[Adventure Journal](5)

“Interesting,” Corran said. “Possibly significant, too.

Brown Jacket just waltzed up to Sajsh’s booth and tried to make a delivery to Borbor Crisk.”

“Did he, now,” Hal said thoughtfully. “Have Crisk and Zekka Thyne patched up their differences while I wasn’t looking?”

“If they did, I wasn’t looking either,” Corran told him.

“Either Brown Jacket and his pals are incredibly stupid, or else something very odd is going on.”

“Either way, I doubt Thyne will simply pass on it,” Hal said.

“Did Brown Jacket happen to mention where they could be contacted?”

“No, but Sajsh has that covered,” Corran said. “He said they might want the owner of the booth next to his and suggested they come back about seven.”

“Where they’ll be asked to have a quiet conversation with a group of Black Sun heavies.” Hal stretched his neck to peer over the crowd.

“Well, well-the plot thickens.

Look who our innocents have hooked up with.”

Corran rose up on tiptoes. There was Brown Jacket and his friends; and with them - “I’ll be shragged,” he breathed. “Is that Boba Fett?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Hal said. “Possibly Jodo Kast, though I’d have to get a closer look at the armor to be sure.”

“Well, whoever it is, we’ve definitely moved into the big time,” Corran pointed out. “Mandalorian armor doesn’t come cheap.”

“When you can find it at all,” the elder Horn agreed.

“This is getting odder by the minute. I take it you’ve had some thoughts already?”

“Only one, really,” Corran said. The group was moving off again, and he and his father set off to follow. “Thyne wouldn’t be stupid enough to kill them out of hand, certainly not until he knows who they are and what their connection is to Crisk. That probably means bringing them to the fortress.”

“And you think you might be able to invite yourself along?”

“I know it’s risky-” “‘Risky’ isn’t exactly the word I had in mind,” Hal interrupted. “Getting into the fortress is only the first step, you know. You think you’ll be able to simply march up to Thyne, slap the restraints on him

in the name of Corellian Security, and march him out?”

“We do have the legal authority to do that, you know,” Corran reminded him.

“Which means nothing at all inside his stronghold,” Hal countered.

“You have any idea how many CorSec agents have gone after top Black Sun lieutenants like Thyne and simply vanished?”

Corran grimaced. “I know,” he said. “But that’s not going to happen this time. And if getting into the fortress is only the first step, it still is the first step.”

The elder Horn shook his head. “‘Risky’ still doesn’t begin to cover it. For starters, we don’t even know what game Brown Jacket and his Mandalorian friend are playing.”

“Then it’s time we found out,” Corran said. “Let’s stay close and see if we can find an opportunity to introduce ourselves.”

They had gone perhaps two blocks-though where Kast was leading them Trell hadn’t the faintest idea-when they heard the shout.

“What was that?” Riij demanded, looking around.

“There,” Pairor rumbled, pointing his thick central finger to the left.

“Argument starting.”

Trell craned his neck. There was an open-air tapcafe that direction, with a long serving bar at the rear and perhaps twenty small tables spread out in the open space in front of it beneath a wide, Karvrish-style woven-leaf canopy. A slightly built man wearing a proprietor’s apron was standing in the middle of the dining area, a half dozen large and rough-looking men wearing mercenary shoulder patches looming in a threatening circle around him. The chairs from a nearby table were scattered back or lying on the ground, indicating a quick and unruly departure from them. “I think the argument’s over,” he said. “It’s gone straight to trouble now.”

“Come on,” Riij said, angling that direction. “Let’s check it out.”

“Leave it alone,” Kast ordered. “It’s none of our business.”

But Riij and Pairor were already heading off through the crowd.

“Blast,” Trell growled. Stupid idealistic gornt-brained Rebels-“Come on, Maranne.”

A line of onlookers had started to form at the edge of the tapcafe by the time he and Maranne broke through the stream of pedestrians.

Riij and Pairor were already to the mercenaries, who had opened their circle around the tapcafe proprietor in order to face this new distraction.