Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Wars 3: Hard Merchandise by K. W. Jeter

Author:K. W. Jeter
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: Fett, Star Wars fiction, Fiction, Boba (Fictitious Character), Science fiction, Adventure, General
ISBN: 9780553578911
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: 1999-07-06T07:00:00+00:00

"Indeed." Kuat raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'm sure you'll make a valiant attempt at it."

"Oh, we'll do more than that. Since we'll be missing the action out at Endor, my squadron will be ready to do some serious damage of their own, right here. If any Imperial forces show up and try to get hold of those ships, or if any of your KDY transport crews think they'll be able to pilot them out to some rendezvous point and deliver them, there'll be hell to pay. You can bank on that."

"And what happens if the Rebel Alliance comes here and wants these ships? What gets paid out then?" The temper in the other man's voice had disturbed the felinx in Kuat's arms; he did his best to soothe it. "Am I to assume that Mon Mothma and the rest of the Alliance command will be prepared to negotiate a fair-and profitable-deal for them?"

"I'm not authorized," said Rozhdenst, "to make those kinds of arrangements."

"What that translates to is that you don't have the means. The credits. And neither does the Alliance. Otherwise, Mon Mothma would have made the offer already."

A sneer twisted the corner of Rozhdenst's mouth. "And would you have accepted it? Not as long as you're so afraid of the reaction of your best customer, Emperor Palpatine."

"The deals I make," replied Kuat stiffly, "are for the best interests of my corporation."

"And too bad for everybody else in the galaxy." The sneer remained as Rozhdenst nodded. "They're fighting for their freedom-and their lives-and all you're concerned about is the amount of credits rolling into your coffers. Fine; arrange your ethics however you want to. You don't want to throw in your lot with the Rebel Alliance, that's up to you. But I think I'm clear in warning you what the Alliance's 'offer' is likely to be for those ships in your construction docks." Rozhdenst pointed to the view beyond the transparisteel panels. "If the Alliance decides that it needs the ships you've been building-and there's a high possibility of that-I'm going to be happy to take delivery of them from you whether or not you've agreed to sell them to us instead of the Empire. And we'll worry about making compensation to Kuat Drive Yards after the war is over."

"Your language doesn't surprise me, Commander. I would have been more surprised if you had persisted in maintaining a pretense of goodwill toward Kuat Drive Yards. But now we know exactly where we stand with each other, don't we?" Kuat turned and set the felinx down on top of the lab bench beside him. "So I guess we have made some progress."

Rozhdenst regarded him through eyes narrowed to slits. "As I said when I came here, Kuat-it would be better if we could work things out on a friendly basis. I'd rather trust you than have to watch you. But now we will be watching you."

"As you wish." Standing with his back turned toward the Rebel Alliance commander, Kuat picked up a micro-insertion logic probe from his lab bench.

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