“Thank you, Your Highness,” Durga said. “Your concern honors me, and your friendship pleases me.”
For the first time, Xizor smiled faintly, then he reached out and broke the connection. The moment the prince’s holo-image vanished, Durga let himself slump. He felt exhausted after fencing with the Falleen prince, but congratulated himself that he’d held up rather well.
Ylesia. He wants a share in Ylesia, he thought. Well, Xizor could want all he pleased, but wanting wasn’t the same thing as getting, as every sentient child soon discovers.
If Xizor knew that I had authorized another colony on Ylesia, and sent survey teams to Nyrvona to begin choosing the best spot for a new Pilgrim planet, he’d be twice as eager, he thought. Good thing he’d been very closemouthed about his ambitions for the new Besadii expansion.
Durga had a sudden, vivid vision of a whole handful of Ylesias, worlds where raw spice was turned into pure profit by contented, happy Pilgrims.
Perhaps I could even expand into the Core Worlds, he thoughtˇ Palpatine would not stop me, he values the slaves I sell his minions. ˇ..
The Hutt lord smiled, and went gliding back to his interrupted dinner, appetite fully restored.
Far away, on Imperial Center, Prince Xizor turned away from his comm unit.
“Not just a crafty Hutt, but an eloquent one, it seems,” he commented to his human-replica assassin droid, Guri. “Durga is proving more of a challenge than I expected.”
The HRD—who bore the seeming of a surpassingly beautiful human woman—made a very subtle movement of one hand. Yet the meaning—and menace—in her gesture were unmistakable. “Why not eliminate him, then, my prince. Easy enough to do …. ” Xizor nodded. “For you, Guri, not even a Hutt’s thick skin would prove a challenge, I know,” he said. “But killing a potential opponent is not nearly so efficient and effective as making him a dedicated subordinate.”
“The young Besadii lord’s control of his clan and his kajidic is still tenuous, by all report, my prince,” Guri said. “It is possible that Jabba the Hutt might prove a better candidate. Xizor shook his head.
“Jabba has been of use to me in the past,” he said. “We have traded information—almost all of which I already knew— and I have done him some favors. I would rather have him beholden to me, so that when I choose to have him return these favors, he will do so with …
enthusiasm. Jabba respects Black Sun.
Fears it, too, though he would never admit it.” Guri noddedˇ Most beings in the galaxy who had any sense—and any knowledge of Black Sun, which the vast majority of sentients did not— were afraid of Black Sun.
“Also, Jabba is too … independent, too used to having his own way,” Xizor continued, thoughtfully. “On the other hand, Durga is equally intelligent, and, unlike Jabba, he is still young enough to be effectively … molded … into what I wish him to be. He would make a valuable addition to Black Sun. Hutts are ruthless and venal.
In short, ideal.”
“Understood, my prince,” she replied, composedly. Guri was always composed. She was, after all, an artificial creation—though she was as far above most of the clanking, clumsy droids most people thought of when they thought of droids as Prince Xizor was above one of the slithering creatures that were his distant evolutionary cousins.
Xizor walked over to his form-chair and dropped into it, stretching almost lazily while the chair hastily conformed to his every move.
Thoughtfully, he stroked one sharp-nailed finger down his cheek, the talon barely grazing his greenish skin. “Black Sun needs a foothold in Hutt space, and Durga is my best chance of gaining it. Also …
Besadii controls Ylesia, and that operation, though small in scale compared to most of Black Sun’s enterprises, impresses me. Lord Aruk was a most cunning old Hutt. He would never work for me … but his son may be a different matter.”
“What is your plan, my prince?” Guri asked.
“I shall give Durga time to realize just how much he needs Black Sun,” Xizor replied. “Guri, have Durga’s investigations into Aruk’s death closely monitored. I want our operatives to stay ahead of Durga’s own knowledge of the forensics team’s findings. I wish to know how Aruk died before the Besadii lord does.”
She nodded. “As you wish, my prince.”
“And if the discoveries of Durga’s forensics team provide links back to Aruk’s murderer—most likely Jiliac or Jabba—then I want that link eliminated in the most subtle way. I do not want Durga to realize that he is being deliberately thwarted in his search for his father’s killer …