CHAPTER 1 THE NIGHT HAD EYES Somewhere over Narro Sienar Boulevard the searchlight searchlight from an Imperial patrol bike scanned the blackness cutting through clouds of exhaust and industrial pollution in search of trouble The kid ducked the surveillance with instinctive ease cut left around a corner and vanished into shadow The gang would be looking for him three blocks away under the overpass where the deal had gone sour All the kid had to do was keep them guessing and he had no problem with that He'd been outwitting lower life forms all his life as a matter of self preservation His name was Han and he liked to steal things Behind him warehouses and tenements rose into the night their outlines carving darkened shapes against the wider cityscape Sirens sounded in the distance but Han hardly heard them Having grown up there in the alleyways and shipyards of Corellia he'd long before gotten used to the smells and sounds of the city It was home Somewhere above him the searchlight swung back around the patrol bike prowling closer for a second pass
but it didn't matter Han had already found what he'd gone looking for The M 68 landspeeder was exactly where he'd seen it earlier an irresistible temptation just waiting for the right set of hands to coax it to life and claim it In one fluid motion he moved up alongside it crouched down and slipped underneath underneath Gloves on and tools out penlight clamped in his teeth he worked fast rewiring the speeder's alarm system and bypassing its security mechanisms Thirty seconds later he was jumping into the front seat popping the panel off the steering column to get at the starter and battery wires Sparks flew as he stripped the wires wrapped them together and tapped the starter He sat there for a moment listening to the speeder's repulsorlift engine roar to life His face was caked in soot and ash nose bleeding freely and left eye starting to bruise from the beating they'd thrown him down at the docks but those injuries were already forgotten Behind the wheel he felt reborn as fresh and alive as he'd ever felt in his entire life A cockeyed smile curved his mouth Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a pair of aurodium plated gold dice and hung them from the speeder's rearview mirror To the kid's eye they looked just right a promise of something better better just around the corner Good luck Fortune and glory Whatever it is he thought I'll take it For a kid like Han around eighteen and chasing whatever whatever dream might get him off that cesspool of a planet a
boosted speeder and pair of cheap golden dice just might be enough to send him on his way Seconds later he was blasting down Narro Sienar Boulevard at a velocity that felt just short of lightspeed His chest tightened a familiar feeling of anticipation building inside him a sense of freedom beckoning him onward Up ahead the road forked and off to the left he could already see the gleaming promise of Coronet Spaceport where huge passenger liners were waiting to head out to distant systems Off to the right the road veered into the grubby industrial thickets of the Corellian slums crumbling tenements housing the desperate and downtrodden people like well like him Torn Han glanced at the golden dice then at the empty seat beside him Qi'ra belonged there and they both knew it He wasn't leaving without her Decision made he shot across the road taking the right fork into the slum and for better or worse toward home For the lost souls who'd grown up there the Den of the White Worms was a grimy sanctuary from a squalid world a place where they might be slightly safer from their enemies if their friends didn't kill them first Han wasn't out of the speeder before he heard the snarling of the Sibian hounds just inside the door The hounds weighed up to a hundred kilos and were all teeth jaw and muscle Any of the scrumrats who lived in the Den could depend on the hounds to defend their
turf from outsiders Whether or not they let Han live after he talked to Lady Proxima remained to be seen Han someone called out Glancing up he saw two of the older White Worms Cosdra and LeKelf perched near the entrance of the Den Proxima had rewarded their loyalty with the opportunity to serve as sentries watching for arrivals arrivals and departures while enjoying air that was a little fresher than what was below the surface What happened to your face Cosdra asked his tone more suspicious than concerned Han waved it away Minor misunderstanding Slipping Slipping through the cluttered doorway and past the hounds he heard the scrumrats murmuring around him comparing the day's haul of booty they'd managed to snag from unwitting victims Jewelry credits articles of clothing silk scarves or bags nothing was too big or too small to be stolen and taken before Lady Proxima for her personal assessment Han took a breath and waited for his eyes to adjust to the gloom How many more times was he supposed to return to that dump before he finally put it in his rearview mirror Making his way through the labyrinth of vermin infested tunnels and hallways he pushed past scrumrats hunched over their ill gotten gains some throwing dice and gambling with gyroballs while others literally played with fire squirting squirting petrol into burn barrels and cackling hysterically as the glow of the flames flickered over their faces The White Worms weren't exactly friends more like
