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"I'll take the assignment," Zekk said. "How much are' you paying?"

Wary quoted him a generous figure. "But only if you find him."

Zekk tried not to show his surprise. Wary stood to make a lot more credits than that if Zekk retrieved information that led him to Bornan Thul.

"But that is not all there is to the task," Master Wary cautioned.

"I also need you to send a message for me. I have other urgent business to attend to that prevents me from sending it myself. I will give you instructions on how to transmit it." He slid a hololetter packet across the table toward Zekk. "Do not try to listen to the message. It would mean nothing to you."

"That's it?" Zekk accepted the packet and slid it into his vest pocket.

"Not as simple as it would seem," Wary said. "The message is for the Bornaryn fleet. All the ships went into hiding shortly after Bornan Thul's disappearance, and they are impossible to locate."

"How do you expect me to get the message to them?"

Zekk asked, a little exasperated.

"I ask only that you broadcast the message to the following locations."

He listed several sites along major trading routes, many of which Zekk was already familiar with from his days with the old spacer Peckhum. "I will meet you here again in ten days--to learn of your progress, and to pay you if you have already achieved both of your goals."

Zekk still wasn't sure why Wary would want to send a message to the Bornaryn fleet. Did,he hope to flush them out of hiding? To question Thul s employees and family members in hopes of locating him?

Just as Zekk opened his mouth to ask, an explosion erupted at a nearby table. Zekk blinked to see what had happened as a cloud of white smoke billowed outward from where the Talz and the Ithorian had been sitting.

Droq'l bustled up with a disgusted snort, sweeping broken and steaming glasses away. "I told you two not to let your drinks come into contact with each other," he growled in exasperation. "You should know they're chemically incompatible!" With a big paw, the Talz batted at a smoldering patch of its white fur.

Amused, Zekk turned back to the conversation with his new employer--only to find Master Wary gone.

Apparently the assignment was made and the interview had ended.

Zekk shrugged. He had his commission, and he knew what to do. He might as well stay to view the new hololetters from Jaina and Peckhum.

Calling Droq'l over, Zekk ordered another Osskorn Stout, drew one of the message packets from his pocket, and slid it into the reader slot on the table in front of him. He waited eagerly for the image of Jaina to appear--then blinked in disappointment. "ENCRYPTION PROPRIETARY MESSAGE

UNREADABLE". Why would Jaina or Peckhum have sent him a message in code that no standard reader could decipher?

He realized his mistake as he pulled a second hololetter from the pocket of his vest and then a third.

He had accidentally tried to view the message from Master Wary.

But how could the disguised man expect an encrypted message to get through to the Bornaryn fleet?

And how would the fleet read it unless they already knew the key?

Perhaps they did, Zekk thought. Maybe this was code that belonged to the Bornaryn trading Wary might be a former employee... or even Bo nan Thul himself!

As the thought occurred to Zekk, he suddenly the truth of it. He felt it in his bones music of the Force that sang through all things.

Wary's synthesized voice had held an urgency spoke of the need to find Tyko Thul and a tender quality when he spoke about the fleet.

Zekk shook his head to clear it. Bornan Thul been here, right in front of him!

He jammed the message packets back into his and jumped to his feet just as Droq'l carrying a fresh tankard of ale in his middle arm.

"Which way?" Zekk asked, breathless.

"You go?"

The bartender didn't pretend he had no idea Zekk meant. He jerked his head toward a small beneath the stairway in the wall of Shanko's Hive.

Dashing out into a tiny alleyway, Zekk looked and right, but saw no