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Boba Fett stood there in silence, thinking hard.

For the first time in years, the bounty hunter was in a quandary, torn between his duty, his need for extra credits, and his own personal desires. Jabba’s offer was tempting in many ways. Boba Fett’s ship, Slave I, had recently been damaged in an asteroid field, and Fett needed some rather expensive repairs to get the weapons systems back up to full capability.

On the other hand, he’d been looking forward to bringing Solo in for a long time, ever since he and that gambler friend of his, Calrissian, had captured, drugged, and robbed the bounty hunter. Boba Fett couldn’t allow two space bums to get the best of him and live …

On the other hand, just last week, Lord Aruk of Besadii had contacted Boba Fett in an interstellar holo-communication, and told him that he was no longer willing to pay top credits for Solo. Instead, he wanted a priority live delivery bounty on a Corellian woman, Bria Tharen. He’d raised the amount, too. The bounty on her was fifty thousand credits. And the Hutt Lord had reduced the bounty on Solo to ten thousand credits, disintegration now permitted. Teroenza, Fett gathered, was unaware of this change.

Fifty thousand credits was the biggest bounty currently on Boba Fett’s list. He’d immediately begun searching for this woman named Tharen, whom Aruk had described as being a leader in the Corellian rebel movement. The Besadii Lord said she had led a raid to Ylesia to rescue slaves, and she was also suspected of leading several space raids to free slaves bound from Ylesia to the mines of Kessel.

Fett had checked his sources, and traced the woman to Corellia, then to one of the Outer Rim sectors, but then she’d dropped out of sight completely. There was one possible lead linking her to a private yacht bound for Coruscant, but that was an unconfirmed rumor at this point.

But … Fett hated the thought of not bringing in Solo to face a humiliating, painful end at the hands of the High Priest, Teroenza. Fett had tortured captives, when necessary, to obtain information. He didn’t take pleasure in it—or in their deaths, when that was what the bounty required.

But for Han Solo, he was willing to make an exception …

“Well?” Jabba’s deep voice boomed, startling Fett out of his reflections. “What do you say, bounty hunter?”

Boba Fett thought fast, and finally arrived at a solution that was, he felt, the best under the circumstances. It allowed him to maintain his integrity as a bounty hunter, while also allowing him to do the practical thing.

“Very well,” he said. “I’ll take the twenty-five thousand.”

Aruk wants me to pursue Tharen as a priority anyway, he told himself, so I’ll be fulfilling the client’s wish. And the bounty on the Tharen woman is fifty thousand, so when I’ve brought her in, I’ll send Jabba back his twenty-five, then hunt and kill Solo. Honor is satisfied, I’ll have fulfilled my commissions, and gotten the chance to see Solo die.

It was a good compromise, Fett decided. Everyone except Teroenza would be pleased—and, officially, Boba Fett wasn’t working for the High Priest, he was working for Lord Aruk. It was Aruk’s bounty, and the Besadii Lord had made it clear that all he wanted was Solo dead.

Simple and profitable. Fett was satisfied.

“Very well,” Jabba boomed, obviously pleased. He made a note on a palm-sized datapad. “A total of thirty thousand credits has just been added to your account.”

Fett inclined his head in that not-quite bow. “I’ll show myself out,” he said.

“No, no,” Jabba said hastily. “Lobb will have to open the blast door for you.” He pressed a button on his datapad, and the Twi’lek appeared seconds later, head-tails flying. Lobb bowed repeatedly.

“Farewell, Fett,” Jabba said. “I shall keep you in mind for any further commissions Desilijic has.”

Boba Fett did not reply, only turned and followed the majordomo out, stopping on the way to pick up his blast rifle.

The blazing sands of Tatooine seemed doubly bright after the darkness of Jabba’s throne room, but Boba Fett’s Mandalorian helmet