“Perhaps you can.” Boba Fett shrugged. “It doesn’t matter to me, though.”
“And what… precisely … does matter to you?”
“Getting paid.”
“Ah…” The assembler’s head twisted about, as though trying to force its visitor into focus. “You, at least … have not changed …” The raised claw tip shook as it pointed toward Boba Fett. “But you know the rules… to be paid… one must first deliver… the merchandise…”
Boba Fett stepped to one side, at the same time yanking the end of the cord tied around the renegade stormtrooper’s wrists. Trhin Voss’on’t fell forward, his head almost striking the soft edge of the assembler’s thronelike nest. Before he could rise up onto his knees, Boba Fett put his boot between the man’s shoulder blades and shoved him back down.
“There you go,” said Fett. “Good enough?”
“How could … I ever… have doubted you?” Kud’ar Mub’at’s gaze rested upon the bounty hunter for a moment, then lowered again to the merchandise sprawled in front of him. The one leg’s clawed tip reached down and caught the point of Voss’on’t’s chin, raising the stormtrooper’s bruised and scowling face toward it. “Seems … very much … like the desired object…” The claw tip pushed at one side of Voss’on’t’s face, displaying its profile. “Though of course… verification… will be needed…”
“Don’t play games with me.” With one hand, Boba Fett reached out and grabbed the end of Kud’ar Mub’at’s raised forelimb. He pulled the assembler partway out of its nest, bringing the triangular face closer to the dark visor of his helmet. “If I say this is Trhin Voss’on’t-then that’s all the verification you need.” His gloved hand tossed the assembler back onto the deflated subnode. “I didn’t go to all the trouble that I did just to bring back the wrong piece of merchandise.”
“Of… course … not…” Kud’ar Mub’at slowly disentangled itself from its own unresponsive limbs. The effort caused a tremor to run through the assembler’s body, its globular abdomen pulsating visibly. “Would I doubt you … my esteemed Boba Fett?” The assembler’s head slowly shook back and forth. “My faculties are not so damaged… as for that… to be possible.” The lopsided imitation smile showed once again. “But I am not… the one… who is paying… for this merchandise …”
“You’re supposed to be holding the credits.”
“And so … I am … but there’s another involved … and he decides when you get paid …” Kud’ar Mub’at’s smile turned even uglier. “And if… you do…”
Those words were not to Boba Fett’s liking. His preference was always for straightforward business deals, delivery of merchandise followed by prompt payment of the bounty. This deal had become far more intricate than that-though he already had a notion about
who
was
behind
these complications. That’s why Prince Xizor showed up, decided Boba Fett. Somehow, it must have been the Falleen’s credits, rather than Emperor Palpatine’s, that got put up for the return of Trhin Voss’on’t. And Xizor would rather kill me than pay me.
“It looks like… you’re starting… to figure out a few things …” The halting words were tinged with Kud’ar Mub’at’s sly laughter. The assembler had a knack for knowing what another sentient creature was thinking, even if it had to read those thoughts through the dark visor of a Mandalorian battle-armor helmet. “About… what kind of job … you took on…”
Another possibility occurred to Boba Fett. Maybe, he thought, the Emperor did put up the bounty. Voss’on’t had been, after all, a servant of the Empire; the betrayal of his stormtrooper’s oath would have been more of an affront to Palpatine than anyone else. But the bounty that Palpatine had put up for him might very well have tempted even a creature with the vast resources of the Black Sun criminal organization at his command-such as Xizor. Or else Xizor wasn’t interested in the credits for bringing back Voss’on’t, but was more concerned about currying favor with one of the few beings in the galaxy more powerful than he. If Xizor was able to claim that he had tracked down and captured the renegade stormtrooper, his prestige at the Imperial court on the planet of Coruscant, and his influence with Palpatine, would overshadow that of Lord Vader. Boba Fett was more than aware of the stories of bad blood between Xizor and Vader; there was little possibility of two such rivals for the Emperor’s favor being anything other than enemies.