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WELCOME TO AARGAU

YOUR ARE NOW ENTERING A

NEUTRAL ZONE

"Hah!" said Aurra Sing. She unfastened her safety harness and stood, shaking back her topknot mane of red hair. "Neutral zone! No such thing!"

"What do you mean?" asked Boba. He slid from his chair and followed her to Slave I's docking bay.

"I mean nobody's ever neutral. Not really. Everyone and everything has a price - you just have to figure what it is." Reflexively she checked her weapons, then glanced at Boba. "I guess you're ready - all we need is you, after all. Let the bank check your identity and hand over the money!" She grinned, then punched in the code to open the starship's outer doors. "Come on, kid - let's go get rich!"

CHAPTER THREE

Boba quickly decided that Aargau was definitely the cleanest planet he'd ever been on. The docking zone was like the inside of a gigantic holoscreen, with flashing lights and low, brightly colored buildings. The streets were broad and empty of any vehicles, except for a couple other'

airspeeders that had recently landed. There were few people or droids that he could see. Not even his father's Spartan apartment on Kamino had been as clean as this!

And everything was bathed in red light - a harsh light that made Boba's eyes sting.

"Is the atmosphere this color?" he wondered.

Aurra Sing shook her head. "No. That's from special infrared rays,"

she explained, as they clambered out of Slave I. "Aargau has human-standard atmosphere. Every level is color-coded. It's supposed to make it easier to find your way around. It gives me a headache."

"Me, too." Boba rubbed his eyes. "So this level is red?"

"That's right. Infrared rays help disinfect incoming ships - and visitors. Aargau has a lot of rules."

Several uniformed soldiers walked among the other ships at the docking site. Even in uniform, with their faces hidden by their helmets, Boba recognized them. They were clone troopers, members of the clone army created by Count Tyranus. Aargau was part of the Republic, which would explain why the clones were here. In one of the other docking bays, Boba recognized a Republic gunship. That was where the clone troopers would have come from.

But why was a gunship here? Was it refueling?

Boba watched as the troopers drew nearer. It was a weird feeling, seeing the clones again. Boba knew that every one of them had his father's face. His father's eyes, his father's mouth - but not his father's smile. Because the clones rarely if ever smiled.

Boba could see Aurra Sing tensing as the troopers approached them.

But they only nodded politely. They gave a cursory look at Slave I, then moved on.

"They didn't search us," said Boba in surprise. He glanced back at the troopers. "Or the ship." Aurra shrugged. "Not really their job.

They're fighting battles, not checking cargo. Anyway, nobody bothers smuggling anything into Aargau. Too affluent. They've got a saying -

'Better poor on Aargau than wealthy anywhere else.' This is the bank for the whole galaxy. There's enough precious metals in vaults on Aargau to outfit an entire army a thousand times over."

"Really?" Boba grinned slyly to himself. If the bank here was that rich, would it even notice if a few bars of gold were missing?

As though she could read his thoughts, Aurra Sing added, "It's easy getting onto Aargau. Getting off is more difficult - you don't want to know what they do to people they catch trying to smuggle stuff off-planet." She turned and gave him a nasty grin. "Don't even think of double-crossing me, kid. All they have to do is suspect you of smuggling, and you're history. 'Cause who is an officer going to believe? An adult or a kid?"

Not just a kid - a bounty hunter's kid, thought Boba, and scowled.

But he said nothing.

"So just you stay with me," Aurra Sing hissed as they headed toward a large, shining console desk. An immense holosign flickered in the air above it. The holosign had a scrolled message