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He’d seen the face of a young mother clutching her infant change when she’d seen him, seen her clutch her baby to her breast as though he, Boba Fett, were going to snatch the child from her arms and drag both of them away. Several times citizens had panicked when he’d even come into their vicinity, throwing themselves on the floor, babbling out their (mostly imaginary) fatal transgressions and pleading for mercy … only to pull themselves up in mingled relief and dawning indignation when they realized that they were not Fett’s quarry, and had humiliated themselves and spilled their secrets for no reason.…

The line moved forward again. Boba Fett automatically surveyed the crowds around him, but he wasn’t really expecting to see his quarry. Bria Tharen had boarded the Queen on its previous stop, back on Corellia. It was unlikely that she would be coming outside the vessel during its short layover on Gyndine.

The bounty hunter had missed the chance to catch up with the Tharen woman when she’d first boarded the Queen because she’d come aboard under an assumed name in the last minutes before the ship undocked. The Haj Shipping Line, while outwardly loyal to the Empire, was known to do favors for the Rebel Alliance when it suited them; the Tharen woman’s last-minute booking was doubtless the result of some official string-pulling.

Also, Bria Tharen’s assumed identity was not one of the ones she’d used before. This time she was traveling as “Bria Lavval,” a minor starlet and cabaret singer who was headed for a booking at one of the large casinos, The Chance Castle, on Nar Shaddaa.

Boba Fett had access to a great many sources of data from many places in the galaxy. Since he hunted bounties from time to time for the Empire, he had access to some of the mid-security level Imperial databases. He also had access to many newswires, and the Guild databases.

Fett had ordered his systems to flag certain “priority” names and physical profiles. When a “Bria Lavval” showed up one morning on his database summaries as a passenger aboard the Queen when the liner had departed Corellia that morning, a quick check of the woman’s ID and physical description had shown Fett that there was a better than 70% chance that this was actually Bria Tharen—Commander in the Corellian resistance.

Only a visual inspection would assure Fett that she was the right woman, so here he was … standing in line to board the huge liner.

The Queen was fully two kilometers long, and equipped to carry five thousand passengers. She contained most amenities any sentient could wish … indoor pools and spas, casinos, null-gee gliding areas, exercise rooms, as well as upscale shops where a wealthy being could spend a great many credits indeed.

Fett moved forward yet again, nudging his case along with him. It contained, in camouflaged compartments, his Mandalorian armor and several select weapons. The sides of the case were reinforced with durinium, an alloy that would resist sensor scans. And, in the outermost layer of the case, there were microminiature projection devices that would generate false readings about the contents to any scanning device.

Fett finally reached the head of the line, and produced his IDs, ticket and credit vouchers. The ship’s official who checked his reservation offered to call for a luggage droid, but Fett politely refused, his harsh voice reverberating through the vocalizer-mask.

Amongst themselves, Anomids did not converse in oral speech, but by an elaborate and very beautiful form of sign language. They were known to be sociable beings, and Boba Fett was hoping there would be no real Anomids on board. If there were, he would have to plead illness and stay in his cabin, for he did not know the Anomid sign-language.

But none of the individuals on the passenger roster had listed Yablari as their world of origin.

When he reached the safety of his cabin, Fett stowed his trunk, first making sure to activate its anti-theft protections. Anyone unfortunate enough to attempt to remove the trunk from Fett’s cabin, or to try and open it, would