Fett was glad he worked in a trade where the rules were nice and clear.
Then Leia said, “Jacen! Jacen, this is urgent-” and the room fell silent. Fett killed the audio on the holoscreen. Mirta stared at him, unfathomable. Listening to one side of the conversation was agonizing. What does she look like now? Is she married? Does she have a family? How will I get her to listen to me?
And what am I going to say to her?
“Jacen,” said Leia. “Thrackan’s dead … don’t ask … no, ask your father about that …”
“Ailyn,” Mirta interrupted. “Ask him about Ailyn.”
Leia nodded emphatically. “Jacen, this is important. You said you arrested a bounty hunter called Ailyn Habuur. Your father did a deal about Thrackan … no, listen, Jacen, I need you to listen … now Thrackan’s dead, the woman isn’t a threat, and her father wants to see her very badly .
. . Jacen?”
Fett felt sweat beading on his top lip despite his helmet’s environment controls.
“Jacen, repeat that . .
Leia’s gaze fixed in mid-distance and then flickered as if she’d heard a reply she wasn’t expecting.
“Jacen, her father is Boba Fett.”
Whatever Jacen had said, Leia was having problems understanding it. She closed the comlink and ran one hand over her hair, not quite looking at him or Mirta.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but Ailyn Habuur died … under interrogation.”
No. No. I was going to talk to her. I was going to put things right-Fett told himself that he didn’t care about anything or anybody, and that Ailyn was a stranger, but it was a lie. The fact that he had last seen her as a baby and that she had tried to kill him didn’t change a thing right then: she was his daughter. He was dying and he wanted to see her.
He reeled. He had no answer. He looked at Mirta Gev, and she stared back at him, and her face was stricken. There was no other word for it.
Then she leveled her blaster at him. Instinct made him reach for his, and the next thing he saw was a streak of white fire coming at him almost in slow motion, and Leia Solo reaching out both hands as if she could seize the very energy with them.
Mirta’s blaster flew high in the air and clattered across the tiled floor.
Chapter Twenty
Investigations are continuing into the assassination of President Sal-Solo, but we have reason to believe that this outrage was the work of Alliance agents. This will not weaken our resolve to maintain Corellia’s independent military deterrent. Following an agreement among all parties, Corellia will now be governed by a coalition of the Democratic Alliance and the Corellian Liberal Front, which represent the largest bloc of representatives, with an advisory role for the Centerpoint Party.
-Statement from the new coalition administration of Corellia
Leia stood between Mirta Gev and Boba Fett. Mirta fell back against the wall hard as if she’d been thrown against it. Leia stood over her, but the girl just stared past her at Fett, defiant but pinned down by the Force.
The air stank with the ozonic smell of a discharged blaster. Fett had his EE-3 trained on Mirta, but Han noticed that it was slowly lowering to his side.
“I want to know what all that was about,” Leia said, as if Mirta were just a naughty kid who hadn’t done her homework rather than a bounty hunter who’d tried to take a shot at Boba Fett.
Mirta’s eyes brimmed. Han hadn’t thought of her as the crying kind. Maybe it was a very big bounty she’d just lost.
“I was delivering him to her.” She indicated Fett with a contemptuous jerk of her chin. “She wanted to kill him for certain this time.”
Fett didn’t say a word. He slung his blaster rifle over his shoulder with a slow, deliberate movement and stood the way he often did, hands a little away from his sides, weight on one foot, as if he was going to whip out one of his astonishing array of weapons.
“But why shoot him? Now that she can’t pay you, what’s he-“
“He ran out on his wife and baby, that’s why. Yes, the great Boba Fett didn’t have the guts to stand by his family. He left her, and she had to bring up Ailyn on her own, and she died because he wasn’t there being a proper husband and father. If … she couldn’t kill him, then I will.”
Leia crouched over her. Tears were streaming down the lid’s face now and Fett was absolutely still. “Why? What has he ever done to you?”
Mirta gulped in air, choking back sobs. Han resisted the urge to play dad and comfort her.
“Because she was my mother, and I promised her that he’d die, that’s why. So he’s my grandfather-in name, anyway.” She rounded on him, scrambling to her feet. “You didn’t know that, did you? You didn’t know because you didn’t care. You never even tried to find out what happened to Ailyn until now, and it’s too kriffing late for us all. Fifty years-fifty years!”