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“Listen, Solo, you need me. I know my way around the Run.”

“I’ve been here once or twice myself,” Han said. “Chewie and I do just fine. Now get off my ship before Chewie has to help you off.”

Davis opened his mouth as Chewie roared. Davis hurried toward Han. “All right. I’ll get off. But if you change your mind—”

“I won’t,” Han said. He hit the control panel, and the door slid up. Davis started to leave. “Remember your friend here.”

Davis flashed an angry look at Han, then grabbed Iisner by one limp arm. Davis dragged the dead Glottalphib off the Falcon. Han waited until the Glottalphib’s large feet were through the door before closing it.

Seluss was staring at him as if Han had just given away every credit he had ever owned.

“I know what I’m doing,” Han said.

Seluss chittered softly, then went into the cockpit. Chewie followed. Han holstered his blaster, trying to cool his temper. He didn’t need any reminding about their situation. Nandreeson would be after him for killing Iisner and the others. And Han was no closer to knowing who was behind all the credits than he had been before.

But he couldn’t trust Davis. Davis’s appearance was just too convenient. And Han hated the convenient.

Something was up. And with Nandreeson on his back, time had just gone from short to nonexistent.

“Okay,” Han said as he headed into the cockpit. “We’re going back to Skip 1.”

And maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to get some answers.

The stench got him first. Fetid and sour, it smelled like standing water combined with rotted vegetation and rotten eggs. Lando walked between seven Reks. Instead of tying him, they wrapped their whiplike arms around his, holding him back. Their skin felt like lukewarm rubber, yet he could feel the life pulsing through them. Until this trip, he had never been so close to a Rek. They had brought him in their small, bubblelike ship, crossing the distance between the asteroids as if it were a highway on Coruscant. They had disembarked into this chamber, which felt less like a cavern and more like a tropical nightmare.

The air was so humid that it condensed on his skin and made his clothes feel clammy. Water dripped down the cavern walls. Insects combed the area. Flies buzzed past him, and small clusters of gnats created black spots in the air. The Reks led him along a narrow ledge that overlooked a stagnant pool. Beneath the waters surface, he could see carved stairs and moss-coated furniture. This part of the cavern was surprisingly empty, but he knew that somewhere ahead, Nandreeson waited for him.

Then the Reks would collect their bounty and Lando would be abandoned with the most powerful crime lord on the Run. A crime lord who had hated him for nearly twenty years.

The ledge was slippery. Lando’s boots were made for metal floors, not water-and-slime-covered rock. The Reks helped him keep his balance, but if they let go, he might fall into the green-coated water. The thought made him shudder.

They rounded a corner and were suddenly in a closed chamber. Chairs were carved into the rock on the walls. Flies the size of Lando’s thumb clung to the ropy moss on the wall closest to Lando. More gnats hung in the air, and a group of water bugs skated across the surface of the water. The sulfur smell was stronger here, and it mixed with the faint tinge of ozone.

Nandreeson sat at the far end of the pool. Algae grew inches deep in the water around him, and giant lily pads covered his scaly body. The rocks on the wall behind him had singe marks.

Nandreeson hadn’t changed. His long green snout had fingernail-sized scales, and his eyes were too close together. The knobs on his forehead gave him a quizzical expression. His tiny hands floated on the water’s surface, beside the lily pads. The scales on his chest were golden because they were wet. He appeared to be sitting on a couch under the water.

“Calrisssssssian,” Nandreeson said with a smile, letting steam rise from his mouth as he spoke the sibilants. “You look prosperous.”

“I look like I’m wrapped in rubber vines,” Lando said. Bravado