Bounty hunting is a complicated profession

Spice Dealers

It would take Mando almost an hour to come back with the Razor Crest and, although the smugglers were tied up, you knew you couldn't let your guard down.

As beat as you were, you decided to sit on one of the containers while keeping an eye on them, rifle at hand.

You were quite curious about them, well, mostly about the woman. She was from a species you hadn't seen before. Her skin colour, as well as the geometrical markings in her face, were exotic and beautiful. Plus, she was restless, as if she wanted to say something but didn't dare to do so. 

She looked at you too, probably sizing you up. After a while, she seemed to make up her mind and finally talked to you.

"Hey! There's no need to keep us tied up like this!"

She waited for an answer but you just looked at her, interested about where this was going to go. Little did she know she wouldn't get any answers from you, anyways.

"Come on! It was nothing personal, just business!"

You looked at her with an eyebrow raised and then pointed with your head at the remains of the Toongs.

"It wasn't us!" The Nikto said anxiously.

"Look, we just joined those guys, we didn't know they were like that! What were we supposed to do? Go against them and meet the same end as those?"

You looked at them for a long moment and then shrugged. 

Silence fell over again. She was still on edge since the conversation didn't seem to have gone the way she wanted to. 

Time slowly went by in silence. The Nikto was calm and quiet, but the woman was still fretting. You were wondering how long it would take her to go ahead and talk again, when she finally did so.

"How much are they paying you for the delivery?"

Ah! She wanted to cut a deal! Unluckily for her, not only did you have no idea, but it wasn't in your hand to negotiate. You looked at her trying hard not to smile.

"Ok, you don't have to answer. I'm just saying that we had a pretty good deal… I mean, we were hired by spice dealers to steal that" she said pointing at the containers with her head "and those guys pay extremely well!"

She waited for a short moment and then continued.

"Almost all of the cargo is already loaded on the ship. Take off with us, you don't even have to untie us, I'll tell you the coordinates and we can split the reward between the three. Then, we'll go our separate ways and never see each other again."

At that point you couldn't help but smile. Did she really believe you were so naive? Leaving aside the fact that you wouldn't betray Mando, if you wanted to cut a good deal you wouldn't take the prisoners with you so they could stab you behind your back as soon as they got the chance.

"Oh, come on! Don't be silly, do you think the bucket-head won't take the deal if I offer it later? He'll leave you here to rot with those guys, that's what Mandalorians do. They only care about the job and the fight."

You shook your head, still smiling. You knew Mando and he wasn't like that, you were the living proof.

"It's true! That beast-guy he obliterated? He was a Cathar and his species went nearly-extinct because of Mandalorians! They killed them for sport!"

At that point you realised you knew nothing about Mandalorians, so you had no idea if what she was saying was true or not — although that didn't change in any way your perception about Mando.

Somehow, she seemed to notice your brief moment of hesitation and swelled up with confidence.

"Look" she started to say, a strong determination radiating from every pore of her body, "I get it's hard to accept, but he'll betray you as soon as he's got a chance".