Fett knelt down and did a quick check of vital signs, then stood back up." He's still alive." Fett glanced over at Bossk." We've got our merchandise."
Exhausted, Bossk squatted onto his haunches. Beside him, Boba Fett managed to activate his comlink and signal his ship Slave I to descend and pick them up.
"I don't know. . ." Bossk slowly shook his head. Every breath hurt, and he was sure there were at least a few bones broken inside him." I don't think I want to work with you anymore. . ."
12
When news comes from far away, it sometimes accumulates power on its journey. Like a tidal wave on the surface of an aquatic planet, that rolls uninterrupted and gathers greater and greater force in doing so, until it can wrench that world off its spinning axis-or sweep up on its curving face and then crush any leviathan creature smaller than itself.
Such dark, brooding meditations came easily to those of the Falleen species. Prince Xizor stood at the small viewport, gazing out at the stars and the emptiness in which they were held; the thumb and forefinger of one hand stroked the sharp angles of his chin as his thoughts progressed through their courses. He had already heard the news, the fulfillment of the next step in his intricately woven plans, before he had made the return journey to this place. Indeed, he had been expecting the news at any moment, as he had waited in the private quarters of his ship Virago. Some things, he mused, are as certain as the galaxy's own slow rotation. Many of his own actions and schemes were based upon a cold assessment of calculated risks; the most dangerous of those added a blood-stirring excitement to his life. To stake all upon the turn of a card, to use the most ancient gambler's metaphor everything, including the very life he savored at such moments-was the ultimate sport. But that was not the kind of lower-keyed satisfaction he derived from betting on a sure thing. And in this universe, as had been demonstrated over and over again, nothing seemed as certain as one Boba Fett, bounty hunter.
A sound of scrabbling claws and a slight motion caught the corner of Xizor's eye. He turned and saw one of Kud'ar Mub'at's subnodes, a little crablike thing tethered by a whitely glowing neurofilament to the web's communication fibers." Yes?" Xizor raised an eyebrow as he regarded the semi-independent creature clinging to the wall in front of him." What is it?"
The subnode's mouth, nearly humanoid in size, opened and emitted words." Your presence is desired, my lord." Its voice was a squeaky approximation of its own master's." In the main throne room and conference area."
"Very well." He gave a single nod of acknowledgment." Tell Kud'ar Mub'at that I will be with him shortly."
Xizor let the subnode lead the way, through the cramped angles and turns of the web's internal corridors. The rough-textured walls, with their structural fibers of varying thicknesses compressed to a solid mass, were faintly illuminated by the phosphorescence of other subnodes dangling at intervals above, idiot creations of their assembler parent. They had no more intelligence than was sufficient to monitor the slow catalysis and decay of the light-producing compounds in the globular bodies, each barely larger than the span of Xizor's palm. When their glow had dwindled sufficiently, the instincts with which they had been designed and extruded would send them creeping back to Kud'ar Mub'at to be reingested by their creator. Xizor felt no pity for them; he shared the attitude that lesser creatures were for the service of their masters.
He ducked his head to make his way through one of the lower-ceilinged areas in the web. His broad, heavily muscled shoulders scraped against the matted walls on either side. Aboard the Virago, even the narrowest passageways were wider than he could have reached with his hands fully outstretched; his own personal quarters on the ship were as luxuriously appointed as the reception hall of many a planet-bound ruler's palace. It was a test of his will to voluntarily return to Kud'ar Mub'at's space-drifting web and enter its dank, claustrophobic spaces; only the prospect of successfully concluding some long-standing business schemes was enough to entice him anywhere near the arachnoid assembler and its scuttling, scurrying brood of subnodes.
"Ah, my most precious Xizor! Sunlight of my drab existence!" Kud'ar Mub'at perched on the pneumatic cushion of the subnode that served as its throne. The assembler's spike-haired forelimbs lifted and waved in a grotesque parody of a welcoming gesture." How deeply embarrassed am I, to have kept one of your exquisite eminence waiting! Please accept my most humbly prostrated apologies-"
"No need for that." Xizor could already feel his own patience draining away inside himself. The assembler's flowery language always irritated him, suspecting as he did that every word that came from Kud'ar Mub'at's mouth was tinged with venomous sarcasm. He stood before the assembler, arms folded across his chest." I was told upon my arrival here at your web that important news had just been received, and that was the reason for delaying our meeting." His vibroblade-sharp gaze took in Kud'ar Mub'at and the various subnodes clustered around it or perching on various limbs." If the news had that kind of urgency for you. . . then I wonder if it could possibly have some bearing on our mutual interests."
All of the multiple eyes that studded Kud'ar Mub'at's face shifted uneasily for a moment, as if revealing the agile contortions of the mind that lay behind them. Then the assembler creaked out an unpleasantly high-pitched laugh." Why is it, my so esteemed Prince Xizor, that you already know all about this news that I've just heard? Granted, your native intelligence is of a nature many awesome degrees above my own. But still. . . for you to acquire such information before me. . ." Kud'ar Mub'at shook one of the tiny subnodes from its forelimb, then used the exposed claw-point to scratch the tip of its chin." How it grieves me to harbor suspicions against one so uniquely dear to me as yourself! The pain! Nevertheless-" Kud'ar Mub'at's two main eyes peered closer at its visitor." I would hate to believe that your information-gathering sources, the great and efficient network of your Black Sun organization, had been monitoring developments in this little matter independently from my own favorite and trusted spies. That would tend to indicate-oh! The horror!-that you, dear prince Xizor, did not trust me."
"I trust you, all right." One corner of Xizor's mouth lifted in a grim smile." There are some things that I can absolutely depend on to happen when I'm dealing with you. Given any opportunity, you will lie, cheat, embezzle, and in other ways seek to gain an advantage over a business partner. Withholding or changing a few important details about some matter in which we both have an interest-that would be one of the lesser offenses you would commit."
"Hm." The assembler appeared nettled; it turned its narrow face away from Xizor and spent some time fussing with its nestlike throne, poking and prodding it with its lower sets of limbs. The pneumatic subnode bore the assault with dull patience." Very well; be that as it may." Kud'ar Mub'at finally settled its globular abdomen back into the nest beneath it." If I'm to be criticized for being a business creature, and taking care of business the way I should-no more, no less-then I shall just have to accept that as my lot in this universe."
"Spare me," said Xizor. He didn't know which was worse, Kud'ar Mub'at's unctuous flattery or its occasional spasms of self-pity." You've done all right by yourself." Xizor gestured with an upraised hand, indicating the matted fibers of this tight space and all the smaller ones beyond." Consider the treasures you've accumulated."