[Bounty Hunter Wars] - 01(130)

“Now what?” Neelah looked around the rough-hewn rock as the barrage of blaster fire lit up the space. All the other weapons in Boba Fett’s carefully hidden stash had already been dragged outside with the other gear. Both Fett and Dengar had their spines planted against opposite walls of the cave, leaning forward just enough to get off a few quick shots before snapping their heads back from the bolts that sizzled past them. “We’re stuck here-this hole doesn’t go anywhere!”



“It wasn’t meant to.” Boba Fett didn’t look back around at her. “You don’t get anywhere by running away from creatures like these.”



“Good theory.” Across the cave, Dengar held his blaster rifle close against his chest, watching the shifting shadows in the darkness outside, waiting for another chance at a well-aimed shot. “Gets a little tight when you try to put it into practice.”



Boba Fett gave a small shrug, his shoulders scraping against the rock behind him. “Don’t worry about it.” His voice remained as calm and drained of apparent emotion as before. “Everything’s under control.”



“What are you talking about?” From the back of the cave, Neelah stared at the bounty hunter in dismay. She had already come to the limit of the space, no more than a few meters from the opening in the hillside’s rocky slope. “There’s no way out of here! They’ve got us pinned down-they can either wait us out, till your blasters are exhausted, or they can call in more of their friends.” A couple more shots blazed through the middle of the cave, striking the roof above her and showering down a rain of scorched rock shards. “Either way, they’ve got us!”



“As I said, don’t worry.”



The bounty hunter’s calm response infuriated Neelah. The thought of dying in this hole-or worse, being dragged out of it after the pair outside had finished off Boba Fett and Dengar-infuriated her. I didn’t escape from Jabba’s palace to wind up like this. There were still too many things she didn’t know, too many questions without answers-her real name, where she had come from, how she had gotten here-to let bleed away into the sand. If there had been any chance of pulling it off, she would have grabbed one of the blasters out of the others’ hands and made a break, firing and charging headlong at the two-man siege force outside. Anything would be better than waiting here for the inevitable.



Dengar turned his face away from the cave opening. “If you’ve got some kind of plan-” The blaster rifle’s muzzle touched his chin as he held the weapon in a diagonal line across his chest. “I’d appreciate being let in on it, too.”



“If there was anything you could do about it, one way or the other, I might tell you.” Boba Fett fired a quick couple of bursts outside, before glancing over at Dengar. “But there isn’t. All you have to do is wait. And you’ll see.”



“That’s great,” said Neelah sourly. She had to raise her voice over the noise of another fusillade streaking through the dark and carving the back of the cave out in sparks. Her disgust had reached the point where nothing, not even laser bolts, could make her flinch. “All this time I thought you were recovering from what happened to you-only it turns out that your brains are still fried.”



Boba Fett made no reply. “Hold your fire,”

he instructed Dengar.



“But they’ve come in closer.” Dengar used the rifle muzzle to point outside. “The one that was out in the dunes-he’s moved up. He’s got an even better angle now.”



“That’s all right. I want the two of them together. Or close enough.”



“Why?” Dengar looked puzzled. “You think you can take both of them out? I can cover you if you want to take a shot at it.”



“That won’t be necessary.”



The flashes from the weapons outside were enough for Neelah to tell that Dengar was correct; the two besiegers were now within a couple of meters of each other, crouching down behind a shallow lip of rock. From there, they would be able to fire straight into the cave.



“Don’t bother trying to talk to him.” Neelah nodded toward Boba Fett. “He’s so far gone he can’t tell when there’s no way-“



A sudden noise interrupted her. From above, as though the night itself had split open; the sound grew from a distant shriek to a roar that spanned the audible frequencies. The cave itself-vibrated, as had the one containing the Sarlacc’s still-living segment;

dust sifted from cracks spidering overhead, then pebbles and finally broken rocks large enough to cut Nee-lah’s arm as she shielded her brow. From underneath her forearm, she could see Dengar leaning forward, blaster rifle lowered, gazing outside in wonderment.