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Bria’s mouth dropped open and her hand found the grip of her blaster. Han tensed, ready to go for his own, but her eyes suddenly flooded with tears … and he knew then she wouldn’t draw. “How dare you?”

“I dare a lot these days, sister,” Han said. “And I say what I think. I dare to think you’re a real lowlife comin’ back here this way. You can forget sucking me in again with your pretty face. I’ve changed, all right. I’ve gotten smart—smart enough to see right through you.”

“Fine,” she said, blinking back the tears. “You just turn your back on both me and a fortune. I don’t call that smart, Han. I call it stupid. And the idea that a drug runner is putting on moral airs is really laughable, you know?”

“I’m a smuggler,” Han shouted. “We have our own code!”

“Yeah, running drugs for Hutts!” she was yelling too. “You and Jabba! Birds of a feather!”

The idea that she would class him with the Hutts was the last straw. Han spun around and started to walk away.

“Fine!” she cried. “I’ll go see Mako Spince, that’s what I’ll do. He can’t be as dumb as you!”

Her unwitting pun made Han laugh nastily. “Fine,” he snarled, not turning around. “Have fun gettin’ him to talk. Goodbye, Bria.”

He strode away from her, his bootheels clicking against the permacrete, his head high. It felt good to leave her standing there, looking after him.

It felt real good.…

Durga faced Prince Xizor’s image on his comm unit. “Guri has explained your difficulty,” the prince said. “I will dispatch two companies of mercenaries under the capable command of Willum Kamaran to Ylesia. Commander Kamaran’s Nova Force will help you keep Teroenza in line until he can be dealt with. Which should be speedily, my friend.”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Durga said. “As Guri may have told you, I will share the profits from Ylesia with you this year, to recompense you for your help. Fifteen percent.”

The Faleen prince’s mouth curved down, and he shook his head sadly. “Durga, Durga … I thought you had some respect for me. Thirty percent for the next two years.”

Durga batted his bulbous eyes in disbelief. Worse than I ever imagined! He drew himself up. “Your Highness, if I granted you that, I would be deposed as leader of Besadii.”

“But if you do not have my troops in place, and soon, you will lose Ylesia altogether,” the prince pointed out, truthfully.

“Twenty percent, one year,” Durga said, feeling actual pain as he spoke the words. “They will not have to be there long, remember.”

“Thirty percent, two years,” the head of Black Sun said. “I do not negotiate.”

Durga drew a deep breath, feeling the ghosts of bruises and injuries from his battle with Jiliac awaken. “Very well,” he said, sullenly.

Xizor smiled pleasantly. “Fine. The mercenaries will embark as soon as possible for Ylesia. It is a pleasure doing business with you, my friend.”

It took every bit of willpower Durga could summon to say, “Very well, Your Highness. Thank you.”

He cut the connection and slumped in despair, imagining what Aruk would say to all of this. I’m trapped, he thought. Trapped. All I can do is try to make the best of it.…

Han did not sleep well that night. Thoughts of Bria and her proposition raced through his mind like an asteroid on a collision course. I can’t trust her … can I? I don’t want to see her … do I?

He dozed, and dreamed of mounds of glitterstim, which mutated without warning into piles of credits. He leaped into those piles, rolled around in them, shouting joyfully, and suddenly Bria was there with him, and he was holding her, rolling over with her, kissing her in the midst of piles and piles and piles of credits … more wealth than he’d ever imagined.…

He jerked awake with a gasp, and then lay there, his arms behind his head, staring into the darkness.

Maybe I ought to do it, he thought. This might be my big chance to make that big stake. I could get out … make a bundle, and retire. Find myself a nice little place in the Corporate Sector and just let the Empire go to blazes all by itself.…

He lay there, tossing