“Sounds like she made a bad choice in partners.”
“She wasn’t as narcissistic as Maas, but she was just as overconfident. I don’t know what it is about people that they find their own level.”
“Well, the smart people try not to work with idiots, and the idiots don’t know any better,” Han said. “Makes sense to me.”
“Do you think they know whether they’re the smart kind or the idiots?”
“Nope,” Han said. “Hunter Maas is in his room convinced that he’s got the galaxy by the hair. The stupidest ones are always sure they’re smart.”
“So we could both be idiots who just think we’re competent?” Scarlet asked, picking up the encryption unit and reading something printed along its side.
“We know the Imperial fleet’s lost a ship that was chasing our boy Hunter. And they know what he’s selling. We’re on the same planetary hemisphere with that moron. I’m pretty sure we’re stupid.”
Scarlet tapped the keyboard twice. “He’s in 24-D. Sole access, keyed to his voice.”
Han sighed and sat up. “I’ll go make sure no one kills him.”
“I’ll figure out how to steal his stuff.”
“Then can we leave?”
“Oh my, yes,” Scarlet said.
“So maybe we’re not that stupid.”
The door hissed open before him and closed again with a snap. Han rubbed his palms together and sauntered down the hallway, trying to look innocuous. The doors to the other rooms followed only the most general of numbering schemes, so it took Han several minutes to find the hallway with the doors marked 24. It was a little shabbier than the 17s, with worn tiles on the floor and a crack in the pale wall. He had to wonder if the droid that assigned the accommodations had taken a dislike to Hunter Maas.
Where the corridor ended, there was a small atrium with a pair of couches built into the walls. Han sat on one, adjusting his position until he could see the edge of 24-D’s doorway, but someone coming out unexpectedly wouldn’t be able to see his face. He checked his blaster. It was charged. He sat back and prepared to wait. It was already past midnight. Even if Scarlet found a way in, it would probably mean waiting until Hunter Maas was out at his next meeting. Han wondered where exactly the man had hidden the information when he was meeting with Leia. He hadn’t gone back to his ship before coming here, and Han didn’t think he was the kind of person who let something important get too far from his hand. Maybe he’d had a datachip sewn into his cape.
A maintenance droid hummed down the corridor, nodded to Han, and continued on its way. Han traced patterns in the grain of the polished stone walls and counted the leaves on the ferns and ivy that struggled to make the waiting area seem natural and welcoming. His leg fell asleep.
The first time the sound came, Han wasn’t certain that he’d heard it. A gentle ticking, like a pebble being thrown against a window. The second time, he was listening for it. The third time, he drew his blaster and stood up. It wasn’t coming from the same hallway as Hunter Maas’s room, but from the next one down. Han peeked around the corner in time to see something at the far intersection. A shape that ducked out of sight before he could tell what he was looking at. Someone else was in the corridors, and they didn’t want to be seen any more than he did.
He opened a connection.
“Scarlet?”
“Han?”
“Everything all right with you?”
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“Nothing, maybe. But you’re all right?”
“Making progress,” she said. “I think I see how to do the thing, but if there’s trouble out there—”
“I don’t know that yet,” Han said. “I’m going to look around a little. If you hear, you know, blasters and screaming …”
“I’ll keep my ears up.”
Han cut the connection. He stepped back to corridor 24. No one. Slowly, rolling his feet heel-to-toe to keep from making any more noise than the minimum, he made his way toward the intersection where the other person had been. His blaster felt light in his hand; his blood sang in his veins. Through one of the doors, he heard deep, chuckling laughter.
At the intersection, he glanced around the corner, pulling his head back quickly in case someone shot at him. Another long corridor, but at its end, a small, huddled shape. Someone—humanoid, maybe even human—hunched down, half hidden by a lush stand of ornamental plants half a meter wide and two meters tall. Han looked again. Whoever it was, they hadn’t turned to look at him. The shoulders shifted as if they were doing something.
Han debated for a moment. There were a million things going on in the conclave hive right now that had nothing at all to do with him. Chances were this was one. He could pull back, make his way to his couch, and take up his vigil again. Or he could just make certain that whatever the figure at the end of the hall was building wasn’t a bomb. That might be good, too.
He slipped around the corner. The dark, hunched figure didn’t react. Han moved forward step by step, his blaster before him. He reached the edge of the stand of plants and leveled his blaster at the hooded figure’s head.
“Excuse me, friend,” Han said. “Can’t help wondering what you are doing there.”
The dark-cloaked figure’s head came up. It raised its hands and turned around slowly. It was a Bothan. Han frowned. It was a very familiar Bothan. Han’s gut went heavy with dread. He turned to look into the ornamental foliage at his side.
A blaster poked out from between the fronds, pointing at his left eye.
“No need to blame poor Sunnim, now,” Baasen Ray said. “Lad’s just a pilot that fell in with the wrong crowd. You know what that’s like. Now, let’s try this again.”
“You know,” Han said, “this is a really bad time.”
“Always is, lad, isn’t it?”
HAN WALKED AS SLOWLY AS HE COULD, his mind racing. The hallway was quiet and dim. If there were any security droids or monitors, Han couldn’t see them, and no alarms sounded. Either his abduction was going unnoticed, or it was beneath the level of violence that caused concern on Kiamurr. Baasen knew better than to actually put the barrel of the blaster against Han’s back. Sunnim walked in front, close enough to block him if Han tried to run but not close enough to grab and use as a shield. He considered screaming for Scarlet Hark, but that would spook Hunter Maas.