Honor Among Thieves

“See anything?” he asked Baasen. The bounty hunter lifted the wings and poked at the wiry body.

“It’s got a necklace or something,” Baasen said, and yanked it off the bird. Han let the miserable creature go, and it flapped back to its perch on the droid. It gave them an accusatory squawk then fell silent, huddling under its wings and peering out at them with one black eye.

Baasen held the necklace up for Han to look at. A green gemstone in a silver setting spun slowly at the end of a thin silver chain. Han pointed at it and said, “Scarlet. Does this look like anything?”

She looked over her shoulder for a second, then turned back to her work on the safe. “Yeah. It looks like a fake. Cheap glass. He must not love his bird that much.”

Baasen examined the green gem closely, holding it up to the light, then tossed it across the room with a snort. “It’s a low class of criminal you find these days. No sense of style anymore. No pride.”

“Not like us, right?” Han said.

“Joke if you like, Solo, but no matter where we are now, I always respected you. You’re like me. You had a code.”

“Part of it was not turning on my friends.”

“I know it. But I work for the Hutt, so we can’t be friends now,” Baasen said sadly. “Also, you shot my hand off.”

“I do regret that,” Han said. Baasen nodded again as if the words were sincere.

“Hey, boys,” Scarlet said. “Don’t mean to interrupt this romantic moment, but I need some help here. Baasen, I’m betting you’ve run a magnetic seal bypass once or twice in your time.”

Baasen laughed. “Get elbow-deep in that thing so as I can’t draw with Solo at my back? Give me some credit, love. I may be stupid, but I’m not dumb.”

“I’ll do it,” Han said and walked over to the closet. Scarlet pointed at a wire dangling from an open panel on the safe with her chin. Her own hands were inside the guts of the device.

“I need you to keep that wire from touching the metal of the safe until I tell you to, and then I need you to do it fast. So stay ready.”

“Got it,” Han said, grabbing the wire. His finger brushed the exposed end, and he felt a painful tingle shoot up his arm. The panel where Scarlet was working flashed and sparked, and she yelped in surprise.

“Don’t touch the exposed end!”

“Yeah,” Han said, “sort of figured that out.”

Scarlet grunted at him.

“So …,” Baasen started, sitting down on the edge of the room’s one small table. Whatever he was about to say next stopped when the door to the room snapped open and Hunter Maas rushed in waving a blaster. In his other hand he carried a small plastoid case.

“Thieves!” he screamed, pointing the pistol at Han. “Betrayers! Hunter Maas makes a fair offer and you respond to him by stealing?”

Han raised the hand not holding the wire and smiled. Scarlet, wrists deep in the safe, could only raise her eyebrows.

“Hey, calm down,” Han said. “This is all a big misunderstanding.”

Maas grunted and fell face-first on the floor. Baasen stood behind him, blaster in hand.

“Please tell me you didn’t kill him,” Scarlet said.

Baasen knelt by the fallen man and checked his pulse. “No, just gave him a good whack.” Maas groaned as if in agreement.

“Up you go, boyo,” Baasen said, pulling Maas back to his feet. “Get over there in the corner and stay quiet, and maybe I won’t have to hit you again.”

“Hunter Maas is outraged by this treatment,” Maas started. Baasen cracked him across the forehead with the barrel of his blaster, nearly knocking him to the floor again.

“Shush now.”

“Almost there,” Scarlet said to Han. “Get ready. Now!”

Something popped inside the panel where Scarlet was working, and Han touched the exposed wire to the side of the safe. There was a flash of light and the smell of cooking electronics. An arc of electricity shot off the safe to Han’s wrist, and he danced away with a yelp.

“Hey, warn me next time!”

Scarlet smiled and said, “That got the first fail-safe. Two more to go.”

“Speaking of which,” Baasen said conversationally. “Is there a reason you’re still playing with that? This fellow has the key and the passcode, yes?” When no one replied, Baasen gestured at Maas and said, “Give me the key, friend.”

“Hunter Maas will not give in to—”

“Or,” Baasen continued, his tone light and conversational, “I can shoot you in the leg. Is it in that case there?”

“No,” Maas said, and pulled the keycard out of his pocket. He tossed it to Han. “But without the security code, this is useless!”

“Is that true?” Han asked Scarlet, then bent to pick up the key.

She nodded and did something else to the safe that resulted in a shower of sparks and a scorched-metal smell.

“Suppose then you tell us the code,” Baasen said.

“Hunter Maas will never tell!” the thief yelled, which earned him a crack across the mouth from Baasen’s blaster. Maas’s lip split, and a trickle of blood ran down his chin.

“Given time,” Baasen said, raising his weapon again, “I really think you will.”

“Stop it,” Scarlet said, her voice muffled and distorted by the tool she was clenching between her teeth. “These safes have a self-destruct. Punch in the fail-safe code and it destroys the contents.”

“You wouldn’t give us the wrong one, would you?” Baasen said, voice filled with mock concern. “Not to your pals? Because then I’d have to shoot you, oh, just a lot.”

“Maybe he thinks you’re going to shoot him anyway,” Han said.

“You can be a very rich man,” Hunter Maas said through his swollen mouth. “The richest man in the galaxy.”

“People keep telling me about these riches,” Baasen said.

“Kill them both,” Maas said. “Kill them, and Hunter Maas will share this wealth and power with you. All of space will be ours to command.”

“Han,” Scarlet said, “I need you to keep your eyes on the job here. Pull on this until it resists, then hold it steady.”

Han grabbed the wire and did as she asked, though putting his back to Baasen while Maas asked him to switch sides made the spot between his shoulder blades itch.

“I know this play, friend Hunter,” Baasen said. “We’re bestest pals right up until the next fool comes along and you offer him the universe on a platter to put a plasma bolt through my skull.”