Honor Among Thieves

Scarlet led them to a small cantina at the edge of the docks. The kind of rough place the warehouse workers and ships’ crews would go after a shift to spend the day’s wages blowing off steam. Chewbacca hung his bowcaster on his back and crossed his arms, over two meters of furry threat to ward off anyone looking for an easy score.

Inside, the place was all black walls and flashing lights. Gaming machines and gambling tables were scattered around the room as if a bored giant had dumped them out of his pockets on the way through. A dozen different species drank and gamed and scuffled in the cramped space.

Hunter Maas looked right at home. Leaving the R3 with them, he sauntered up to the bar and spoke to the bartender for a few moments, though with the deafening rattle of gaming machines and piped-in music, it was impossible to hear what was said. A moment later the bartender handed Maas two glasses, and Maas passed the man a coin. He gave one glass to Scarlet, and drank off the other in one long swallow. He said something Han couldn’t make out. Scarlet answered, nodding toward Han and Chewbacca.

Han could feel the approaching Imperial fleet like an itch on top of his scalp. Every second they spent was one they wouldn’t have when they needed to run. A pair of three-eyed, goat-faced Gran in orange-and-black flight suits walked toward Scarlet and Maas, but Chewbacca stepped in front of them and growled, and the two Gran beat a hasty retreat.

Han sidled up to Scarlet and whispered in her ear. “Everyone can tell we don’t belong in here.”

She didn’t reply, but a moment later she finished off the last of her drink and said, “Captain Maas. Would you like to join me in our private room in the back?”

The shirtless man smiled and downed his second drink, slamming the glass on the bar. “Hunter Maas would very much like to join you in a private room!”

Scarlet took his arm and led him through the thick knots of bar patrons with practiced ease. She could move people out of her way with just a smile and a polite nod. Han had to use Chewbacca to clear his path to the back of the bar, and still he almost wound up in a fight with a piggish alien of a species he didn’t recognize. In the end, Chewbacca picked up the alien by the scruff of the neck and shook it until it calmed down. After that, everyone cleared a path for them. By the time they caught up, Scarlet and Maas were at a small door. Scarlet knocked, and it slid open.

The back room of the cantina was bare stone, with rough-surfaced scratches where the marks of the cutting torch hadn’t been smoothed away. A small table with a bottle of liquor and three glasses stood in the middle of the floor under a single hanging light. Boxes of supplies lined the walls—food and drink and other things less familiar.

Leia stood near the middle of the room, wearing a loose white robe over sand-colored pants. She looked too elegant to be in a port cantina. Han gave her a grin, and one corner of her mouth twitched.

“Thank you for coming, Captain Maas. My name is Leia Organa of Alderaan, and I would like to buy what you’re selling.”

HUNTER MAAS LOOKED AROUND the room as if he owned it. He bowed to Leia and Scarlet in turn and favored Han and Chewie with a wink before settling into a chair and propping his heels on the table. Now that he was holding still, Han could see that the man’s scuffed work boots were decorated with mosaic skulls made of small shards of crystal.

Chewbacca silently turned to Han and lifted a brow. Han looked down and bit his lip to keep from laughing.

“You are the rebel princess then, hey? The lovely miss says you sent these two to help me escape the Imperial ship,” Hunter said. “Hunter Maas owes you a debt of honor, and it shall be repaid.”

Leia sat across from the man. From her demeanor, she could have been meeting with a president or a king. Scarlet leaned against the back wall, her face blank, her concentration fierce. Han met her gaze and glanced at Hunter Maas. This guy? Really? A small line drew itself at the corner of Scarlet’s mouth, not a smile but the presentiment of one.

“I’m pleased the Rebellion could be of service,” Leia said. “It seems we have a common enemy.”

“Hunter Maas has no enemies,” Hunter Maas said. “He has only admirers and the jealous.”

“And the fighter that was trying to kill you?” Leia asked.

“Jealous. Intimidated by my masculinity.”

Han had been around Leia long enough to recognize some of her small, unconscious expressions. The blink that lasted a fraction of a second too long, the smile that began and ended at her eyes because she’d practiced doing that. Hunter Maas didn’t see any of it. The rat-bird screeched and hopped from Maas’s left shoulder to his right, nipping at his earlobe.

“I understand that you’ve come to the conference with some information to sell,” Leia said.

“Not information. Victory. Hunter Maas holds the key to control over the Empire! Such that even the mad Emperor quakes in his boots like a little girl to contemplate.” He swung his boots to the floor with a clunk and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Power such as you have never imagined. Hunter Maas has come not to sell information, no, but to choose his partner in godlike ascendance!”

Han pretended to scratch his nose to hide his smile, but Scarlet’s expression had gone serious again. Hunter Maas was a buffoon and a blowhard, but Scarlet, at least, seemed to be taking his bragging very seriously.

“You have Essio Galassian’s project notes,” the spy said. “The report he was preparing for the Emperor.”

Hunter Maas grinned at her and pretended to shoot her with his fingertip. “The beautiful woman is more than she appears. She has heard of Hunter Maas’s victory. Yes, yes. The report of the great villain Galassian, despoiler of ancient graves and toady to the mad Emperor. Hunter Maas has the only copy of his greatest work. The master discovery that will remake the galaxy forever. Only Hunter Maas!”

“Galassian’s not dead,” Scarlet said. “He can write the report again. Whatever you have, the Empire does also.”

“All the more reason to act quickly, yes?”

“What is in this report?” Leia asked.

Hunter Maas spread his hands in a wide gesture that took in the room, the city, the world. He leaned forward, his spine straightening. Whatever the man was about to say, Han had the sense he’d rehearsed it a lot.

“The galaxy is filled with thousands of species, royal lady. Thousands of different shapes of minds. Most, they are of a piece, but some? Some are changed. They find those things that no other can see. Most are turned outward, to the stars and the great community of life, but some turn in to block away the stars. To protect themselves from such as you, yes? Or I.”