Mara eavesdrops under a landspeeder

She rounded the corner, putting her temporarily out of sight of her tail. Parked along both sides of the walkway, as she'd expected, were rows of landspeeders; and streaming out the theater doors on the far side of the street were the evening's crowd of humans and aliens.

Perfect.

Glancing back once to make sure the corner building was still blocking the tail's view of her, she dropped flat on the sidewalk and rolled beneath one of the parked vehicles. In some ways it was an obvious maneuver, but the Emperor's trainers had assured her that most people, even professionals, simply didn't think of it.

Especially when other possibilities were so much more likely. All along the street now, vehicles were starting up and pulling out of their parking spaces as the exiting theatergoers headed for home.

She kept her attention on the corner, and a few seconds later a pair of low-cut boots appeared. The man paused, then hurried forward.

But his mission was doomed, and he knew it. Too many vehicles, too many people, and too little light. He went a couple of land-speeders past Mara's hiding place and then gave up, slowing to a reluctant halt. Snarling out a curse that was audible even over the noise of departing vehicles, he turned back.

He was just passing Mara's landspeeder again when another set of boots joined him from around the corner. "What are you doing?" a man's voice hissed, barely audible over the rumbling of the crowd. "Where is she?"

Interesting. Mara thought, edging as close to the edge of the vehicle as she dared. So there had been a second tail, someone ready to take over the chase when Mara succeeded in dumping the first, more obvious one. Maybe Markko hadn't underestimated her as much as she'd thought.

"Where do you think she is?" the first tail retorted. "Somewhere here, or somewhere gone."

The newcomer cursed, less imaginatively than his partner. "Better report it. Markko's not going to be happy."

"Markko's not going to be happy," the first tail mimicked savagely. "No kidding."

The report was short and sharp. Mara couldn't make out the words coming over the comlink, but from her side of the conversation it was clear that Markko wasn't happy at all. The two men turned and stomped off back around the corner in the direction from which they'd come.

Mara gave them to the count of thirty to get some distance.

Then, rolling back from beneath the speeder, she brushed the worst of the dirt off her gown and headed off in pursuit.

They had followed her. It was only right that she return the favor.

And, perhaps, show them how this tailing business was supposed to be done.
-“Handoff” - Star Wars Gamer 10