A/N: Thank you to everybody who read and reviewed the last chapter.
Queen: It's not so much a bounty hunter conference per se as some Pratchettesque Law of Narrative Comedy trapping as many ruthless contract killers as possible in the same farcical situation.
Anahita Unduli II: Am happy you liked the last chapter. Bane's going to have something of a major supporting role in this story.
Fandelivres: Thank you. I'm really pleased you're enjoying the story. I couldn't resist having Bane show up (and, as you say, Hondo mentioned him in relation to Hondo and Aurra's first meeting, in Ten Days and Counting). Poor Bane.
o0O0o
Negotiations Interrupted (032 Embarrassed)
"Oh sweet Overbeing!"
Aurra, still straddling the pirate, experienced a wave of mortification as she saw Tula Coruscanti standing in the doorway.
From the look on the woman's face it was clear that she'd seen their current position and drawn certain (erroneous) conclusions.
"What do you want?" Aurra demanded.
"Death sticks."
"Death sticks?" Ohnaka repeated.
"Yes, do you have any? Dee Bell's hosting a party and he wants me to get some. My usual supply's been cut off by the damned quarantine, but I thought you might have a stash."
"So you plan to pay me a pittance for my hard won cargo and then sell it on at an exorbitant mark-up."
"Well, yes. It's hardly as if Dee Bell's going to approach you himself(1). Besides, you owe me."
"I do?" said Ohnaka, seemingly unfazed by the situation.
"For offloading those holos."(2)
Ohnaka gave a sigh. "Fine, fine. I'll trade for three-thousand credits a crate."
"Three-thousand credits? That's—"
In no mood to listen to the pair haggling, Aurra pointed her blaster at Tula. "Accept the deal or get out."
Tula squeaked. Accepted the deal. And then got out.
Aurra turned her attention back to Ohnaka. "Now, you were saying..."
-0-
(1)Representative Dee Bell, like many beings of his ilk, felt that less-than-legal dealings couldn't so bad as long as the other party was a pretty young human woman who possessed enough underworld glamour to titillate (but not enough to terrify) refined company. The fact that said pretty young human woman was acquiring her wares from a known Weequay brigand (who liked to hold 'refined company' hostage as often as he possibly could) was of no concern.
(2)As a perennial dealer in good of dubious origin, Tula Coruscanti often found herself trying to locate buyers for the outré and bizarre. Nothing however had prepared her for the challenge (not to mention the embarrassment) of trying to find somebody willing to exchange money for six-hundred bootleg copies of The Passions of Jabba: an unpleasant little haul that had come into Hondo's possession by way of a mistimed raid on a Mon Cal freighter.
o0O0o
Lifestyles of the Rich and Half-witted (015 Chipper)
Cad Bane looked at the hoard of pretty young beings around him and idly wondered how it could be possible that the imbeciles had not only managed to survive to adulthood, but obtain (or at least retain) positions of power and influence. Proof, if ever it was needed, that the Republic really needed to pay some suitably qualified professionals to perform a cull on the lower echelons of the body politic.
Still, Bane wasn't here to hobnob with the hideously cheery, giggling, glassy-eyed things. This was strictly business.
Spying Representative Dee Bell near the back of the room he started to walk in his direction.
The Representative was too engrossed in his conversation with a nearby potted palm to notice Bane's approach.
He cleared his throat.
Dee Bell turned to Bane, grinning.
"Mr. Bane!" he exclaimed, in a manner so obnoxiously chipper that it made Bane wish that Dee Bell was his mark rather than his client's son.
"Tell your father I've located the target," he said.
"What, on the station?"
Bane nodded.
Dee Bell conveyed this news to the potted palm.
Bane watched and wondered how much Dee Bell Senior would pay to be rid of the spice-crazed idiot.
o0O0o
The Deal (031 Ecstatic)
Hondo was quite aware that he was grinning like an idiot. He was also quite aware that Aurra Sing had noticed his idiotic grin and would likely as not take it a sign that he was a complete and utter idiot.
He didn't care. She had a) just agreed to deal with Bane; and was b) still sitting on Hondo. There would be plenty of time to demonstrate what a clever, cunning and completely non-idiotic individual he was now that they had a professional relationship. Granted, said professional relationship would cost more money than he'd ever paid for anything other than state of the art military hardware, but it was worth it.
"So...," she said, in a voice that was out and out sultry. "How do you want me to do it?"
He gulped. "Do what?"
She rolled her eyes. "Deal with Bane."
"Find out who hired him, then shoot him," said Hondo, just about managing to retain a tiny vestige of rational thought. Then, under the guise of moving her off him, he set his hands down on her hips and—
All in all, the ensuing slap to the face was not as hard as it might have been.
o0O0o
Deluge You Sorrows (044 Gloomy)
Ingot Cadinn surveyed the broken tables, smashed glasses and overturned chairs that were scattered around the Coruscant Skyline and decided that the place suited his mood.
The fact that he was currently the only patron present didn't bother him. He was, after all, there with the sole intention of consuming as much liquor as possible within the shortest possible amount of time.
"Another ale?" enquired Tulbert Coruscanti.
Cadinn looked into his almost-empty tankard. "You 'ave anything stronger?"
"Bad day, I take it?"
The pirate made a noise of discontent. "It's happening again. I can tell."
"What's happening?"
"It's the boss. He's getting involved with another one."
Coruscanti looked momentarily nonplussed. Then realisation dawned. "Oh, you mean him and..."
Cadinn nodded glumly. "Your sister saw them at it. This one's going to be worse than the Zeltron and the Twi'Lek combined."
"He'll get bored of her eventually. He always does."
"And that's when the bloodbath will happen. So I ask you, do you 'ave any liquor hard enough to sooth an old Weequay's fears?"
"Ever heard of Antrillian Mind Mist?"
"Can't say I 'ave."
"The Antrillians call two thimbles full a good night out."
Cadinn considered this. "Give me three pints."
o0O0o
Insomnia (083 Restless)
Unable to settle, Aurra shifted on her pallet.
She wanted to sleep. She was tired enough to sleep. Yet somehow she couldn't.
Usually she could dose and wake at will: another legacy of her 'early education' and Anzati training. Right now though she was tossing and turning and staring at the ceiling.
It was Ohanka's fault.
He was attracted to her her. That wasn't a problem. Lots of men desired her(1) and, for the most part, it pleased her to be desired. The trouble was that she hadn't been entirely unaffected by him either. That pinch on the hips had induced a few sensations that she hadn't experienced for a long time; and the whole experience had left her restless, agitated and acutely aware of just how long it had been since she'd engineered her last lover's departure from the land of the living(2).
It irked her that the pirate had managed to do that. She'd never had much respect for Weequay as a species; and the fact that one had managed to get her this stirred-up was frankly embarrassing.
She snarled, cursed outloud and shifted again.
Maybe after this job was over somebody would pay her to kill him.
-0-
(1)Only seventy-five percent of whom were actively suicidal.
(2)Many would have been surprised to learn that she did not in fact habitually kill everybody she slept with, a la several members of the arachnid family. In this case though the price on the Nautolan's head had been oh so very good and listening in on those interesting conversations he'd been having with that Jedi had made her oh so very angry.
