[Bounty Hunter Wars] - 01(105)

“But first,” said Cradossk, “we’ll get rid of the obvious targets. The ones who have already announced their intentions, to either take over the Guild or split from it and set up a new bounty-hunters organization of their own. As if I’d ever let that happen.”



Zuckuss and the others returning from Circumtore had already heard about these developments over the Slave I’s comm unit. The breakaway faction was eager to get as many Guild members onto its side as possible-especially the great Boba Fett and anyone associated with him. Just having been on the team Fett had assembled for the Oph Nar Dinnid job meant that Zuckuss and IG-88 were now being heavily courted by the bounty hunters who wanted to go out on their own, with an organization that wasn’t controlled by the elders such as Cradossk.

Always pleasant to be wanted, he supposed-as long as Cradossk and his loyalists didn’t get the notion that he had switched allegiances.



“All of them?” It would be better, Zuckuss figured, if he kept the old Trandoshan brooding about creatures who weren’t here in his chamber with him. “I mean-like you said-some of them have been with the Bounty Hunters Guild for a long time. Since the beginning; or at least, since you took over.”



“Those are the ones I’m going to enjoy getting rid of.” An ugly smile showed on Cradossk’s face, as though he were already relishing the details of that process. “The younger bounty hunters could almost be excused for being stupid. They haven’t been around long enough to know any better. But the others, the veteran bounty hunters, who’ve thrown in their lot with them-they could have predicted how I’d react to their treachery, their assault upon the sanctity of our brotherhood.”



Zuckuss rolled his eyes upward; it was just as well that Cradossk couldn’t see that reaction. He’d found out that brotherhood with carnivores, at least of

the Trandoshan variety, was a negotiable concept.



“There’s

big

changes

coming,”

said

Cradossk. “Everybody who’s said that has been right-and will continue to be so. The Bounty Hunters Guild will be different from what it was before; this galaxy belongs to Emperor Palpatine now, and we’ll just have to deal with that. If this breakaway faction had just bided” their time and remained loyal to the Guild, they very likely would have gotten everything they want.”



“Except,” Zuckuss pointed out, “for getting rid of you.”



Cradossk shot him a glance of venomous fury, enough to push him back a step with its intangible force. “That’s right,” he growled. “That’s the one thing that’s not going to happen. Count on it. The Bounty Hunters Guild is going to be a lot smaller than it was before-a lot of dead wood is going to be cleared away. I admit I should’ve seen it sooner, myself; that some of the elders in the organization have lost their edge. Well, they’ll be gone before very much longer, whether they made the mistake of going with the breakaway faction or whether they’re still sucking up to me. There’s going to be a lot of blank spaces in the organizational chart; that means room for advancement. Room for someone … like you.” He reached over and tapped a claw against Zuckuss’s chest, right below the dangling tubes of the breathing apparatus. “A smart, young bounty hunter such as yourself could do pretty well. If you play your cards right.”



“I’ll … try to do my best.”



“Ah, don’t worry about it.” Cradossk pulled the claw back and scratched his scaly chin. “The main thing you have to do is-be careful who you choose to follow, and who you choose as your associates. You’ve made a good start by letting yourself become a tool of my intentions. Don’t screw it all up by thinking you can also be friends with … certain other parties.”



“Like who?”



Cradossk didn’t answer him for a moment. The old Trandoshan’s gaze drifted again to some inner point of contemplation.

“You know,” he

said

finally,

“as inevitable as I suppose this all is, it had to be brought to this crisis by one individual. If it hadn’t been for him-the Bounty Hunters Guild might have continued as it was for quite a while, Emperor or no Emperor.”



Zuckuss knew the individual to whom he referred. “You mean Boba Fett?”



“Who else?” Cradossk gave a slow nod, as though in admiration of that absent other. “It’s all because of him. Everything that has happened, and that is going to happen; all the changes, and all the deaths. Well … most of them, at any rate. He is the unaccountable factor that has been entered into the equation. It makes you wonder … what were his real reasons for journeying here.”