"And then he must have shoved it inside the emer-gency escape pod." Dengar had managed to keep up with the others' explanations. "Right when you were coming down on him. Either he got lucky with what he decided to grab and take with him, or he's gotten a lot smarter than any of us would've ever have taken him for."
"What does it matter?" With growing exasperation, Neelah looked from one bounty hunter to the other.
"The only thing that's important is that this fabricated evidence still exists. And if we can get our hands on it—" The possibilities had already leapt up in her mind, of finding the answers to the remaining questions about her own past. "Then we might be able to figure out who cre-ated it in the first place, and why they did it, and ..."
"And that person's connection to you, of course." Boba Fett glanced over at her. "Don't worry; that mys-tery might not have the same personal significance for me that it does for you, but it still represents a potential source of profit. That makes it important enough to me."
"So it's back to Tatooine," said Dengar. The notion seemed to cheer him; Neelah figured that was because he would be able to see his betrothed, Manaroo, once again.
"If only it were as easy as all that." The jagged smile had vanished from Balancesheet's face. "But I'm afraid it's not. My poor lumbering freighter, as comfortable a home and place of business as it provides for me, would never reach Tatooine before Bossk found a buyer for the item he's trying to sell."
"So what's the problem? The Hound's Tooth is plenty fast enough—"
"Yes," interrupted Balancesheet, "and it's a marked ship. It's the one vessel in which it would be a dead cer-tainty you'd never be able to reach Tatooine. Or, at least, not alive. Bossk has apparently kept silent about losing his ship to his enemy Boba Fett, but Kuat of Kuat hasn't. After the bombing raid he ordered didn't succeed at kill-ing you off, and after his information sources had let him know that the Rebel Alliance had confiscated the aban-doned Slave I, Kuat was able to figure out that you must be aboard the Hound. So Kuat has put out the word that he wants the Hound's Tooth found and intercepted— and if that means killing whoever's aboard it, so much the better. Which means that there are a lot of bounty hunters looking for it. Given that a great many of them still bear a grudge against you, for what you did to break up the old Bounty Hunters Guild, this is their perfect op-portunity to get paid a substantial pile of credits and get their revenge, all at the same time." The assembler's tri-angular head tilted to one side, regarding Fett. "Ironic, isn't it? You've been the hunter for so long ... and now you're the hunted."
"If I still had Slave I," said Boba Fett, "none of them would have a chance of stopping me."
"But you don't. And Bossk's ship is nowhere near the equivalent of your own, even if you were completely at ease with its weapons systems. The other bounty hunters would pick you off long before you got anywhere near Tatooine. There's probably not much time remaining be-fore one of them finds you here in this remote sector. So it's no longer just a matter of realizing profits, or discov-ering the secrets of some stolen past." Balancesheet's glit-tering eyes took in the others, one by one. "For all of you, it's a matter of survival now."
"Great," muttered Dengar. The lifted spirits he had shown just minutes before had now evaporated.
"We're dead. I knew this was going to happen ..."
"Come, come." Balancesheet sounded almost pitying. "Would I have thrown my lot in with yours if I had thought you were all doomed? I'm a better business-creature than that."
"Then you've got a plan," said Boba Fett. "What is it?"
"Very simple. You just need to find another way to get to Tatooine. That's all."
"Easier said than done. It's a long walk from here."
"No need to, even if that were possible." The jagged smile returned to Balancesheet's narrow face. "I took the liberty of making other arrangements while you were on your way here to my ship. I've been in contact with a cer-tain individual, with whom you've done business before— in a manner of speaking—and his ship is close enough to this sector, so that he can be here shortly."
Boba Fett regarded the assembler with suspicion evi-dent even through the helmet's dark visor. "Who is it?"
"Oh ..." The assembler's smile widened even further than before. "You'll see soon enough ..."
"Well, well." A thin figure had emerged from the trans-fer hatchway, leaving his smaller craft tethered to the exterior of Balancesheet's freighter. From a face with youthfulness sharpened by feral cynicism, his gaze met with that of the helmeted bounty hunter. "Balancesheet told me he had a surprise in store. This is a good one."
"I knew you'd be amused," replied Balancesheet. "For a lot of reasons."
With a cocky swagger, the new arrival approached Boba Fett. "The last time we ran into each other, you just about killed me. I'm still wondering why you didn't."
Fett gazed back at him coldly. "Don't make me start wondering, Suhlak."
"Suhlak?" Dengar studied the youth for a moment, then glanced over at Balancesheet. "As in N'dru Suhlak? You called in a hunt saboteur?"
"Who better?" The assembler's response was mild and unruffled. "He is uniquely qualified for the task we need performed."
"Yeah, but ..." Dengar's expression soured as he shook his head in disgust. "I don't like dealing with this kind of lowlife. It ... it just goes against everything I be-lieve in."
"What?" Neelah turned and looked at the bounty hunter standing next to her. "That's hard to believe. Since when did people in your line of business start getting moral attitudes?"
Suhlak smiled at her. "You'll have to excuse him, lady. But once a bounty hunter, always a bounty hunter. That's his job. And my job is to mess things up for him, and for every other bounty hunter." He made a small, mocking bow. "That's just what I do."
"You see, Neelah ..." From the metal ledge, Balance-sheet gestured toward Suhlak. "The existence of special-ized entities such as bounty hunters has inevitably given rise to other, competing specialities. Such as this young— and very gifted—hunt saboteur. What he does is get cer-tain individuals from point A to point B as quickly and safely as possible; that in itself is not so special. But Suhlak here performs this service for individuals who have had bounties placed on their heads, and whom bounty hunters such as Dengar and Boba Fett are seek-ing to capture. He, in essence, spoils their hunt. You can hardly expect bounty hunters to approve of someone like that."
"Yeah, and like I care." Suhlak leaned his shoulder against a bulkhead and folded his arms across his chest. "They do what they do for credits, and I do what I do for the same. Which brings up the matter at hand. I take it you called me here for a reason, Balancesheet. That rea-son better be a nice, high-paying job."
"I think it's one for which we can offer you satis-factory terms." Balancesheet pointed a minuscule claw tip toward Boba Fett. "Our mutual friend here needs to reach Tatooine as quickly—and as unobtrusively—as possible."
"That's going to be a little bit difficult for him." Suh-lak aimed a smirk in Boba Fett's direction, then turned back toward the assembler. "There's a lot of other crea-tures out there gunning for him. I mean, he wasn't too popular before; now that there's a pile of credits offered in exchange for his hide, his chances have gone way down."
"We're aware of the difficulties," said Balancesheet. "And while of course there's a certain, shall we say, irony that comes with asking a hunt saboteur to assist in con-veying a bounty hunter past other bounty hunters, we still think your services might be useful in that regard."