"Let's just try to wrap this up." The assembler's flowery language produced a sour expression on Otondon's sharply angled muzzle." There's really only one basic issue that needs to be settled. And it's a simple one. Are you with us or not?"
"Pardon?" Kud'ar Mub'at spread wide two of its front legs." What is the precise meaning of-'with'? I don't mean to imply that your words are not of pristine clarity, but-"
"Stow it. ' Gleed Otondon's irritation was obvious." You know what the score is. There are two factions that came out of the Bounty Hunters Guild, and there's only going to be one left, eventually. And the True Guild plans on making sure it's the one that survives."
"But of course," said Kud'ar Mub'at with a semblance of a smile on its triangular face." Survival is such a lovely virtue. I've practiced it throughout the course of my existence."
"Then you'll want to go on practicing it, I bet." Gleed Otondon leaned forward, his hard glare reflected in the assembler's multiple eyes." And the best way to do that is to make sure you're on our side. The True Guild isn't going to feel very friendly toward anyone who didn't help it put the Bounty Hunters Guild back together again. Those renegades in that so-called Guild Reform Committee-they're dead meat. And that's what will happen to anybody else who gets too cozy with them." Otondon turned his head to one side, peering more closely at the assembler across from him." Just how cozy are you with Bossk and that bunch of his?"
"My dear Gleed." With its upraised forelegs, Kud'ar Mub'at made a fluttering gesture." I understand the appropriate nature of your inquiry, but I am a trifle shocked by it, nevertheless. Suspicion is all very fine-in your trade, it's certainly a necessity-but I've never before been suspected of being an idiot. I do know how things work in this galaxy."
"I thought you might." Otondon's smile was made even uglier with its suggestion of brotherly conspiracy." You really aren't an idiot, are you?"
But you might very well be. Kud'ar Mub'at kept his response unspoken." I have not reached the advanced age and influential position that I possess by making poor choices as to friends and alliances." The assembler tapped the claws at the ends of his forelegs together." So you and the others in the True Guild-and of course I regret not having the opportunity and the pleasure to address each and every one of them directly-may rest in the utmost assurance that I am, as you say, 'with' them in this regard. And while the bonds of friendship and the great admiration I have for such eminent and respected bounty hunters as the members of the True Guild would naturally dictate such a response on my part, I would like to ease and reassure your mind even further. It's good business as well, my dear Gleed." The assembler refolded its legs around its cushion-cradled abdomen." Business that I wish to continue carrying out in the future, as mutually profitable as it has been in the past."
"I don't know about 'mutual, '" grumbled the True Guild's emissary." It always seemed to put more credits in your coffers than ours."
"How grievously wounded I am to hear you say such a thing." Kud'ar Mub'at let himself sink down into the soft embrace of its nest, the better to indicate its mortification." Perhaps, at that happy time to come, when the upstarts have been so righteously and inevitably vanquished and the original Bounty Hunters Guild has been restored in all its glory, then we can go over our account books together and come to a financial reconciliation." The assembler's voice became even more soothing." If you yourself were to feel that you had suffered some personal hardship, you and I could talk about it. . . privately. Yes?"
Otondon scratched his elongated chin." Are you talking bribery?"
"Oh! That's such a crude word, don't you think?" Kud'ar Mub'at shook its head." I prefer to regard such practices as merely a matter of making our friendship-the one between just you and me-even more satisfying than it has been already. And of course, as a matter of friendship, if you were to return to the other members of the True Guild, whose interests you so ably represent, and you were to assure them of the avidity with which I wish to maintain business interests with them. . ."
"Yeah, yeah; I understand what you're getting at." Otondon gave a slow nod." But I'm not going to do anything like that if it isn't true. The bit about you wanting to stay hooked up with the True Guild, and not having anything to do with Bossk and that Guild Reform Committee bunch."
"But, my dear Gleed, that is the truth." The assembler lifted one of its forelegs into the air with a dramatic flourish." I swear it. Absolutely and unconditionally." Kud'ar Mub'at tucked the leg back with the others around itself." That's not the sort of thing about which I'd even be capable of prevaricating."
"It'd better be true," said Otondon grimly." Because it wouldn't be worth my life to tell the other True Guild members that you're with us, and then have them find out that you had handed us a line. Our kind of bounty hunters doesn't reward stupidity."
Too bad for you, thought Kud'ar Mub'at wryly. The assembler's visitor would have done well for himself, if that had been the case." Rest assured, my most precious Gleed, that the relationship between myself and the True Guild-and the Bounty Hunters Guild, when it has once again come into existence-will be one of exclusivity and mutual profitability. You have my word on it."
"Good." Otondon gave a satisfied nod." You know. . . I kinda felt all along that we'd be able to do business together."
Fool. This was the easiest sort of negotiation: telling someone exactly what they wanted to hear. Part of Kud'ar Mub'at wished that they could all be this easy; and in fact, most of them were. It was only when the arachnoid assembler was matching wits with creatures such as Prince Xizor or Boba Fett that the game became both dangerous and interesting. That was what the other part of Kud'ar Mub'at appreciated, what made its own existence worthwhile. The assembler had lived for a long time in the drifting web that it had inherited from its murdered predecessor. Kud'ar Mub'at had been putting together complicated deals and intricate, self-serving schemes before any of the creatures it now encountered had been born. When that much time passes, the search for a worthy opponent becomes an obsession.
That was why it had been inevitable that Kud'ar Mub'at would have let itself become involved in the scheme to break up the Bounty Hunters Guild. Not so much for the profits that would accrue to the assembler's coffers-though the credits would in fact be substantial-but for the thrill of the game. And the quality of the opponents. Kud'ar Mub'at had been able to see past Prince Xizor, who had brought the scheme here to the web and laid it out before the assembler's multiple eyes, all the way to Emperor Palpatine, so far away on the planet Coruscant. Strings as delicate and intricately connected as any in the web were being pulled, and not all of them were in Xizor's hands. The Falleen noble enjoyed playing dangerous games as well-Xizor hadn't risen to the top of the galaxy-spanning crime syndicate Black Sun without having a taste for risk, and the skills to pull off those kinds of gambits. Kud'ar Mub'at was well aware of how deeply Lord Vader, the Emperor's black-robed fist, loathed and distrusted Xizor; the Falleen only had to make one wrong move, and every suspicion that Vader had planted in Palpatine's thoughts would be confirmed-fatally so, for Xizor. When you play those kinds of games, mused Kud'ar Mub'at, for those kinds of stakes. . . you can't complain about what happens when you lose.
In the minuscule heart inside its carapace, Kud'ar Mub'at felt sorry for the little accountant subnode Balancesheet. It had never played at that level, never developed those kinds of sharp, hard gaming skills. If Balancesheet had some notion of mutiny against its creator, as Kud'ar Mub'at had rebelled against its predecessor, it also had little idea of what it was risking. It might never know; the game, and its existence, would be over before it realized.