"Ann Crispin "Han Solo. The Hutt Gambit"" - читать интересную книгу автора
Tagta reared back slightly in surprise. "What? You came expecting payment from me?"
Hah took a deep breath. One part of him wanted to just beat a quick retreat. Angering a powerful Hutt Lord proba-bly wasn't worth it. But he held his ground, forcing himself to remain outwardly calm. He had a feeling he was being tested. "Yes, Your Excellency, I was promised the second half of the payment when I successfully delivered the ship to Nar Hekka having managed to avoid any Imperial ves-sels that might be interested in the ship . . . or its cargo. I was told that you would furnish the other half of my pay-ment when I saw you."
Tagta huffed indignantly. "How dare you imply that I would make such a ridiculous bargain? Leave me immedi-ately, human!"
Han was getting mad now. Crossing his arms on his chest, he planted his feet and shook his head. "No way, Your Excellency. I know what I was promised. Pay up." "You dare to demand payment of me?"
"When it comes to credits, I dare quite a lot of things," Han said imperturbably.
"Hrrrrrmmmmmph!" Tagta was full of disdain. "This is your last chance, Corellian," he warned. "Leave, or I will summon my guards!"
"You think me and Chewie can't handle a bunch of Gamorreans?" Han said scornfully. "Think again?
Tagta gazed at the Corellian balefully, but did not sum-mon the guards.
"Listen, Your Excellency, you want me to tell every other pilot I meet that Tagta the Hutt welshes on his debts?" Han added with a curl of his lip. "You'll have a tough time gettin' anyone to work for you, when Fm fin-ished."
The Hutt I~rd rumbled deep in his chest, a sort of "hrrrrrmmmmmmmmpppppphhhhhhh!" sound that made Han's mouth go dry. Had he pushed his luck too far?
Seconds ticked by in Han's head as he waited, forcing himself to remain immobile and silent.
Then Tagta actually chuckled, a deep but unmistakable sound. "Captain Solo, you are a brave sentient indeed! I admire courageF' He fumbled amid the welter of items scattered among the squirming foodstuffs, and tossed Han a pouch. "There, I believe the amount is correct."
The old villain] Hah thought~ half admiringly. He had it ready all the time/He WAS just testing me . . .
With the realization came a surge of confidence. Han bowed. "Please accept our thanks, lord Tagta. And I wish to ask a favor, Your Excellency . . .
"A favor?" the Hutt boomed, blinking his bulbous eyes rapidly. "You are indeed a bold sentient! What is this favor?"
"I understand that you know Lord Jiliac, sir?"
The huge, slit-pupiled eyes blinked again. "Yes, I do business with Jiliac. We belong to the same clan. What of it?"
"Well, I hear that there's work for good pilots to be had on Nar Shaddaa. And that Lord Jiliac owns or controls a lot of the Smuggler's Moon. I'm a good pilot, sir, I really am. If you could, I'd appreciate a recommendation to Lord Jiliac. Chewie and I would like to work for him."
"Ahhhhh . . ." The deep voice boomed in the massive chest. "I see. What shall I tell my clan lord? Shall I tell him that you are brazen and greedy, Captain Solo?"
Han grinned, suddenly daring. He was learning that Hutts had a sense of humor-twisted, but definitely a sense of humor. "If you think it would help, lord Tagta."
"Ho-HO!" the Hutt leader boomed a mighty shout of laughter. "Well, let me tell you, Captain Solo, there are not many humans with the intelligence to claim those qualities as virtues. But among my people-they are, indeed, ster-ling attributes."
"As you Say, sir," murmured tlan, not quite sure what to reply to this.
The Hurt lord bellowed, "Scribe!" in Huttese, and a bipedal droid came scuttling from behind the drapes in the cavernous room. "Yes, Your Impressiveness?"
Tagta waved a hand at the droid and gave it an order in Huttese so rapid that Hah had trouble following it. Some-thing about "seals" and "messages."
After holding the cube for a moment, Tagta activated the side of it, and a clear film slid down to cover the green-ish smear. "Here, Captain Solo," the Hutt said, handing Han the holocube. "By this lord Jiliac will know that I sent you. He is indeed in need of good pilots. Work hard for him, and you will be rewarded. We Hutts are known for our generosity and beneficence to lower life-forms who serve us ably."
Han took the cube rather gingerly, but it was no longer wet. He looked at the greenish smear, realizing that Jiliac would be able to do a sensor analysis and verify that the holocube had indeed come from his relative. Clever, even if it is disgusting, he thought.
He bowed deeply, and nudged Chewbacca, who Сalso bowed. "Thank you, Your Excellency!"
Then, clutching his holocube, Han left the Hutt overlord behind. As they were walking down the ramp outside the Hutt mansion, Han insisted on divvying up the credits from the voyage. "Just in case one of us gets robbed," he ex-plained, to quiet Chewbacca's protests. "That way one of us is sure to have some money."
Once back out on the street, Han suggested that they get some food before heading to the shuttleport to catch the next ship for Nat Shaddaa. Stopping by a fiower-seller's booth, Han asked the proprietor, a spindly humanoid with long, wiry whiskers and tufted ears, whether there was a good restaurant in the vicinity. The sentient directed him to the Starfarer Diner, a few blocks away.
They were halfway there, strolling casually and chatting, when Han suddenly stopped in midsentence and swung around, alarmed-and not even sure why. Out of the cor-ner of his eye he caught a glimpse of a pale-skinned hu-manoid with two long fleshy tails instead of hair. The Twi'lek was just stepping out of a doorway behind him. There was a drawn blatster in his hand. As Han turned, the Twi'lek shouted, in accented but understandable Basic, "Halt, both of you, or I shoot you now!"
Hah knew instinctively that if he obeyed the command to stop, he'd wind up dead, sooner or later. He didn't hesi-tate for even a second. With an earsplitting yell, the Corel-lian threw himself to the side, hit the ground, rolled, and came up on one knee, blaster in hand.
The Twi'lek's weapon spat a blue-green burst. Han dodged.
Stun blast/
Han aimed, fired, and the reddish beam struck his at-tacker mid-torso. He went down, dead or incapacitated.
The Corellian made sure the Twi'lek wasn't getting up any-
time soon, then he turned to look for Chewbacca. The
Wookiee was leaning heavily against a parked speeder,
dazed. He'd evidently been grazed by the stun beam. Hah
ran over to him, his heart pounding from the rush of adren-
aline. "Did he get you bad, palP"
With a muffled growl, Chewbacca assured his partner that he'd be fine. Han peered up into the Wookiee's furry face, saw that his eyes were clear, the pupils even. Only then did he draw a long breath of relief. He hadn't realized until that moment that he was getting used to having the big hairy lug around. If anything had happened to Chewie . . .
Going over to the Twi'lek, Han knelt down. One glance at the huge blaster wound that had turned the Twi'lek's chest to blackened slag was enough to tell him the being was dead. Han experienced a quick pang-he'd killed be-fore, but he didn't like doing it.
Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to search the dead sentient. There was a vibroblade strapped to the inside of a sleeve, another on the calf. On the inside of the other wrist the Twi'lek wore a "wrist vac," a device that when triggered would send small, deadly blades flying into an opponent's vitals.
Shoved into his belt, covered by his tunic, was a sleep-inducer. A short-range weapon, but very effective. The Twi'lek could have simply walked up behind Han, stuck the sleep-inducer in his back, then pulled the trigger to send the Corellian off to dreamland.
Han stared at the weapon, his mouth dry. A bounty
hunter. Great. Why am I not surprised? This must be Ter-
oenza's doing. He's found out I'm alive, and he wants
If not for instinct and fast reflexes, Han knew, at this very moment he'd be out cold and on his way back to Ylesia to face a terrible vengeance . . .
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