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X-wing and leave right now.
    “Hold on a second,” Lando said. “First we have to make sure Fett’s there. Then there’s the little matter of the Imperial Navy.”
    Luke shrugged. “Hey, we can fly circles around those guys.”
    Lando and Leia exchanged glances. Whatever elseLuke was, he was not lacking in self-confidence when it came to his piloting.
    Chewie spoke up.
    Threepio translated: “Ah, Chewbacca wonders if perhaps the Rebel Alliance might not be willing to help, given Master Han’s services to them.”
    Luke grinned like a child seeing a new toy. “Sure they would. Wedge is in command of Rogue Squadron now, and he told me if I ever needed them they’d come running.”
    “They can drop whatever they are doing, just like that?” Lando asked.
    Leia nodded. “I don’t see why not. The Alliance’s chain of command is a lot looser than the Empire’s. We have to be more flexible, given the numbers. The Rogues don’t have any permanent assignment, and I’m sure I can convince the Alliance that Captain Solo is worth rescuing. He was instrumental in the destruction of the Death Star; plus we need all the good pilots we can get.”
    Leia glanced at the others quickly, to see if her somewhat shaky reasoning covered her true feelings.
    Luke didn’t seem to see past what she said, eager to fly as he was; Lando’s small grin could mean anything; the droids and Chewie were unreadable.
    “Great,” Luke said. “Let’s do it!”
    “Not so fast,” Lando said. “First what say we wait for the confirmation that Fett is actually
on
Gall before we take off? That’s a long trip to make for nothing.”
    Leia could see that Luke didn’t want to wait—patience didn’t seem to be his strongest virtue—but he could see the wisdom of what Lando said. “Okay. But in the meantime, let’s contact Wedge and have the Rogues standing by.”
    “I’ll speak to the leadership,” Leia said.
    She hoped that Lando’s informant—what was his name? Dash somebody?—would get the information tothem quickly. And she hoped that the rumor was true. Nobody wanted Han back more than she did.
    X izor sat at the head of the long table in his private meeting room, watching the nervous faces of his lieutenants. Guri stood behind him at a modified parade rest, her hands out of sight at the small of her back.
    They had reason to be nervous, his lieutenants. By ascending to this level in Black Sun, they had each earned the honorific “Vigo,” from the old Tionese for “nephew.” It fostered the illusion that the top managers of the organization were family and thus made them appear stronger to outsiders.
    Unfortunately, the appearance was not always the truth.
    One of them at the table was a spy.
    Xizor did not know for whom the spy worked—could be the Empire, the Rebel Alliance, even a rival criminal organization—and he did not particularly care. Everybody spied on everybody in this business, it was a given, but the fact that it was normal did not mean that you let it pass when you found it.
    Now, at the beginning of this meeting, he had nine lieutenants at this table, each of whom was responsible for several stellar systems.
    At the end of this meeting, he would have eight lieutenants.
    But first, the normal business of Black Sun must be attended to and properly settled.
    “I will have your reports,” Xizor said. “Vigo Lonay?”
    Lonay was a Twi’lek, sly, clever, and cowardly. He wore his prehensile head-tails wrapped and draped over one shoulder, his usual garish jewelry and decorative coloration toned down for this meeting. “My prince, the spice trade is up twenty-one percent in our sector, the gambling casino ships have increased theirbusiness by eight percent, and the arms dealers are doing a brisk business; current estimates indicate a thirty-one percent increase. Unfortunately, slave revenues are down fifty-three percent. Several planets have fallen under the sway of the Rebel Alliance and passed local laws