[Bounty Hunter Wars] - 03(128)
A few moments later, Neelah glanced toward the bridge’s main viewport. What was visible there was the fiery trace of the Hound’s Tooth, battered but still capable of traveling toward its hidden destination. But when Neelah closed her eyes, what she saw were the heat-shimmering expanses of the Dune Sea on Tatooine, and a nearly dead figure, skin and battle armor eroded, facedown in the sand.
She still couldn’t decide whether it might have been better if she had just left him lying there.
A woman talked to a bounty hunter.
Though maybe, thought Dengar, I’m not one anymore. It didn’t matter to him now; he was just glad to be alive.
“You came all that way, and found me.” Both he and Manaroo sat in the cockpit of his ship, the Punishing One. “And just in time.”
“It took some doing,” said his betrothed. “You weren’t easy to track down.”
She couldn’t have cut it any finer, either. Punishing One had shown up near the KDY construction docks just as Bossk’s former ship Hound’s Tooth was hit by the ragged chunk of metal that had come whirling toward it. Manaroo had witnessed the Hound shuddering from the impact; without a second thought, she had hit the Punishing One’s thruster controls to maximum, swooping into the debris and managing to grapple and lock on to the other ship’s cargo hold before it lost its remaining atmospheric pressure. They had both been aboard the
Punishing One when she slapped him back to full consciousness.
The relief at finding himself alive, and in the arms of the woman he loved, ebbed a little inside Dengar. “I’m sorry,” he said to her. “I failed you. I failed us both.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We’re right back where we started.” He shook his head ruefully. “We needed credits, a lot-and I didn’t get them. With everything I did, risking my life all that time being partners with Boba Fett, and we still can’t pay off that debt load I’m carrying.” He laid his head against Manaroo’s shoulder. “We’re no closer to the life we want than we were before.”
“You are an idiot.” She laughed and pushed him back to where she could look at him full in the face. “None of that matters as long as you’re alive.”
“That’s sweet of you to say so.”
“No, really; I mean it.” Manaroo’s expression turned earnest. “You don’t realize what you’ve done just by remaining alive. You’ve won; we’ve won.”
He looked at her in puzzlement. “What do you mean?”
“Before I came to find you,” said Manaroo, “I wagered on you. Every credit I could scrape up, every one I could borrow-I took us even deeper into debt in order to get the stake together. Then I went to the gambler Drawmas Sma’Da; he agreed to cover the wager I proposed. A wager on the survival of a bounty hunter. Your survival.” Her smile brightened her face. “Believe me, I got great odds on you. Nobody expected you to be able to live through being partners with Boba Fett. But you did!”
“But that would mean … you and I…”
“Yes!” Manaroo grabbed him by both shoulders. “I’ve already contacted Drawmas Sma’Da and claimed my winnings-our winnings. I only made the bet; you won it for us. The credits have been transferred into our holding account. It’s more than enough to pay off your debt load. Pay it off, and start us in whatever business we
want.” She leaned forward and kissed him, long and happily, then looked into his eyes again. “It’s our new life together. It’s come at last.”
“Yes …” Dengar nodded slowly. “You’re right…” An unbidden chill touched his heart as a shadow fell across the joy he knew he should feel. “If only … everything else works out…” He could hear the echoes of the dire warnings that Boba Fett had given him. “There’s still the Empire to worry about. How can anyone in the galaxy be happy with that looming over us?”
Manaroo kissed him on the brow this time, then leaned back and shook her head, still smiling. “You don’t know,” she said, “what I heard. Just a few minutes ago. I intercepted a comm unit transmission from the Rebel Alliance headquarters out at Sullust to the Scavenger Squadron’s commander here. The battle’s over.” Her voice dropped almost to a whisper. “And the Rebels won. It’s the Empire that was crushed … to a billion pieces …” She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his chest. “Everything will be different now.”
He could hardly believe it, yet he knew it was true. Everything, thought Dengar. All their plans and hopes-those could come true now. And he wouldn’t be a bounty hunter anymore …