The journey to Leritor was uneventful and almost to short to come up with a good plan. Not that this mattered much to Leila, Graden had already set up the bounty hunter and all she had to do was collect him at the right place at the right time. And then, of course, kill him. Which was the difficult part.
If Graden had only kept his mouth shut then, the assassin mused.
Of course, the fact that he had set up things so neatly, made Leila more than suspicious. The extremely high bounty of 57,000 credits added to her queasy feeling about the set up. Leila doubted Graden really wanted to pay that much, even if his pride was involved. It was probably a trap within a trap, with somebody waiting to dispose of her after she had eliminated Fett. She would not let that happen, though. Fett had the reputation of being rather indestructible, so pure force would most likely not work. Storming the meeting place with a drawn blaster and shooting until nothing moved any more might just work, but might just as well get her killed in the process or imprisoned.
But Leila was specialised on subtlety, a fact Fett certainly knew. So she decided to try blunt, and take things from there. What was important about this mission, was to keep Fett off balance as well as possible and unaware of her real plan. Which she needed rather desperately. Realizing that she was drumming her fingers, Leila stopped and began to do elaborate finger exercises in stead. It looked like cat's cradle, only with fingers used instead of string.
By the time she reached Leritor, the assassin had her plan worked out roughly, and dressed neatly into a dress that catered to her figure without being obvious about it. Deep cleavage would not help her any, Leila, assumed. She was not dealing with just another guy this time.
Too bad, he's not as instinct driven as my other clients, Leila thought, adjusting her high collar. Her soft boots made no sound as she walked down the ramp and locked the Snakebite behind her.
The meeting place was in the centre of the city, the alien origin of which could not be denied. The houses seemed to be at odd angels, and though their colours were subdued, the mix of light lilac, purples and dark orange was not something humans would come up with. At least, Leila hoped so. The native Sauvax probably saw a different spectrum of the light and since there were fewer humans had not felt any need to adapt.
The streets were a little wider than expected, taking into account the broader built of the six-legged Sauvax. The assassin watched the crab-like creatures as she passed them by, assessing their strengths and weaknesses as well as she could. She might still end up having to fight some of them. In general, the natives seemed a lot more peaceful than the few humans scattered in the streets. With no visible weapons except an occasional pike, they seemed almost harmless. But Leila was wary. She used no weapons herself, but harmless was not a word that described her well.
The tapcafe itself was situated at the central place. It was easy to watch from all sides, and on the roofs of the other buildings was enough space to hide a sniper, or a small army of them. That was not taking into account the possibility of having agents around on the place itself, or inside the buildings. Obviously, the bounty hunter had come to the same conclusion. Unlike arranged, he did not sit at a table outside. Leila smiled tightly, she had not expected the bounty hunter to play sitting duck, anyway. Time for the show.
Leila sauntered into the café, making sure her swaying walk attracted the attention of a few patrons. Being seen was one way to discourage being shot immediately, nobody liked witnesses scattered all over the place. The bounty hunter sat with his back to the wall and able to watch the whole café. Of course, he had seen her entrance, but Leila was not even trying to pretend.
"Well, hello Mando," Leila purred, slinking into the chair opposite to him. "If that is not too much of a coincidence that you are indeed exactly where Graden told me."
"Did he now."
The assassin nodded. "Ykka flavoured sweetwater," she told the waiting droid. "And by the small changes you made to the arrangement," she added turning to Fett again, "I can see you did not expect an elderly archaeologist either."
There was no reply. But none was necessary. Fett was neither sitting outside nor had he come without his armour.
"So tell me, because I am really curious, on what kind of wild goose chase Graden sent you." Leila leaned back and sipped on her newly arrived drink.
Instead of an answer, the bounty hunter placed a small holodevice on the table. It showed and odd looking statue, as if the creator had not been sure whether to depict a human or a cockroach.
"Sith artefact, huh," Leila said, reading the small script. "You should be careful, if you have to meddle with them."
"They're enemy of the Jedi," Fett replied as if that explained everything.
The assassin leaned back and watched him closely. "The enemy of my enemy might be my enemy, too. Or at least, my death. But I'm not here to lecture you on this topic."
"So, tell me," even through the filters, Fett's voice sounded sarcastic, "why you are here."
"Oh, please, Mando." Leila held her hands up in exasperation. "I'm an assassin, and my job description did no chance recently. But since it was Graden who set this up, and I don't intend to end up dead, too -" The beeping of her comm interrupted her.
Leila frowned when she saw the origin of the call. "Just wait a minute, it might save your life," she told Fett. "And don't go anywhere," with a sly wink she got up.
To her relief the bounty hunter crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back challengingly.
"I'll just be a minute."
In the privacy of the fresher, Leila accepted the call, after putting up appropriate security measures. It did not pay to be listened in to.
"Durmon here."
"Um, hello," the voice was soft and hesitating. "Lana, this is Elida."
The assassin smiled tightly. This would be exciting.
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"Well, well, guess who that just was," Leila said with a smirk when she returned to the table. Fett was still sitting there, arms crossed as if he never moved at all. "Lord Graden's daughter herself. She wants me to quit whatever I'm doing and kill her father instead. She's offering double pay, too."
"Sounds kind of counterproductive."
"I don't now, Mando," Leila's brow furrowed. "We only need a really good plan. We might be able to earn all three bounties."
"Selling my own head?" Jango raised a brow. "I never thought of that before."
"Well, before it would have been suspicious if you had not really been dead afterwards. But except Lord Graden, nobody expects your death any day soon. And if we manage to get that artefact, there is even something in it for you."
"Apart from staying alive?" It sounded amused.
"So you think I can't do it, huh?" Leila made a point of staying calm. "You are free to find out anytime." She took another sip of her drink before crossing her arms, too. "Just remember that if you refuse, I'll get you - sooner or later. I have to be lucky only once. You will have to be lucky all the time. Do the odds yourself."
"I am tempted to believe you, if only, because I took the effort to put some truth serum into your drink."
Leila stared from Fett to her glass and back. "Did you now. How very considerate off you, Mando."
"Let's do this on my terms again," he replied deadpan.
"You're interesting but you won't like the truth."
"Why are you here?" There was no infection to his tone.
"Graden sent me to dispose of you. Seems he's keen enough about it to set you up, even." Leila decided to let him have his way for now. She leaned back and watched the armoured figure. Time for phase two.
"Obviously. How were you to go about it?"
"The usual way using female guiles and all that. Everything else would have depended on how pliable you are." The assassin played with a strand of her hair. "I would not have minded at all this time." She winked.
"And you kill your victims before or after?"
She looked him up and down slowly. "That would have depended on your performance, Mando. But I would venture the guess of afterwards."
In the long pause following, Leila wondered if Fett was checking his audio sensors, or keeping the urge to bang his helmet onto the table in check. Maybe both. Good.
"So this is my suggestion. First, we get you non-existent artefact, then you play dead and I drag you to Graden. He won't suspect anything so he's easy money. Any flaws?"
"Who says I can trust you?"
"Same here, Mando," Leila smiled. "Let's just say we don't and get over with it. I really prefer 175,000 easy credits over 225,00 that could be rather difficult."
"My sahre?"
"Risen from 50,000 to 100,000, and all for just playing dead for a while. Not a bad deal, is it, Mando?"
"Could you stop calling me that I do have a name."
"I had no idea that we were on first name basis already, but that's fine with me. Call me Leila."
"What are you playing for?"
"Nothing special, but anything in general that has a reward." Leila liked keeping him a little off balance. Let him believe whatever he wanted. "Hope, you realize, I'm not doing you a favour here. I just want to spare me the trouble of hunting you down again, Fett."
She waited.
Finally, the bounty hunter gave a curt nod. "The excavation site near The Bleaks."
"Good as anything," Leila agreed. But first we should shake any followers. The best way would be a great commotion, we both have to take off in a hurry and Graden is none the wiser. I report my drawback, you report progress, and then we get together again and make some plans."
"Good enough."
Before the assassin could whip up a spur of the moment plan, the commotion already started. Something was crashing loudly into building, if Leila interpreted the sound right, and it was approaching. She glanced at Fett, but he gave no sign. Then a big harvester came into view, lumbering onto the place and taking the corner of a house with it. A crowd of agitated Sauvax and humans followed it, shouting orders and suggestions to the bewildered driver. Nothing the poor man did, had any effect, though. the harvester jerked around, seemingly random, and finally rolled of towards the tapcafe at full speed.
Leila smiled tightly. "Neat trick, bounty hunter. See you." And she dashed off with the other patrons that realized the harvester would most likely not stop. Merging with the crowd assembling on the place to watch the spectacle, Leila turned and waited for Fett to follow. He didn't. Even after the whole building had crashed, he was nowhere to be seen.
Another neat trick, Leila mused as she walked off, vanishing like that.
