[Bounty Hunter Wars] - 03(64)

“That was how he got kicked out of the old Bounty Hunters Guild.” Dengar gave a slow nod. “He got a couple of other bounty hunters killed by circulating stories that they had been the ones responsible for certain double crosses that went down. They weren’t scams that he’d run, but shifting the blame let some other well-paying, weaselly creature get away.”

“A time-honored tradition,” said Boba Fett drily. “And one which Ree Duptom had been making a good part of his living at. Given his reputation for being able to do that sort of thing, someone had obviously engaged his services in some kind of scheme to falsely link Prince Xizor with the stormtrooper raid on Tatooine in which Luke Skywalker’s aunt and uncle were killed. But two other deaths put an end to that plot: Duptom’s own, when he was fried by the meltdown of his ship’s engine core, and Xizor’s. Whatever the intent had been in trying to link Xizor with the stormtrooper raid, it was hardly worth following through on it once he had been killed as well. The only thing left from the plot was the fabricated

evidence contained in the cargo droid, and that was in my possession once I came across Duptom’s ship drifting in space.”

“For which, I’m sure, you’d find some good use.” Unfolding an arm, Neelah held up two fingers. “But you said there was something else you found on that ship. What was the other item?”

“Perhaps this one will compel more of your attention. Ree Duptom might have been dead-” Boba Fett shrugged. “No great loss; but there was still another creature alive aboard the Venesectrix. In the cargo hold’s cages, I found a young female human. Not in the best of physical condition-Duptom wasn’t as careful about maintaining his merchandise as I am-but at least still breathing. She was still unconscious, the aftereffect of a rather thorough memory wipe that she had received …”

Dengar heard a sudden gasp come from Neelah. He looked over at her, standing next to him, and saw that her eyes had gone wide with surprise.

“Good,” said Boba Fett. “I see that I have managed to pique your interest. That moment aboard Ree Duptom’s Venesectrix was indeed our first encounter. One that still remains as mystifying to me as it undoubtedly is to you. I could only assume that a memory-wiped female human had been in Duptom’s possession as part of his various business enterprises-though not, of course, as an item of hard merchandise for which a bounty had been posted. While it was possible that Ree Duptom might have gotten wind of some paying gig before I had, enough time had passed-as was indicated by the advanced state of decomposition of his corpse-so that I would have heard of anyone offering a bounty for the return of a person matching your physical description. That was not the case, so obviously Duptom had been involved in some other, probably less savory, type of business. But what that would have been, I had no clue-when you regained consciousness, you couldn’t even tell me your name.”

“I remember …” Neelah’s eyes were even wider than before. She nodded slowly. “Not my name … that’s still lost… but I remember now, that was the first time I laid eyes on you. Not in Jabba the Hutt’s palace, but in a ship out in space.” Neelah touched the side of her head with trembling fingertips. “It was like I woke up there … and there were the bars of the cage, and I felt so cold …”

“That was because you were dying. Whoever had done the memory-wipe job on you had been both thorough and brutal.” Boba Fett’s voice was flat and unemotional. “They didn’t leave you in good shape. Plus you had been unconscious for some time, without food or water, after Ree Duptom had managed to get himself killed. If I hadn’t taken care of you and nursed you back to a reasonable semblance of health, you would have died there aboard the Venesectrix-or on Slave I after I had brought you over to my ship. So you might want to regard whatever you did for me, back in the Dune Sea on Tatooine, as just repayment in kind.”

“But you didn’t save me … because you felt sorry for me…”

“And pity didn’t motivate you either, when you found me near death.” Boba Fett regarded her coldly, but with no tone of accusation in his voice. “It was a simple business matter for both of us. You thought I might be of some use to you, just as long before that, I calculated the potential for turning a profit from you. And”-he turned his head slightly, as though studying her from another angle-“we both might be correct yet. But at the time I found you, that was an unknown quantity, just as it remains now. I have my standards, though; no piece of possibly valuable merchandise has ever died while in my keeping, other than when they’ve managed to commit suicide. That, I could tell, wasn’t going to happen in your case; even starving and dehydrated, suffering from a traumatic memory wipe, enough of your inner spirit remained, fighting to survive. Once you were out of physiological danger, it was just a matter of stowing you someplace where you’d be out of danger while I determined the best way of profiting from your situation.”