The woman shook her head, her dark blond queue lashing her from
shoulder to shoulder. "Don't know.
Don't want to know."
"I find that hard to believe." Corran frowned at her. "I don't know
what kind of game you're running here, but these sleight boxes won't
fool CorSec's droids. If this is
stuff being hauled for the Rebels, they'll find it and you'll be in serious trouble."
Riij slid his box onto the flat bed. "If we were Rebels and we knew
what was in these boxes and it was meant for the Rebels, we'd be a lot
more worried about the Empire than we would their puppets here on
CoreIlia."
"You think CorSec's people are Imperial puppets?"
Corran flicked that suggestion away with a wave of his hand.
"CorSec's concerned with the integrity of the Corellian system, nothing
more. If they tolerate Rebels here, the Imperial presence increases.
Who wants that?"
Riij's brown eyes flashed dangerously. "What you're telling me is that
CorSec's people are willing to repress the enemies of a vicious regime
so they don't get Vader's boot across their own necks. If I was a
Rebel, I'd find it very difficult to tell the difference between CorSec
agents and the Imps."
Corran forced himself to go over and pick up another box so he wouldn't
immediately snap back at Riij. The smuggler's arguments had been heard
often--and loudly--on CoreIlia. Corran, whose father and grandfather
had both preceded him into CorSec, had long believed that CorSec could
do the most good by keeping the Imps out of its solar system security
problems. If CoreIlia could take care of itself and set itself up as a
neutral party in this civil war, the citizens of CoreIlia would
benefit.
While that position made perfect sense, and was defensible, it was also
a position made at the top of a very slick slope. CorSec's directors
had already forced the local divisions to accept Imperial Intelligence
Liaison officers to monitor and coordinate operations with Imperial
Garrisons.
Kirtan Loor, the liaison officer his division had been saddled with,
had proved thoroughly arrogant and barely functional. He and Corran
did not get along at all.
Corran hefted another box. "I think, from CorSec's view, they have a
hard time telling the Rebels apart from' honest criminals like me. I
don't, but that's because I've
got the right perspective. The Rebs aren't honest criminals at all."
Maranne smiled. "'Honest' criminals?"
"Yeah, honest. I know that what I'm doing violates the law, but I do
it because that's what I do. I take the risks, I make some money, or I
get sent to Kessel. It's all very straightforward." Corran placed his
box on top of the first one he'd set down. "The Rebels, they do
everything I would do, but they say they are entitled to do it because
the law is wrong and the Empire is wrong. They're really just making
excuses for their actions so they can feel they're noble when they're
really no better than I am."
"What an interesting perspective."
Corran spun at the sound of the faintly echoed voice.
Jodo Kast stood in the cargo hatchway, blocking most of the view of the
docking bay. Corran ducked and dodged his head to try and see past the
bounty hunter, but with no success. "Where's Hal?"
"I would expect, right now, he is very nearly at Zekka Thyne's
fortress."
"What!" Riij's shout of surprise filled the cargo hold.
"You were there to protect them. What happened?"
Kast stepped into the cargo hold, then leaned rather casually against
the bay's internal bulkhead. "Thyne's people were waiting for Trell
and the other two. There were seven of them--including the Brommstaad
Mercenaries.
I waited until they'd headed off east, then I returned here."
Corran slammed a fist down on top of a sleight box.
"East is where Thyne has his little palace."
Kast nodded. "Hence my assumption about their destination."
"And you did nothing to stop them?" Corran jabbed a finger in Kast's
direction. "You're some hot bounty hunter in this Mandalorian armor
who can shoot the blaster from a man's hand while sitting down, and you
didn't stop them?"
"There were seven of them and only one of me. I al
ready did the math
for you on that match-up--I might have gotten them, but they would have
killed your people."
Riij shook his head. "Rathe could have taken his share of them."
Maranne nodded. "Trell would have been good for at least one."
"And Hal could have popped a couple . . ."
"A couple wouldn't have done it."
"... Or more, if he'd been given a chance." Corran looked from Riij
and Maranne to the bounty hunter.
"Are all three of you so naive you don't know what's going to happen to
our people? Thyne's going to ask them about their connection to Crisk
and, if they know as little as you do, he's going to have to work real
hard to get answers he trusts. I'm not too wild about him going at Hal
like that."
Kast shrugged his shoulders. "You can always find yourself another
partner."
"If you think I'm going to abandon Hal, I'm going to have to shuck you
out of that armor and beat some sense into you."
Kast's head came up as he moved away from the wall, silently
emphasizing just how much bigger than Corran he truly was. "Hardly the
reaction I'd expect from two criminal associates. Out of proportion,
really. You're acting as if there is a closer bond between you."
Corran gave Kast as cold a glare as he could. He did resemble his
father a bit, around the eyes and through the face, but otherwise he
was a compromise between his mother and father. She'd been tiny and
had the bluest eyes Corran could ever remember having seen. His green
eyes were a midpoint between her eyes and his father's hazel eyes, as
his brown hair was a match between her blond and his father's once
black hair. Even his height formed a bridge between that of his mother
and father.
"It wouldn't matter if Hal was my clone--he's my partner, which means
I'm responsible for him." Corran
jabbed a thumb back against his
breastbone. "I actually understand what that sort of responsibility
means, Kast, and what it means is that I'm not going to leave Hal to
Thyne's untender mercies."
Kast folded his arms across his armored chest. "You'd dare take on a
Black Sun crime lord?"
Maranne paled. "Thyne is Black Sun?"
"Claw-picked by Prince Xizor, if the rumors are true."
Corran leaned on one of the green boxes. "He's crazy, cruel and wholly
nasty, but he does operate with a profit motive in mind. This cargo
may have been for Crisk, but we could offer it to Thyne and ransom our
people."
"I don't think so." Kast produced a datacard from a pouch on his belt
and flipped it over to Maranne. "That card has the location and time
for a new meeting with Crisk. Deliver the cargo there, then come back
here and prepare to take off."
Mar
anne caught the card. "We're not going anywhere if Haber isn't
here."
"I know." Kast gave her a quick nod. "It's my intention to head out
to Thyne's fortress and secure the release of your friends."
Corran barked out a sharp laugh. "You balk at taking on seven
guttersharks, but you'll free our friends from Thyne's fortress all by
yourself?. Better check that math, Kast."
"The odds are substantial, but I anticipate success."
"Yeah, well, this is Corellia! and Corellians have no use for odds. I
think I'd trust in your success if I was along to enhance it."
"I work alone."
"Ha!" Corran jerked his head toward Riij and Maranne. "You work with
them, you can work with me."
Corran shook his fists out. "Save us both some trouble and just say
yes now."
Kast hesitated and silence stole over the cargo bay. The mercenary
studied Corran and even though he could not see Kast's eyes, he could
feel the man's hard stare raking
him up and down. Corran forced himself to look at the helmet's black slit, inviting a challenge and
ready to react to Kast's next move.
The bounty hunter's arms slowly unfolded. "I will go find us a
landspeeder."
"Good." Corran realized, as he replied, that he'd been holding his
breath. Hal's going to go crazy when he hears what I did. Facing down
a bounty hunter like Kast. It had to be done, but it could have been
done better. I'd never run away from a fight with a guy like that, but
there's no virtue in picking one, either.
Darkness swallowed Kast's form, then Corran turned and looked at the
other two. "You're in way over your heads, aren't you?"
Riij shrugged. "I'm not sure what's going on, but I don't like Rathe
being captured by a Black Sun crime lord."
"Well, Borbor Crisk isn't much better. We're caught in the arena
between two Cyborrean battledogs. Neither of these guys plays well
with others, as you've seen."
Maranne brandished the datacard. "What are we going to do? We're
supposed to meet with Crisk and give him this stuff."
"The first thing we do is find out what this stuff is."
Corran looked at the seals on the boxes already loaded on the
landspeeder's bed. "Good, here's one that's junked. See if you can
find another."
Riij started looking at new boxes while Corran fished in his pocket for
a small hydrospanner. "This ought to do the trick."
Maranne came over and frowned. "What do you mean the box is junked?"
"Not the box, the seal-tab used to bind the duraplast strips."
Corran pointed to the round tab that connected the crisscrossing
straps. "See how the hologram imbedded in it doesn't fully line up.
Look at it from the angle here. The corona on the suns here don't
match up."
"I found another one," Riij announced.
"Good, bring it over." Corran hooked the edge of the spanner under
the lip of the seal. "When they don't set up right you can pop them
apart with a little shove and a twist." He lifted up, then twisted his
wrist.
The seal popped apart, freeing the strips that secured the box.
"Get both parts and we can reseal this thing once we've peeked at
what's inside."
Maranne bent to recover both halves of the seal while' Corran attacked
the other one. It came apart easily, then he reversed the spanner and
used a flat-bladed attachment to pry the box's lid up. "By the
Emperor's black heart!"
Even before the lid came up fully Corran caught the sharp sour scent of
spice. The box held seven single-kilogram bricks that had been wrapped
up in heavy cello-plast.
They'd been dipped in a waxy coating to seal them, but the job had been
done hastily. One of the packets had split open and spilled a
low-grade spice compound inside the box.
"What is that?"
Corran looked at Maranne. "You're joking, right?"
"Like I said, I'm a trader, not a smuggler."
"This is spice. It's a really lousy grade of glitterstim--the real
stuff is crystalline, long fine fibers, not a powder like this.
Dose up with this and you get really happy, at least really happy until
you need more and the craving flows through your veins like plasma.
Not a pretty thing."
Riij curled a lip distastefully. "You know from experience?"
"Just hearsay, and watching a guy try to sell a lung to get more
glit."
"Sell a lung?" Maranne shivered.
Corran shrugged. "Wasn't his. Belonged to some passerby.
Like I said, not good stuff."
Riij pried the lid off the second sleight box. "Sith-spawn!"
He reached a hand in and withdrew a crystal spike the thickness of his
thumb and a good hand-span in length. Purple filled the stone's core,
running from light
at either end to dark in the middle. As Riij held
the stone up the light it trapped filled it with orange, yellow and red
lightning bolts. All three of them fell silent in response to the
brilliant display.
corran stared at the stone, then shook his head. "Is that a Durindfire
gem?"
"I think so." Riij's voice-box bounced up and down as he swallowed
hard. "My father bought a ring with a Durindfire for my mother on
their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Wasn't until the thirtieth
that he had the debt paid off, and that was just a little stone."
"Not too many of those stones make it off Tatooine, and very seldom
unworked like that finger there."
Maranne took it from Riij and weighed it in her hands.
"This would be enough to buy us a new ship."
Riij turned. "Let's find out what else is in these other boxes."
"No, stop." corran held his hands up. "We don't have time enough to
check them out. Put the stone back, we'll reseal these two boxes and
set them in the landspeeder's front seat."
Maranne reluctantly returned the stone to its box.
"What do you have in mind?"
"Look, we're going to need some insurance here if we're going to get
off Corellia in one piece. We can reseal these boxes and no one will
ever know they've been tampered with. You'll take those two boxes to
Crisk and let him know you have, what, 108 more for him. He won't make
a move against you until he has them."
Riij frowned. "He can come here and take them from US."
"Yeah, but they won't be here. We load the rest onto the speeder and
take them to a storage facility." Corran frowned as if thinking hard
about something. "Okay, I have it. There's a Dewback Storage
Warehouse on the main road back into the center of Coronet City. You
can rent a storage shed there and dump the other boxes. You go to your
meeting and let Crisk know you'll give him the
location of the other boxes when you're certain your friends are safe. Kast and I will go
off to see Thyne and if we're not back in due time, you use Crisk to
try to effect a rescue."
Maranne slowly shook her head. "I don't like the sound of this."
"Look, we've got a veritable fortune in those boxes. If Crisk doesn't
want to help you, set up a meeting with Thyne and ransom us."<
br />
"How do we get in touch with Thyne?"
Corran smiled. "You did that back at your first stop on Treasure Ship
Row, remember?"
"Right."
"Okay, let's get loading." Corran resealcd the first box and then the
second. "I know you don't like the way this is going, Maranne, but
you're the one who said she's a trader. If things go badly, you're
going to have to trade for our freedom and, speaking for myself, I hope
you strike a super bargain in the process."
Colonel Maximillian Veers glanced down at the chair offered to him, but
refrained from sitting. "Thank you for your kindness, Agent Loor, but
I do not anticipate being here very long. You have looked at the
message I had sent over to you."
The long, slender man sat forward in his chair, a motion that nearly
tossed him sprawling up over the top of his desk. Loor caught himself
with his hands, then brushed the lank of dark hair that had fallen over
his face back into place. Veers felt certain the man wore his hair the
Tales From The Empire Page 34
