Star Wars_ Rebel Force 2_ Hostage - Alex Wheeler [12]
Without hesitating, Leia pulled out a pouch of credits, hurrying toward the boys.
Something familiar about the setup clicked in Han's brain. "Leia, wait—"
Too late.
As she dropped a handful of credits into the tallest boy's outstretched hands, he snatched her wrist and twisted it behind her back. A rusted vibroblade appeared in his other hand.
He held it to her throat.
"You kids crazy?" Han shouted. "You really want to face off against a Wookiee? "
To help get the point across, Chewbacca shook his furry fists in the air, roaring.
The other two kids looked nervous, but the one in charge didn't flinch. "Just give us all your credits and we'll leave you alone."
"And what makes you so sure we'll leave you alone?" Han shot back, his fingers twitching toward his blaster. Not that he'd shoot at a bunch of kids. But if he could scare them, or cause some kind of distraction…
He shook his head, tempted to laugh. Served him right, falling for such a worn-out stunt. He'd pulled it on more than a few clueless oldies himself back when he was a kid.
Not that he'd ever been dumb enough to attack a Wookiee.
"Do you know who I am? " Leia asked in an icy voice. "I'm—"
"Not the kind of gal who scares easy," Han said quickly. Talk about not having a clue.
Did she really think it would help to tell them she was a princess? A rich princess? "And neither is my friend here."
Chewbacca roared again, louder this time. "So how 'bout you put down the knife—"
"How 'bout you stop wasting my time, old man," the kid snarled, "and hand over the credits."
" Old man? " Han took a step forward. He didn't need a blaster. Not to handle this punk. Chewbacca growled. "No thanks, buddy," Han said. "This one's all mine. "
Han didn't hear the footsteps behind him, and he didn't hear the blasterfire. He just saw the laserbolt slam into the kid's blade, centimeters from Leia's neck. It was a clean hit—the blade went flying. The kid backed away, examining his hand like he couldn't believe it was still in one piece.
Han couldn't believe it either. It was one of the cleanest shots he'd ever seen. He whirled around. A plump old man stood behind him, his jaunty grin mostly covered by a thick, graying beard. Han scoured the streets, convinced this couldn't be the guy who'd fired the shot. But there was no one else around.
And the old guy was holding a smoking blaster. "Thought we agreed you kids weren't going to do this anymore!" he called out.
The lead kid reddened and retrieved his blade, shoving it into his back pocket. "Wasn't planning to," the kid said sullenly. "Not my fault they showed up in this neighborhood.
They were asking for it."
"Come on, Mazi," the man said sternly. "Try it again and the deal's off."
"Yeah. Fine." He glared at Han. "But I could've taken you, old man. No question." He nodded to his friends and, without a word, they slipped away into the darkness."
Han grinned. The kid had spunk, you had to give him that. "Friends of yours?" he asked the old man.
"I pay them to run errands for me, do odd jobs, and the like, as long as they promise to stay out of trouble. That's the deal." He was talking to Han—but all the while, he was staring at Leia.
She glared back. "You're alive," she said flatly.
The man looked down at himself, as if examining the evidence. "So it would seem."
Leia had never expected to see him again.
"Princess." He took a step toward her, his arms outstretched, then hesitated and dropped them to his sides. "I'd heard you were here."
"And I—" Leia stopped, overwhelmed by a swirl of conflicting emotions. "I thought you were still on Alderaan."
He smiled gently. "I had some business on Delaya. I arrived here the day before the attack."
"I'm glad," she said flatly.
"This guy a friend of yours, Highness?" Han said.
"No." The word came automatically.
"Fess Ilee," he said, shaking hands with Han and nodding