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“Have you done something illegal?” Han asked.

Wynni growled.

“A guy can ask a simple question,” Han shot back at her.

“Not if he already knows the answer,” Kid DXo’ln said.

Chewie’s arm tightened. Han kept his grip on Chewie’s fur.

“If the Republic was going to go after Smuggler’s Run, it would have happened a long time ago.”

Seluss cluttered, his mouse ears wiggling forward as he spoke.

“Oh, yeah, right,” Han said. “As if there is a list for you guys to finally rise to the top of. You’re overestimating your importance, Seluss, don’t you think?”

Wynni roared. Chewbacca roared back.

“Stop it, Chewie,” Han hissed. “No need to bring personalities into this.”

Chewie grumbled. Han understood Chewie’s frustration: Wynni had never acted according to Wookiee code—she had abandoned her family and two life debts to pursue her smuggling career—but Han didn’t want an old wound to fester into something ugly. Especially when Han and Chewie were outgunned.

“Personalities are already in this, Han,” Kid said. “You left us a long time ago. You have no right to come back here.”

“I have as much right to be here as you do,” Han snapped. “And when did it become a privilege to be on the Run? I seem to remember when most of us here were struggling to leave.”

“The Run’s a different place,” Blue said.

“Sure smells the same,” Han murmured.

They moved closer to him. Zeen poked Han with his blaster. Chewie growled again. Wynni waved her bowcaster at him.

“What? Are you going to push me all the way back to the Falcon? Or shoot me right here?” Han grabbed Seluss’s blaster, and pulled the short humanoid toward him. “I’m here on the invite of your partner, buddy. You want to bring him over here?”

Seluss let go of the blaster and chittered, loudly and angrily. Han raised his left hand—the one without the blaster—in self-defense.

“Hey, how was I to know he’s not here? I figured he was coming right back.”

Seluss shoved Han, still chittering. The shove was surprisingly hard, considering that the Sullustan only came up to Han’s waist.

Chewbacca growled and grabbed Seluss by his collar, lifting him off the ground.

“Put him down, Chewie. He’s upset.”

“He’s got a point,” Zeen said. “Jarril went to see you and never came back. Now you’re here.”

Seluss kept chittering. He was swinging wildly with his arms and legs. Chewie held him an arm’s length away—Chewie’s arm. Seluss looked like an angry pinwheeling mouse.

“You guys know me. I don’t double-cross people and I don’t murder them in cold blood.” Han was beginning to get angry now. “I came here because Jarril said there was trouble.”

“You came here because Jarril told you about the money,” Kid DXo’ln said.

Wynni moaned a caution.

Han raised an eyebrow. “First I’m an enemy of the Run, and then I’m after your money? Which is it?”

Chewie barked softly.

“I think ‘paranoid’ is too mild a word,” Han said. “What are you guys hiding?”

“See?” Zeen said. “I told you he was here for the New Republic.”

Sinewy Ana Blue elbowed Zeen. “It’s a legitimate question. Put Seluss down and we’ll talk.”

Chewie shook his head. Seluss tried to swing at him, and succeeded only in making Chewie’s hold on his collar tighter.

“Put him down, Chewie,” Han said.

Chewie yowled.

“I said put him down.” Han didn’t want to fight everyone.

Chewie held Seluss over the ooze, and dropped him. Seluss screamed, an ear-piercing whistle that had the Wookiees covering their ears. Seluss landed, splashing ooze everywhere, doubling the stench. Han backed up, while the other smugglers angrily wiped greenish-yellow goo off themselves.

Seluss sprang out of the ooze and yanked his blaster out of Han’s grasp.

“Hey!” Han shouted.

Chewie grabbed for the blaster, but it was too late.

Seluss fired.

Thirteen

Lando waited most of the night, and it felt too long. He tried to sleep, but his mind kept feeding him dreams. Dreams he didn’t like. Memory dreams, mostly, of Han in the carbon-freezing chamber. What’s going on … buddy? Han asked over and over. Lando tried to