“Smart.” Suhlak nodded in appreciation. “I always like improving my odds.”
“Oh, I approve as well.” Balancesheet had scuttled back onto the metal ledge alongside the larger figures. “You can just draw the Kuat Drive Yards ship away from here, and I won’t have anyone firing laser cannons at me. Much better.”
“Right-and you won’t be tempted to find some way of turning me over to them.” Boba Fett gestured toward the transfer hatchway. “Now it’s really time to get going.”
Moments later, Neelah and Dengar were back aboard the Hound’s Tooth. In the forward viewport of its cockpit, the smaller shape of Suhlak’s modified Z-95 Headhunter had already shot away, detection by the approaching KDY cruiser blocked by the imposing bulk of Balancesheet’s freighter. The flare from the Headhunter’s main thruster engines dwindled to a streak of light, then was gone.
“Hold on-” In the pilot’s chair, Dengar grabbed the Hound’s thruster controls. “I’m not waiting around, either.”
Neelah braced herself in the corner formed by the cockpit’s two rear bulkheads. The sudden acceleration, as Dengar slammed the controls, forced her spine and the back of her head against the metal behind her. Another burst, from the ship’s side jets, threw her against the hatchway.
“What’re you doing?” She had grabbed the back of the pilot’s chair to keep from being knocked off her feet. Past Dengar, she could see out the forward viewport; a few remaining scraps of Kud’ar Mub’at’s once-living web scattered to either side of the Hound as it gained speed, heading for a larger shape ahead. “You’re going straight toward the KDY ship!”
“If I’m supposed to be chased by something with guns,” said Dengar between gritted teeth, “I want to make sure I’ve got their attention!”
The combined acceleration of the two ships ate up the distance between them; at the last possible moment, and as the cruiser fired off a bolt from its prow-mounted cannon, Dengar banked the Hound’s Tooth to one side and above the other ship’s hull, clearing it by what seemed to Neelah to be less than a few meters.
Below the Hound, the cruiser’s rear thruster exhausts shot past. Dengar kept the ship at full throttle, taking them out into empty space, with nothing but stars ahead of them. Reaching into one of the Trandoshan-sized grooves on the control panel, he toggled onto one of the display screens the image from the stern viewport. Far off in the distance was Balancesheet’s untouched freighter; closer was the KDY cruiser, wheeling itself around to follow them.
“Good.” Dengar backed off the thruster controls a fraction of a centimeter. “Now all we have to do is fire off our comm transmission-“
Neelah watched as he picked up the comm unit mike, then listened as he gave the rendezvous coordinates to the now-vanished Headhunter with Fett and Suhlak aboard. A moment later, the Hound’s Tooth was in hyperspace as well.
“Now we’re all set.” Dengar leaned back, hands behind his head.
“You think so, huh?” Neelah had managed to stay on her feet through the Hound’s violent maneuvers. Hands braced against the back of the pilot’s chair, she leaned down closer to Dengar. “Did you ever stop to think about what happens when we reach the Oranessan system? And if Boba Fett doesn’t show up? Then we’re supposed to just hang around there and wait, I suppose. Seems to me, that’s a perfect opportunity for this KDY cruiser to eventually catch up with us and sort us out into a lot of little pieces.”
Dengar’s face fell. “You’re right … I didn’t think about that.”
“Great.” Neelah straightened up and shook her head. “Boba Fett’s the one with a clear shot right now, and we’ve got the heavy artillery chasing us. That worked out, all right-for him. Too bad for us if anything happens to him-or he decides to change his plans again.”
“I guess …” Dengar had been hit hard by Neelah’s words; he spoke slowly, his thoughts obviously turned to the KDY ship, heading for the same destination. “I guess we’ll just deal with it when we get there …”
13
“Of course,” said the a-foreman of the Kuat Drive Yards’ construction docks, “we remain loyal to you personally. Even beyond our loyalty to the corporation itself.”
“That means a great deal to me.” Kuat of Kuat was not surprised to hear the statement, though. He had come down from the office in his private quarters, to which he normally would have summoned the various supervisors one by one, the single alpha and the ranks of beta team supervisors below him. This time-perhaps for the last time, Kuat knew-he preferred to meet with the crew leaders here among the docks, the true heart of the corporation he led. To find a devotion equal to his own was only fitting in such a place. “But you must remember,” continued Kuat, “loyalty to me is the same as loyalty to Kuat Drive Yards. I wouldn’t ask you to do anything that would not be best for it, and for all that we’ve worked so hard to create.”