[Bounty Hunter Wars] - 03(104)

“There’s another possibility.” It was one that had been gnawing away for a while now, even before they had caught sight of the Oranessan system approaching in the distance. “The worst one.”

“What’s that?”

“Just this,” said Neelah grimly. “That nothing happened to Boba Fett on the way out to Tatooine, and nothing happened to them on the way here. And nothing happened on Tatooine, either.”

Dengar’s brow creased with puzzlement. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t you get it? What if Boba Fett gets all the way to Tatooine, finds this Bossk creature-and Bossk doesn’t have this fabricated evidence that was taken out of that cargo droid, back on Fett’s ship.” Neelah’s voice tightened in her throat. “Maybe it doesn’t exist anymore. Maybe Bossk got rid of it; maybe he decided it wasn’t worth anything, and he destroyed it somewhere along the way.”

“You’re forgetting something,” said Dengar. “Bossk has already put the word out that he’s sitting on this stuff, looking for a buyer for it.”

“That doesn’t mean he has it.” Neelah shook her head in disgust. “Boba Fett isn’t the only bounty hunter with a devious mind. Bossk could’ve gotten rid of, or lost track of it in a hundred different ways, before he had any idea of its value. Then when he heard that Kuat of Kuat was looking for it and was ready to pay a high price for it, he might have decided to see if he could scam the money for it from Kuat, without actually delivering it. Or Bossk might have thought that if it was so valuable, the prospect of getting it back would be a perfect enticement for luring Boba Fett within striking range-you know what kind of a grudge Bossk has against Fett. This might’ve been Bossk’s way of finally settling up old scores-or at least trying to.”

“Yeah … maybe so.” Dengar slumped in the pilot’s chair, looking deflated. “I hadn’t thought about anything like that. But I guess you’re right. It’s possible.”

Neelah had been doing plenty of thinking like that. All the way from Balancesheet’s freighter and the drifting fragments of old Kud’ar Mub’at’s web, her mind had been ceaselessly turning over one bleak idea after another. All of them processed out as the complete dashing of her hopes, of any chance of answering the remaining questions about her past. Those hopes had been raised from the dead, more thoroughly than Dengar and Boba Fett had revived Kud’ar Mub’at, by the assembler’s successor and its surprise about the fabricated evidence being back on Tatooine. Whether that was true or not, it had at least renewed Neelah’s faith in there being still one more slender thread that would lead them out of the blind alley to which all their searching up until now had brought them.

But if, as she couldn’t keep herself from fearing, the last possible clue no longer existed-if it had been a fool’s errand on which Boba Fett had gone to Tatooine-then she had no idea of where she would be able to turn next. In a galaxy consumed with the struggle between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, the chances were slim for someone with only a name as the key to the mysteries of her past, a name and its connection to the ruling families of the planet Kuat. For all she knew, it might have been the powerful Kuat of Kuat who had ordered the wiping of her memory and the abduction from her homeworld. And she’d already seen evidence enough, in the bombing raid on the Dune Sea, that Kuat was not someone who would forgo murderous violence to achieve his ends. If she were to blithely show up on the planet Kuat, seeking whatever position in its ranks of nobles that had been stolen from her, she might well be placing herself in the hands of those who had sought to eliminate her once before. Kuat might indeed be the one place where the answers could be found to the mysteries surrounding her-but it could just as easily be where certain death awaited her. Without Boba Fett returning from Tatooine with the fabricated evidence that had been hidden in the cargo droid aboard his ship, she had no chance of knowing which would be the case.

He either meets up with us here, she thought, gazing above Dengar’s head toward the viewport, and has the evidence with him …

Neelah left the thought uncompleted in her mind. It was something she didn’t want to contemplate any further.

And-she realized-she didn’t have to.

“Look.” Neelah pointed to the viewport. “Right there…”

Dengar had been monitoring the relative position

of the KDY security cruiser behind them, on the display from the Hound’s rear scanner. He looked up and saw the bright spot of light in the midst of the field of stars. Bright and growing brighter, straight ahead of them.