[Bounty Hunter Wars] - 03(66)

Dengar spoke up this time. “So what was that?”

“Simple. The two last jobs that Ree Duptom had taken on were obviously the ones I found aboard his ship Venesectrix-whoever the person was who had hired him to do something with the fabricated evidence about Prince Xizor’s involvement in the stormtrooper raid on Tatooine, that person must also have been the one that had arranged for the abduction and memory wipe of Neelah. But what my contact in the palace told me was that the person who paid for those jobs hadn’t hired Ree Duptom directly. He had used an intermediary-a go-between.”

“A go-between …” Suddenly, Dengar understood. “It must have been Kud’ar Mub’at! The assembler was the only creature who would have arranged that kind of job for Ree Duptom. But-“

“But it’s dead,” Neelah said flatly. “Kud’ar Mub’at is dead, remember? You were here when it happened.” She shook her head in disgust. “You’ve brought us all the way out here for nothing. The dead can’t tell us any secrets.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Boba Fett turned in the

pilot’s chair and pointed to the viewport behind him. “Look.”

The Hound’s Tooth had slowly moved farther into

the

tethered constellation of dead subnodes. Until it had at last come to the center of the torn strands of neural tissue.

In the scan of space visible outside the ship, a spiderlike corpse larger than all the others drifted, jointed legs tucked up beneath what was left of its globular abdomen. The hollow, blind eyes of Kud’ar Mub’at gazed back at the visitors to the cold vacuum of its tomb.

“We only need to bring the dead back to life.” Boba Fett spoke with calm assurance, just as though nothing would be easier. “And then listen …”





9


A woman talked to a traitor.

“You got what you wanted.” The traitor’s name was Fenald; in the dim, smoky light of the underground watering hole, his smile was both unpleasant and knowing, like an animal toying with its prey. “That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”

Kodir of Kuhlvult tried to keep her cloak from touching the damp walls of the establishment. She had known there were such places on the world of Kuat, but she had never been in one before. Her life had been spent in another world, one that was on the same planet but that might as well have been light-years away. That world contained all the luxury and power of Kuat’s ruling families; this one contained the planet’s human dregs.

A candle stub’s inadequate light flickered from a rough niche carved in the wall, merging her shadow and Fenald’s with the darkness in which other figures sat hunched and brooding over squat mugs of intoxicants. Even the air seeped rankly into Kodir’s lungs, every molecule laden with the soot that lined the low, crouch-inducing stone ceiling.

“I’ve got some of what I wanted.” Kodir leaned forward, arms on the sticky-wet table, so that Fenald would be able to make out her hushed words. “There’s always more.”

Fenald was a little drunk; he had obviously been waiting for her to show up for some time. ‘“Fraid I can’t help you much with the rest. I’m not exactly in an influential position these days, am I? I sort of spent all that on the last part of your plans.”

“Yes-” Kodir nodded inside the cloak’s loose hood that she had put on to conceal her identity from any prying scrutiny. “You’re quite an actor. Everybody was fooled. And they still are. So you did a very good job for me. I appreciate that.”

“Good,” said Fenald thickly. He regarded her from heavy-lidded eyes. “Because I need you to show that appreciation. I’m a little short on credits these days … what with having lost my job and all. And since you’ve got that job now-just what you wanted, huh?-then I think it’s only fair if you pay a little more than what you did up front. Like on a continuing basis. So I wouldn’t be tempted into talking to anybody about our little … performance, shall we say. It’d be a shame to spoil the show, while it’s still going on.”

“You’re right. It would be.” Kodir reached across the table and laid her hand on top of his. “But you know-there’s more than one way for me to show my appreciation.”

In his present state, it took Fenald a few seconds to understand what she meant. Then his smile grew wider and uglier. “Fine,” he said. “But that’ll have to be in addition to the credits.”

She didn’t say anything in reply, but leaned farther across the table, bringing her face closer to his. Just before their lips met, her other hand emerged from inside the cloak with something bright and glittering in her grip. Fenald’s eyes went round with shock as he felt the object move across his throat.