Such thoughts were pleasing, but there was business to be concluded. Kud'ar Mub'at turned its attention back to the True Guild emissary sitting before it.
"I'm sure your time is valuable, my dear Gleed." The assembler swept two of its legs out before itself." Much more so than mine, which is only well spent when it is given to wait upon visitors such as yourself. With that in mind, are we at last in perfect agreement and harmony? The interests of you and the other True Guild members are identical to my own, as far as I'm concerned."
"They may not be identical," said Gleed Otondon," but I guess they're close enough. For now."
"Ah. So wisely put. I trust you'll have no problem with going back to your fellow True Guild bounty hunters and assuring them that their friend and business associate Kud'ar Mub'at is indeed, as you say,
'with' them?"
"Maybe." Otondon shrugged." There'd be even less problem if we settled that other business as well. You know, the bit about the bribe."
"That unpleasant word again." From deep inside the feathery mandibles of its exhalation apertures, Kud'ar Mub'at sighed." But I do know what you're referring to. After all, I brought the matter up. A little more delicately, though."
Avarice showed in Gleed Otondon's smile." If we could work it out right now, so that there were some tangible evidence along those lines. . . then I think we'd really be rolling. Got it?"
"Oh, yes. But of course." With one claw tip, Kud'ar Mub'at scratched the lowest point of its triangular face. The emissary's request for a transfer of credits, from the web's coffers into his pocket, actually raised some difficulties for the assembler. Its accountant subnode Balancesheet usually handled all those kinds of financial details-but right now, Balance-sheet was busy impersonating Kud'ar Mub'at from inside the assembler's discarded exoskeleton. The Trandoshan bounty hunter Bossk was unaware that the actual Kud'ar Mub'at had been in simultaneous negotiations all along, with one of Bossk's enemies from the True Guild. And Kud'ar Mub'at had no intention of ending the masquerade; to do so would send both Bossk and Gleed Otondon into murderous rages, not directed at each other, but first at Kud'ar Mub'at." Actually," said the assembler after a moment of silence," I'm very embarrassed, inasmuch as I cannot presently fulfill your eminently reasonable request."
"What?" Gleed Otondon barked a harsh, skeptical laugh." You gotta be joking. Everybody knows you're stuffed with credits out here. After all the business you've done, you must be sitting on piles of them."
"Sadly-that is not the case." Kud'ar Mub'at gave a slow shake of his head. Around him, the assembler's various subnodes gathered closer, like piteous orphans seeking shelter from cold stormwinds. Their various eyes turned toward Otondon's face." Not all of my business ventures turn out so well, as do those where I have joined my feeble abilities with those of your profession. That is why I am so eager to renew the bonds of mutually profitable loyalty between myself and the true heirs of the Bounty Hunters Guild's mantle. There are so many untrustworthy and devious creatures in the galaxy, and I am but a humble go-between, a mere arranger of business between various parties. . . and I am so easily cheated out of what is rightfully due to me." The assembler dabbed at a few of its beadlike eyes with a claw tip, though moist displays of emotion were physiologically impossible for it." And I have so many expenses." The tip of the claw pointed to the clustering subnodes." Really. . . the upkeep on a place like this. . . it's practically more a medical than a business expense. . ."
"Spare me." The True Guild emissary gazed at the arachnoid creature with disgust." You want to plead poverty, take up somebody else's time." Otondon began fastening the brass hooks of his outer cloak." I don't want to hear it. But don't forget" -he stood up from where he had been sitting, then menacingly leaned over the assembler-" you owe me."
"A debt of honor," squeaked Kud'ar Mub'at, drawing back from Otondon's jabbing forefinger." Every Standard Time Unit will begin with my recall of exactly this matter."
"Yeah, I bet." With his massive shoulders almost scraping the chamber's curved, fibrous walls, Otondon looked around himself." How do I get out of here? I've got to get back to the Guild. They'll be waiting for me."
Kud'ar Mub'at let one of the internal guidance subnodes scurry away and lead Otondon to the web's main docking area. There was another, smaller dock on the other side of the web; that was where the Trandoshan bounty hunter Bossk's ship Hound's Tooth was moored, safely out of Gleed Otondon's view. When Bossk had contacted Kud'ar Mub'at about coming out to the web, to have their business discussions together, the assembler had convinced him that there was a need for secrecy-powerful forces, hinted at but not named, were watching the web and keeping track of its visitors' comings and goings. That had been enough to convince Bossk to go along with the approach and docking arrangements that had kept him unaware of the True Guild's emissary entering the web at the same time. Gleed Otondon had been similarly hoodwinked, and just as easily.
Without leaving its nest in the web's main chamber, Kud'ar Mub'at reconnected with the neural input from the optical node he'd used just a little while before. The deeply suspicious face of the Trandoshan Bossk immediately came into view, just as clear as if the assembler had been in the other chamber with him, instead of the disguised accountant subnode Balancesheet.
"What's that?" Bossk turned his head, listening to some distant sound.
Over the elongated strand of silken neurofiber that connected them, Kud'ar Mub'at directed the optical node to refocus, so that the assembler's discarded exoskeleton could be seen as well.
"Pardon?" A voice identical to Kud'ar Mub'at's spoke from inside the carapace. The accountant sub-node Balancesheet spread two of the exoskeleton's forelegs apart in a gesture of bafflement." To what do you refer?"
"What I heard. . . just now." The nostrils on Bossk's scale-covered snout flared wider, as though he could breathe in some telltale molecules from the web's recycled atmosphere." Sounded like a ship taking off."
In the vacuum of space outside the drifting web, the rush of the low-power docking engines from Gleed Otondon's ship would have been inaudible. But enough vibrations, from the disengagement of the docking subnodes, had traveled through the structural fibers of the web's exterior for Bossk's sensitive hearing to have picked up.
A smaller tremor, one of apprehension, moved inside Kud'ar Mub'at's chitinous body. If Balance-sheet, inside the assembler's shed carapace, bobbled its response, then Bossk might very well leap to the conclusion-accurate enough-that the web had had another visitor while he had been here.
"Yes, it did sound like that, didn't it?"
All of Kud'ar Mub'at's spidery legs clenched around its nest, as it heard the distant subnode's words.
"But," continued Balancesheet's voice," of course it wasn't. How could it be?"
In the view from the optical node, dangling from the ceiling of the smaller chamber, Bossk's slit-eyed glance turned toward the carapace with Balancesheet inside." You tell me," said Bossk," just why it wasn't a ship leaving here."
"It's simple enough," said Balancesheet mildly." My dear Bossk, the only reason any sentient creature
comes to my humble web is to conduct business with me. And very grateful I am for their visits. But you see me before you right now, don't you? And for all this time that we've been together, and that I have enjoyed to such a degree-is that not so? I couldn't very well have been discussing business affairs with any other creature, as you've had my undivided attention all the while." A set of the exoskeleton's shoulders lifted in a parody of a humanoid shrug." So why would anyone else have been here? Really-I don't delude myself that my home has charm sufficient to attract guests for any other reason."