Star Wars_ The Han Solo Trilogy 03_ Rebel Dawn - A. C. Crispin [42]
Jarik’s voice came over the intercom from the starboard gunner’s turret. “Yeah, at a tidy profit, of course.”
Han laughed. “Yeah … of course! Chewie … stand by! Here … we … go!”
With great dignity, the Millennium Falcon rose upward on her repulsore, then drifted forward until she was out of the tree-branch “cave.” Then, with a suddenness that sent everyone sinking back into their seats, Han sent his ship whooshing straight up, through the tunnel of trees. They soared up into the skies, now flushed with the red-gold dawn. As the Falcon went higher, sunrise seemed to burst over the world in a shower of gold.
Quarrr-tellerrra, Han thought. The sun-haired warrior, the woman he had known as Bria.… What was she doing now? he wondered. Does she ever think about me?
Moments later, Kashyyyk was only a rapidly dwindling green ball behind them, as they tore through the star-flecked blackness.…
Boba Fett sat in a sleazy rented flat on the Outer Rim world of Teth, listening to Bria Tharen meeting with the Tethan Rebel leaders. The most famous bounty hunter in the galaxy had many resources, including a spy network that most planets would have envied. Since he accepted Imperial assignments from time to time, he was often privy to communiqués and other information most Rebel Commands would have loved to see.
Even though she was a Rebel officer, the bounty on Bria Tharen had not been posted by the Empire. No, this was a far larger bounty, the sum of fifty thousand credits for a live, unharmed capture, no disintegrations permitted. Aruk the Hutt, the old leader of Besadii clan, had originally posted the bounty, but his heir, Durga, had continued it after his death, and had promised a bonus for delivery within three months.
Boba Fett had been searching on and off for Bria Tharen for over a year now. The woman kept being sent out on “deep cover” assignments that made her extremely hard to trace. She had severed all ties with her family, probably to lessen the danger to them should she be captured by the Imperials. When she was on her home planet of Corellia, she lived inside a series of secret Rebel command bases, with extensive security and guard mounts.
Such high security was understandable … after all, the Rebels lived in fear of a full-scale attack by Imperial stormtroopers. So they kept the locations of their bases top-secret, and moved them continually. One bounty hunter—no matter how deadly and effective—stood little chance of getting close enough to manage a live capture.
If only Besadii would have been satisfied with having Bria dead, Boba Fett was fairly sure he could have managed to kill her, even within the protection of a Rebel base. But live, unharmed capture was much more difficult.…
However, a few days ago, Boba Fett had learned through his spy network that there was a meeting scheduled for the underground Rebel movement on Teth. Taking a calculated risk that Bria would be there, he had flown Slave I to Teth two days ago. The risk had paid off; she had shown up yesterday evening.
Two days ago, when he’d first arrived on Teth, Boba Fett had located the current Rebel enclave, which was situated beneath the port city in a series of old storm drains and sub-basements. He’d infiltrated the outskirts of the base, via the ancient storm drains and ventilation shafts, enough to locate the base janitorial supplies. There he’d placed minuscule audio pickups on a number of small robot floor cleaners that roved freely from room to room, sucking up anything their tiny scanners identified as “dirt.”
Since that time, he’d been monitoring the pickups, and today his preparations had paid off. Bria Tharen was in a meeting with two top-ranked Tethan Rebels. The tiny floor-cleaner, per its programmed instructions, had scuttled out of their way when they’d entered the room, and was now biding its time in an inconspicuous corner.
Boba Fett