Part 35- The Hunters
Nar Shaddaa hummed with life, and with death, as it always did. Mira was right at the center of it, as she always was. The area around the refugee district seemed to always have the most going wrong with it, and the most folks hiding who really did not want to be found. Finding them was her specialty. As a bounty hunter, Mira rarely had to leave Nar Shaddaa, or even the area around the refugee district, to earn her keep. Besides, she was the best, and she did not have to kill her targets to prove it. Where there were bounties, she would cash in on them in the end.
She sat along the bar of her favorite human-friendly cantina just outside of the refugee district, the Entertainment Promenade. Some Biths played mellow music on a low stage at the other end of the cantina while the patrons carried out their business in the well-lit space. The cantina's owner seemed to believe that adequate lighting would keep down the illicit business that often happened under the tables at such places, but Mira knew better, especially when it was widely known that he did not have adequate security recording equipment installed. Sure, invest in a few extra lights and neglect your cameras and bugs.
Not that Mira had any illicit business to do here. She just wanted dinner and a drink, with hard-earned, legal credits. Then again, there wasn't much that was illegal in Hutt space. That suited her just fine.
Mira sipped at her drink and browsed through the latest HoloNet headlines on her datapad as she waited for her meal to arrive.
"More assassinations, more senators caught in scandals, more speculation on the disappearance of the Jedi. I would have thought they'd have gotten over that fixation a year ago," Mira murmured as she flicked her finger along the scroll bar, looking for something interesting. "Oh, what's this?" a headline from one of the gossip presses caught her eyes, 'Mandalorian Wars famed Jedi General Thuvell, thought long dead, recently sighted on Thila.' "So they aren't all dead after all," Mira mused to herself. "I wonder if this one has made the Black List yet."
She navigated away from the more main-stream news and to a listing she herself used much more frequently: the Galactic Exchange Bounty List. Mira scrolled through, looking for new postings, and then she saw it: 'Jedi General Thuvell: wanted, preferably alive.' She whistled appreciatively at the price on the Jedi's head. She had never seen a bounty that high in her life, save when some lower-level idiot in the exchange decided to put a bounty on Darth Malak himself. Stupid idea. Neither the bounty nor the man lasted long. With the amount offered for this one Jedi, Mira could buy her own planet and still have some left over for retirement.
"If that Jedi ever comes near my territory, she's mine," Mira told the datapad with a confident grin.
"Oh, you think so, do you?" trilled a familiar voice that Mira loathed to hear.
"Lovely huntress, you are mistaken," a nearly identical voice cooed.
Mira spun around on her stool, and glared sourly at the two lithe Twi'lek women standing behind her. Both wore skin-tight black pleather clothes that hardly covered more of their skin than the average two-piece bathing suit. The Twin Suns were two ex-slave dancers who were part cocky, blood-thirsty killers and part man-hunting sluts. Mira hated them, but the Bounty Hunter truce prevented her from doing anything to get rid of them. "Get out of here, tramps," Mira snapped, "Can't you leave a woman to her meal?"
"That doesn't look like a meal to me," Seer'aa observed as she slunk up to Mira and leaned on the bar next to her, "I would say that looks like business research."
"Research that we have already done, little huntress," Teer'aa added. "You are already behind."
"Doesn't mean I can't catch up with you," Mira shot back, "The minute she steps foot into this sector, she will be mine."
"But won't you be too squeamish to take a Jedi on your own?" Teer'aa taunted, "Jedi must be killed before they peer into your mind."
"Still don't believe me that I can do it better than you can?" Mira retorted, "And still keep my targets alive? Just watch me. A Jedi is no different than any other target to me, and I will have this one. She's worth far more alive."
"Oh, I am sure you will," Seer'aa said with silky sarcasm. She backed away from the bar, drawing two fingers lightly across Mira's hand as she went.
"Don't touch me!" Mira snapped, and drew her hand back. "Now either you buy some dinner like every other customer here or you get out of here."
"She talks big, but can she deliver?" Teer'aa taunted, then turned and sauntered off. Her sister followed after her, lekku and hips swinging alluringly with every step.
"Tramps," Mira muttered angrily and turned back to her juice. I will have that Jedi.