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Another list appeared.

Known antagonists:

Big Bunji, former associate

Jabba the Hutt, former employer

Ploovo Two-for-One, former associate

Bossk flexed his toe claws against the Executor’s deck. Chewbacca and Solo would be crazy to hide among their enemies, but Solo was notorious for trying crazy tricks. Lord Vader’s personal aides had furnished volumes of data to all six Hunt finalists. Somehow, Bossk must discover the clue that would lead him to Chewbacca first.

And Solo. He tightened his fingers, curling massive wedge-shaped claws into his palm. His hands were not nimble but strong, with deeply ridged, mature scales. He had hunted Wookiees for over sixty Standard years. When a blaster or grenade finally killed Bossk, his death would shower hundreds of jagannath points onto the bloodthirsty, eternal Scorekeeper that he worshipped.

Serene behind her pale, lidless eyes, the Scorekeeper existed beyond time and space, numbering every deed of each Trandoshan Hunter. She could zero his life tally if he were shamed or captured. She could double it if he brought home a prize pelt. Ambushing Chewbacca was Bossk’s sacred obligation.

He punched another button and scrutinized Vader’s information on Ploovo Two-for-One. The humanoid crime lord had ordered Solo’s termination. Nothing else on the screen sparked Bossk’s hunting intuition, except—faintly—the fact that Solo had been last seen by Imperials on Tatooine, near Jabba the Hutt’s headquarters, immediately before he started running with the Rebel Alliance. That idiot Greedo had missed him cleanly; Bossk remembered seeing him afterward, at Ord Mantell.

Bossk’s warlike people had allied early with the Empire. A Trandoshan official had conceived the idea of enslaving the huge, strong Wookiees—inhabitants of Kashyyyk—for manual labor, rather than leveling Kashyyyk by bombardment. The Empire had pounced on the idea. The despicable, peace-loving Wookiees had been taken before they guessed the true meaning of enslavement. Now very few free Wookiees lived off Kashyyyk.

And Lord Vader wanted Solo, Chewbacca, and their passengers “alive, no disintegrations,” which guaranteed they would be handled cruelly. After the Empire finished punishing Chewbacca, Bossk would buy back Chewbacca’s pelt. He would take it home and lay it on the Scorekeeper’s bloody altar.

First, though, he must find better clues. Solo and his crew had disappeared in mid-chase, leaving no trail. And he had stiff competition.

Tinian I’att pushed her red-blond hair behind one ear and then crouched to look a furry brown Chadra-Fan in the eye. That made it hard to ignore his four nostrils and his twitching, pushed-up snout, but she wanted to make sure the cowardly creature understood. “Two hundred credits,” she repeated. “All you have to do is introduce me—and Chenlambec—to Bossk.”

Tutti Snibit tilted his head to look up over Tinian’s shoulder. A silvertip Wookiee towered behind her. Chenlambec had frightened Tinian too, when she first met him. Other Hunters called Chenlambec a fierce predator, prone to berserk rages. He only accepted dead-or-alive assignments, and generally only brought back proof of decease. He wore a heavy, reptile-hide bandolier studded with bowcaster quarrels, alternating with decorative silver cubes.

He was Tinian’s Ng’rhr. In his language, the term meant clan uncle; he was the master Hunter who held her apprenticeship.

“Trandoshans hate Wookiees,” Tutti gibbered. He had explained that he too was a bounty hunter, but Lord Vader’s screening crew had declined to hire him.

“We’re fellow Hunters,” Tinian told him. They’d arrived on board the Executor just too late—deliberately so—to be scrutinized by Lord Vader for the big job. “Get Bossk to promise he’ll abide by the Creed. Then introduce us.” According to the Hunters’ Creed, no Hunter could ever kill another nor interfere with another’s Hunt.

Tutti’s reluctance seemed false, anyway. Tinian had spotted him talking with the sinister, armored Boba Fett a few minutes ago. She’d overheard him offer to assist Boba Fett in any way that he could