The ventilation ducts were filled with the pungent smell of dust and corroding metal, the space extremely narrow, barely allowing one person to pass by bending over.
Kote's helmet searchlight was the only source of light; the blurry heat signature moved rapidly ahead, like a startled rat, but its path was unusually tricky, clearly indicating familiarity with the fortress structure.
Kote held his breath, pushing his hearing and Force perception to their limits.
He could hear the hurried gasps of his prey ahead and the rustling of clothes rubbing against the pipe walls.
He could also clearly "feel" the cold murderous intent fleeing in the darkness.
Relying on the vague sense of direction provided by the Force, he unhesitatingly chose his path through the complex pipe junctions, his speed undiminished.
Qui-Gon Jinn followed closely, his movements as light as a ghost, his sharp gaze piercing the darkness, locked onto the young man ahead.
Kote was not blindly pursuing; he chose his path instinctively, with almost no hesitation at each junction.
He relied entirely on an almost intuitive perception to choose the most likely path to catch his target.
This was not experience, but the Force guiding him.
He had a premonition of danger; when Kote was about to pass a seemingly loose pipe wall, his body would unconsciously tense up, and he would instinctively quicken his steps or shift his center of gravity to avoid it.
"He is unconsciously guiding the Force… as naturally as breathing, yet so… primitive," Qui-Gon Jinn marveled inwardly.
This was completely different from the Jedi younglings who needed years of meditation and training to feel the flow of the Force.
Kote's Force was like a surging ocean, powerful and direct, just lacking formal guidance.
Suddenly, the heat signature ahead vanished! At the same time, a stronger malice and cold sensation wrapped around Kote's heart like a venomous snake!
"Stop!" Kote slammed to a halt, simultaneously gesturing back.
Less than two meters in front of him, the metal grate floor of the pipe had been cleverly cut open, revealing several flickering thermal detonators below.
Kote's heart pounded.
His helmet display showed a depth of at least a dozen meters below.
The trap was extremely cleverly laid, utilizing the pipe's own noise and blind spots for light.
"Very perceptive, Kote," Qui-Gon Jinn's voice was exceptionally clear in the narrow pipe, carrying a hint of approval.
He walked to the edge of the trap, his lightsaber shining downward, only to see a red glow in the darkness.
"He set a trap here, trying to delay us, or eliminate any reckless pursuers."
"He won't get far!" Kote gritted his teeth, his gaze sweeping around.
He closed his eyes, forcing himself to calm down.
He no longer chased the specific "heat source" or "sound," but instead felt the traces of the "malice" itself flowing through the space.
"This way!" Kote suddenly opened his eyes, pointing to a narrow gap above the trap, almost merging with the shadows, obscured by a large ventilation duct!
That was not a normal passage entrance at all, but rather looked like an opening left after repairs.
That cold malice, like water seeping into sand, was trickling out of that gap!
"Excellent!" A golden light flashed in Qui-Gon Jinn's eyes.
Kote had not only avoided the trap, but in a very short time, using pure Force perception rather than sight or instruments, he had located the true escape path of his prey!
This keen intuition for the Force, and the ability to interpret environmental details at a Force level, far exceeded Qui-Gon Jinn's expectations.
He no longer hesitated, and was the first to squeeze into that narrow gap.
Beyond the gap was an older, larger, abandoned pipe network deep within the fortress foundations.
The air here was foul, filled with old dust and the stench of stagnant water.
The chase became more difficult, and the environment more dangerous.
Collapsed bricks, exposed rusted rebar, and bottomless sewage pits were everywhere.
The prey was clearly at its limit; Kote and Qui-Gon Jinn could hear suppressed coughing and exhausted gasps from ahead, and the distance was closing!
Finally, at a relatively spacious intersection filled with discarded machinery, they caught up to their target.
It was a human male wearing dark gray Mandalorian armor, his face hidden beneath a helmet.
He leaned against the casing of a huge, abandoned reactor, clutching a Westar-35 blaster pistol, aimed at the two pursuers.
"Don't come any closer!" His voice was hoarse, filled with desperate madness.
"Come any closer, and we all go down together!" He shook the pistol, then pointed to a palm-sized device with a blinking red light on the reactor casing behind him—a high-energy thermal detonator! Enough to blow up this area, and possibly trigger a chain reaction!
The atmosphere instantly solidified: a narrow space, a deadly bomb, a desperate outlaw at the end of his rope.
Qui-Gon Jinn stopped, his lightsaber pointed diagonally at the ground, his breathing still steady, but his eyes extremely solemn.
In this environment, taking forceful action was too risky.
Kote also stopped, his dual blasters gripped tightly, his breathing under the helmet a little heavy.
He could feel the other person's fear and despair.
What to do? Attack? The other person might detonate the bomb instantly.
Negotiate?
"You're also a Mandalorian, right? Why assassinate Duchess Satine? Are you from Death Watch?!" Kote's blaster pistol was aimed at the Mandalorian lying on the ground.
"You Mandalorian traitors, weaklings, conquest of the galaxy should be the destiny of Mandalorians! Kote Vizsla, you should have been the next clan leader, but your father betrayed us because of that woman; he was our strongest warrior! Damn pacifism!" The man did not directly answer the question, only expressing hatred for Kote's father and the pacifists.
Time seemed to stand still.
Kote stared intently at the bomb, at the Mandalorian's finger, which trembled slightly with tension.
"Fake!" Kote blurted out, his voice carrying a certainty he himself hadn't noticed.
"That bomb! It's not connected to the reactor's core energy circuit! It's a bluff!"
The Mandalorian's pupils suddenly constricted, and his finger instinctively moved to pull the trigger!
"Whoosh—!"
In that instant, Qui-Gon Jinn moved! A powerful Force push directly sent the Mandalorian lying on the ground flying.
"Ah!" The Mandalorian screamed, falling to the ground! The intense pain instantly incapacitated him.
At the same time, Qui-Gon Jinn's figure appeared before him like a ghost, and a powerful Force mind trick, like an invisible heavy hammer, fiercely impacted the hunter's mind!
The hunter's eyes rolled back, his body went limp, and he slid to the ground against the reactor casing, completely losing consciousness.
Qui-Gon Jinn didn't even look at the fallen hunter; instead, he turned, his gaze burning as he looked at Kote, his eyes filled with unprecedented seriousness and… an astonished wonder at having discovered a treasure.
"Kote Vizsla," Qui-Gon Jinn's voice was low and powerful, exceptionally clear in the echo of the abandoned pipe.
"How did you… determine that the bomb was fake just now?" He asked not for the result, but for the process.
Kote gasped, his face under the helmet also a little pale.
The intense mental concentration had left him exhausted.
He pointed to his helmet, then to the direction of the reactor and the bomb.
"The energy readings from the helmet's sensors were wrong," he paused, seemingly feeling that this explanation wasn't clear enough, and finally pointed to his chest, or rather, to the invisible ocean of the Force.
"It was… the Force.
It told me that there were no detonators inside."
This description was a bit clumsy, but Qui-Gon Jinn understood perfectly!
These were subtle differences that instrument readings could not easily distinguish.
Especially in such a tense and chaotic environment, Kote was directly perceiving its interior with the Force.
This was an extremely rare ability, requiring extremely high Force affinity and perceptive talent!
Usually, only Jedi Knights could do it.