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“You’re sure about this.” Luke gave Lando a skeptical look.

Lando nodded, his manner easy. “I’m sure. Every so often I need to remind the universe that I’m a damned good pilot. With people like you and Han and his daughter around, everyone tends to forget.”

They stood in the killing field before the Record Time, the troop transport that had been part of the first invasion wave to reach the planet’s surface.

Seven weeks before, Record Time had been an antiquated cargo vessel working reliably through late middle age. Then it had seen one combat mission, the Borleias landing, and had been shot nearly to pieces. Now, after weeks of as-time-allows repairs by the garrison’s mechanics, the skin of its two main sections was so irregularly patched as to look scabrous, and reinforcing bars welded to the narrow section connecting the two ends merely accentuated the fact that the whole thing looked ready to break in half at any moment.

“Who are you trying to kid?” Luke gave him a skeptical look. “You’re one of two men who blew up the second Death Star. You don’t have anything to prove.”

Lando shrugged. He ran a hand down his tunic to smooth it. It was a rust-red, long-sleeved garment, delightful to the touch, and had cost more than he’d made in lean years. It perfectly complemented the cream-colored hip cloak he wore. He wanted to look good for his funeral or his triumphant return to Borleias, whatever would come. “All right, you’ve got me. It’s about the scam, Luke.

“People hear about me, they see what I do, and they think I’m all about the profit motive. And, sure, I like wealth. I like it enough that sometimes I’ll even do honest work to get it.” He offered Luke a mock shudder. “But that’s secondary. The trick is what makes everything sweet. Take someone who thinks he’s got you, put him through the machinery of your mind and your skills, and bring him out the other end stripped of all his goods, but absolutely convinced that he’s had the better of you—so convinced that he’s even willing to be nice to you, to be generous to you—and you’ve accomplished something great.” He gestured at the ship. As if on cue, a hatch cover near the top of the bridge, beside one of the sensor arrays, popped free; it rolled down the bow’s sloping hull and then dropped to the duracrete with a tired clang. “This is a scam. We’re going to take this heap of junk in and the Yuuzhan Vong are going to think our hopes are pinned on it. They’re going to blow it up and think they’ve wrecked our hopes. They’ll be doing exactly what we want them to—they’ll be our personal servants for those few moments, which would kill them if they knew—and they’ll never realize just how much they’ve helped us. Until we choose to tell them. That’s sweeter than any wine, Luke.”

“If you say so.” Luke took a hard look at the bow, doubtless cataloging where the hatch came from so a repair crew could fix it in the little time they had left. “Who’s your copilot on this?”

“No copilot. Just a weapons officer. YVH One-One-A.”

Luke frowned. “Isn’t that one of your combat droids?”

“It is.”

“You’re going to use this mission to field-test a droid.”

“That’s right.”

“Not a good idea.”

Lando shrugged again. “I’m captaining that flying landfill. My choice. Wedge has authorized it.”

“Sometimes I think you’re as crazy as Han.” Luke checked his chrono. “I’d better get with my team. Some last-minute packing to do.”

“I’ll be here.” Lando watched Luke leave.

He had no interest in field-testing his droids on a mission like this. No, he just had no faith in his ability to get out of this operation alive and didn’t want to lead another living thing into death with him.

That was bad, dark thinking. But he’d scammed Luke about his motives in having a droid weapons officer. He smiled to himself. Luke wasn’t the naive young man he’d been when Lando had met him. Scamming him was tougher these days. And always a pleasure to pull off.

He walked over to stand near the ramp into the bay he and his droids had occupied so many days ago. He stood well to the side of the sparks drifting out from the