"You've got me there," said Neelah, her voice carefully modulated." Of course, there's things you know about that I don't. Even before-before they did this to me-" She laid her fingertips against the side of her head." There were probably all sorts of things you knew about Boba Fett that I would never have heard of. That's the universe you've lived in. His universe."
"That's right." Dengar nodded in agreement." It's his more than anyone else's. Boba Fett made it that way, bit by bit. If he'd wanted to-if it had suited his personal agenda-he could have taken over the entire bounty hunter trade instead of just the most profitable parts of it, the jobs that put the most credits in his pockets. There's still a remnant or two of the old Bounty Hunters Guild out there, but it's nothing compared to what it once was. Before he all but destroyed it, took it apart like a cheap astrogator device. Boba Fett could have set himself up at the top of the Guild, if he'd wanted to bother with it."
"You told me something before, about the Bounty Hunters Guild. Just a little while ago, right after Fett got rid of Bossk." Neelah searched her recent memory; it had been only a passing reference to the Guild, something hardly worth the effort to remember-at least, until now." You said. . . something about Bossk. And the Guild. That the trouble between him and Fett went back a long way."
"Sure," said Dengar, leaning back against the bulkhead. He seemed amused by her efforts at assembling the past." But it's no big secret. Everybody knows about it-or at least everybody who has any reason to be interested in the welfare of bounty hunters." Dengar's smile widened." Not everybody is, you know. Bounty hunters aren't the most popular creatures in the galaxy. That's just another good reason for getting out of the business. Makes it hard to build up a lot of goodwill, when everybody else has this fervent wish that your whole category was lasered out of existence."
You don't have to tell me, thought Neelah. She had been hanging out with bounty hunters for only a little while now, and she already had serious grievances with them.
"So there is some kind of history-between Boba Fett and Bossk." Neelah intently regarded Dengar sitting next to her, as though she could read some additional clues from his face." Something personal."
Dengar laughed." You could say that. You could say a lot about the two of them, and it would all be true. At least, the more violent parts would be. Bossk has got a grudge against Boba Fett a parsec wide-and this latest embarrassment, getting booted out of his own ship, isn't going to make it any better. If Bossk hated Fett before, he's really going to be gunning for him now." Dengar shook his head." Just goes to show what a tough hunter Boba Fett is. That's a dangerous game to play, letting an enemy as hard and determined as Bossk get away. You have to have some real confidence in your own abilities not to get a little nervous about a killer like that still floating around the galaxy, with your name at the top of his to-do list."
"Well, that's his problem, not ours." Neelah's brow furrowed as she tried to link up one tantalizing fragment of information with another. It was impossible; there were still too many pieces missing. Pieces that her own plans-and her life-might depend upon." Look, you've got to tell me-"
One of Dengar's eyebrows raised as he looked back at her." Tell you what?"
"Tell me everything." Neelah couldn't keep a pleading tone from her voice." Everything that I don't know."
"That could take a while."
"All right; just about Bossk and Boba Fett, then." She was desperately clutching at anything, any key to the past. If her own life, all that had happened to her before Jabba's palace, was a mystery, she could at least dig out the true histories of those surrounding her. A key that would unlock all the dark secrets, or even a few, that Boba Fett kept behind the cold, hard gaze of his helmet-that could be worth a lot to her. Maybe everything, thought Neelah.
"Some of it you know already." Dengar made a one-handed gesture, vague enough to indicate a point in time rather than space." Back when we were still on Tatooine."
That was true. There had been empty hours enough, while they had waited for Boba Fett's resurrection, for some of the blanks to have been filled in. Or at least those that pertained to the history of Boba Fett and the Bounty Hunters Guild. Boba Fett was still the same, as though he were some deathless, immutable construct, but the Guild had gone through changes. What existed now was only that which remained after the various interlocking conspiracies and schemes had finished with it. Conspiracies, all of which had had Boba Fett at their center. An entire war had broken out among the bounty hunters, and not all of them had survived. And if any could be said to have won that war, it would be Boba Fett himself.
Dengar had enjoyed telling those war stories; she had sensed the admiration in his voice. Admiration for Boba Fett, for the sheer ruthless efficiency of his plans and actions. An efficiency and a ruthlessness that Dengar certainly knew he could never achieve; he could only partake of it vicariously. No wonder, thought Neelah, he fell for that partnership gambit. Even close to death, lying half-digested by the Sarlacc on the barren rocks of Tatooine's Dune Sea, Boba Fett had been able to size up his target's basic psychology. Size it up, and then use it all to his own advantage.
That was a little tougher for her. At least, so far. But Neelah knew that whatever Dengar told her about Fett, about the past maneuvers in that war among and between the bounty hunters, the details would tell her as much about Dengar as anyone else. Which would suit her just fine. That way, she thought, I'll find out about both of them. Somewhere in there, she'd find something she could use. . .
"You're right," Neelah said aloud." I know some of it. Thanks to you. Now how about the rest?"
Dengar regarded her in silence for a moment, then slowly nodded." Okay." He leaned back against the bulkhead." I guess we've got time. Though that all depends on where we're going, doesn't it?"
"Boba Fett didn't tell either one of us that." Neelah settled back, arms crossed over her breast." So you might as well start, and we'll see how far we get."
A half smile formed on Dengar's face." Maybe we'll just get to the good parts."
They're all good, thought Neelah. As long as I get what I want.
She listened as the figure beside her started talking. . .
5
"I've never been here before," said the emissary from the Bounty Hunters Guild." Though, of course, it's been described to me many times."
"How flattering it is to me to be the auditory recipient of such notice." Kud'ar Mub'at folded another pair of his chitinous, spike-haired legs around himself." To be spoken of in the corridors and nooks of the galaxy's intrigues and powers-such a pleasure! Always!"
The compound lenses of the arachnoid assembler's eyes watched in amusement as the Guild's emissary tried to keep from actually touching any of the web's fibrous-and living-structure. Silly creature, thought Kud'ar Mub'at; the amusement it felt was easily concealed behind its own narrow, triangular face. That was one of the advantages the assembler had over the members of nearly all the galaxy's sentient species: it could read them as easily as a primitive ink-and-paper datasheet, while its own emotions and calculations remained a masked enigma to them.
Kud'ar Mub'at supposed that was why he'd al
ways enjoyed dealing with the bounty hunter Boba Fett. With that visored mask on, the helmet of the Mandalorian armor he bore, Fett was a constant challenge to decipher and manipulate. A worthy opponent, mused the assembler. Even if he was already fated to lose, enmeshed in a larger, invisible, and inescapable web. . .