From: Vance <[email protected]>
This here's a clip from Zahn's short story, "I forgot what
it's called." Oh well.
Timothy Zahn's Tribute to Boba Fett
The following is an excerpt taken from "A Slight of
Hand," a short story from the anthology, "Tales from
Jabba's palace." The story is of Zahn's character, Mara
Jade, and her infiltration of Jabba' palace, with the goal of the
assassination of Luke Skywalker. The excerpt takes place
immediately after Boushh the Bounty Hunter collects the bounty of
Chewbacca in the movie, "Return of the Jedi." In the
excerpt, Jade is disguised as Arica, a palace dancer, and walks
to Boba Fett to get some information on Boushh.
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Mara waited until it was over and the Wookiee had been dragged
away. Then, she made her way through the reinvigorated party
atmosphere to where the bounty hunter Boba Fett stood silent
guard. "Excuse me, sir," she said timidly, reaching a
hand almost to his shoulder and then stopping, as if she'd been
planning to tap him there and had suddenly thought better of it.
"My name's Arica--I just came in today. That thing with the
bounty hunter--that was pretty scary. Does that sort of thing
happen often?" For a long moment he just stared at her, and
for that same long moment Mara thought the game was up. Boba Fett
had done a fair amount of quiet work for the Empire over the
years, and it was entirely possible that he had spotted her at
some point in the Emperor's entourage. She reached out with the
Force, trying to touch his mind. But his control was excellent,
and nothing she could read gave her any clues. "Nice to meet
you, Arica," he said at last, in that flat voice that so
terrified his victims and impressed his employers. "Don't
worry about Boushh--he might have looked crazy right then, but
he's not. And don't worry about anyone else. Jabba knows who can
be trusted. No one else gets in." He tapped the blaster
rifle at his side. "And I stay around here a lot between
Jobs." "I'm Glad," Mara breathed. "Thank
you--I fell much better." "My pleasure."