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Again Fett was surprised. Bria Tharen and Han Solo? That was obviously in the far past, since Fett had been monitoring her actions for over a year, and she’d had no contact with Solo.

Renthal blinked. “Bria? Her name is Bria? Like Solo’s ship? This is that Bria?”

Calrissian nodded. “Yes. She’s that Bria.”

Drea Renthal grimaced and swore. “Lando … you just love to make my life complicated, don’t you? I’m gonna take this out of your hide, baby? Okay … you’re right, a debt is a debt.” Reaching beneath her armored vest, she pulled out a heavy pouch. “Jewelry and credit vouchers, Fett,” she said. “Should be over fifty thousand credits worth in here. Let ’em both go, and you can have your shuttle. I don’t want a fight … but I’m not letting you leave with them.”

Boba Fett surveyed the assembled ranks of pirates, assessing his chances for fighting his way out. There were thirty-two pirates—hardly good odds. Boba Fett’s armor would protect him, possibly enough to allow him to escape, but Bria Tharen was wearing a strapless evening gown. She was certain to be hurt, perhaps killed, in any firefight. And her bounty called for a live, unharmed, delivery.

Boba Fett looked at the heavily armed pirates, then at Bria Tharen, and experienced a tiny flare of something that he recognized, with dismay, as relief. Bria Tharen would not die today, or tomorrow, in agony, while the depraved High Priest of Ylesia rubbed his tiny hands and chortled with glee.

Fett took a deep breath. “The bounty on her is one hundred thousand,” he said.

“Whoo!” Renthal looked over at Bria. “Honey, what in the name of Kashyyyk’s night demons have you been doing? All right, Fett, you bloodsucker.” Turning to her crew, she opened the pouch and held it out. “C’mon, gentles. I’m collecting fifty percent of my share of the Queen right now. Put it here.”

It was a measure of Renthal’s reputation that there was scarcely any grumbling. Pirates dug into their pockets, their pouches, and soon Renthal’s pouch was bulging.

Turning, she tossed it to the bounty hunter. Fett caught it, weighing it, then surrendered to the inevitable. Renthal’s ransom for Bria Tharen was indeed a handsome one.

The bounty hunter inclined his head to Lando, and said, “Some other time, Calrissian.”

The gambler’s teeth flashed in a fierce grin. “I’ll look forward to it.”

Then Boba Fett nodded to Bria. “Later, my lady.”

She drew herself up, and the bounty hunter had to admire her composure. “I hope not. I’ll be watching my back.”

Boba Fett turned to Renthal, and said, “The shuttle deck is that way.”

“Right,” the pirate captain said. “Gentles, let’s give Master Fett here a nice unobstructed passage to that shuttle deck. We don’t want any trouble with him, now do we?”

Respectfully, they parted, leaving the bounty hunter a wide aisle.

With grave dignity, Boba Fett walked between the ranks of pirates. The pirates on the shuttle deck also gave him a wide berth. Selecting a ship, Boba Fett climbed in, checked the controls, signaled for departure and watched the entrance to the ship’s docking facility clear. Moments later, the bounty hunter was streaking through the blackness of space.

Alone …

Bria’s head spun at the sudden turn of events. One moment she was giving herself up for dead, and the next she was safe aboard the pirate queen’s flagship, Renthal’s Vigilance. The Vigilance was a huge vessel, twice the size of Bria’s Marauder corvette. Drea Renthal had salvaged the Imperial Carrack light cruiser following the Battle of Nar Shaddaa. With her Corellian corvette, Renthal’s Fist, and her squadrons of Y-wings, the pirate captain’s fleet was indeed impressive.

“The minute I knew it was pirates boarding us, I knew it had to be Drea’s gang,” Lando told her, as several pirates shuttled them over to the flagship while Renthal finished her boarding operation on the Queen. “I’ve seen her pull that trick with the asteroid’s gravity shadow before. Only Drea would have had the firepower to tackle something as big as the Queen.”

Bria looked