FORSAKEN II - Eternal Dawn

CHAPTER THIRTY

"Where is Hondo?" Elynn came out ahead of the group from Clezo's office.

"He either ran away or those molluscans killed him," Addia said.

Jarriss approached the bartender. "Hey, Avaro. Do you know what happened to the Weequay that came in with us?"

"He was playing sabacc with those guys at that table." Avaro jutted his chin while he was busy mixing a drink for a client.

Syrran walked to the table and looked at the empty chair. "Where's the Weequay?"

"How much is that worth to you?" Madoom said.

Syrran grabbed a credit from his pile.

"Hey!" Madoom stood, drawing his blaster. "You better put that—"

Syrran disarmed him so fast people only heard the slapping of his hands as he took the gun and pistol-whipped him. An unconscious Madoom dropped back on his chair, hit his head on the table, and crumbled to the ground with a loud thud.

"Anyone else have a problem?" Syrran said.

The shocked gamblers put their hands up.

Using psychometry, Syrran witnessed the bounty hunter taking Hondo away at gunpoint. "Who's Slyder?"

"He's a bounty hunter good at finding people," said the human at the table. "But he doesn't capture them. He sells the information to the highest bidder, so they can collect the bounty."

"He left you this." The Patrolian grabbed the imagecaster from Madoom.

"What's going on?" Clezo came out of his office with his bodyguards.

"Someone took one of our crew," Jarriss said.

A hologram of a muscled Rodian with a scar running across his snout appeared over the imagecaster. "Greetings. By now, we have the Kyuzo and the Weequay in your crew—"

"Go. No." Elynn covered her mouth.

"That's Krayser Verd, the local Vigo of Crimson Dawn." Theleema clenched her fists.

"—If you want to see them alive and prevent your ship from becoming permanently grounded—" The image changed to show the electro-proton bomb aboard the Outcast for a few seconds, and then switched back to Krayser. "—I'll be waiting for you at the Box. Fail to do so, you'll find your friends floating in the swamp face down. You have until midnight."

"What's the Box?" Virra said.

"It's a testing facility for the local Bounty Hunters' Guild," Clezo said.

"Like the one in Serenno during the war?" Syrran said.

"The same one. It was brought on-planet a few years ago to improve the quality of our bounty hunters—quite successfully, I may add. The Inta'si'rin'na, or Grand Protector of Rodians, had it brought over shortly after he took over the leadership of the planet. He also managed to free its creator from prison, a Phindian by the name of Moralo Eval. What's your trouble with Crimson Dawn?"

"We took out their main enforcer," Elynn said. "Among other things."

"The Crimson Lady?" Clezo said impressed. "You guys are something else." Like most important figures in the underworld, he knew the notorious assassin's reputation, but had been lucky to have never met her.

"Can you help us?" Jarriss said.

"The way things are now it won't be wise for me to get directly involved."

Elynn checked her datapad, using Syrran's access code to search the Nar Shaddaa DataCore. "That's what I thought. There's a bounty on us in the Meat Grinder posted by Quay Tolsite."