Face looked around at all the Wraiths peering at him. He shrugged. "Ton Phanan's fault. He left me some money. Enough for some elective surgery. Or it would go to someone I hated. I pretty much had to do what he wanted."
"Well, it suits you," Dia said. "You look almost as young as you did in The Black Bantha."
He stared up at her accusingly. "You said you'd never seen any of my holodramas."
She smiled. "I lied."
Runt reached out the door and tugged in a rolling cart. It
was laden with bottles in cooler buckets and glasses. "Face cannot drink yet," he said. "But we can drink to him." He handed the bottle off to Janson.
Janson began prying at the seal. "And to Ton Phanan and Castin Donn."
Dia said, "And to scars you can peel off whenever you no longer need them."
Face said, "And to-"
Dia dropped the rubbery false scar into his mouth. "And," she said, "to friends who don't try to fool you all the time."
Face pulled the false scar out and gave her a rueful look.
"Dia, this is Wraith Squadron. You're never going to have
that."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aaron Allston is a novelist and longtime game designer from the Austin, Texas, area. He was born in 1960 in Corsi-cana, Texas, a town that is the home of a justly famous fruit-cake bakery-a fact Allston chooses to contend is neither relevant nor symbolic.
Texas native Allston's hobbies include gaming, Ping-Pong, cat-herding, and speculations on how he could improve the world were he granted the power to destroy people with but a thought.
Iron Fist is his eighth completed novel. It is the second of three he is writing in the X-wing series.
His Web page is on-line at http//www. io.corn/allston/
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