“Yes,” Han agreed, nodding to her and sitting down, a small shiver running up his back. Mara had been with Karrde when he’d first welcomed them into that makeshift throne room of his. She hadn’t stayed long; but for the whole of that brief time she’d glowered darkly at Lando and him with those incredible green eyes of hers.
Almost exactly the same way she was glowering at them right now.
“So you’re Han Solo,” the slicer, Ghent, said brightly. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Always wanted to meet you.”
Han shifted his attention away from Mara to Ghent. He wasn’t much more than a kid, really, barely out of his teens. “It’s nice to be famous,” Han told him. “Just remember that whatever you’ve heard has been hearsay. And that hearsay stories grow an extra leg every time they’re told.”
“You’re too modest,” Karrde said, signaling to the side. In response, a squat droid rolled toward them from around the room’s curve, a tray of what looked like rolled leaves perched on top of it. “It would be difficult to embellish that Zygerrian slaver incident, for example.”
Lando looked up from the droid’s tray. “Zygerrian slavers?” he echoed. “You never told me that one.”
“It wasn’t anything important,” Han said, warning Lando with a look to drop the subject.
Unfortunately, Ghent either missed the look or was too young to know what it meant. “He and Chewbacca attacked a Zygerrian slaver ship,” the kid explained eagerly. “Just the two of them. The Zygerrians were so scared they abandoned ship.”
“They were more pirates than slavers,” Han said, giving up. “And they weren’t afraid of me-they abandoned ship because I told them I had twenty stormtroopers with me and was coming aboard to check their shipping licenses.”
Lando raised his eyebrows. “And they bought that?”
Han shrugged. “I was broadcasting a borrowed Imperial ID at the time.”
“But then you know what he did?” Ghent put in. “He gave the ship over to the slaves they found locked up in the hold. Gave it to them-just like that! Including all the cargo, too.”
“Why, you old softie,” Lando grinned, taking a bite from one of the rolled leaves. “No wonder you never told me that one.”
With an effort, Han held onto his patience. “The cargo was pirate plunder,” he growled. “Some of it extremely traceable. We were off Janodral Mizar-they had a strange local law at the time that pirate or slaver victims got to split up the proceeds if the pirates were taken or killed.”
“That law’s still in force, as far as I know,” Karrde murmured.
“Probably. Anyway, Chewie was with me … and you know Chewie’s opinion of slavers.”
“Yeah,” Lando said dryly. “They’d have had a better chance with the twenty stormtroopers.”
“And if I hadn’t just given away the ship-” Han broke off as a quiet beep sounded.
“Excuse me,” Karrde said, pulling a comlink from his belt. “-Karrde here.”
Han couldn’t hear what was being said … but abruptly Karrde’s face seemed to tighten. “I’ll be right there.”
He got to his feet and slipped the comlink back onto his belt. “Excuse me again,” he said. “A small matter needs my attention.”
“Trouble?” Han asked.
“I hope not.” Karrde glanced across the table, and Han turned in time to see Mara stand up. “Hopefully, this will only take a few minutes. Please enjoy your meal.”
They left the table, and Han looked back at Lando. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he muttered.
Lando nodded, his eyes still following Mara and Karrde, a strange expression on his face. “I’ve seen her before, Han,” he murmured back. “I don’t know where, but I know I’ve seen her and I don’t think she was a smuggler at the time.”
Han looked around the table at the others, at the wariness in their eyes and the guarded murmuring back and forth between them. Even Ghent had noticed the sudden tension and was studiously eating away at his appetizers. “Well, figure it out fast, buddy,” he told Lando quietly. “We might be about to wear out our welcome.”
“I’m working on it. What do we do until then?” Another droid was trundling up, his tray laden with filled soup bowls. “Until then,” Han said, “I guess we enjoy our meal.”
“He came in from lightspeed about ten minutes ago,” Aves said tightly, tapping the mark on the sensor display. “Captain Pellaeon signaled two minutes later. Asking for you personally.”