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Lando just shook his head. "Cojahn would never have allowed that to happen to our entertainment center-which is a perfectly legitimate place, I might add. A real family amusement center with no shady dealings whatsoever, despite what you may have heard about me in the past."

"Believe me, Lando, compared to Black Sun, you're just an Ewok that got happy on juri juice."

"Thanks... I think," Lando said.

"But you're right," Figrin said. "Cojahn wasn't easily pushed around."

The musicians kept playing from the corners of the hut as if they had practiced this number over and over again and knew exactly what to do.

Jaina wondered if they had considered writing a song about their ordeal on Bespin. Maybe it would even be a hit.

Zekk nodded and rested his chin in his hands. "If you're running a business like Cojahn was, you'd have to be ready to stand up to hoodlums and all sorts of people trying to push you around."

"Yeah, you get that a lot," Lando said. "But most of them are cowards anyway."

"Cojahn did his best, man, but Black Sun infiltrators popped up everywhere. You never knew who they were, or when they might come after you in a dark corridor down in Port Town. Got so you had to have a Wing Guard escort to take you to the gambling tables and back again.

Those bullies could stick your head in a carbon-freezing tube, or drop you out an exhaust shaft. They meant business."

Lando nodded grimly. "But Cojahn didn't give in to them?"

"He should have," Figrin said. "He reported Black Sun's threats to a couple high-level Exex on Cloud City, but they lost the complaint or it was misfiled. He tried again, but nothing was ever done. Finally, Cojahn fired his Ugnaught crew boss when he figured out the guy was in thick with Black Sun."

Figrin shook his domed head. "Not long after that, Cojahn took his little dive off a high balcony. Man, that guy's probably still falling."

One of the musicians made a high, thin, squawking note on his instrument.

"You know, there's no end to the clouds on Bespin."

"So why'd you run, Figrin?" Lando asked. "Were they after you, too?"

"Black Sun's trying to get its hands into the Intergalactic Musicians'

Guild. They wanted us to pay triple membership dues just so they could take their cut-and man, Cojahn hadn't paid us much. We'd only done a few gigs for him. I mean, SkyCenter Galleria isn't even open yet! We got a few tips when we played the bars in the Yerith Bespin, but not enough for that kind of extortion." He shook his huge smooth head. "I hate gangsters that don't have budget payment plans!"

He continued. "Once Cojahn died, we knew Black Sun would tighten its hold on us, apply more pressure. One time they put stinger eels inside the mouthpieces of all our instruments."

Zekk made a grimace of distaste.

"Oh, we caught the critters soon enough. Fed 'em to one of the bar's customers, and even got a big tip-but we didn't dare stick around Cloud City. Too dangerous there."

"Yeah," Zekk said, rolling his eyes. "You needed to come back to a nice safe, pleasant place like this war-ravaged wasteland of Clak'dor "Hey, home is home," Figrin said with a shrug.

Jaina felt sickened. "So Cojahn stood up for his morals and ethics... and paid for it with his life."

"That about sums it up, young lady," Figrin agreed.

"At least now we know what happened," Zekk said. Sweat stained his clothing beneath the transparalon suit.

Lando stared grimly across the dim hut, gazing through the proppedopen window. "Yeah, but we don't know who killed him or who ordered his death." He swallowed hard. "And believe me, someone's going to pay for my friend's death. Someone in Black Sun will have to answer for it."

"Guess it's time to get back to Cloud City, then," Jaina said.

Perspiration trickled down her neck and her back.

The band members stood up, bustled around the hut, and propped the rest of the windows, letting a heavy sluggish breeze drift in. The hazy light on Clak'dor VII grew richer in color as the sun set toward the swamp trees in the west. Outside they could hear the burning sounds of millions of