Star Wars_ The Han Solo Trilogy 02_ The Hutt Gambit - A. C. Crispin [135]
Teroenza pictured his collection, and then pictured it as it would be soon. He would build a separate building to house it!
And he would bring his mate here. No more lonely days and nights. They would slosh in the mud wallows together, rich beyond their wildest dreams …
Teroenza spent several minutes putting on a suitably lugubrious expression, then the t’landa Til went off to find Kibbick, and inform him that his uncle was dead …
Moff Sarn Shild sat alone in his palatial home on Teth, wondering just what had gone wrong. The attack on Nal Hutta had obviously been a huge mistake. Greelanx—Greelanx had failed, and now the admiral was dead under suspicious circumstances.
Shild was alone in his house, save for the droids. All his living servants were gone, he knew not where. Bria … she was gone, too, had disappeared days ago.
She hadn’t even said good-bye …
Yesterday, the Emperor had summoned Shild back to Imperial Center, to face a board of inquiry about the ill-fated attack on the Y’Toub system. Palpatine’s message had made it clear that the Emperor was most displeased.
Shild sat alone, struggling to comprehend it all. Scant days ago, he’d been on top of the galaxy. Now he couldn’t even remember why he’d done the things he’d done. It was almost as though he’d been possessed by an alien entity.
Shild stared down at his ornate desk. Before him lay a blaster, side by side with a vial of poison. Shild took a deep breath. He had no illusions anymore. Traveling to Imperial Center would only prolong the inevitable.
Anything would be better than facing Palpatine’s wrath.
But which should he use, the blaster or the poison?
Shild considered for a while, but couldn’t make up his mind. Finally, in desperation, he fell back on a childhood memory. Moving his finger from one means of death (and escape) to the other, he began to chant aloud: “Wonga, winga, cingee wooze … which of these do I choose?”
It was strange, being back on Corellia after all these years away, Han thought, six months later. The streets were both familiar and strange, comforting and threatening. Bad things had happened to him on his homeworld, lots of bad things …
But maybe, just maybe, his luck was about to change. As he walked down the street, Han patted his pocket, which held the little dragon pearl, and a small gold statuette with ruby eyes. It was a palador, an extinct Corellian animal. Years ago, Han had cached the statuette, which he’d stolen from Teroenza’s collection, in a safe place on his homeworld.
Now he planned to fence both the statuette and the dragon pearl. He figured that, together, they were worth about ten thousand credits. The big sabacc game on Bespin would be held in ten days …
Han was relieved to find that Galidon Okanor’s shop was still there. Okanor paid top dollar, though, like all fences, he liked to haggle.
Ten thousand credits, Han thought. Never thought I’d be desperate enough to risk it all on one high-stakes sabacc game … especially if I’m playing against a sharpie like Lando …
But he had to have a ship of his own. And he could think of no other way to get the credits to buy one.
Han paused outside Okanor’s door to take a deep breath. Here goes nothing …
Then, clutching his hopes and dreams in a sweaty hand, he opened the door and walked in …
About the Author
A.C. Crispin is the author of the bestselling Han Solo Trilogy. Her newest project is a prequel to the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean films. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom, focuses on Jack Sparrow’s early life, and will be released May 17, 2011.
Ms. Crispin writes in her own universes, including her seven book StarBridge series, and Storms of Destiny, the first novel in a planned trilogy. She