The questions inside her head were going to be answered soon. Neelah didn’t know yet what those answers were going to be, but she had already started preparing herself for them. Whatever happens, she told herself again, I’m not going to be left behind. The bigger questions were all tied up with Boba Fett; if she was going to uncover both her past and her fate, she couldn’t let the bounty hunter slip away from her. Even if it meant risking her life to follow after him. Or losing her life, to find out those things.
Neelah turned and walked away from the pool of light toward the desert’s surrounding darkness. The answers might not be anywhere on this planet, but the night provided enough emptiness to hold her thoughts.
“Stay
right
there.”
A
man’s
voice.
“Don’t move.”
She found herself gazing into a scruff-bearded face, pockmarks and scars underneath the grime of hard, exposed traveling. One corner of his mouth lifted in a smile, exposing yellow teeth. Before she could react, the man had raised the muzzle of a blaster rifle, slung by a leather strap from his shoulder. At waist height, the weapon pointed straight at her.
“Nothing to worry about,” said the man. “This is just to show you that I’m serious. You be serious, too-no messing around-and nothing bad is gonna happen.”
“What do you want?” Neelah kept her voice low. She wasn’t sure which would be worse, alarming this person or the two bounty hunters somewhere behind her. Any one of them might start firing, just to quickly settle matters. If she was standing between the blasters and their targets, that would be just too bad. For her.
“Not you. At least, not right now.” The other corner of the man’s mouth lifted, slowly, as though dragged upward by an invisible hook. “Later maybe we can discuss some off-time interests. But right now I gotta go talk to your friends.”
Both Boba Fett and Dengar glanced over as Neelah walked back into the worklight’s circle. When they saw the man close behind her, Fett stood up, leaving the comm unit’s last bolt untightened. Den-gar reached for the blaster pistol in his holster, then stayed his hand without drawing the weapon.
“Well, here’s a happy little gathering.” The man lowered the barrel of his blaster rifle from where it had been pressing into the small of Neelah’s back. “Old friends like us really oughta try to get together more often.”
“Vol Hamame,” said Dengar with a sour grimace and a nod. “I thought I spotted you back there in Mos Eisley.”
“You should’ve said hello. Then I wouldn’t have had to come all the way out to this place. Not that it doesn’t have its charms.” The man looked around at the sloping hillsides, barely visible at the edge of the worklight’s glow. Then he turned back to the two bounty hunters. “But I’m more of a city kind of guy, if you know what I mean.”
“Then that’s where you should stay.” Boba Fett spoke up, his voice level and emotionless. “So you can mind your own business, instead of interfering with anyone else’s.”
Looking over her shoulder, Neelah saw the man called Hamame shake his head, feigning regret.
“Actually, this is my business.” Hamame used his free hand to point toward the bounty hunters. “That’s why I followed Dengar out here. Pretty easy, actually, what with that frapped-out swoop bike he was on. Just about fell asleep, it went so slow. But it was worth it, just to get here and find out that you really are alive, after all.”
Boba Fett looked over at Dengar. “Seems as though you didn’t do a very good job of keeping things secret.”
“Don’t blame him,” said Hamame. “Let’s just say I’ve got my contacts pretty well lined up in Mos Eisley. There isn’t much that I don’t hear about. I get the news on all the little stuff, so it wouldn’t have been very likely that I’d miss out on something big like this. There’s a whole galaxy out there that’s heard you’re dead; most creatures would figure you’d be just about digested inside the Sarlacc by now. Some creatures-I don’t know who-might be happy to hear you made it out. There’s a whole bunch of others who would probably be a lot less than happy when they find that you’re walking around again.”
“That’s their problem.” Fett gave a slight shrug. “And it might be a while before they find out, anyway. Especially since you won’t be telling them.”
“Hold it right there.” With one quick motion, Hamame pushed Neelah aside as his other hand swung the blaster rifle up into firing position. The shove was hard enough to send her sprawling onto her knees, the sand and gravel scraping her palms raw. “Get your hands up.” He gestured with the rifle’s muzzle. “Step away from that box.”