Star Wars_ The New Rebellion - Kristine Kathryn Rusch [44]
Drastically.
Usually personal fights remained personal. But they didn’t seem to anymore.
The entry chamber on Skip 1 was as far as some renegades got. Bones were stacked in a pile in one corner, most of them trophy bones. The bones all belonged to beasts and creatures, but a number of newcomers were told that this was what happened to anyone who let the secret entry to the Run slip.
Beyond the bones were sabacc tables, half a dozen of them, staffed by talents like Blue, who rarely lost. They were designed to trick the newcomer as well—to clean him out and send him, unhappily, on his way, never to return. On the other side of the sabacc tables was a glass bar, built against the rock. Bômlas, the bartender, believed the customers needed to see his vast store of liquor from all over the galaxy. Bômlas was a three-armed Ychthytonian—he had bet and lost his fourth arm in a particularly savage sabacc game—yet he was the fastest bartender Han had ever seen.
Closing off the cavern was the hokuum station for those smugglers whose tastes went to nonliquid stimulants. Han had seen his first spice users there, as well as his first glitterstim users. He hated the hokuum station, although the Run swore by it. Users on its stimulants often killed each other within three days.
The food court stood in the center of the cavern, as far from the ooze as possible. When Han was first here, the chef was known galaxy-wide. She was killed in a hot-grease duel with another chef. Han’s palate still missed her.
“Who’s cooking these days?” he asked.
Blue wrinkled her nose. “The former cuisine artist at the Court of Hapes.”
“Ze foood, it must have a delicate flaavor, no?” Kid said.
“They don’t talk like that on Hapes,” Han said.
“He does,” Zeen said. “He claims he was the favorite chef of the queen mother.”
Han grinned. “Did he have a recommendation from holder?”
“What?”
Han shook his head. His old rival for Leia’s hand had proven yet again to be a man of action and good taste. He had gotten the best of the queen mother once more. “I hope people are checking the cuisine for poison.”
Blue shrugged. “He works with many poisons. We don’t care. Only newcomers eat there, anyway.”
Chewie roared.
Zeen laughed. “No, Chewbacca, we haven’t got rid of the real food. It’s two caverns back.”
Han glanced at his old friend. Chewie looked as if he were about to gnaw the furniture. “I think we’d better go there first.”
“I think we’d better tend to your wound first,” Blue said with a suggestive leer.
“Lay off, Blue,” Han said.
“Testy, testy.” She moved ahead of them, leading the group into a thin passage that wound around Cavern 2 and led directly to Cavern 3. “You were a lot more fun when you were younger, Han.”
“You weren’t interested when I was younger, Blue.”
“You were so naive, untested, good-hearted. I like a man with a bit more experience, Han.”
“And a wife,” Zeen said.
“That’s not true,” Blue said.
“All right, then,” Zeen said, “you prefer men who have other attachments.”
“She’s a smuggler of the heart,” Kid said.
“Cute, boys,” she said as she ducked through the opening in Cavern 3. Han followed her. The cavern smelled of roasting meat, garlic, and onions overlaid with Wookiee warm won-wons and Sullustan stew. The cavern was humid. The walls were coated with liquid and an extra layer or two of blaster resistance.
“I don’t remember this place,” he said.
“It belonged to Boba Fett and five other bounty hunters. Most of Boba Fett’s friends died six years ago, and we decided to make it into a gourmet area for those of us who frequent this place,” the Kid said.
Han shuddered at the mention of Boba Fett. That little bounty hunter had nearly cost Han his life. He was glad to hear that Fett’s associates were dead.
The cavern showed no signs of having once been a bounty-hunter den. Han counted eighteen cooking stations, with several more disappearing down the back. Each station was