Part 3 (1/2)
The attacker tottered back a few steps to catch his breath.
”Have we met? I have an excellent memory for faces, and I don't recall yours.” Xizor noticed a bit of lint on the shoulder of his tunic. He reached up and brushed it off.
”You killed my father. Have you forgotten Colby Hoff?”
The man charged again, fists swinging wildly.
Xizor stepped aside and almost nonchalantly slammed a hammerfist into the man's head, knocking him down.
”You are mistaken, Hoff. Your father committed suicide, as I recall.
Stuck a blaster in his mouth and blew the back of his head off, didn't he? Very messy.”
Hoff came up from the floor, and his rage drove him at Xizor again. Xizor V-stepped to his right and drove his left boot heel at Hoff's left knee, hard. He heard the joint go with a wet snap as he connected.
Hoff fell, his left leg no longer able to support him.
”You ruined him!” He struggled up to his good knee.
”We were business compet.i.tors,” Xizor said matterof-factly. ”He gambled that he was smarter than I. A foolish mistake. If you cannot afford to lose, you should not play the game.”
”I'm going to kill you!”
”I think not,” Xizor said. He stepped in behind the wounded man, moving fast for one his size, and grabbed Hoff's head with both hands. ”You see, to contend with Xizor is to lose. As far as any reasonable person is concerned, attacking me will also be judged a suicide.”
With that, Xizor gave a sharp, hard twist. The crack of vertebrae was quite loud in the corridor.
”Clean up this mess,” he said to his guards. ”And inform the proper authorities of this poor young man's fate.”
He looked down at the body. He felt no remorse. It was like stepping on a roach. It meant nothing to him at all.
In his most private chamber, the Emperor sat staring at a life-size holographic recording: Prince Xizor breaking the neck of someone who'd attacked him in a protected corridor.
The Emperor smiled and turned in his floating repulsor chair to look at Darth Vader.
”Well,” the Emperor said, ”it seems that Prince Xizor has kept up his martial arts practice, does it not?”
Unseen under his armored mask, Vader frowned.
”He is a dangerous man, my master. Not to be trusted.”
The Emperor favored him with one of his unattractive, toothy smiles. ”Do not trouble yourself with Xizor, Lord Vader. He is my concern.”
”As you wish.” Vader bowed.
”One wonders how that hotheaded young man managed to get into a protected corridor,” the Emperor said. But there was no wonder in the Emperor's voice, none at all.
Vader's face froze. He knew. It was not possible, for the guard who had admitted the would-be a.s.sa.s.sin into the corridor was no longer among the living, and none but that single man had known who ordered him to allow the young man access-but somehow, the Emperor knew.
The Emperor's mastery of the dark side was great indeed.
”I will look into it, my master,” Vader said.
The Emperor waved an age-spotted hand in dismissal. ”Don't bother. There was no harm done. Prince Xizor was hardly at risk, after all, was he? He seems quite capable of taking care of himself-though I would hate to see anything happen to him as long as he is useful to us.”
Vader bowed again. As usual, the Emperor made his point in a subtle manner, but in such a way that it could not be ignored. There would be no further attempts to test Xizor's ability to defend himself against deadly attack.
Not yet, anyway.
Meanwhile, Vader would keep a close watch on the Dark Prince. The Falleen was all too devious, and whatever his twisted mind was up to would serve the Empire only if it served Xizor himself.
Xizor was, after all, a criminal. His morals were perverse, his ethics situational, his loyalties nonexistent. He would stop at nothing to get his way, and Vader was fairly certain in his own mind that what Xizor wanted did not include a galaxy in which there was room for Vader or the Emperor.
To contend with Xizor is to lose?We shall see.
4.
The landspeeder carrying them neared their destination, Leia saw Luke standing next to the house, watching. Odd, that he would somehow know of their approach.
Of course, out here in the middle of nowhere, nothing but sand and rocks and scrub, he could have seen them coming for a long way. It might not be the Force at work here but simple observation.
Chewie brought the speeder to a stop. Dust kicked up by the repulsors floated around them for a moment before the nearly constant wind swirled it away. This climate would leach you dry if you stayed out in it unprotected for too long. The dunes s.h.i.+fted and revealed more than a few crisp white bones of those who had thought they could move around the desert with impunity.
Luke smiled at her, and once again Leia felt that sense of confusion. She loved Han, but here was Luke, and she certainly felt a connection to him, too. Was it possible for a woman to love two men at the same time? She returned his smile. It was not the same with Luke as with Han, but there was something there.
”Hey, Luke,” Lando said.
Chewie added what had to be a greeting.
”Master Luke, it's so good to see you again,” Threepio said. His normally bright golden color was somewhat dimmed by a coat of dust. It seemed as if the protocol droid somehow attracted more dirt to himself than the rest of them did, though Leia felt a little gritty herself after the long ride from town.
Even Artoo whistled a happy greeting.
They all liked Luke. There was something about him that seemed so natural and so attractive. Maybe it was the Force flowing through him. Maybe it was because he seemed like such a nice person.
”We would have called,” Lando said, ”but we didn't want to risk having our com overheard. Chewie saw a couple of those new Imperial codecracker slicer droids in town; he thinks they might be monitoring local calls. No point in taking any unnecessary risks.”
Luke nodded. ”Good thought. Come on inside.”
There was a faint smell of something cooking in what had been Obi-Wan's simple home. The aroma reminded Leia of a time she'd gone camping as a girl and had sat around an open fire. She saw a small blast furnace set up on a table. Was Luke making some kind of jewelry?
They told Luke why they'd come. He was immediately excited. He was ready to hop into his X-wing and leave right now.
”Hold on a second,” Lando said. ”First we have to make sure Fett's there.
Then there's the little matter of the Imperial Navy.”