Read Zorba the Hutt's Revenge for Free Online Page B

mechanism.
    FWEEEEP!
    "That’s the-whoops, too late," Han said.
    The garage door opened. Through the braze Ken could see the distant skyline of Cloud City. The city seemed to be calling out to him, urging him to seek adventure. Han leaned into the car to check the clock on the dashboard. "I’m getting worried about Luke and Princess Leia," he said. "They’ve been gone a couple of hours already. It shouldn’t have taken them this long to rescue Kate and come back."
    "Maybe they decided to stop ’off in Cloud City for a bite to eat," Ken suggested, putting his hands on the sleek, shiny steering mechanism.
    "I certainly doubt it," said Han. "There was a ton of food at my party, and plenty of leftovers."
    "But Princess Leia hardly touched a bite of your Corellian cooking," Ken said.
    "Why was that?" Han asked, somewhat hurt.
    "She says Corellian food is too fattening," Ken explained.
    "Oh, yeah?" Han said, glancing down to see if he was getting a pot belly. "You don’t see any fat on me!"
    Suddenly Chewbacca poked his head through the door to the garage. "Rowwwwrf! Groouuuuf!" he moaned.
    "You’re kidding!" Han said to his Wookiee friend, then glanced back at Ken. "Luke sent us a distress call. They’re in some kind of trouble. My beeper was turned off, so we didn’t get the message until Chewie here checked the machine just now." Han put a hand on Ken’s shoulder and said, "Wait here, kid. I’ll be back in a flash." But Han didn’t come back in a flash.
    So Ken decided to pretend he was driving the cloud racing car he was sitting in. He gripped the controls. He leaned forward. And he put his hand on the acceleration lever, touching it ever so lightly.
    But the light touch was all it took to power up the car and send it zooming out of the garage, into the open sky, and off toward Cloud City.
    In the Jedi Library, Ken had spent many hours reading about how to fly cloud racing cars. Now he was able to make a couple of wide loops, spinning rolls, and upside-down maneuvers, all for real.
    Before he knew it, he was almost all the way to Cloud City. And he almost collided in midair with a cloud bus.
    OOOOO-EEEEE! . . . OOOOO-EEEEE! .. .
    A Cloud Police siren blared loudly.
    The police car aimed an invisible tractor beam at the cloud racing car Ken was driving. Ken was towed to a landing bay at Cloud City. "You sure don’t look eighteen, kid," one of the Cloud Police said. "Do you have the registration for this vehicle?"
    "This was all just a mistake, officers," Ken said. Ken explained that he had come to Bespin with Luke Skywalker. And that he had been driving Han Solo’s cloud car totally by accident.
    "Trioculus offered a big reward for a Jedi Prince named Ken who’s been traveling with Luke Skywalker," one of the Cloud Police said to the other. "There’re Wanted posters for this kid on at least a dozen planets."
    And so they arrested Ken for reckless driving without a license. His destination: Cloud City Police Headquarters.
    Back at Han’s sky house, Han was frantic.
    "Threepio, take my red cloud racing car-the Model-X1 Zhurst," Han ordered. "Bring Artoo and Chip with you, and go find Ken. He’s probably taken off for Cloud City. Chewie and I will take a ride in the Millennium Falcon to find out what happened to Luke, Leia, and Kate!"
    On the factory barge, Princess Leia was inside Trioculus’s private chamber, high up in the tallest of his factories. The room had modern Imperial art and elegant furniture. The three-eyed tyrant, Trioculus, gave a sly smile as he stared at his lovely captive.
    "Please be seated, Princess Leia," he said, trying to make his gruff voice sound pleasant.
    "I hope you’ll find these quarters comfortable."
    Leia refused his invitation to sit. Instead she stared out the window, trying to avoid looking at him.
    "What’s happened to Luke?" she asked nervously.
    "A most unfortunate situation," Trioculus replied soothingly. "We made every effort to save his life, but alas, it was to no