Dengar drew back, regarding her with suspicion." I'll survive," he said after a moment's silence." I can take care of myself-I have so far, at least."
"It's different now," said Neelah, her voice quiet and urgent." Different from anything you've been involved with before."
"Maybe." The bounty hunter shrugged." But if you've got doubts about what's going to happen to you-that's your problem. I've got enough of my own."
The urge to hit the thick-headed brute, to land her fist or some heavy piece of scrap metal against the side of his head, welled up in Neelah's breast. Muscles tensed, she fought the impulse back down.
"Look," she said. Leaning closer, she laid a hand on Dengar's knee." It's not just your survival that's at stake. Right? If all you were concerned about was keeping your hide intact, you'd find a way to get yourself out of here, and as far away from Boba Fett-and me-as possible. That'd be the smart thing to do."
The suspicion in Dengar's gaze hadn't ebbed. But he hadn't pulled away from her touch, either; progress of some kind was being made. Or so Neelah hoped.
"Smart enough," conceded Dengar.
"But there's things you're trying to accomplish. All that you want to make possible for yourself and Manaroo." There had been time enough-back on Tatooine, while she and Dengar had been keeping their vigil over the unconscious Boba Fett, slowly healing from the near-fatal wounds he had received from the Sarlacc beast's gut-for Neelah to have heard all about Dengar's hopes and dreams for the future. A future that would include marriage to his beloved Manaroo, and the abandonment of this dangerous bounty hunter trade-but only if he could pull off the kind of financial score that would wipe out his debt burden and set him and Manaroo up in a new life. The only way to do that was to set himself right in the path of the greatest danger, to remain not only a bounty hunter but one allied with the most fearsome-and treacherous-bounty hunter in the galaxy. Neelah had seen at once the quandary in which Dengar was trapped: Boba Fett might indeed be his way out of the bounty hunter trade and into that bright, shining future that he wished to put together for himself and Manaroo. But Fett could also be the trap with no exit, a web of plotting and intrigue that could only be escaped through death. Dengar's death; he might not return to his beloved except as a corpse." You can't trust Boba Fett," said Neelah, bringing her face even closer to Dengar's." He's not concerned with yours and Manaroo's happiness."
"I don't expect him to be." Dengar spoke stiffly and guardedly." He's a businessman."
"If that's all he were, we'd be safe. But he's a little bit more than that." Neelah tapped a forefinger against Dengar's knee." With real businessmen, on any planet, partnerships are formed all the time; that's how business is done-"
"Oh?" Dengar seemed amused by her words." You seem to know an awful lot about these things. For someone who has no memory other than that of being a dancing girl in Jabba the Hurt's palace."
"You don't need a memory," said Neelah," to be able to figure out how things work." In Dengar's case, it seemed like an unimpaired memory was just so much excess baggage." You just need to be smart enough to watch and listen. Come on, let's face it: if Boba Fett was interested in having a partner, he would have hooked himself up with some bounty hunter other than you."
"Such as?"
"Practically anybody." Neelah shrugged." He could've made an offer to Bossk. They could've worked out their differences, if it meant good business for them. You've said yourself that's all Boba Fett is interested in. And Bossk is supposedly the toughest and
hardest bounty hunter in the galaxy, after Boba Fett himself. Those two would have made an unstoppable partnership." Neelah's eyes narrowed to slits as she saw Dengar's reaction to her words." What are you laughing about?"
"Sorry-" A derisive smile remained on Dengar's face." But I find your ignorance amusing. You might not find your nonexistent memory a handicap, but others might. There are plenty of sentient creaturesespecially in the bounty hunter trade-who are just a little more knowledgeable about Boba Fett's personal history than you seem to be."
An anger that had become all too familiar burst into flame around Neelah's heart. As smart as she might be-definitely smarter than this Dengar, possibly so in regard to Boba Fett-she still found herself at a disadvantage. I have to figure out things that they already know. It was a big galaxy surrounding them, in this little bubble of a stolen ship; Neelah had a lot of blanks to fill in before she would be on an equal footing with even the most ignorant back-worlder.
They didn't just steal my memory, Neelah mused bitterly. They stole my ability-my chances-to survive.
That was all the more reason for her to get Dengar on her side, at least for the time being. She could use him, both as an ally and as a source of information, until she had been able to find and fit enough missing pieces together, like assembling a primitive two-dimensional jigsaw puzzle inside her skull.
It would have been easier, she knew-something else you didn't need to be a genius to figure out-if Dengar hadn't already been involved with his intended bride Manaroo. That complicated things, especially any strategy Neelah might otherwise have had for getting him on her side. Must be a real love match, Neelah had decided; the more she had heard of Dengar's plans for his and Manaroo's future life together, when he had somehow found his way out of both debt and the bounty hunter trade, had convinced her of it. Dengar's obvious devotion to the woman-he had purposely sent her away, to keep her out of danger-aroused sparks of both envy and frustration inside Neelah.
But at Jabba's palace, she had found ways-she'd been forced to-of making life more endurable, ways that had depended upon her physical attributes. Not every male creature in that cesspit of depravity had responded to feminine beauty with the urge to destroy it in as bloody a manner as possible. Some of Jabba's underlings had been almost pathetic in their eagerness to be rewarded with a mere smile from her or any of the other dancing girls, evoked by the gift of some edible morsels filched from the palace's underground kitchens. An even better gift had been protection from the attentions of the more predatory sorts of scum that had found employment with the late Jabba. As much as Neelah had come to realize that she was under the watchful gaze of Boba Fett while she had been in the palace, she had still been grateful for any extra security that she and the other dancing girls had been able to wile out of the multispecies household staff.
None of that was possible now, when she needed it more than ever. That was the frustrating part. Neelah had already realized that there was no hope of her replacing the absent Manaroo in Dengar's affections. If anything, he was more in love with his betrothed now than when Boba Fett's Slave I ship had ascended from the surface of Tatooine's Dune Sea. And more dedicated to his mission of putting together a future life for the two of them, in some peaceful corner of the galaxy, far from the criminal dens and watering holes to which he'd previously been accustomed. Manaroo had already changed his life, one way or another; Neelah could see that. Without even being here aboard the Hound's Tooth, Manaroo was a critical element in all of Neelah's calculations. Worst of all, despite Dengar's vow to quit the bounty hunter trade, he still had just enough of a bounty hunter's mercenary toughness to complicate matters. He'd get rid of me in a second, thought Neelah, if he figured that was best for him and Manaroo.
The trick would be to convince Dengar that the road to that future life he envisioned with his bride was the one that led through Neelah's plans. She already had her notions of now to plant that idea in his head. The anger that had risen inside her, like a spark thrown on dry kindling, was carefully held in check for the time being.