club, Master.

OBI-WAN: Patience. Use the Force. Think.

I thought Jedi were supposed to use their feelings.

ANAKIN: Sorry, Master.

OBI-WAN: He went in there to hide, not run.

ANAKIN: Yes, Master.

Obi-Wan holds out Anakin’s lightsaber.

OBI-WAN: Next time try not to lose it.

ANAKIN: Yes, Master.

OBI-WAN: This weapon is your life.

Anakin takes it.

ANAKIN: I try, Master.

Obi-Wan walks ahead through the club entrance. Anakin follows him.

OBI-WAN: Why do I get the feeling you’re going to be the death of me?

INT. OUTLANDER CLUB – NIGHT

Obi-Wan and Anakin enter the nightclub bar.

ANAKIN: Don’t say that, Master. You’re the closest thing I have to a father.

OBI-WAN: Then why don’t you listen to me?

ANAKIN: I am trying.

OBI-WAN: Can you see him?

ANAKIN: I think he’s a she… and I think she’s a changeling.

OBI-WAN: In that case be extra careful.

OBI-WAN: (Con’t) (Nods to the room) Go and find her.

Obi-Wan moves away.

ANAKIN: Where are you going, Master?

OBI-WAN: For a drink.

Obi-Wan heads for the bar. Anakin blinks in surprise, then moves into the room, where alien faces look back at him with hostility, suspicion, and invitation as he moves among the tables. Obi-Wan arrives at the bar. He signals the bartender, who quickly brings him a drink.

OBI-WAN: Thank you.

A sleezy-looking alien eyes Obi-Wan.

ELAN SLEAZEBAGGANO: You wanna buy some death-sticks?

AHHHH! Attack of the Stupidly Named Minor Character!

Obi-Wan doesn’t look at him. He moves his fingers slightly.

OBI-WAN: You don’t want to sell me death-sticks.

ELAN: I don’t want to sell you death-sticks.

Obi-Wan waves his hand again.

OBI-WAN: You want to go home and rethink your life.

ELAN: I want to go home and rethink my life.

He leaves. Obi-Wan lifts the drink and tosses it back.

Somewhere in the room Zam leaves her place among the clubbers. Her hand moves to a pistol in its holster and unsnaps the safety catch. Anakin is still conducting his search. The gun is drawn. The bounty hunter moves toward the bar. The gun is raised to aim directly at Obi-Wan’s back, and suddenly he turns fast. His lightsaber flashes. There is a shrill SCREAM and Zam’s arm hits the floor. The gun drops from its twitching fingers. She slumps down against a partition. The room falls silent. Obi-Wan lifts Zam to her feet and carries her away. Anakin is at his back with lightsaber out and ready.

ANAKIN: (To crowd) Jedi business. Go back to your drinks.

EXT. ALLEY OUTSIDE OUTLANDER CLUB – NIGHT

Obi-Wan carries Zam into the alley and lowers her to the ground. Anakin scans the alley, then crouches beside them. Zam winces in pain.

OBI-WAN: Do you know who it was you were trying to kill?

ZAM WESSEL: The Senator from Naboo.

OBI-WAN: And who hired you?

ZAM WESSEL: It was just a job.

ANAKIN: Who hired you? Tells us. (After a beat, angrily) Tell us now!

ZAM: It was a Bounty Hunter called–

There is a sudden FTZZZ sound. Zam twitches. She blinks in surprise. There is a WHOOSH from above. Obi-Wan and Anakin look up to see an armored rocket-man taking off from a roof high above. He shoots up fast into the sky and disappears. Obi-Wan looks down at Zam. As he lays her down on the street, she changes to her Clawdite form. She says something in her native tongue and dies. Obi-Wan touches her neck and pulls out a small, wicked-looking dart.

OBI-WAN: Toxic dart.

INT. APARTMENT BUILDING, AMIDALA’S APARTMENT, BEDROOM – NIGHT

The kouhuns are near Padme’s face. Obi-Wan and Anakin burst into the room. Anakin leaps onto the bed, slicing the deadly creatures in half with his lightsaber.
Padme wakes up, startled.

Obi-Wan sees the droid outside the window and races straight at it, crashing through the blinds as he goes through the window.

ANAKIN: Stay here!

Typho, several guards and Dorme race into the bedroom as Anakin runs out.

DORME: You all right, my lady?

EXT. CORUSCANT – NIGHT

The probe droid carries Obi-Wan high over the city. It flies too close to a building and scrapes by, forcing Obi-Wan to temporarily lose his grip.

There’s your “dog catches car” comparison. Obi-Wan’s got the droid. What is he going to do with it?

EXT. SENATE APARTMENTS – ENTRANCE – NIGHT

Anakin charges out of the building and runs to a line of parked speeders. He vaults into an open one and takes off, gunning it fast toward the lines of speeder traffic high above.

EXT. CORUSCANT – NIGHT

The droid runs headlong into speeder traffic. Vehicles veer out of the way, their drivers honking, screaming, and cursing as Obi-Wan flies by. Anakin tries to catch up.

On a ledge, Zam Wesell sees the droid approach with Obi-Wan hanging on. She pulls a long rifle out of the speeder and shoots at the droid. The droid suffers a direct hit and blows up. Obi-Wan falls fifty stories. Zam jumps into her speeder and takes off.

Obi-Wan gets dangerously close to traffic. Anakin’s speeder drops down next to him, and he manages to grab onto the back end and haul himself toward the cockpit. He climbs into the passenger seat.

OBI-WAN: What took you so long?

ANAKIN: Oh, you know, Master, I couldn’t find a speeder I really liked…

OBI-WAN: (Pointing out Zam’s speeder) There he is.

ANAKIN: …with an open cockpit… and with the right speed capabilities…

OBI-WAN: If you’d spend as much time working on your saber techniques as you do on your wit, you would rival Master Yoda as a swordsman.

ANAKIN: I thought I already did.

OBI-WAN: Only in your mind, my very young apprentice.

Anakin deftly moves in and out of the oncoming traffic, across lanes, and between buildings. Zam dives straight down to shake them. Anakin follows, but gets uncomfortably close to a building.

OBI-WAN: Pull up, Anakin. Pull up!

Anakin laughs as he pulls up from his dive and stays right on Zam’s trail.

OBI-WAN: You know I don’t like it when you do that.

I would have royally clocked him for doing that.

ANAKIN: Sorry, Master. I forgot you don’t like flying.

OBI-WAN: I don’t mind flying, but what you’re doing is suicide!

They chase the bounty hunter over a refinery. Flames leap from mutiple towers. The speeders navigate around them. Zam shoots a power coupler and flies past it before voltage, like lightning, jumps across the gap from one coupler to another. Anakin stays on course, piloting the speeder directly through the arc.

OBI-WAN: Anakin! How many times have I told you–

Anakin and Obi-Wan’s bodies ripple with blue power.

OBI-WAN: –stay away from the power couplings! (Sarcastically) That was good!

Zam banks off and flies into a tunnel. Anakin plows straight ahead.

OBI-WAN: Where are you going?! He went that way!

ANAKIN: Master, if we keep this chase going any longer, that creep’s gonna end up deep-fried.

ANAKIN: (Con’t) Personally, I’d very much like to find out who he is and who he’s working for. This is a shortcut…I think.

Zam exits the tunnel. Thinking she’s free and clear, she takes off her veil and smirks.

Anakin turns up a side street then stops, hovering about fifty stories up.

OBI-WAN: Well, you lost him.

ANAKIN: I’m deeply sorry, Master.

Anakin looks over the side. He spots something approaching below.

OBI-WAN: That was some shortcut. Anakin. He went completely the other way. Once again, you’ve proved–

ANAKIN: –if you’ll excuse me…

Anakin jumps out of the speeder. Obi-Wan looks down.

OBI-WAN: I hate it when he does that.

After a long fall, Anakin miraculously lands on top of the bounty hunter’s
speeder.

“Miraculously”! That was in the script, honest! Just as miraculous as Obi-Wan climbing into the speeder without getting splattered all over the rear.

The speeder wobbles under the impact. Zam looks up and realizes what has happened. Anakin is barely holding on to an air scoop at the rear. Zam brakes, and Anakin slides forward to the left front fork, almost slipping off. Zam shoots at him. Anakin slides under the fork and grabs onto the right. He scrambles to the top, where she can’t reach him. Zam guns it, and Anakin slides to the rear. Anakin is able to get hold of his lightsaber and smashes the canopy. Zam takes out her laser pistol and starts firing at the helpless Jedi, knocking the sword out of his
hand. Obi-Wan races behind the speeder and catches Anakin’s weapon.

It’s a wonder he didn’t get his fingers taken off.

Anakin sticks his hand into the cockpit and grabs Zam’s hand. They struggle for the weapon. It goes off, blowing holes in the dashboard. The speeder careens wildly out of control. Zam struggles to pull the speeder out of its nosedive. Obi-Wan follows them down.

On the streets below, passersby turn to see the plummeting speeder. Anakin loses his grip and goes flying off just feet off the ground. Just as the speeder is about to nose dive into the ground, Zam pulls it out, and it slides hard on the pavement in a shower of sparks and finally slams into a wall.

This sequence is so cotton-picking long that I have to break it up. It doesn’t make the whole thing any less palatable, however.

EXT. SKYSCRAPER LEDGE – NIGHT

An armor-clad bounty hunter, JANGO FETT, waits on the ledge of a skyscraper as another bounty hunter, ZAM WESELL, steps from her hovering speeder and approaches him.

ZAM WESELL: I hit the ship, but they used a decoy.

You guys seem to be the only ones who don’t know she uses decoys!

JANGO FETT: We’ll have to try something more subtle this time, Zam. My client is getting impatient.

Fett hands Zam a transparent tube about a foot long containing centipede-like KOUHUNS.

JANGO FETT: Take these. Be careful. They’re very poisonous.

Zam attaches her veil across the bottom of her face. She turns to leave, but Fett calls her back.

JANGO FETT: And Zam, there can be no mistakes this time.

She turns again, and walks toward her speeder.

INT. APARTMENT BUILDING, AMIDALA’S APARTMENT, MAIN R0OM – NIGHT

The door to the apartment slides open, and Obi-Wan enters. Anakin meets him in the main room.

OBI-WAN: Captain Typho has more than enough men downstairs. No assassin will try that way. Any activity up here?

ANAKIN: Quiet as a tomb. I don’t like just waiting here for something to happen to her.

Obi-Wan checks a palm-sized view scanner he has pulled out of his tunic. He can’t see anything on it.

OBI-WAN: What’s going on?

ANAKIN: Ah, she covered the cameras. I don’t think she liked me watching her.

OBI-WAN: What is she thinking?

ANAKIN: She programmed Artoo to warn us if there’s an intruder.

INT: APARTMENT BUILDING, AMIDALA’S APARTMENT, BEDROO – NIGHT

Padmé is asleep in her bed, lit only by the light of the city outside her window coming through the blinds. Artoo stands in the corner of the bedroom, powered down. Laser eyebeams in the walls scan the room just above floor level.

OBI-WAN: (V.O.) There are many other ways to kill a Senator.

ANAKIN: (V.O.) I know, but we also want to catch this assassin, don’t we, Master?

INT. APARTMENT BUILDING, AMIDALA’S APARTMENT, MAIN ROOM – NIGHT

OBI-WAN: You’re using her as bait.

ANAKIN: It was her idea. Don’t worry, no harm will come to her. I can sense everything going on in that room. Trust me.

That makes me feel safe. And Amidala’s a bonehead for putting forth that idea, and Anakin’s an even bigger bonehead for going along with it.

And, no, I don’t trust you.

OBI-WAN: It’s too risky… besides, your senses aren’t that attuned, young apprentice.

ANAKIN: And yours are?

OBI-WAN: Possibly.

EXT. SKYSCRAPER LEDGE – NIGHT

Standing on the skyscraper ledge, Zam Wesell loads the cylinder carrying the deadly kouhuns into a probe droid. The droid flies off into the night.

INT. APARTMENT BUILDING, AMIDALA’S APARTMENT, MAIN ROOM – NIGHT

Anakin and Obi-Wan continue their conversation, moving out onto the apartment’s balcony.

OBI-WAN: You look tired.

ANAKIN: I don’t sleep well anymore.

OBI-WAN: Because of your mother?

ANAKIN: I don’t know why I keep dreaming about her.

OBI-WAN: Dreams pass in time.

ANAKIN: I’d much rather dream of Padmé. Just being around her again is… intoxicating.

They leave the balcony.

OBI-WAN: Be mindful of your thoughts, Anakin, they betray you. You’ve made a commitment to the Jedi Order, a commitment not easily broken. And don’t forget, she’s a politician. They’re not to be trusted.

You’d think Obi-Wan would be scolding Anakin about romantic entanglements instead of trusting politians. Both are dangerous, but I don’t think Padmé’s being a politician is what Anakin is thinking about.

INT. APARTMENT BUILDING, AMIDALA’S APARTMENT, BEDROOM
- NIGHT

ANAKIN: (V.O.) She’s not like the others in the Senate, Master.

OBI-WAN: (V.O.) It’s been my experience that Senators are only focused on pleasing those who fund their campaigns…and they are more than willing to forget the niceties of democracy to get those funds.

ANAKIN: (V.O.) Not another lecture, Master. At least not on the
economics of politics…

If you’d acutally listen to the man and not delude yourself into thinking you’re all of a sudden ready for the world, these lectures wouldn’t be necessary. And we wouldn’t have to listen to them, either.

As Padme sleeps, the probe droid approaches outside her window. It sends several small arms that attach to the window, creating a small square of space that bypasses the security system. Then it cuts a small hole in the glass. A FAINT SOUND is heard as the small section of glass is removed from the window. The droid extends a little tube through the hole between the slats. The two centipede-like kouhuns exit the tube and drop to the floor. Crawling under the eyebeams, they head toward the sleeping Padme.

They slip around the edge of the bed, when Artoo wakes up. They remain still as Artoo sweeps the room with his spotlight. Seeing nothing, he shuts down again. The kouhuns continue their task.

INT: APARTMENT BUILDING, AMIDALA’S APARTMENT, MAIN
ROOM – NIGHT

Anakin and Obi-Wan continue their conversation.

ANAKIN: …and besides, you’re generalizing. The Chancellor doesn’t appear to be corrupt.

OBI-WAN: Palpatine’s a politician.

INT: APARTMENT BUILDING, AMIDALA’S APARTMENT, BEDROOM
- NIGHT

The kouhuns draw closer to Padme.

OBI-WAN: (V.O.) I have observed that he is very clever at following the passions and prejudices of the Senators.

INT: APARTMENT BUILDING, AMIDALA’S APARTMENT, MAIN
ROOM – NIGHT

ANAKIN: I think he is a good man. My–

Anakin suddenly looks toward Padme’s bedroom.

OBI-WAN: I sense it, too.

They both run.

Instead of posting another chapter, I’ll be upgrading Wordpress again. I’ve heard about some problems in posting comments with this new package, so please report any weirdness you see going on. The new version should be in place by tomorrow.