The man grunted. “Sorry. Thought you were one of those Whiphid brats. There’s a family of ‘em in the cantina. Been pounding the tables asking for their meal for the last half hour.” He jabbed his blade at the pile of guts on the table. “Whiphids are born hunters. Only like fresh meat.”
Glancing at the table again, Tash realized that the blood and body parts belonged to a slaughtered nerf, not a sentient being. Not that that makes things much better, she thought, shuddering at the sight of the animal’s remains. But at least she knew the manager wasn’t some kind of mass murderer.
The man plopped the heart on the table and wiped his hand on his smock. “Name’s Drudo. I run the End of the World. Wha’d’ya want?”
Tash took a deep breath. “I was in your cantina when a big man with a smashed face blew smoke at me. Then he threatened me. I want you to throw him out.”
Drudo laughed almost as loudly as the bully had. He stabbed the blade down into the table so that it stuck there, quivering. “Big guy, you said? Smashed face? Was he about this tall?” Drudo stood on his tiptoes and stretched his hand up as high as he could.
“Yes, that’s him,” Tash replied. She felt more confident. This Drudo was treating her like an adult, and it looked like he was going to help her.
“Can’t help ya,” Drudo said.
“What?” Tash blurted. “Why not? You own this place, and I’m a customer. That man was rude to me!”
“Listen, kid,” Drudo drawled. “You’re lucky all he hurt was your ego. You got any idea who he is?”
Tash bristled at the word kid, and shook her head. Drudo went on. “Well, I’ll tell you. That there’s Karkas, the most wanted criminal in about a hundred light-years.
He’s got the death sentence in at least two dozen star systems. Everyone-and I mean everyone-wants that guy dead or behind bars. The Rebellion is after him, and so is the Empire. They say he’s even wanted by a crime gang called Black Sun. You know how many people he’s murdered?”
Again, Tash shook her head.
“Exactly ninety-one,” Drudo said, glaring at Tash. “You know how I know?”
“How?” Tash asked.
“Because every time Karkas kills someone, he carves the letter K right on their forehead.” The cantina owner drew the symbol in the air just millimeters from Tash’s face. “Ninety-one times. Kid, that monster would swallow you whole and then forget he’d ever seen you. You’re lucky to have walked away with your life.”
“I agree,” said Hoole.
Tash jumped. She hadn’t seen or heard Hoole enter the room. He could be so quiet, sometimes she thought he floated across the floor.
Hoole put a hand on Tash’s shoulder. “I believe I requested that you return to the ship for your own safety.”
“Yes, but-” she started to say.
“I apologize for any inconvenience,” Hoole said to the cantina owner.
Drudo picked up his knife and started hacking into the organs the Whiphids had ordered for lunch. “No problem. Not like she was keeping me from anything interesting.”
Keeping one hand firmly on Tash’s shoulder, Hoole escorted her quickly through the cantina and back down the hallway.
“Uncle Hoole, I could have taken care of myself,” she insisted as they approached their ship.
“I doubt it,” the Shi’ido said sternly. “This is a most dangerous place.”
“If it’s so dangerous, why did you bring us here?”
The slightest of frowns crossed Hoole’s face. “An error. I was hoping to find someone with the skills to help us evade the Empire, but this place is too far out of the main space lanes. No one here has the equipment we need. We’ll have to go somewhere else for help. Somewhere I had hoped never to visit again.”
“Where?” Tash asked as they boarded the ship.
Hoole barely glanced at her. “To the palace of Jabba the Hutt.”
An hour later the Shroud was traveling smoothly through hyperspace on its way to the planet of Tatooine. Zak and Tash had been there once before, when Hoole needed a favor from the gangster called Jabba the Hutt. But back then, Tash had been preoccupied with other troubles, and she hadn’t paid much attention to the planet or its people.
That’s because Uncle Hoole always seems to know where we’re going, she thought. He’s always leading us around… like we were little kids. But I’ll bet if I knew more about Tatooine, I could help him.
Activating the computer in her cabin, Tash called up information on the planet Tatooine. There wasn’t much. It was a desert planet, a giant ball of dust spinning through space, with only a few small settlements and one busy spaceport called Mos Eisley.