Star Wars: Shadow Games Read Online Free PDF Page A

percent.”
    Now Dash leapt to his feet, fists on the table. “That’s piracy!”
    “It’s business.”
    “It’s space lane robbery! It’s—ow!” Eaden’s fingers had tightened on Dash’s shoulder in painful warning.
    “Twenty percent,” said the Nautolan calmly.
    “I should strangle you with your own tentacles,” Dash muttered.
    “Thirty-five,” said Han.
    Dash exploded anew. “We almost
died
for that cargo! We dodged Imperial ordnance for that cargo! We flew into the sucking
Maw
for that cargo! In other words, Han,
old friend
, we did all the hard work!”
    Han made his eyes as wide and innocent as possible and shrugged eloquently. “All right. All right. Ice it, okay? Always was a sucker for a sob story. Thirty. And I off-load everything on Nar Shaddaa.”
    “Twenty-five,” said Eaden. “And you deliver to Nal Hutta.”
    “Hey, I could be putting my life on the line going back to Nal Hutta right now. Things are kind of tense there,case you hadn’t noticed—what with the assassinations and all. And I hear Jabba’s in a bad mood. Something about a dropped spice shipment.” Han scraped at a smudge on his glass. “Twenty-seven.”
    “Done,” said Eaden and pushed Dash inexorably back into his seat. Dash slumped, defeated.
    Han smiled broadly. “Great. Where’s the old
Outrigger
stashed?”
    Dash ground his teeth audibly. “It’s
Outrider
. The usual place—Bay Ninety-two. How soon can you leave?”
    “As soon as you can shift the load.”
    “As soon as
we
shift it?”
    Han slid out of the booth and stood, polishing off his drink. “Sure. If you’d been able to do thirty percent on the cut I’d’ve been happy to help with the cargo transfer, but I don’t have a first mate right now and you do. So if you don’t mind, I’ll just go and prep the
Falcon
. Your hold’s full, is it?”
    “Yeah.”
    “No problem. The
Falcon
’ll take that on with room to spare. See you at the docks in a few, boys.” Han sketched a salute at Dash, returned Eaden’s attenuated bow, and left, whistling.
    Dash watched him go, then tilted his head back to look up at Eaden. “Gotta admire your nerve, Eaden. I’d’ve caved at thirty.”
    “Which is why we have our respective roles. I knew he would go lower.” He flexed a couple of his head-tresses to emphasize the point.
    “I thought you said that empathy trick doesn’t always work out of water.”
    Eaden gave the Nautolan version of a shrug—a lifting of side locks. “What can I say? It was a good hair day.”

FIVE
    “Y OU’RE NOT THE LEAST LITTLE BIT NERVOUS ?”
    “Nope.”
    Javul Charn adjusted her weapons belt and checked herself in the mirror of her suite aboard the
Nova’s Heart
. The wide belt had several utility pockets containing stun pellets, a length of monofilament, a limited-range confounder, and other “gadgets,” as Dara disparagingly referred to them. In addition, a customized DH-17 blaster was holstered on one side and a vibroknife on the other, both riding low across her hips. The synthsilk jumpsuit beneath looked like it had been painted on.
    You look bad
, she told herself.
You look lean and mean
.
    In reality, she was distressingly sure that she looked about as dangerous as a Corellian spukamas, no matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise. She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt.
    Behind her, Kendara looked on in admiration. “You amaze me, boss,” she said. “I’m a little uneasy about going into that den of thieves and I probably know half of ’em. What if someone recognizes you?”
    “I’ll just say how exciting I think it all is,” said Javul, putting on a look of wide-eyed innocence. “How daring. How I’ve just
always
wanted to meet a real pirate.”
    Dara raised her hand. “Excuse me? May I just take this opportunity to say that I think you’re more than a little nuts.”
    Javul laughed. “I’m
eccentric
, not nuts. All celebritiesare eccentric. I’m just more adventurous