At last Luke decided he was going to have to push a bit. “Lando, you didn’t bring me down here to find out how much ice I like in my drinks. Why am I here?”
“All right,” Lando said. He paused for a long moment, and shifted in his seat. Even if he was coming to the point, he seemed to feel the need to do so gradually. He set down his own drink on the side table and leaned forward, an earnest expression on his face. “I told a bit of a fib back there as we were walking up this way, when I was talking about building this place,” he said. “The truth is I did stop thinking big, for a little while there. I didn’t even realize it at first. I got all involved in getting Dometown put together. It was a safe, secure job, and they needed someone with my skills, and I liked the work. Heck, after putting Nkllon together, getting this place built was more like a hobby than a job—and I liked the way it was easy. I’d been shot down and kicked out and blown up and wiped out so many times I just didn’t want to deal with that kind of big-time struggle anymore. So I put all my energy into getting Dometown put back together and cleaned up and families moved in.”
“Nothing at all wrong with that,” Luke said. “You’ve really accomplished something here.”
“Yes, I have,” Lando said, a touch of pride in his voice. He looked around his parlor, obviously seeing beyond the walls to the town he had made. “That is to say, I did a good job here. But then, after a while, it dawned on me I was still doing the job, even though the job was done.”
“I don’t understand,” Luke said. “How could you be doing the job if it was finished?”
Lando shook his head sadly. “That’s easy, Luke. Billions of beings do it every day. They get up in the morning, push some pieces of paper around on a desk, make some com calls, decide on the blue-gray paint for the corridor over the gray blue, have a meeting, and feel like they’ve accomplished enough for one day. They go home, and then they come back the next day and do it all again. That might be all right for some, but not for me, and when I caught myself doing it I realized it was time to move on.”
“Move on to what?”
“I don’t know,” Lando said, making a rather abrupt gesture of dismissal. “That’s not even really that important just now. The main question is move on with what? My father used to say, ‘You can’t think deeper than your pockets,’ and there’s a lot of truth to that. I started thinking back on all my schemes that had crashed and burned one way or the other. It seemed to me that I could have stuck it out if my pockets had been deeper, if they had been filled with more credits.
“If I had the reserves, the resources, I could have ridden out the bad times and gotten Bespin or Nkllon back on a paying basis. Deep pockets give you staying power, let you hang in and lose money until you’re earning it again. I realized that the question was: How to get money? Serious money. How could I get those deep pockets?”
“And now you’ve figured out how, and you want my help to do it,” Luke said, more than a little amused.
“Right,” Lando said. “Exactly right. I’ve figured out how to get deep pockets full of money, and I need your help to do it.”
“Well, then,” Luke said. “How do you get deep pockets?”
“Simplest thing in the universe,” said Lando. “You marry them.”
There was a moment of dead silence as Luke stared straight at Lando. It wasn’t easy to surprise a Jedi Master, but Lando had done it. “You’re getting married?” Luke asked at last. “To whom?”
Lando shrugged his shoulders and laughed. “I haven’t the faintest idea,” he said. “Well, that’s not strictly true. I do have a short list of candidates, but it could be anyone on the list, or maybe even someone I haven’t thought of yet.”
“But—but—how can you marry someone you don’t know?”
“I’m not marrying a who,” Lando said. “I’m marrying a what. I’m marrying money. What’s so strange about that? People have done it since the beginning of time. A rich wife could do me a lot of good—and I could do her a lot of good, too. Make her richer, for one thing.”
Luke looked at his old friend, and asked a careful question. “Where do I come into all this?” Luke asked.
“Ah, now that’s the tricky part,” Lando said. “I’m not altogether unknown in the galaxy. People have heard of me. Unfortunately, sometimes they haven’t liked what they’ve heard. Stories get started. Some of the stories aren’t even true. But they’re out there just the same. That’s why I want you to come with me while I’m searching for my wife—”
“What? That’s the reason for the trip you want me to go on?”
Lando looked surprised. “Yes. I thought I had explained that part. I want you to come with me while I go wife hunting.”
“And do what?” Luke asked. “Convince them that the true stories aren’t true? I can’t go around bending the facts just to suit you, Lando.”
“No, of course not,” Lando said. “But I’ve changed, Luke. I’m not going to say I’m a whole new person or any nonsense like that. I couldn’t get you to believe it anyway. But I’m not the way I was in the old days. I’m more solid, more steady. Could the old me have gotten this place built?” he asked.
Yes, Luke thought. Built it and then lost it all on one hand of sabacc. But fortunately for Luke, his sense of tact was not called upon to battle with his need to tell the truth. Lando was talking on, without waiting for an answer.
“I’m not going to deny my past,” Lando said. “There’s no point in even trying. Anyone who wanted to find out about me could do so very easily. I have nothing to hide.” He caught the look in Luke’s eyes and shrugged. “Well, nothing much. Besides, most of the women I want to get a look at know who I am already. Some women even like my reputation. They think it’s exciting, or romantic or something. Besides, look at where I started, and look at where I am and all the places I’ve been on the way. I’m proud of what I’ve done.” Lando looked at Luke again and put his hands up in a mock gesture of surrender before Luke even had a chance to object. “All right, I’m not proud of all of it, maybe, but at least some.”
“And you ought to be proud,” Luke said, trying to be reassuring. “You’ve done great things. The New Republic might not even be here today if not for you.”
“Thanks,” Lando said. “I appreciate that, especially coming from you.”
“Is that what you want me for?” Luke asked. “To go and say that to all your prospective brides?”
“Noooo, not exactly,” Lando said. “I just want you to be there with me. I figure if I show up with you, that’s going to make me more respectable even if you never say a word. They’ll know my intentions are honorable if I show up with a Jedi escort. There won’t be any hanky-panky while you’re around.”
Luke fought hard to suppress a smile. “Wait a second,” he said. “Just let me understand this. You want me to be your chaperon?”
Lando rewarded Luke with one of his most dazzling smiles. “Exactly. Couldn’t have put it better myself. With you around, I’ll be respectable. They’ll know I’m sincere.”
“Are you sincere?” Luke asked.
Lando looked surprised again. “About money? Never anything but.”
“No,” Luke said. “About marrying. What about the woman in question?”
Lando looked puzzled. “How do you mean, what about her?”
“Well, you can’t just walk up to a woman and say, ‘Hello, I heard about your large bank account, let’s get married.’ Why should she want to marry you? And what about love, and romance, and commitment, and children and so on? She’ll want to know where you stand on all that sort of thing.”
Lando seemed a bit taken aback. Perhaps it had never entered his head that there was a woman alive who wouldn’t want to marry him. “You’ve got some good points there,” he said, in the tone of voice of a man tripped up by an unexpected question. “I must admit that I haven’t thought them all through. But don’t you forget that marriages are more than just love and flowers. They’re business relations
hips, even political relationships.
“Besides, even if you leave romance out of it, I really am not at all a bad catch.” He made a wide sweeping gesture with one hand. “I have this place—not just the house, but Dometown—providing me with a nice little income. I won’t need my wife’s money to live on. I’d just use it to invest. I could take money that’s just lying around and make it work, make it grow. I have a lot of experience in managing large projects and dealing with people, I have a pretty fair war record, and let’s face it, I do have some connections with the powers-that-be on Coruscant.”
“And bringing me along would remind them of all that,” Luke said.
“Absolutely,” Lando said, completely unabashed.
“You’d make a great sales tool even if you never said a single word.”
“I see. Well, who’s on your list?” Luke asked, no longer even trying to suppress a smile.
“Quite a number of people,” Lando said, his voice earnest and thoughtful, like a salesman who wanted to be sure you knew just how impressive his stock was. “I’ve been working the data banks hard, of course, doing all sorts of searches. But not everything gets into the computers. In fact, most things don’t. So I’ve been working the rumor mills, reading off-planet news, talking to ship captains, that sort of thing.”
“All the things you do when you’re looking for a business opportunity,” Luke said.
But Lando missed the joke. “Exactly,” he said. “I’ve been doing it all. And I’ve come up with about two hundred and fifty candidates.”
“Two hundred and fifty!” Luke half shouted.
“That’s right,” Lando said. He pulled a portable data reader out of the pocket of his blouse. “I’ve got ’em all right here.”
“Lando, I can’t go around with you to visit two hundred and fifty women!” Even as he said the words Luke knew he was trapped. Lando, galaxy-class salesman and con man, had pulled him in. Luke had just let Lando know there was some lower number of women that Luke was willing to go and see. Luke hadn’t really wanted to agree, but it was already too late. Now it was merely a question of haggling over the price, the number of women Luke would be willing to visit.
“Oh, I don’t expect that much of you,” Lando went on in the same earnest, slightly anxious tone. “For that matter, I certainly don’t plan to visit anywhere near that many myself. I’ve ranked the list, and I sincerely hope I don’t have to go past the five or ten most desirable candidates.”
“Five or ten most desirable, eh?”
“That’s right. Of course, when I find what I’m after, I’ll stop looking. Maybe we’ll—I’ll—get lucky at the first stop.”
Luke reached for his drink. “So who’s that first stop?” he asked, making ready to take a sip. “Who’s your number-one prospect?”
“A young lady by the name of Tendra Risant. Ever heard of her?”
“No,” Luke said. “Any particular reason that I should have?”
“Not really. She’s a minor functionary on Sacorria, one of the Outlier worlds in the Corellian Sector. She’s not the richest on my list, but she’s wealthy enough, and her family is the real draw. They have strong contacts throughout the Corellian Sector. And those connections could be worth a lot more than cash to the right sort of fellow.”
“To a fellow sort of like you?” Luke asked.
Lando smiled wolfishly. “A fellow sort of like me,” he agreed.
“Who else?” Luke asked.
“Let’s see,” he said, consulting the data reader. “There’s Condren Foreck on Azbrian. She’s a little on the young side, but her father’s getting on in years.”
“What’s that got to do with it?” Luke asked.
“Come on, Luke, think it through. If I’m going to marry an heiress for the money, I’ve got to consider how long it will take me to collect.” He took a moment to read over the notes on the data reader again. “Still,” he said thoughtfully, “her father has quite a stack of the stuff. It’d be worth waiting for, and besides, she gets a pretty fair income off the trust funds in the meantime. Not a bad prospect at all. Hmmm. I assume she’s healthy enough. It says here she’s a famous athlete on her world. Of course, that could just be Daddy buying her way to the trophies. You never know.”
Luke did not pretend to follow the last portion of what Lando had said. Maybe Lando wanted a wife who would die early and leave him in sole possession of the proceeds. Or else maybe he wanted a young, healthy wife who was likely to outlive her father in the long run and keep the trust funds coming in the meantime.
“All right,” he said. “Who’s next on your list?”
“Actually, the first one I plan to visit,” Lando said. “Sort of a long shot, but she’s on the way to the Corellian Sector, and that’s where I want to end up, so I can attend the last half of the trade summit and see what deals are being made.”
“So who is your choice number three?”
Lando looked at his notes again. “Karia Ver Seryan,” he said. “Lives on the planet Leria Kerlsil. Getting on toward middle years, or perhaps a bit past. Widow of one Chantu Solk, a rather sharp fellow I knew pretty well in the old days. He was a ship broker who made his money knowing which side to bet on in the war against the Empire—and kept his money by knowing when to change his bets. She married him about eight years ago and he died about five years ago. Left everything to his wife. She sold the business. I don’t have much information on her, but according to my accounts, she doesn’t seem to do much now that she has her money. I guess she’s better at spending the money than earning it.”
It didn’t take much for Luke to develop a mental image of Karia Ver Seryan that was, to put it mildly, not alluring. “And that’s someone you’d be willing to marry?” he asked.
“For the right money, absolutely. I’d leave her alone and put her money to work making more money, and she’d leave me alone and still have money to spend. More money to spend, for that matter.” Lando glanced at the data reader again. “Then, rounding out the top five, we have Dera Jynsol on Ord Pardron, and uh—oh yeah, one Lady Lapema Phonstom on Kabal. And so on down the list. But I’m not going to worry much about them until I’ve dealt with the first three names.”
“Lando, you’re making my blood run cold.”
“Come on, Luke. How long have you been out in the real world? Money is what makes the galaxy go round. People have treated marriage as the business deal it is since the beginning of time. The only difference here is that I’m not dressing it up in pretty words, or pretending that I’m going to seek out my one true love, and she’ll just happen to be the richest woman who’ll have me.”
“But this is all so ruthless. You’re just looking for the woman you can make the best use of, as if you were shopping for a good deal on a landspeeder. ”
“That’s the way it is in lots of cultures. They don’t have much interest in true love—just marriages that can stand the test of time. Besides, the lady in question is going to be shopping for the best deal she can get. The best kind of business deal is the one where both sides get what they want. That’s all I’m after. A nice, honest business deal.”
“And do you seriously think that any of these women might consider you as a husband?”
“Why not?” Lando said. “Besides, I’m not really expecting to settle a final deal on this run. It’s a scouting trip.” He held up the data reader. “I know some of this information is dated or incomplete, maybe even inaccurate. I need to gather some more intelligence. I want to get a look at a few possibilities and let them get a look at me.”
“So these women know you are coming?” Luke asked.
“Of course,” Lando said. “Not that I’ve done intense negotiations. Just that I am shopping, I’m interested, and I’d like to come get acquainted.”
“And they’ve said yes?” Luke asked.
Lando shrugged. “A lot didn’t.” He gestured with the data reader. “These did.” He dropped the data reader down on the couch and looked Luke str
aight in the eye. “So what do you say?” he asked. “Want to come along? I need someone to keep me out of trouble. It’d do you some good to get off this overgrown apartment house of a planet. Get out in the galaxy and spread your wings a bit.”
Luke hesitated. He hated to admit it, but he was tempted. He had been kind of cooped up on Coruscant for a while. And he had to confess to a certain curiosity. How the devil would Lando handle himself? It would require more gall than Luke could imagine to wander the galaxy brazenly shopping for a wife. And Mon Mothma had urged Luke to join Lando on his journey. “How many of them do I have to help you see?” Luke asked, trying to retain the last scraps of his caution.
“The first ten on the list,” Lando said, just a bit too eagerly. “That would be enough. That would get the word around that the great Jedi Knight was traveling with me. Even if you didn’t stay with me longer, the fact that you had been with me would help improve my credentials.”
“Three,” Luke said, knowing full well that that was not what he was going to get
“Eight,” said Lando.
“Four,” Luke said.
“Come on, Luke. For old times’ sake. Six.”
“Well—five,” Luke said.
Lando’s face split into a wide grin. “Great! Great. That’s perfect,” he said. He stuck out his hand, and Luke took it, more than a little reluctantly. Lando had not wanted or hoped for Luke to go along on any more than five of these absurd visits. Yet he had managed to make five visits seem like a grand compromise, a great concession on his part—while it was Luke who was doing him the favor.
“So,” Lando said. “When can you be ready to go?”
Luke stood up and shrugged vaguely. “Tomorrow morning, I guess,” he said. Mon Mothma had hit close to the mark when she had suggested that there wasn’t much holding him to Coruscant. Maybe she was right. Maybe it would do some good for him to get back out into space. Into action. If you could call chaperoning Lando much in the way of action.
Ambush at Corellia Page 11
