Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters (20 page)

Tutti backed around the corner. Tinian almost envied him. At least five of the six bounty hunters would finish the
Millennium Falcon
job with empty pockets, and she and Chen might fail in their own mission, but Tutti Snibit had just accumulated enough credits to enjoy himself for three or four weeks—maybe even the rest of his life, if he didn’t spend quickly.

Bossk waved at his terminal to hibernate it, then leaned against the bulkhead. He was less back-blind than Wookiees or Humans, but he didn’t trust this pair. “Well?” he grunted. “Make your proposal. Remember, I owe you nothing for approaching me.”

The Wookiee, deep brown with a gloss of silver at the tips of his fur, wore a black bandolier of small-scaled hide. Maybe the Wookiee had chosen to wear reptile skin as a deliberate affront. To Trandoshans, most of a prey animal’s value lay in its skin. Bossk would no more wear reptile skin than eat reptilian flesh. The fact that Wookiees—and humans—ate other mammals’ flesh proved their bestiality.

Chenlambec backed against the opposite bulkhead, leaving the small human vulnerable between them. Bossk smelled no fear on her.

Chenlambec hooted like a cloud ape. After several verses, his apprentice held up a hand and quieted him. “My
Ng’rhr
has connections among spacefaring Wookiees,” she began.

Bossk snapped, “I don’t trust criminals for information. The fact that you know their language marks you as an accomplice. It is their place to listen, not speak.”

Tinian balled her fists and planted them against her thin hips. “My family kept Wookiees as slaves. The best way to
control
them was to learn their language. Do we understand each other?”

He refused to let her impress him. “You call him your master now.”

“Excuse me,” she said, “but I am translating. Chenlambec asks me to say that he has connections among spacefaring Wookiees.” She swept a hank of fur behind her left ear, exposing its peculiar pink folds. “One of them suggested a probable destination along the
Millennium Falcon’s
last known course.”

A current sighting? Information from the Wookiee network? Bossk attended more closely. He would offer the Scorekeeper his left arm for a chance to crack that network (maybe even both arms, since he could regenerate them). Cracking the Wookiees’ network could make him both wealthy and eternally secure. “Go on,” he said. “Where are they headed?”

The big silvertip hootled again.

“He says,” Tinian translated, “that the best way to catch a star captain who’ll sign on a Wookiee copilot is to employ another Wookiee.”

Bossk kept his voice low-pitched, concealing his eagerness. “Where are they headed?”

“First, we discuss forming a partnership.”

“If you help me hunt down Chewbacca and his keeper, I will consider giving you twenty percent of my profit.”

The human narrowed her eyes. “Obviously you think we are amateurs. Fifty percent is traditional. It would still leave you more than you would earn without our help.”

She dared to haggle?

Still, he saw ways of hedging this long shot. Chenlambec’s shimmering pelt was worth easily as much as Chewbacca’s. The silvertip gene was recessive and rare.

And this
was
the kind of lead he’d been looking for,
not old data. He led them to believe he would give thirty percent of his take if they brought him to Chewbacca. Then he asked Tinian quietly, “How did the mighty Chewbacca earn enmity from another Wookiee?”

Chenlambec laid back his head and oop-ooped mournfully. “His crime was unspeakable,” Tinian answered, then she added, “Chen doesn’t discuss his past. Not with me. Certainly not with you.”

The past didn’t matter. Whether or not Bossk located the
Falcon
, once he lured Chenlambec on board his own ship he was guaranteed a profit.

The human was probably wanted somewhere, too. If not, slavers occasionally took spirited young human females.

As for the Hunter’s Creed, no bounty hunter ever betrayed another unless the other hunter strayed first from Creed regulations; but Bossk had fabricated Creed violations before, and felt the Storekeeper smile on him. She loved clever betrayal. “Now,” he said, “where are they headed?”

“We would prefer finding a private place to talk.”

“There is no time for that.” He kept his voice low and menacing. He wanted them to think he was trying to scare them off. “The other Hunters are already heading for their ships.”

“Then we’ll talk here.” Tinian peered up the corridor. A human Imperial lackey wearing khaki fatigues dashed toward them. His heavy boots pounded the polished metal decking. Bossk steadied his blast rifle.

The lackey careened around a corner and vanished up another too-bright passage. Bossk watched Tinian track the human with her eyes. He smelled her alarm at his approach—and her relief when he passed. Evidently Imperials made her nervous.

She didn’t need to watch the corridors for her most dangerous enemy. He stood before her.

•   •   •

The
Executor
thrummed around Chenlambec like a giant beast. He would be glad to leave its bowels, and he pitied the Imperial worms who spent their lives scurrying and scuttling in these passages.

He spoke, then listened as Tinian translated into Basic. “Wookiee sources,” she explained—and he liked the condescension that she faked—“have evidently spotted Solo’s ship on course for the Lomabu system. A renegade group of Wookiees is setting up another safe world there. We’ve heard that you blew the whistle on one such world earlier in your career.”

“Yes,” Bossk snapped. At Gandolo IV, Bossk had hunted down several dozen escaped Wookiee slaves trying to establish a safe haven. Bossk had been on the verge of skinning the lot—including the famous Chewbacca, who was assisting with setup—when Captain Solo returned unannounced. Seeing the situation in progress, Solo had strafed the bounty hunter and his crew. They’d retreated into their larger, better armed craft. Solo had landed the
Millennium Falcon
directly on top of it, collapsing its landing gear. Steam clouds had shot out of its hydraulics. Internal explosions had hinted at grave engine damage.

Solo and Chewbacca had left Bossk alive but trapped onboard, humiliated … or so the story went. Chenlambec’s brother had related the tale first-hand. He had stood near Chewbacca, watching the desperate Wookiees’ plight become hopeful, then hilarious.

Chen imagined he could feel Bossk writhe at the memory. He spoke again, reminding Tinian of several details of their cover story. They’d concocted it before docking with the
Executor
.

She nodded soberly, then turned back to the big, ugly lizard. “We think that the Rebel Alliance hopes to set up a base near the Wookiee haven in the Lomabu system, now that they’ve been chased off Hoth. That
would explain our report that Solo has taken the
Falcon
there, carrying several Rebel leaders. We could slip in before the Rebel fleet arrives, tag our quarry, and sky out before the Imperials catch on. We’ll take our prisoners directly to Lord Vader.”

Bossk nodded. “I have not heard of the Lomabu system. Where is it from here?”

“Well … we’re near Anoat. Lomabu is …”

Chen watched Bossk closely. Now she would dangle the bait.

“We’re not exactly sure,” she admitted.

Bossk glared at Tinian, then Chen, then at Tinian again. He growled several words of Trandoshan deep in his throat, then choke-gargled in Basic again. “Your information is worthless. You are worthless. I should—”

Chen barked angrily.

“Easy, you two,” exclaimed Tinian. “We don’t know where it is, but we know where to find out. We have to check a waypost along the Wookiee network.”

And that, as far as Chen knew, was a vital bit of truth they had spun into their cover story to sweeten the bait. Surely Bossk wanted—

“Network,” Bossk repeated slowly. His tongue flicked.

Excellent. He did.

“It’s dangerous,” Tinian stressed. “Especially for you and me, Bossk. The Wookiees will be serious about silencing any non-Wookiee that shows an interest in this locale.”

Bossk adjusted his rifle sling. “I refuse to travel in any ship but my own. I have a YV-666 light freighter modified for Wookiee hunting. Do you have a problem traveling in that?”

Chen bared his teeth and answered evasively. It would’ve been easy to take Bossk down if they could talk him aboard
their
ship, but obviously Bossk was too intelligent to fall for that.

“He doesn’t,” Tinian translated. “Neither do I, if it means getting the price on Chewbacca.”

Bossk finally stretched the lower half of his face in a reptilian smile. “I must warn you: If you tamper with any of my onboard systems, the
Hound’s Tooth
will retaliate.”

Of course it would. It was undoubtedly equipped with multiple defenses against Wookiees’ strength.

He told Tinian to inform Bossk that traveling with him would keep their expenses down, since they were only getting fifteen percent apiece. As she translated, Chen sniffed the air. Bossk smelled as bitter as pain and as foul as death, but he hadn’t become defensive. From that subtle clue, Chen guessed that Bossk already intended treachery. He wouldn’t miss thirty percent of his take because he had no intention of paying it.

Fair enough. If Chen had his way, Bossk would not collect one limp credit. Chen knew about the Trandoshan religion. Having his
jagannath
score zeroed would hurt Bossk worse than ambushing and killing him.

That would be a pleasure.

To Tinian, Bossk looked impatient: He flexed his claws in rhythm, occasionally darting glances up the corridors. “I also expect you to pay half of my fueling costs,” he said.

In three years with Chen, Tinian had matured from a spoiled but sincere little rich girl into a seasoned resistance fighter. She sensed that Bossk was testing. “Ten percent,” she countered. “You’d make this trip without us, if you knew where to go.”

Bossk frowned. “Twenty. Programming my onboard systems to watch you will take time I could spend hunting Chewbacca.”

“Then don’t program them,” she snapped.

He curled a lip and hissed.

She’d heard that Trandoshans found mercy, graciousness, and other weaknesses contemptible. “Ten,” she repeated, “and that’s generous.”

“Why did you enter the Trade, Human? Your kind generally hasn’t the stomach for it.”

Tinian narrowed her eyes, an expression Trandoshans understood. “My capacity for kindness died three years ago. Criminals murdered my grandparents and my lover, my home was destroyed, and I put groundside life behind me. I don’t mind risking my life if the stakes are rewarding.”

Bossk stared, obviously thinking that through. Trandoshans took no lovers. Whenever they came back to Trandosha, they mated with a clutch mother who struck their fancy, then returned to their work.

But she’d had a lover. A fiance. Tinian tried to keep the image of Daye Azur-Jamin out of her mind’s eye. Daye’s had been a gentle face full of intelligence, with an odd silver streak marking one eyebrow. He’d been sensitive to the Force, a shrewd judge of character. Hard-working, too. And loyal to the death. Daye had sacrificed himself to help her escape the Imperial takeover of her grandparents’ armament factory. Since that day, she had dedicated her life to helping bring down the Empire. The sooner she died, the sooner she’d rejoin Daye.

Meanwhile, she had a job to attempt.

“Fifteen percent of fuel.” Bossk thrust out a clawed forearm.

Tinian sensed that she’d won as much as Bossk was willing to give. She reached out and touched his scales. Bossk swung his arm against a bulkhead, pinning her hand. Chenlambec extended a paw and got the same treatment: Bossk demanded command, two against one … and his ship. Those odds favored Bossk.

“Now,” said Bossk, “we will evaluate our resources.” He enumerated the
Hound’s Tooth
’s firepower. Before he finished, Chenlambec tapped the floor with one
foot, and even Tinian felt nervous, even though she had practically grown up in her grandparents’ armament factory. Since leaving Druckenwell, she’d become even more competent with weapons, explosives, and armor. Knowledge helped make up for her small size and limited strength. Chenlambec’s contributions to the three-way included his connections among the “criminal” Wookiee network and a reputation even Bossk didn’t question.

The rest of their planning was simple for the moment. After visiting the Wookiee waypost, they would drift into the Lomabu system, fake the orbit of a rapidly moving planet-crossing asteroid, and keep all systems quiet. They would scout using Bossk’s small landing craft, locate the criminal Wookiee colony, and then draw out and trap Solo and his crew. Specific plans would wait until they found the Lomabu system.

Tinian didn’t mention their own plans.

“Until we find Lomabu,” added Bossk, “you will remain in your cabin.”

Tinian shrugged. She had no intention of remaining anywhere Bossk put her, and Lomabu III was no safe world. “We will be boarding with 300 kilos of gear. Which docking bay is your ship in?”

Bossk blinked. She could almost see him wonder what they needed with a 300-kilo weight allowance. “Number six,” he gargled.

“We’ll be there in twenty minutes,” she said.

Chenlambec led Tinian up the passageway, glad to escape Bossk’s brackish stench. He had been called onto this job by Kashyyyk, not just to help Chewbacca escape, but to doublecross Bossk and end his murderous operation. Chenlambec knew that the Trandoshan pelt baiter’s count numbered in the hundreds. He had lured that boast out of Bossk. The heat in Bossk’s eye had warmed Chenlambec’s blood.

Once they put several turns of the passage between them and the Trandoshan, Chen slowed to a stroll.

“Satisfied?” Tinian asked.

Chenlambec had lost brothers and sisters to Trandoshan pelt baiters. He told her it was a beginning.

“It was exciting,” she admitted. “For a few minutes, I felt really alive.”

Chenlambec cuffed the small woman’s shoulder. She understood Wookiee speech and gesture remarkably well, including the soft punch that meant full agreement.