The Summer Strikes Back, Part 17

Hank had to give Lance some credit. Cloud City was really something else. It was packed when they showed up at the door. Lance had to lead them past the line, then tell the hang-dog Mexican fellow at the door that they were with him. “Dang, man.” Hank barely squeezed by the three college students in pastels begging to get in the door. “I didn't know this place was so popular.”

Lance pushed through two young couples in pastels and stripes. “We do a lot of advertising, especially on NBC 40 and the local radio stations.” The “stars” painted on the ceiling above them glittered and glowed like the real thing as blue and white lights flashed around the dance floor. Hundreds of bodies swayed and swung as a tall, thin man wearing thick boxy headphones blared “The Safety Dance” from a cloud-painted box over their heads. There was barely enough room to move around, even as they made their way around the wooden floor.

“This place is amazing!” Leia admired the space murals on the walls as Lance headed off to get them drinks. “Whomever they hired to do these murals had real talent. It looks like the Buck Rogers TV show. They even glow in the dark, like the ceiling.”

“I always liked that show.” Hank joined her, his arm sliding around her shoulders. “Buck was a lucky guy. Not many men come out of freezing and fall right into the arms of a woman who's hot and smart.”

“Wilma was my favorite character,” Leia admitted. “She was strong, but feminine. Luke and I watched that show all the time. He's a huge sci-fi fan. He'd love this place. I liked seeing how they did the special effects.”

Lance gave her his blindingly white smile. “A friend of mine did the murals. He's a truly amazing artist.” His eyes glanced at his heavy Rolex watch. “I have to check up on some things in my office before we eat. You two dance, have fun. I've been having supply problems, some of my servers quit to go back to school...”

“Listen to you.” Hank chuckled. “You sound like a responsible businessman. Who would have thought that when we were working that scallop boat off the coast of North Carolina together?”

Lance squeezed his shoulder. “Yeah, I'm responsible. Price you pay for being successful.” He gave Leia another blinding grin. “This will take no time at all. I'll even talk to Larry, get him to trot out the really good songs.”

“Well,” Hank said as Lance squeezed through bodies, making a rough line towards the back of the building, “I guess since we're here, we might as well join the crowd.”

“I guess so.” Leia was nearly shoved off her feet by another swaying couple. Hank expertly reached out and caught her. She looked up at him. “You smell good. What cologne do you use?”

“No clue. I swiped it off Lance's dresser. English Leather, I think.” He twirled Leia around as “Fascination” by The Human League began. “Come on, Sweetheart. Let's show these snoots how it's really done.”

Leia never laughed so much in her life. Hank was a lot of fun when he wasn't being a jerk. They did their best with the space they had, moving through “Fascination” to “Come Dancing” by the Kinks, then “Steppin' Out” by Joe Jackson. He was a little looser than he had been when they danced at the block party. He still would never be featured in a music video, but he wasn't stepping on her feet anymore, either. He even lifted her up to his shoulder during “Come Dancing.”

“You're getting better at this,” Leia admitted as he dipped her on the end of “Steppin' Out.”

“Thanks, sweetheart.” He pulled her back to her feet. “Maybe we ought to go see what Lance is doing. He must have a pile of work in that office of his.”

“No, let's do one more dance.” Leia gently took his arm as “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love” by Peobo Bryson and Roberta Flack started. “I like this one.”

“I do, too. Yeah, we'll do one more.” Hank gently pulled Leia into his arms, burying his nose in her velvet hair. He never, ever wanted to let her go.

“Hank,” Leia started softly, “could you...could you call me at home, when you're in Mexico? Even just at night, when the rates are cheaper. Maybe we could write each other, too. I know they say people don't write letters like they used to, but I wouldn't mind. I like writing.”

“Sweetheart,” Hank said as he stroked the back of her neck, “let's not think about that now. Let's just dance.”

Leia never wanted the song to end. As Bryson and Flack began to fade out, Hank lifted her face to his chin, ducking down for a deep kiss. Leia wrapped her arms around him as best she could, allowing herself the rare luxury of abandoning herself to the moment.

That moment ended all too soon. Charlie tapped Hank over his shoulder, even as he and Leia broke apart. “Mate, we've got to tell you somethin'. It's really important. Would have told you sooner, but you wouldn't believe the line we had to fight to get in this bloody meat locker.”

“We have to get out of here! Now!” Chip Thompson looked like he'd gone ten rounds with a prize fighter and hadn't come close to winning. His horse face was one big purple spot. The round, thin glasses had been hastily fixed with pieces of duct tape. He and Charlie had at least managed to change into decent shirts and shorts, though Hank thought he saw a hint of a Eurythmics tee under Charlie's beige cotton button-down blouse. “They're going to kill us!”

“Who?” Leia didn't like what she could see of Chip. The poor nerd was nearly quivering with terror. “Who's going to kill us?”

Lance finally reappeared just as Chip opened his mouth. “I see the rest of our guests have arrived.” His brilliant grin now seemed fixed to his face. “Dinner is ready at the VIP Lounge. You'll love it. We have fresh clams casino and pan-seared flounder from the seafood restaurant down the street and steamed vegetables and a berry tart directly from one of the local farms on the mainland.”

“I'm starved. I could use a decent meal.” He took Leia's arm before Lance could. “Wanna eat, sweetheart? Sounds better than grabbing fried food on the boardwalk again.”

Leia grinned. “Certainly better for my figure.”

Lance couldn't help the twinge of jealousy and more than a twinge of regret when Leia turned to Hank with a dreamy look that could only be described as true love. He settled for leading them up the catwalks and to the second floor, past Larry Botts' DJ booth. The skinny musician gave him a thumbs up and started “Mr. Roboto” by Styx.

“This is a really sweet set-up you have here,” Hank admitted as they followed Lance to the end of the second-floor catwalk. “But aren't you afraid that some of the local gangs might try to muscle in on it, or even shut you down?”

“That has been a constant problem.” Lance's deep voice had dropped into a monotone. “But I think I have a solution. I've just made a deal that'll keep gangs out of this club forever.”

Hank got an inkling of what the deal was about when the first person he saw was Vader, flanking the wide windows and blocking the otherwise breathtaking sunset. Two of his boys were on his right. Bobby Fett, sporting a gun straight out of Rambo, slowly moved to his right. “We'd love it if you'd join us for dinner, dude,” Vader hissed. “Looks pretty good. That seafood place really knows their flounder.”

“You bastard!” Hank somehow managed to lunge for Vader, fist at the ready, even while still holding Leia's hand. “Get the fuck outta here!” Charlie grabbed a chair and tried to bring it over the nearest Imperial Gang member's head.

Vader easily ducked away from Hank's flying fists. He unleashed his own right into Hank's shoulder, sending him flying back into the wall. “Damn, dude! No manners! That's not how you're supposed to behave at a fancy dinner.”

Hank glared up at Lance, who stood off in one corner, as Leia and Charlie hurried to his side. “I'm sorry.” Lance's voice caught in his throat. “They arrived right before you did. I had no choice.”

His former friend could only nod, even as he rubbed his shoulder. “I'm sorry, too.”

“See?” Chip wailed. “I told you there was going to be trouble! Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me?”

Charlie rolled his eyes. “Shut up, mate.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“We didn't lose that much time.” Luke Walker kept his blue eyes on the winding lanes and the bright green and silver signs of the Garden State Parkway. “I don't think we were on the road that long before we had to go back and ask for directions to the Cloud City Club.”

Arturro's stream of gibberish sounded accusing. “Well, it's not my fault Vader didn't even tell us where Cloud City is! I know Bespin Island isn't that big, but there's a lot of clubs there. Leia and I don't usually go this far north. The surfing is better down around Ocean View.”

Luke tried to concentrate on the road, but he couldn't help his worrying. Arturro's next sentence sounded just as concerned. “I know. You have to be scared for Chip. I'm really scared for Leia and the guys. This is sounding more like something from Star Wars or James Bond than anything that happens in real-life.”

He grinned at Arturro's gibberish at the James Bond mention. The short, dark-haired boy pointed to the ad for Octopussy in the magazine in his lap under the map. “You want to be Roger Moore? He's all yours. I like the Sean Connery movies better anyway. He's a lot tougher, and the girls are cooler.”

Arturro nodded...but then, his gibberish went up at least three octaves. A flash of a green and yellow sign with the number 17 perched on green metal legs came into his view. “Good work, Arturro. Ok, here we go!” Luke swung onto the ramp and off the Parkway, giving them a good look at the deepening twilight over Bespin Island.

“Hold on, Leia,” Luke muttered. “I'm coming!”

~*~*~*~*~*~

As soon as dinner was over, the Imperials dragged Hank and Leia to a storage room down the hall from the VIP Lounge. Vader himself stripped off Hank's jacket and shirt, tying him to a wobbly old chair with his belt. Two of his boys shoved their metal-knuckled fists hard into Hank's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. With a nod from Vader, they and Bobby Fett pounded Solokowski into the chair and whipped him with their belts, laughing as he screamed.

Vader wrapped his arm around Leia's chest before she could go after her skinny boyfriend. He clamped a hand over her mouth and pulled her close to him. “Oh no. You're going to watch this. It's gonna be some real entertainment.” Leia screamed and struggled under his arm, kicking hard at Vader's legs. He finally lifted her up off the ground and held her to his chest.

Charlie Bachman was about to go crazy. It had been at least an hour since their ill-fated dinner. He was glad he actually ate the seafood. He could eat anyplace, any time. Leia barely picked at her food. Hank, on the other hand, ate heartily before he and Leia were finally dragged away. He wished they'd at least left dessert. He was starving and tired of listening to Chip's whining.

“I've never been so sore in my life.” Chip had flopped down on the most comfortable chair in the VIP Lounge as soon as the others left. “I feel rather like the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, when his parts were scattered about. I'm wondering if I may have left a limb or two behind somewhere.”

“Nope, you're all there. At least, as much as you ever were there.” Charlie chuckled. “What you need, mate, is a nice massage. Actually, what we all need is a long soak in a tub the size of Canada and to wake up from this bloody nightmare, but sometimes, you gotta take what you can get.”

“I don't know if that's...” Chip moaned as Charlie's big fingers dug into his shoulders. “Oh...oh yes...oh, that is nice...” All his tension seemed to melt away...at least until those big fingers pushed into a sensitive spot. “Ow! Watch where you put your fingers! Only a mop-headed ignoramus like you would...”

Vader's boys dragged Hank in the room and tossed his clothes in after him before Chip could continue his tirade. Charlie nearly leaped to his battered friend's side. “I feel terrible,” the badly bruised fisherman moaned.

“I'm not surprised.” Charlie sighed as he and Chip managed to lay him down on a padded bench by the windows. “How do we always manage to get into shit like this?”

“Just lucky, I guess.” Hank tried to give them his usual lazy grin, but it was kind of hard with a split lip.

Leia was thrown in as Chip helped the groaning Hank back into his shirt. “Oh god!” The girl grabbed ice from a metal bucket, dropped it in one of the linen napkins, and pressed it over the bruise on Hank's cheek. The wide bruise was nearly the same deep purple as the eggplant they'd had for dinner. “Why are they doing this? Because I've been pressing the City Council about the plans?”

Hank barely managed a shrug. “Dunno, sweetheart. They never even asked me any questions.”

“Something's fishy here,” Charlie added, “and it ain't what we had for dinner.”

The door swung open as Leia and Charlie helped Hank slowly back into his shirt. “Lance,” Charlie snarled, nearly lunging for the tall man in the pale blue jacket. “I oughta belt you one, I should!”

“I really wouldn't recommend that.” Chip cowered behind the big British fisherman as four Imperials followed him. “There's more of them than there are of us.”

“Would you all shut up and listen?” Lance's eyes looked anywhere but at Hank's. “Charlie, you, Leia, and the nerd are going with Vader.”

Hank's hazel eyes were blazing blue. “Are you crazy?”

“They won't be able to leave for a while,” Lance admitted, “but they'll be safe.”

Leia squeezed her lover's shoulder. “What about Hank?”

“Look, I'm sorry.” Lance's face fell. “Vader's turning him over to Bobby Fett. I don't like the idea either, but I don't have much say here.”

“Vader,” Leia growled, “wants us all dead.”

“He's not after you!” Lance snapped. “He's after some dork named Luke Walker.”

The girl's pretty face narrowed in such pure fury, Lance stepped back a few inches. “Luke Walker's my brother. Those damn hell mongers are after my twin brother!”

“You fixed us all up good, didn't you?” Hank managed to ball his hand into a fist. “I thought you were my friend, you snotty piece of crap!”

He lunged for Lance with surprising quickness, managing to land his fist in his former buddy's chin before two of the Imperials sent him sprawling to the floor with sharp kicks to his back. The others flew to his side as the well-dressed man managed to pull back.

“Look, I'm sorry I can't help you, Hank, but I've got my own problems.” Lance straightened his blue jacket. “They were going to burn this club to the ground. I had to do it.”

“Yeah,” Hank muttered. “You're a real hero, buddy.” An Imperial gave Hank one last kick as they strolled out of the Lounge.

Leia managed to give Hank a small smile as she and Charlie helped him to his feet. “You certainly have a way with people.”