"A vision," Fett said sourly, and removed his helmet.
"I think I aged better, Bob'ika.'"
"It's the fact that you reached this age at all that interests me."
"So why do you want me? Need a loan? You've been looking for me for weeks, 'cos I've been hearing all kinds of people putting out the word for me—"
"I'm dying," Fett said.
Jaing chewed over the news, head slightly to one side. "Sorry to hear that. You're not the only clone who met a premature end."
Fett usually cut to the chase. Now he stood silent for a while, jaw muscles twitching. Mirta wondered if he was hurt by the rebuff. She guessed that he was working up to the hardest thing he ever had to say.
He was. "I want your help, Jaing."
Jaing just stared at him. The staring went on for a long time.
Mirta wondered who would give in first. Then it went on a little too long.
"Oh, for fierfek's sake," she sighed. "It's the cloning. His tissues are breaking down and he's got tumors. He needs to know what stopped you aging at double the rate, because his doctor can't help him and neither can the Kaminoans, not even Taun We."
Fett pursed his lips slightly. "What she said."
"So Taun We's still going strong, too, the old aiwha bait. Well, well." Jaing looked Fett up and down. "You had trouble with your leg, I heard. Had to have a transplant. Yes?"
"You're very well informed."
"I'm still a Tipoca boy at heart. I stay in touch with events in the old country."
"What have I got to pay you to quit gloating and give me what I need?"
"No offense, but you can shove your credits where your armor don't reach, Mand'alor.'"
"You don't know what I need yet."
"I can guess."
"Ko Sai's research." Fett gave Jaing's gloves a pointed glance.
"Because I know you found it. You certainly found her."
"You get more with honey than with sour-sap, Boba. Didn't getting your head shoved down the 'freshers teach you anything?"
Fett had no idea how to ask for help. Mirta wasn't sure if it was some male bravado thing or just that he'd never learned, but he wasn't getting far with Jaing, who seemed equally hard and obstinate.
"Can you help him?" she said. "Gedet'ye? Mandalore needs him alive, and so do I."
The clone was still staring into Fett's face. "Remember leading an Imperial force against clone troops on Kamino?"
Fett nodded, utterly impassive. "Yes."
"You didn't feel that we were family then."
"Didn't see any of you defending your brothers, either."
"And you deposed Shysa, you hut'uun. The man who put us back on our
feet as a people. Where were you when the Empire was bleeding us dry?"
Hut'uun was the worst insult any Mando could throw at another, but Fett didn't seem to notice or care. Mirta found out more about her grandfather's murky past every day. So there was no reason to feel her mother and grandmother had been singled out for his total disregard, then: he didn't give a stuff about anyone, except his father, who seemed to have been elevated to an icon of perfection since his death. So Ba'buir fought against Ms own brothers. Maybe he hadn't seen the irony.
If he had, she suspected he'd made a point of looking the other way.
"I'm not proud of anything I've done," Fett said, no hint of emotion in his voice. "But I'm not ashamed of anything, either. I just do what I have to. You don't know what went on between me and Shysa, and maybe you never will."
"He was there when we needed him," said Jaing. "And you weren't.
That's all I need to know."
Fett didn't so much as blink. "I take it you won't be handing over Ko Sai's data, then."
Jaing glanced at Mirta as if he felt sorry for her. She wondered how different her life might have been if Jaing had met Sintas Vel instead of Boba Fett.
"There isn't any data," he said at last. He was still looking at her, not Fett. "Sorry, kid."
Fett didn't even blink. "You must have taken all your vitamins, then, because you should be dead by now."
"I didn't say the research didn't exist. I'm saying that we destroyed it after we took what we needed."
Fett absorbed that slowly. Mirta's heart sank in that conflicting way it had
now, part of her desperate to find a reason to love her ba'buir, and half of her wishing Leia Solo hadn't blocked her shot when she'd tried to kill him.
Do something to make me forgive you. Please. Anything.
"You could have made a fortune from it," Fett said.
"We didn't want it used again. Ever."
"You can't stop cloning. You never will."
"No, but we put a dent in the Kaminoans. That's better than nothing. I don't like Kaminoans."
"I can tell." Fett glanced at Jaing's fine gray gloves. "But I've worked for worse."
"They paid you. They bred us like animals." Jaing looked as if he'd remembered something satisfying. "So Taun We's still alive. I always wondered."
"Leave her alone, Jaing. She's old now."
"So am I, no thanks to her. So how long have you got to live?"
"A year. Maybe two, if my luck holds."
"How long before you have to hand over command?"
"I don't know."
"The last thing Mandalore needs at the moment is a power vacuum."
Mirta saw a glimmer of hope. "So help him, Jaing."
"Best I can do is a blood sample," he said. "But I think you'll hand it over to the Kaminoans, Boba, or your doctors will, and we really wouldn't be very happy about that. Not at all."
"We?" Mirta felt she was getting on better with Jaing. She'd use her advantage as the harmless, tragic granddaughter. If Jaing wouldn't cooperate, she might find one of his brothers who would. "How many of you are there left?"
"You don't need to know that. Look, I've got grandchildren, too, Boba, and great-grandchildren. I've got family on Mandalore. So I care what happens when you're gone." As soon as he said it, it took on a terrible reality for her, and she wondered if it had the same impact on her grandfather. The great Boba Fett's on the way out. "Much as it pains me, your bu'ad here is right —Mandalore needs you for the foreseeable future."
Fett made a very good job of looking bored. Maybe he was. Mirta doubted it. He was negotiating for his life, and if Fett was anything, he was a survivor. He didn't know how to die gracefully like everyone else.
"So I get the blood if I keep the Kaminoans out of it."
"Not that simple," said Jaing.
"It never is."
"You give me blood and tissue samples, and I'll get something made up for you. If I can."
"And I'm supposed to trust you."
"As much as I'm supposed to trust you. And don't even think about taking a sample from me the hard way."
"Okay." Fett's jaw twitched again. "Thank you."
He made it sound like a foreign language, awkward and unfamiliar in his mouth. Mirta resisted the urge to react. Well done, Ba'buir. Was that so hard?
Jaing wasn't done, though. "There's a condition, of course."
"There always is." Fett crossed his arms. "What?"
"Get your shebs back to Mandalore, listen to Kad'ika's advice, and build a strong, united, stable state. Prove you're even half the man that Jaster Mereel and Fenn Shysa were. All you want to do is emulate your old man, Boba. But you're too scared to exceed him, aren't you? You can't be better than Jango. That would never do."
Mirta flinched. Mentioning his father without due reverence seemed to be the one thing that really got Fett riled. His voice didn't change, but he unfolded his arms with slow care.