Chapter Two
Location: Tatooine

Long before Talon Karrde saw his colleague, he could smell him.

As the smuggler entered the lair of the infamous Jabba the Hutt, gangster, crimelord, and virtual ruler of the planet Tatooine, he was surprised to see that the Hutt's most trusted servant, Bib Fortuna, and the Gamorrean guards that accompanied him did not smell it either. Karrde supposed the Gamorreans had an excuse, as they probably smelled as bad as Jabba in some instances, but he still didn't get why Fortuna didn't react anymore. Perhaps he had gotten used to the "mighty" Hutt's odor as a result of having worked under him for so long. Maybe it was something else.

Karrde quickly returned his focus back to the matter at hand as he entered Jabba's main audience chamber and saw the fat sluglike creature asleep with his dancer (poor thing!), who was trapped in his slimy arms, looking terrified and disgusted. As it was, Karrde wished he could do something, but this was purely business, and the first rule of business was to never let emotions get in the way of one's work. Besides, it wasn't like Talon could just waltz away if he screwed up this meeting. He would have to face up to his employer, an ambitious, ruthless man named Jorj Car'das, and most likely either lose his job or lose something else of value to him. And from what Karrde remembered, usually the loss was not what one expected but it still hit home pretty well with the one that had failed the smuggling chief.

He watched the Twi'lek approach his master carefully and gently poke him on the side. After a second, the Hutt's huge eyes snapped open and looked directly at Karrde, and he made a loud roaring noise, as if he was some animal being awakened from a good slumber. The part about him being an animal was virtually the truth in Karrde's mind.

"Master," whispered Fortuna. "You have a visitor..."

Jabba eyed Karrde and made a sound as if he were impressed, which Karrde highly doubted. Knowing the Hutt, it was probably sarcasm. He then began to boom out a phrase in Huttese, but Karrde lost his patience. He knew the slug knew how to speak Basic and he would be damned if he were going to be pushed around today. Another rule of negotiating--if he took the upper hand in something even so seemingly insignificant as dictating speech, then he would most likely be able to dictate a lot more as the rest of the meeting went on. This was supposed to be true in almost all the situations that Karrde tackled.

Then again, this was a Hutt, and this was not just any situation.

Karrde cleared his throat and spoke. "Jabba, if you don't mind, would you please address me in Basic? I know Huttese but I would prefer not to speak it. No offense intended."

The Hutt made the "ooohing" sound again, as if he were impressed. Karrde knew that the tactic was meant to strike fear and uncertainty into whoever Jabba was facing, but it did not faze the smuggler. Then he spoke--in Basic.

"Very well," he boomed. "Now, Lieutenant Karrde, you know why you are here, correct?"

Karrde nodded, impatient to get this over with. Jabba had been seeking an "official" company of smugglers to represent him and sell to him, a group of smugglers that he could trust to perform shipments for him with reliability. For a long time, Karrde had known that Jabba had exclusively relied on Han Solo, whom he had not met but had heard colorful and mixed details of. But after losing his patience with Solo and not receiving his share of Solo's last smuggling run on time as he had been promised, he had put a death mark on the smuggler's head unless he came with the money.

So now Jabba was turning to them. Interesting. "Of course, Jabba. You wanted to speak with a representative of Jorj Car'das' company regarding a smuggling contract. Well, I'm your representative. What do you want to discuss in the terms?"

Jabba eyed Karrde warily this time and made a "hmming" sound. At this point Karrde was beginning to lose it from a combination of factors--the smell, Jabba's refusal to conduct a straightforward business deal without playing games, the plight of the dancer, and Bib Fortuna's susceptibility to just stand there and dumbly nod with whatever his master said. Karrde found it hard to believe that this was the vile gangster's most trusted servant. Finally, Jabba began to speak.

"Well, there should not be any terms to discuss," thundered Jabba. Then he eyed Karrde suspiciously. "Or should there?" he asked, lowering his voice and peering at the smuggler.

Karrde narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about?" Now it was his turn to get suspicious.

Jabba was silent for a minute, not breaking his stare, and suddenly Karrde began to realize that Jabba's fun and games were over. The Hutt was serious now, and, unless Karrde was hallucinating, the lights in the chamber appeared to have dimmed...and the few "courtiers" had vanished, with the exception of Fortuna and the dancer.

"Lieutenant Karrde...you disappoint me. Perhaps you need some convincing of what your company is doing," bellowed Jabba. He then narrowed his monstrous eyes. "I have reason to believe that you and your employer have been doing business with the Rebel Alliance." Jabba let his words sink in, and then he continued. "Now you know that if I were to undergo any sort of contract with your organization, the ties you have with the Rebellion would...disturb me, to say the least. As you may already know...my ties with the Empire are quite strong. I hold a healthy rapport with the Dark Lord of the Sith himself, and although nothing is formalized, I have been known to...collaborate on Lord Vader with several projects, shall we say, here and there."

Karrde weighed his options now. He had no idea where Jabba had dug up the concept of Car'das doing business with the Rebels. In fact, at times Karrde wondered if Car'das had some secret connections with the Empire. The company had been so successful in recent months, yet nothing had happened to it yet. Usually, successful smuggling companies never got to see more than a month's progress before they were exposed to the Emperor. Palpatine, having formed a law against smuggling in general, would personally execute the leaders himself.

But because Car'das had managed to keep the company successful for so long without being harassed by the Empire, it made Karrde wonder if the only way he had been able to do that had been to strike some corrupt bargain with the Emperor himself.

Perhaps Jabba was just jealous of the success their company was having and wanted to help out some other company by playing a trick on Car'das' organization? Karrde had no idea. But at the moment...

"Jabba," said Karrde calmly. "I assure you, our company has no ties to the Rebellion whatsoever." Then for the hell of it, he decided to give Jabba a little of his own medicine. All part of this game he had been thrust into since his arrival at the Hutt's palace. "I'm beginning to wonder if your ties with Empire might not put MY organization in danger. After all, you know how the Emperor feels about smuggling and what he has done to organizations, especially successful ones, in the past."

Jabba frowned at Karrde, "hmming" again. Then he spoke. "You make a valid point, Lieutenant... a very valid point. But for the moment, unfortately, I'm afraid I can only do one of two things. End this meeting with no result, or receive some proof that you are not aligned with the Rebellion."

Karrde felt like throwing up his hands in disgust, but he caught himself. This was Jabba the Hutt, and although the slug did not have much physical prowess himself, Karrde was almost positive some mercenary was sitting in a dark corner with crosshairs targeted on Karrde's chest if the smuggler made one wrong move against his employer.

Instead, Karrde simply shook his head. "Then I'm afraid this meeting is effectively over, Jabba. But before I leave, I must say that in the few times our company has done business with you, it has truly been a pleasure."

Jabba "hmmed" again, but this time there was a menacing twinge to it. "Don't try to make amends, Karrde. You felt no such thing. In fact, I'm sure that at this very moment, you probably would like nothing better than to thrust a vibroax into my chest. Make your decision, Karrde. You are either going to have deals with me or deals with others, but not with the Alliance. Remember Karrde, I have my eyes and ears in the galaxy. If you or Car'das take one wrong step...I will be there to document it and to do something about it. Let me assure you of that."

Karrde stared at Jabba for a minute, then he dared to crack a smirk. "We shall see." Then he simply nodded and left up the entrance to the chamber. As the Gamorrean escorts showed him to the speeder that Jabba had provided as means of transportation, he flipped them each several credits as means of a tip. The more goodwill he could show beings like these, the less they realize the true nature of cold-hearted criminals like Jabba. Karrde performed this small act of charity with the hope that if other guests who came here did likewise, Jabba's syndicate would eventually unravel from the inside. In all honesty, Karrde thought he was a menace to the galaxy, and the world would be better off without him. Hopefully, when these guards and other of
Jabba's minor cronies received these acts of goodwill from outsiders, they would begin to see that the grass was greener on the other side and would begin to try their best to leave the Hutt or disrupt him, which was even better.

After a while, Karrde reached his desination, Mos Eisley. As he exited the speeder near the docking bays, he pulled out his comm and notified his men aboard his freighter, the Wild Karrde, that he would be arriving shortly. Before he returned, however, he decided to pay a visit to some old friends, as he entered the Mos Eisley cantina, the notorious stopover for the scum of the galaxy.

As Karrde walked in, he nodded at Wuher, the bartender, and then surveyed the area. Sure enough,
there they were.

A Rodian, an Ithorian, and a Sullustian all sat engrossed in a conversation with Figrin D'an, lead musician of the Modal Nodes, a band that frequented the Cantina and usually played here. But Karrde did not care much for D'an, he wanted to speak with the trio of aliens.

As he stepped to the table, he realized his desire of making a casual entrance was lost as he cast a huge shadow in the eerie lighting of the Cantina over the four aliens, and they paused and looked to see who had interrupted their discussion. When the three realized who was there, they broke out into their forms of greeting.

[Karrde!] declared the Sullustian, flapping his lips up and down and nodding excitedly.

[Lieutenant!] cried the Rodian, his spikes tingling with excitement.

[Sir Talon Karrde!] exclaimed the Ithorian.

Karrde smiled, but then he decided to avoid an entanglement with his friends over language as he had with Jabba, and he raised his hands quickly. "Gentlebeings...it's great to see you, but please, before we go any further...can we please all speak Basic? I know all of you understand it."

They all nodded quickly. If they were offended, they obviously didn't show it. But D'an scratched his head in confusion, and Karrde decided to tell him.

[Ah, Figrin...a pleasure to see you again. Now, I'm sorry if I'm being rude, but I desire a moment with my friends,] he said in Bith. The musician looked at him for a minute, then nodded.

[That is fine, in fact I was just about to leave. As you know, this,] D'an said, pointing to the band playing at the Cantina tonight, [is getting on my nerves. I wish Max Rebo would just stop trying, his holodisc sales have been nothing since I formed the Nodes and we dropped.]

Karrde smiled, noting the intense rivalry between the two bands. But then D'an nodded and took a polite leave of all four of them.

When Karrde was satisfied that D'an had left, he took the seat that the Bith had been occupying. Then he looked at the aliens, who had become much more serious.

"Jodax," he said, looking at the Ithorian. "Kyuub," he said, looking at the Sullustian. "Baldaro," he said, looking at the Rodian.

"I need you to do one small favor for me. I remember I saved all three of your necks a while back and asked me if I required repayment. At the time, I said no. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I'm going to have to renege on that statement. But this has nothing to do with money."

Karrde paused, carefully assessing the reactions of the aliens. Good. So far, there was no negative reaction.

"I want you to keep an eye on Jabba the Hutt's syndicate if it begins to show up in greater numbers here in Mos Eisley. I know he has several spies here and there scattered around this spaceport, but I have this feeling..." Karrde trailed off, unsure if he was doing the right thing.

Baldaro leaned forward, trying to encourage Karrde to continue. "What is it, Talon?"

Karrde shook his head, frowning as he looked off in the distance. "I just finished at Jabba's attempting to pull off some deal, the details of which I'm not at liberty to relinquish to all of you. But my point is that during that meeting...there was something about his attitude...that struck me as odd."

He paused again, and then he looked back at the aliens, looking dead serious.

"I believe Jabba is going to be planting spies on me, and looking for any opportunity to tie me up with the Rebel Alliance so that he can use it as an excuse to eliminate me or my employer, and take the company as his own."

The three looked at Karrde, shocked, but then Jodax spoke up.

"All right...but what do you want from us?"

Karrde eyed the Ithorian pointedly, beginning to feel irritated, but he concealed it. There was no point in creating an argument. "As I said, simply keep an eye on Mos Eisley. If you begin to see activity in the area related to Jabba, then use any or all of your connections to try to foil his plans or simply contact me. That is all I require."

The aliens nodded thoughtfully, and then Kyuub spoke on behalf of the group.

"Talon," he said. "We owe you, and we would be glad to repay our debt in this fashion."

Karrde nodded and smiled, and then he stood up. "Thank you, my friends. It's hard to find good people in this galaxy these days, especially in places like these, but I think I have found three right here. Take good care of yourselves."

The aliens responded with their farewells, and then Karrde left the cantina briskly, not making any eye contact with any patrons. When he was out, he pulled out the comm.

"Dankin," he spoke, in a low voice. "Is she ready to go?"

"Sir, she's almost done, I would say by the time you get here she should be set to rip a hole in Tatooine's atmosphere."

Karrde allowed himself a small grin, and then replied. "All right, all right," he said. "Stop cracking the jokes and get to work."

He clicked off the comm and headed towards the docking bay area.

If he would have been more cognizant back in the cantina, he would have noticed the dark figure that had tracked his every move since his departure from Jabba's and had entered through the back door of the cantina by using his connections and his blaster rifle.

* * * *

Boba Fett ended his self-initiated countdown after Karrde had left, and then he silently stood up and proceeded towards the table where the three aliens were getting ready to leave.

As the aliens saw him, they all recoiled in fear, and then Fett looked around quickly to make sure that no one was paying too much attention. No, no one was. Then he pretended to be knocked back by the Rodian, who was bewildered and in reality had done nothing. But this was part of Fett's master setup.

As he was knocked back, he snapped out his rifle and with a flurry of shots, ended the lives of the three aliens right then and there.

As he rose, the three aliens sank back into their seats, and Fett growled "Enjoy your meal."

Then he turned around as the Cantina had stopped all activity for a moment, and then resumed its activity. Fett grinned underneath his helmet. He loved the lawlessness of this place, and he also knew that no one would dare touch him.

He did not glance at the bodies, but before going in he had debated on simply killing the three outright or making an excuse and then killing them. Either way would have been fine for Fett, but he did not want to risk any ill will between anyone. It would simply mean another person that he would have to kill. Luckily, his faked fall that had supposedly been from the Rodian had worked well, and no one had cared enough to worry about it. The patrons of the cantina had recognized that Fett was merely enacting justice, Mos Eisley style, and no one had a problem with it.

Fett exited the cantina, throwing Wuher three credits for the mess. It was a custom to do so if you ended the lives of one of his patrons, one credit per dead body.

As he exited, he clicked a button on his helmet and spoke.

"They're dead," he said softly. "He's on his way to the docking bay. Where do you want me next?"

A voice boomed with laughter from his ears, and Fett waited patiently.

[Good,] replied the voice in Huttese. [Bribe a technician and get a tracker on that ship. I want to know exactly where he's heading. I have a feeling he will not be heading to his base anytime soon. Knowing him, he probably wants to have some sort of a deal with anybody, not wanting to go home empty handed.]

"As you wish," muttered Fett, and clicked off the comm that was wired with his Mandalorian armor.

He strode towards the docking bay area and saw a tech heading in that direction. He grabbed the youngish boy by the arm and pulled him into a dark corner. Fett then pulled out a bag of credits and dumped the bag into the human's hands.

"Take this," Fett growled. "Go find the Wild Karrde and put this on it." He produced a small circular device and handed it to the boy.

The boy's eyes widened with excitement at who he was facing, what he had received, and what he was about to embark on.

"Yes sir!" he said, running off. Fett shook his head. There had been a time when he was that age...and...

With an effort, he forced himself to stop thinking about the past and focus on the task at present. If his father were here, he would have said the same thing, and he would certainly not want his son mourning over him with such a critical task on the line.

Fett stepped out of the alley and strode to where his ship, Slave I, was docked. He would not go and check with the boy again, and was confident that the credits would do the job. As he reached his ship, he quickly used his built-in remote on his armor to open the hatch and he stepped into this product of Kuat Drive Yards.

As he entered, he immediately flipped on his connection to the tracker and observed its activity for a moment. Karrde's ship was just lifting off...and they were heading towards...Corellia. Fett shut down the controls and grinned under his mask. With luck, perhaps he would get to test out the new feature he had added to his rifle a week ago, which reduced targets to particle dust. He had not been too eager to use it on the three aliens, but if Karrde managed to be lucky enough to consort with some Rebels, Fett would take pleasure in using the rifle's new feature on so exquisite a target.

* * * *

Karrde shook his head.

Whoever was playing this trick was way in above their heads. He calmly looked at Chin and nodded. "Have you scrambled it?"

"Just finished it. Whoever it was, they'll be heading to...Corellia, now," said the former pirate. "That scrambler was well worth our money, sir."

Karrde nodded and settled back in his seat. "Good," he said and began to issue the command to go to lightspeed when he was cut off by Odonnl.

"Sir?" he asked. Karrde nodded, not betraying his impatience and his worry to leave this place as soon as possible. "Who do you think is doing this?"

Karrde snorted. "Who else? Isn't it obvious? It's Jabba."

Odonnl looked confused. "But sir, I don't understand."

Karrde shook his head, and nodded to the viewscreen. "Odonnl, if you don't plot in a course for Orto right now, then I don't think you ever will, and in about two minutes I don't think you'll even get the chance to wonder or think about anything else, for that matter. Your particles might have to get used to looking at Tatooine and the ships that leave it for the rest of your existence." He paused for an exaggerated effect, trying to chide his officer in this manner. "But, on the other hand, if you do decide to go to hyperdrive, then maybe I can tell you all
about it in the game room over drinks, if you're up to it."

Odonnl took the hint and nodded meekly. "Yes, sir," he said, plotting the course in and sending the Wild Karrde off to Orto.

Mere seconds later, Slave I entered space and took off towards Corellia.