[Bounty Hunter Wars] - 01(122)

of

the

many semilegitimate businesses that abounded in Mos Eisley. “The security codes have been sieved out, and you now have full access to the ship designated as Slave I. After you pay me, of course.”



That detail was already taken care of. Bossk transmitted an account transfer order to Mos Eisley’s black-market escrow exchange, then fired up the primary navigation engines. In the time it would take for him to maneuver the Hound’s Tooth over to the other ship, the D/Crypt tech would already have received the payment confirmation.



“Good thing you didn’t keep me waiting.” The D/Crypt technician was a wizened little humanoid, the top of his bald head barely coming up to Bossk’s chest. “I don’t like to be kept waiting. If you had kept me waiting, I would have charged you triple overtime.”



“Don’t sweat it.” Bossk let the transfer connection, between his own Hound and the Slave I, seal shut behind him. “I would’ve paid.” He glanced around the bleakly functional confines of Slave I’s cargo hold; the bars of the merchandise cages were uncomfortably familiar to him from the last time he had been aboard the ship. The hinges of the main cage’s door had been repaired, but still showed signs of the laser bolt that D’harhan had unleashed upon them. That had been a long time ago, when Boba Fett had still been alive and busily engaged upon breaking up the old Bounty Hunters Guild. “Everything’s clear?”



“As far as I can determine, it is.” With his high-power trifocals slid up onto his pink, unsunned brow, the D/Crypt tech busily packed up his equipment cases.



“What’s that mean?”



The tech blinked myopically at Bossk. “Nothing’s perfect. Not in this galaxy, at least.” He gave a shrug with his thin shoulders. “Ninety-nine percent, though; I can guarantee you that much. A less than one-percent chance that there’s any security device aboard this ship that I wasn’t able to locate and deactivate.”



“Yeah?” Bossk looked back at him sourly. “And what’s the payoff on the guarantee? Some booby trap takes my head off-you’re going to refund my credits?”



“I’ll put a flower on your grave.” The D/Crypt tech clicked

shut

the last of the case

latches

and straightened up. “If there’s enough of you left to put in one.”



When

the

technician had boarded his

minuscule shuttlecraft, then disconnected it from Slave I and headed back down to Tatooine, Bossk turned from the transfer port and drew his blaster from its holster. Even a one-percent chance of something going wrong was enough to make him nervous. Warily, he stepped forward into the ship’s cargo hold. He doubted if there would be anything of value to be found here. Grasping one of the rungs with his free hand, he climbed up into the cockpit.



From the forward viewport, Bossk could see his own ship and the landing claw tethering it to Slave I. The urge to abandon his investigation and return to that known safety was almost overwhelming; every particle of this craft, including the recycled air seeping into his lungs, was imbued with its departed owner’s invisible presence. Boba Fett might be dead, but the memory of him was still intimidating. The grip of the blaster sweated in Bossk’s hand; he half expected to glance over his shoulder and see that narrow-visored gaze watching him from the hatchway.



He didn’t sit down in the pilot’s chair. Instead, he leaned over it and punched out a few quick commands on the ship’s computer. Those were credits well spent, decided Bossk, when he saw the file directory appear on the screen in front of him. The D/Crypt technician had cracked and stripped out the password protection; all of Boba Fett’s secrets lay there exposed, ready for his careful examination.



Some of the nervousness drained from Bossk’s spine and muscles. If there had been a trap remaining, he would have instinctively expected it to be here, guarding all that was most precious to Fett, the essence of his devious mind and hard-won experience. Bossk reached out and blanked the computer screen; going through all those files would take a long time. He’d have to bring over a mem device from the Hound’s Tooth so he could do a core dump and take everything back to his own ship, to be sorted out at his leisure. It might take years. But then-Bossk smiled to himself-I’ve got the time. And Boba Fett doesn’t. Not anymore.



The blaster went back into its holster. Bossk turned away

from

the cockpit controls, feeling genuinely relaxed. The barve was dead. In a business where sheer survival was the biggest part of winning, Boba Fett had finally come up a loser. The warm glow of victory, like a blood-rich meal slowly dissolving in his gut, filled Bossk and radiated through every fiber of his being.