Vision of the future

Bel Iblis smiled faintly. 'I understand,' he said. 'Believe me, I understand. Was there anything else?'

'No, that ought to about do it for now,' Booster said glumly. 'You might want to see if you can come up with a better plan in the next three days.'

'I'll try,' Bel Iblis promised. Turning, he headed for the door—

'Wait a second,' Booster said as a new thought struck him. 'You say we're going to blow a hole in that outrider computer station. What happens if someone's in there at the time?'

'I'm not expecting anyone to be there,' Bel Iblis told him. 'I doubt it's used much anymore. Besides, I can't see any other way to do this.'

'But what if there is someone?' Booster persisted. 'You said yourself the place was only used by civilians. You blow a hole in the wall and you're going to kill them.' A shadow seemed to cross Bel Iblis's face. 'Yes,' he said quietly. 'I know.'

* * *

'Well,' Klif said, consulting his chrono. 'It's been four hours. What do you think—another two before the panic call comes?'

Navett shrugged, running through a quick mental calculation of his own. He and Klif had been conspicuously elsewhere at the time, just in case backchecks were made, but according to Pensin the subtle transfer of their little organic time bombs to the Bothan techs' clothing had gone as smooth as spun gemweb. Four hours now since those techs had vanished into the Drev'starn shield generator building; give them another hour to make their presence known, two more after that for the Bothans to become fully aware of the magnitude of the problem and to exhaust all other possibilities for dealing with it... 'I'm guessing at least three,' he told Klif. 'They aren't going to be in a hurry to call in offworlders.'

'Well, the stuff's ready whenever they do,' Klif said with a shrug. Across the shop, the annoyingly cheery chime rang out as the door swung open. Settling his face into what Klif had dubbed their earnest-but-stupid expression, he looked up. And felt the expression freeze across his face. There, walking into the shop, were their two New Rep military types.

Beside him, Klif made a faint choking sound in the back of his throat. 'Quiet,' Navett murmured, adding a slightly dopey smile to his expression and bounding eagerly around the end of the counter toward their visitors. 'A day of fun and profit to you, or however that goes,' he said, keying his voice to the pleasant yet vaguely pushy tone of a merchant determined to make a sale. 'Can I help you?'

'Just looking, thanks,' one of the men said as they wandered down the row of cages. They were two of a kind, Navett noted: both somewhat short, both with slightly graying brown hair, the speaker with brown eyes while his companion had green.

And seen up close, Brown Eyes especially looked familiar.

'Sure, sure,' Navett said, hovering nearby in traditional shopkeeper style. 'Anything special you're lookin' for?'

'Not really,' Green Eyes put in, gazing down into the polpian cage. 'What are these? Polpians?'

'Sure are,' Navett said. Both of them had faint Corellian accents, too. 'You know your petstock.'

'I know a little,' Green Eyes said, gazing at him with a glint in his eye that Navett didn't care for at all. 'I thought Bothans are allergic to polpians.'

'Yeah, some of 'em are, I suppose,' Navett said with a shrug.

'And yet you brought them to Bothawui?'

Navett put on a bewildered expression. 'Well, sure,' he said, trying to sound slightly wounded.

'Just 'cause some people are allergic to something doesn't mean someone else won't wanna buy it. Not all Bothans are allergic to 'em, either, and anyway there are lots more people here than just Bothans—'

He broke off as Brown Eyes sneezed. 'There—see?' he said, jabbing a finger toward the other as if the sneeze was a sort of vindication. 'Probably something in here he's allergic to, too. But you still came in, right? And I'll bet I can find something that'd make a really great pet for you.' The door chime sounded again, and Navett turned to see a thin old woman come in. The fringe companion Klif had mentioned? 'Hi, there,' he said, nodding to her. 'A day of fun and profit to you. Can I help you?'

'I hope so,' she said. 'You have any ratter thists?' Navett felt his throat tighten. What in blazes was a ratter thist? 'Don't think I've ever heard of

'em,' he said carefully, knowing better than to pretend knowledge he didn't have. 'I can check the lists, though, see if we can get 'em from somewhere. What kind of critter are they?'