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"Fine. You came prepared. What do you want?"

"The continuation of our mutual benefit, Admiral. Apparently our last agent was careless in his piloting. I am a much better flier. In the genes, you know."

Bleyd felt a small but definite surge of fear. Black Sun!

He hadn’t expected them so soon.

"Ah," he said.

"Indeed," Kaird said.

As it turned out, Kaird was a surprise on more than one level. Apparently, Black Sun did not want to change its former arrangement regarding the bota. It took Bleyd but a moment to realize that Mathal, the agent whom he had dispatched to the Realm Beyond, had been up to some "business" of his own. Kaird’s purpose was to investigate Mathal’s death, which he had done to his satisfaction while disguised as one of The Silent, and to assure that the flow of bota stayed constant. Supply and demand kept the value very high, and moving a small amount of material for a large profit was better than moving large amounts at a lesser rate, which was what Bleyd had figured all along. So Mathal’s real in-tention had been to grab as much bota as he could, then flee before his superiors in the criminal organization found out. How interesting.

Had Black Sun known what its late agent had been up to, they would likely have taken care of him themselves, Bleyd realized. He’d done them a favor. But he wasn’t about to volunteer how Mathal had met his end-that would be suicide.

Despite his resolve to avoid such daring ventures, Bleyd was immediately beset with the idea of testing himself against the new agent. The Nediji was much faster than he was, and tricky as well. No doubt he was well trained in many combat arts. Avian predators would have a different way of viewing prey than those who were ground-bred. Here was a foe worthy of Bleyd’s mettle.

But-no. If he were to die with his family honor tar-nished, he would have failed in his life goal. Not to mention losing that palace on Coruscant. No matter how tempting such a confrontation was, he had to re-sist. He could give the Nediji no more thought in this regard.

Still, it would be a glorious fight...

"I will remain in the camp for a few days," Kaird said, "pretending to be of The Silent, observing the doc-tors and patients, so as not to arouse suspicion by leav-ing too soon.

This business with the Hutt-your doing?"

Bleyd considered his reply for a moment. He did not need a Black Sun operative poking around in his busi-ness any more than was absolutely necessary. If the Nediji believed he had poisoned Filba, he would give it no more thought. "Yes. He was becoming greedy. I thought it best to remove him before he caused prob-lems."

"Wise. We like prudent beings in our partnerships." The bird-being turned toward the door.

"We will be in touch, Admiral. Until then, keep following the original plan agreed upon by you and my superiors."

"Understood."

Once Kaird had gone, Bleyd felt a sense of relief. The loss of Black Sun’s hot breath on his back was one less worry with which he had to deal.

Now, if he could just find the spy, all would be well once again.

28

The spy was not surprised to see one of The Silent standing in the hard shade next to the medical ward. There hadn’t been any assigned to the Rimsoo in the last few months, but where there were doctors and suf-fering, the presence of The Silent was always a possibil-ity. They lived only to serve their vision of helping the sick or injured, simply by being there. There would seem on the face of it no scientific basis for their belief, but it was well known that when one of The Silent took up residence at a medical facility, mortality figures dropped more often than not, and length of hospital stays somehow shortened. Some said it was merely placebo effect, but there were cases in which ill patients did not know one of The Silent was about, and they still tended to get better faster. A strange phenomenon, no question about it. Perhaps it had something to do with the Force; perhaps it was something entirely different.