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By Root 283 0

table. It still had plates on it. Boba glanced around to make sure no one took note of him. He casually sauntered over to the table.

"Yes!" he whispered to himself. "Jackpot!"

Someone had left an entire roba plate untouched. Beside it steamed a heaping mound of yan legumes. Boba reached out, grabbed the roba and drew it to his mouth.

Still warm! He took a bite, chewed, and swallowed; then reached for the yan.

"Hey!"

Boba gulped. He turned to see a tall woman in a Myrkr pilot's uniform. She scowled at him, her hand resting lightly on the blaster at her hip.

"Uh, sorry," stammered Boba. "I thought this was my table."

Another pilot appeared behind the first. Boba started to back away, when a crushingly huge hand descended onto his shoulder.

"Mandalorian scum!" said a deep voice. "You dare to breathe the same air as I do?"

Boba twisted. He looked up to see a figure easily three meters tall. From helmeted head to booted feet, he was clad in a shining carapace of armor. He carried a blaster as long as his arm; knives and more blasters hung around his waist.

But worst of all was what he bore on his chest: the livid image of a Mandalorian skull.

"Is there a problem, Durge?" one of the pilots said.

Durge.

Boba stared at him. His hands and neck suddenly went cold. In front of him stood an imposing figure. Inside his helmet, his eyes glowed a malevolent red.

"When I see a Mandalorian," Durge said, raising his arm, "there is always a problem. Especially one that Count Dooku has asked me to hunt down."

CHAPTER FOUR

Boba's heart hammered his chest. But he stood his ground and stared at the figure before him.

Durge! His father had warned Boba about him. A two-thousand-year-old bounty hunter, Durge hated the Mandalorians more than anything else in the galaxy. A hundred years before Boba was born, Durge had attempted to capture the Mandalorians' leader. Instead, he himself was captured and tortured.

But Durge escaped. He went into hibernation to recover from his wounds. When he emerged fully healed, he vowed revenge upon

all Mandalorians.

Yet it was too late for revenge. By then, there were few Mandalorians left in the galaxy. They had been exterminated in the course of countless battles, some with the Jedi.

Still, part of Jango Fett remained alive in the clone army generated from his DNA. Durge had vowed to eliminate all of Jango's clones... and do Count Dooku's bidding.

What would he do if he knew that Jango's true son stood before him?

I'm not gonna wait to find out, thought Boba grimly.

He took a deep breath. Just as Durge's fist came smashing down toward him, Boba dove between the bounty hunter's legs.

Good thing he's so tall! Boba hit the floor running.

"Get him!"

Boba raced for the door. Service droids bleeped and scurried away.

Near the door, three Wookiees backed against the wall, giving deep bellows of excitement.

BLAAAAAMM!

A burst of blaster fire ricocheted overhead. Boba could hear shouts and a blast of answering fire.

"Hey, you!" shouted the Noghri guard as the young bounty hunter whizzed by. The guard snatched at him, but Boba was too fast. In seconds he was outside again.

"Glad I'm outta there!" he gasped.

He kept running, until the cantina was out of sight behind him.

There were still throngs of people everywhere, but no one seemed to notice him at all

Probably used to folks being chased, thought Boba. He turned and continued running down a side street.

He was starting to get tired. / better rest soon, before /

With a grunt, Boba tripped on a pile of rubble. Crying out, he fell forward onto a cracked sidewalk. Instinctively his hands reached out to break his fall.

But it wasn't enough to keep him from crashing onto the hard, dusty ground.

"O000f - "

He went down, headfirst, hard enough that the breath was knocked out of him. Too late he remembered his helmet.

"No!"

Helplessly, Boba felt the helmet bounce from his head. He grabbed