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"This is where we're going to eat."

He gestured to an open area that hadn't been visible from the trail.

"We call this the Bayou Buffet." He spread his arms and indicated a serving area fifty meters long. The tables were made to look like fallen and rotting logs whose tops just happened to be perfectly flat.

A small Ugnaught construction worker tinkered with something under one of the tables.

"And over here is the stage," Lando said, walking to a raised platform at the center of the open area. "How you doin'?" he greeted a scrawny young man with a wispy beard who was busily connecting pieces of a sound system to speakers embedded at the base of the stage.

The young man nodded, but continued working.

Lando turned back to the young Jedi Knights. "Cojahn was planning on booking bands that could play real swamp music, maybe some Bith musicians. The band will provide entertainment while people sit and eat authentic meals from various swamp climates."

"Sounds like fun," Jaina said.

"Yeah, well," Lando said wistfully, "I guess he never got around to booking a band before-"

"Excuse me, sir," the scrawny young man on the stage interrupted.

Tenel Ka sensed tension in the wispy-bearded boy.

"Yes?" Lando gave the boy his full attention.

"Begging your pardon, but Master Cojahn did book a band for this stage."

Lando's eyebrows went up. He looked relieved that one major detail had already been taken care of "Oh? Which band? When do they start?"

The young man glanced around, as if to make sure no one was watching or listening, then lowered his voice and leaned toward Lando.

"Call themselves Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes. And they already started." He glanced furtively around again, nodded several times, and then said, "But they stopped."

"Figrin D'an? Great band. Used to bump into them here and there in my smuggling days. But how could they have finished their gig already?"

Lando mused. "We haven't even opened yet."

"Master Cojahn had them doing promotional appearances at casinos on Cloud City, to get some advance interest for SkyCenter here."

"So where are they now?" Lando asked.

"Exactly," the boy whispered, nodding as if Lando had discovered some deep truth. "They're gone, disappeared, run off in the night. They were supposed to be here all the way through the grand opening, but the same day Master Cojahn went over that balcony-the whole band packed up and left Bespin. No explanation at all. Didn't even bother to collect the credits they were owed for the gig they did that day." He nodded again.

"Didn't collect their credits? That doesn't sound like Figrin at all!"

Now it was Lando's turn to glance around to see if anyone was watching or listening. "Thank you," he said in a low voice. "You've been a big help."

"It sounds to me like they must have seen something or learned something,

" Zekk said. "Leaving like that is a sign that someone's afraid and on the run."

"It's not much of a connection," Jaina observed quietly.

"No," Lando said, "but it's the best lead we've got so far. I'd say that the band's disappearing on the same day Cojahn died is a bit too much of a coincidence. One way or another, I've got to find out what they know."

"They are gone," Tenel Ka pointed out. "How will you find them?"

Lando squared his shoulders and gave them all a determined look.

"I'll have to check the passenger records for that day, but I'd be willing to bet they went to ground in the safest place they could think of-on the Bith homeworld. And if I have to, I'll follow them there to find out what happened."

Ord Mantell had been his home, his base of operations... his lair, for many years, but Czethros knew well enough never to get too attached to any one place.

The true mastery and skill of running an important part of the ultrasecret Black Sun organization meant that he had to be flexible-as flexible as an Umgullian blob. He had two completely separate lives: one as a well-respected and influential businessman on Ord Mantell, and one as a powerful lieutenant of the insidious criminal organization that