Star Wars_ Rebel Force 03_ Renegade - Alex Wheeler [38]
The relief died on his lips as the roar of an engine approached.
"The Trandoshan?" Jaxson gasped, looking pale. It was impossible—when they'd left, both the bounty hunter and his airspeeder had been in pieces. But who else?
"Luke!" a familiar voice shouted, as a red landspeeder came into sight. Leia leaned over the side, waving frantically. Windy was at the wheel, while Fixer and the droids waved from the back. Luke and Jaxson caught each other's eye and grinned. It was finally over.
They were safe.
Deep in the desert, something moved. Something cold and reptilian and left for dead. Something else that had survived the long night.
The hunter's red eyes flickered open. His remaining hand closed into a fist, claws piercing his scaly palm. The wounds were deep, but they would heal. The arm and leg would grow back. Slowly, painfully, he would be whole again.
But it would take a long time to happen.
By the time it did, Bossk promised himself, Luke Skywalker would be dead.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
"And then Leia just whipped out her blaster and blew that krayt dragon halfway to Coruscant!" Windy exclaimed, eyes bulging in appreciation. He gaped over Leia's shoulder at the other denizens of the cantina, as if shocked that they hadn't all gathered around to hear the amazing story.
Deak shook his head in disbelief. "Unbelievable. And you should have seen her at the crash site," he added. "She was fearless. We all thought you were dead, but she never gave up hope. It was like she knew! "
"And how about when we thought we saw the Sand People?" Fixer added.
"No fear!"
"But it wasn't the Sand People," Camie reminded him irritably. "You said it was just the wind."
"Yeah, but if they had tried to attack us, Leia would've taken them down,"
Fixer said. He slapped Luke on the back. "That's some first mate you've got there," he said. "Maybe it's time to give her a promotion."
Luke caught Leia's eye, and grinned. The whole gang had ventured to Mos Eisley for a celebration of Luke and Jaxson's survival—but the night was quickly turning into a celebration of Leia's bravery. And Leia looked just fine with it. The princess usually spurned flattery and wriggled uncomfortably out from under the spotlight. But this was different, she'd confided to Luke in a quiet moment. "They don't respect me for being a princess or a senator," she'd told him. "Just…"
"For being you?" Luke had filled in when her voice trailed off. "Good. They should."
And it's not like Luke was being ignored. At least no one was calling Luke
"Wormie" anymore, or questioning whether he was really a rogue hotshot pilot.
They were willing enough to believe that his daring had let him do the impossible: survive a night in the Jundland Wastes.
But Luke preferred to sit back quietly and listen to his friends swap stories. It was strange, being back in Mos Eisley for the first time since he'd blasted off from Tatooine with Han and Ben. So much in his life had changed—and yet the city was the same cesspool of vice and corruption it had always been.
Fixer had been the one to suggest that they make this celebration something special, not just the same old tired game at Tosche Station. The rest of the gang had been quick to agree—all except for Luke. He told himself he was wary of the Imperial garrison in the center of town, and of the concentration of bounty hunters and other criminals under Jabba's thumb.
But the real reason: He didn't want to return to the place where he and Ben had first met Han Solo. And to remember that both of them were gone from his life now, probably forever.
He was overruled.
It had taken several hours to reach the city, and another one to make their way through crowded streets teeming with bazaars and marketplaces, pushing past moisture farmers toting their wares, grizzled spacers awaiting their next mission, aliens from every corner of the galaxy huddling in corners, exchanging