Canto Bight [Star Wars] by Saladin Ahmed

Author:Saladin Ahmed
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2017-12-05T00:00:00+00:00

OLD WAS A RELATIVE TERM. The neighborhoods surrounding the Canto Casino were certainly older than the casino itself, and their age showed in the occasional cobbled street or stone archway or crumbling façade. But for the most part everything was shiny and new, with luxury shops and restaurants housed in domed towers made to blend seamlessly with the original architecture. Tourists never saw the truly old parts of the city, because those parts were poor, dank, cramped, and mostly underground, like the tiny apartment he shared with Lula.

Lexo considered going there first, but he had last seen Lula heading up the stairs to the surface, toward the stables. He had to know if she’d arrived at her destination. Lexo fished out the chips he’d received from Joris as a tip and inserted them into the cab’s payment slot. He directed the cab toward the stables.

Evening was quickly becoming dusk, and the city was springing to life. Speeders whizzed by his passenger window, faster, shinier, and sleeker than the one he had hired. Many of them, he knew, were chauffeured by organics. Big Sturg Ganna himself always eschewed automatic and droid-driven speeders. He considered it a point of pride and a symbol of his status that he could afford a living driver.

To Lexo’s right the horizon glowed dark purple with the setting sun, a strange phenomenon that had manifested with the creation of Canto Bight’s artificial sea. Lights from various yachts and pleasure barges twinkled against the vast water. He had to admit, it was beautiful, albeit a colossal waste. On the hot desert planet of Cantonica, water evaporated at a rate of several tons per day, which meant that the cost of maintaining the false sea was astronomical.

The cab turned toward the casino and was forced to slow down to accommodate traffic. Everyone was arriving for the night, checking into the hotel, trying to make a grand entrance. Lexo didn’t care about any of that. He leaned forward in his seat, as if he could will the speeder to go faster.

It took a frustratingly long time to pass beyond the sleek, brightly lit entrance to the casino and its rows of rare Alderaanian chinar trees. Maybe the trees were real, maybe they weren’t; last Lexo had heard, the planet Alderaan wasn’t doing so well. But that was Canto Bight for you. In this city it was almost impossible to tell the real from the fake.

Ahead, a glow loomed on the horizon, indicating that they were nearing the racetrack. The beautiful show stables were just ahead, and tourists crowded around to pet well-groomed fathiers, enjoy refreshments, and, of course, buy souvenirs.

But the real stables were behind them, their unseemly smells and tight quarters and filthy workers kept mostly out of sight of the city’s wealthy visitors. The cab curved around the show stables, ducked into an alley, and finally came to a stop.

Lexo practically leapt from the vehicle and headed straight for the main stable where Lula’s boss, Bargwill Tomder, was most likely to be lingering.

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