Part 5 (1/2)

”Where is he now?”

”Who knows? He took his X-wing offplanet only a short time ago.”

Xizor leaned back. ”Hmm. It probably means nothing, but perhaps these things will be of use to me. If any of these people return to Tatooine, I would greatly appreciate knowing it.”

”Certainly, Prince Xizor.”

Xizor nodded. He was essentially done, but he continued to carry on a conversation with the Hutt, pretended that Jabba's opinion was worthwhile and that he needed to hear it. He let it run for another ten minutes, asked a few questions about Imperial troop movements and naval deployment so that Jabba would think that was the reason he'd been summoned. When he had done what he thought was enough of it, Xizor smiled. ”Old friend, this information is most confidential,” he said. ”It must remain between us. Your cooperation will be suitably... appreciated.”

The Hutt mirrored Xizor's smile. Sometimes the' touch of a soft word was more powerful than the impact of a hard staff. Jabba was not stupid, and he knew what happened to anyone who crossed the Dark Prince. But-let Jabba think instead he was privy to some vital bit of business, some twisted plot, that he was a trusted confidant. It would do the Hutt's reputation no harm if his underlings and enemies thought he had the ear of the leader of Black Sun. Fear was good; fear and greed were better.

Xizor nodded and took his leave.

His spies had learned that Darth Vader had turned Solo, a small-time smuggler and sometime Alliance pilot, over to the notorious bounty hunter Boba Fett on Bespin. Sooner or later, Fett would show up on Tatooine to deliver Solo and collect his credits. But Xizor's spies indicated that Fett's s.h.i.+p, Slave I, was not on Tatooine. And so far those spies had not been able to locate the bounty hunter.

Well. It was a large galaxy, and such searches took time.

But he was willing to bet that Skywalker knew about the bounty on his friend and had returned to Tatooine to wait for Fett to show up. That he had left could indicate a lot of things. Perhaps he had gotten tired of waiting, though Xizor did not think that likely. Or perhaps he had pressing business unconnected to Solo. Or perhaps he had, through the Alliance, discov-ered where his friend was. That was possible, given that the Alliance's contacts were fairly extensive and included much of the famed Bothan spynet.

Well. There was nothing to be done about it, if that was the case. But he could increase his agents' chances of finding Skywalker.

He reached his sanctum and called Guri. She glided in silently.

”Put out the information that those seeking to claim the reward for Skywalker would be advised to locate the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Sooner or later, Skywalker will likely do so, and appropriate plans can be made for that instance.”

Guri nodded, not speaking.

Xizor smiled.

Leia sat in the Millennium Falcon's lounge, watching Chewie and Threepio play on the hologame board. Lando was in the galley making something that smelled awful for their dinner. Luke sat next to Leia, cleaning the lenses on Artoo's electrophoto receptors. Luke's X-wing was locked onto the Falcon's hull-the trip was possible in the fighter, but it was also a long jump to make without sleeping or eating or using the 'fresher. The Falcon hummed along through hypers.p.a.ce on autopilot, running much better than it had any right to, looking as it did. The first time Leia had seen the Corellian freighter she'd almost laughed. The s.h.i.+p appeared to have been rescued from a sc.r.a.p pile. But while it had a few glitches, it was obvious the craft had been heavily modified to fly faster and shoot harder than the Corellian designers had ever intended. Lando had owned the s.h.i.+p once, until he lost it to Han in a sabacc game, Han-No, don't think about him now. Chewie said something that sounded angry and impolite.

Threepio said, ”Well, I'm sorry, but it was a fair move. It's not my fault you didn't see it.”

Chewie said something else.

”No. I'm not going to take it back. And don't threaten me. If you pull my arm off, I won't play with you anymore.”

Chewie muttered something, then leaned back on his seat and looked at the game board.

Leia smiled. Like a couple of small children, the Wookiee and the protocol droid.

She turned and watched Luke as he cleared the micrometeor dust from Artoo. Luke wanted to rescue Han as much as she did. Which was interesting, given that she'd felt the compet.i.tion from them for her attention. A lesser man than Luke might take advantage of a rival's absence, but so far he had not. That was the thing about Luke. He wanted to win, but he wanted to win fairly.

Lando came into the lounge bearing a tray with several steaming plates and bowls upon it. ”Dinner is served,” Lando said. He smiled. ”Giju stew.” They all glanced at him, then went back to what they were doing.

”Don't everybody rush in at once,” Lando said. His smile faded.

To Leia, the stuff on the tray looked like a cross between melted boot plastic and fertilizer, with a sprinkling of pond sc.u.m over it. Stank like she imagined that combination would smell, too.

”Come on, I spent an hour in the galley fixing this. Everybody dig in!”

Chewie said something that didn't sound particularly complimentary.

”Hey, pal, you don't like it, you cook next time.”

Luke looked up from his work on Artoo, made an oh-yuck face. ”Giju stew?”

he said. ”It looks like old boot plastic and fertilizer drenched in pond sc.u.m. Smells like it, too-”

Leia chuckled.

”Fine, fine!” Lando said. He put the tray down in the middle of the hologame board. The tiny game figures suddenly seemed to be buried to their hips or chests in the steaming goo. ”Don't eat it, that'll just mean more for me.”

Lando s.n.a.t.c.hed up one of the bowls and dipped aspoon into it, shoved the spoon into his mouth. ”See?” he said around the mouthful of stew. ”It tastes great, it-” He stopped talking. The expression on his facewent from irritated to amazed, slid to horror, then right into disgust.

He forced himself to swallow. Then he blew a quick breath and shook his head. ”Oh, man. Maybe I did use a little too much Boontaspice,” he offered. ”Maybe I'll just open a couple of packets of beans for dinner.”

Luke and Leia laughed at the same instant. Looked at each other. There were worse places she could be than with herfriends, Leia decided. A lot worse places.

6.

When the Millennium Falcon broke from hypers.p.a.ce in the vicinity of the gas giant Zhar, Luke used one of the vacuum suits to transfer to his X-wing for the rest of the trip. Lando and Leia would have preferred that they all stay together, but if any trouble showed up, better there were two armed s.h.i.+ps to meet it than one, Luke argued. They saw his point.

After he and Artoo were in the fighter, Luke felt a lot better. Yeah, Lando was a good pilot, but Luke trusted his own skills more. Not that he was necessarily a better flier-though he was pretty sure he was-but at least he didn't have to sit and watch. The vac-suit made things a little tight, though.

He kept the little s.h.i.+p close to the Falcon as they entered the system.

What was Boba Fett doing this far out on the Rim? It didn't seem to be on the way to anywhere.

He saw the blips on his scope about the time he got the call over his comm.

”Hey, Luke! Welcome to the end of the galaxy.”

”Hey, Wedge! How's it going, buddy?”

”So-so. Another day, another credit-before taxes, of course.”

Luke smiled. Wedge Antilles had been one of the Alliance pilots who survived the attack on the Death Star.He could fly, and he was braver than he had any right to be. Good old Wedge.

Here they came. A dozen s.h.i.+ps like his own.

”Good to see you again, Luke. I hope you've got something interesting cooked up for us; things have been a little slow lately.”

”Well, if you want to talk about bad cooking, you'll need to speak to Lando-”

”I heard that,” Lando said over the comm.