Part 9 (2/2)

”Welcome to Dometown,” Lando said.

”Very nice, Lando,” Luke said as he leaned over the low wall of the terrace and admired the view. ”Very nice indeed. Not at all what I expected.”

”Well, our developers kept it quiet,” Lando said.

”Didn't want just anyone knowing about it. We found this underground chamber. it'd been built for s.p.a.ce knows what reason, and who knows how old it is. Back then it was full of ruined machines, and old junk, and a whole herd of mutant hive rats and practically everything else you'd ever want to find. We got it cleaned up, refurbed the air and water and security system, and built some decent housing.

It's not exactly in the poshest neighborhood, but who cares?

You can rent a nice big place here for a tenth what it would cost to get a high-status broom closet on the surface.”

”I supposed you were one of the investors in this little project?”

Luke said.

Lando laughed, clapped him on the shoulder, and led him down a low, wide ramp into the dome. ”Suppose away,” he said. ”I decided, just for once, to put my money into something small and local. Just this once, why not be one of many partners, instead of being the whole show myself?

Why not think small, and build a nice neighborhood? I've run a whole city by myself, and take it from me, this is easier.”

”So you're no longer thinking about the grand-scale projects?” Luke asked.

Lando looked at him as they walked along, clearly surprised and maybe a little bit hurt. ”I'll never quit doing that, Luke. If you don't think big, what's the point of thinking at all? I just got tired of having nothing at all to fall back on.

It might not be in a high-status neighborhood, but status isn't everything-and no one has to know where I live, anyway. Now I've got a little bit of income from this place, enough to live on and just a bit more, and I have a place to live that's mine, that no one can take away from me.

And it's all in the most bombproof and secure depths of the capital planet.”

”A safe, secure investment,” Luke said, grinning at his friend.

”I know, I know,” Lando said. ”Don't let it get around, or I'll ruin my reputation. Come on, my house is just up this way. Let's go in.”

Five minutes later they were relaxing in the elegant, if somewhat spartan, confines of Lando's house. Luke had to admit that Lando had a point about s.p.a.ce. Only the richest of beings, or the most exalted of government officials, could have afforded anything this size anywhere near the surface.

The house was built of stone-a highly cheap and available building material when one is building underground-and the walls and floors were smooth-polished granite. It was cool and quiet, and the rooms were comfortably expansive.

Lando sat Luke down on a low, luxurious couch and brought him something cool to drink before sitting down on a matching chair next to the couch. Then Lando began to talk-and talk about everything but the matter at hand.

Most uncharacteristically, he seemed reluctant to come to the point. He fussed about, worrying that the room was too hot or too cold, that Luke was not comfortable, and that his drink needed freshening up.

At last Luke decided he was going to have to push a bit.

”Lando, you didn't bring me down here to find out how much ice I like in my drinks. Why am I here?”

”All right,” Lando said. He paused for a long moment, and s.h.i.+fted in his seat. Even if he was coming to the point, he seemed to feel the need to do so gradually. He set down his own drink on the side table and leaned forward, an earnest expression on his face. ”I told a bit of a fib back there as we were walking up this way, when I was talking about building this place,” he said. ”The truth is I did stop thinking big, for a little while there. I didn't even realize it at first. I got all involved in getting Dometown put together.

It was a safe, secure job, and they needed someone with my skills, and I liked the work. Heck, after putting Nkllon together, getting this place built was more like a hobby than a job-and I liked the way it was easy. I'd been shot down and kicked out and blown up and wiped out so many times I just didn't want to deal with that kind of big-time struggle anymore. So I put all my energy into getting Dometown put back together and cleaned up and families moved in.

”Nothing at all wrong with that,” Luke said. ”You've really accomplished something here.

”Yes, I have,” Lando said, a touch of pride in his voice.

He looked around his parlor, obviously seeing beyond the walls to the town he had made. ”That is to say, I did a good job here. But then, after a while, it dawned on me I was still doing the job, even though the job was done.”

”I don't understand,” Luke said. ”How could you be doing the job if it was finished?”

Lando shook his head sadly. ”That's easy, Luke. Billions of beings do it every day. They get up in the morning, push some pieces of paper around on a desk, make some com calls, decide on the blue-gray paint for the corridor over the gray blue, have a meeting, and feel like they've accomplished enough for one day. They go home, and then they come back the next day and do it all again. That might be all right for some, but not for me, and when I caught myself doing it I realized it was time to move on.”

”Move on to what?”

”I don't know,” Lando said, making a rather abrupt gesture of dismissal. ”That's not even really that important just now. The main question is move on with what? My father used to say, 'You can't think deeper than your pockets,' and there's a lot of truth to that. I started thinking back on all my schemes that had crashed and burned one way or the other. It seemed to me that I could have stuck it out if my pockets had been deeper, if they had been filled with more credits.

”If I had the reserves, the resources, I could have ridden out the bad times and gotten Bespin or Nkllon back on a paying basis. Deep pockets give you staying power, let you hang in and lose money until you're earning it again. I realized that the question was: How to get money? Serious money. How could I get those deep pockets?”

”And now you've figured out how, and you want my help to do it”'

Luke said, more than a little amused.

”Right,” Lando said. ”Exactly right. I've figured out how to get deep pockets full of money, and I need your help to do it.”

”Well, then,” Luke said. ”How do you get deep pockets?”

”Simplest thing in the universe,” said Lando. ”You marry them.”

There was a moment of dead silence as Luke stared straight at Lando. It wasn't easy to surprise a Jedi Master, but Lando had done it. ”You're getting married?” Luke asked at last. ”To whom?”

Lando shrugged his shoulders and laughed. ”I haven't the faintest idea,” he said. ”Well, that's not strictly true.

I do have a short list of candidates, but it could be anyone on the list, or maybe even someone I haven't thought of yet.”

”But-but-how can you marry someone you don't know?”

”I'm not marrying a who,” Lando said. 'm marrying a what. I'm marrying money. What's so strange about that?

People have done it since the beginning of time. A rich wife could do me a lot of good-and I could do her a lot of good, too. Make her richer, for one thing.” Luke looked at his old friend, and asked a careful question. ”Where do I come into all this?” Luke asked.

”Ah, now that's the tricky part,” Lando said. ”I'm not altogether unknown in the galaxy. People have heard of me.

Unfortunately sometimes they haven't liked what they've heard.

Stories get started. Some of the stories aren't even true. But they're out there just the same. That's why I want you to come with me while I'm searching for my wife-”

”What? That's the reason for the trip you want me to go on?”

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