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
fellow soldiers in a war of poverty and exploitation that never seemed to end Dodging the authorities doing whatever whatever was necessary to stay alive they had honed the art of self preservation in a world that didn't care whether they lived or died They had come from different backgrounds but shared the common thread of hardship which forced them to do whatever was necessary to survive Young thieves like Hallon and Tunnel Toli had either lost their parents or simply never known them and the community they'd forged there for better or worse was home Then there was Bansee a meanspirited meanspirited humorless older girl who had caught Lady Proxima's attention because of her talent with the pipe she called a rat hammer -a weapon that she didn't hesitate to use on anyone anyone who displeased her The thief called Chates had been a farmer's son who'd accompanied his father to Coronet one day Muggers had murdered the old man while he'd been visiting a bank leaving Chates an orphan alone in the city where he'd fallen in with the scrumrats Han made his way deeper into the tunnel Rumor had it that the Den had once been a manufacturing plant and some of the old machinery had been left behind to rust silent and ominous in distant corners like the ghosts of failed industry industry The unreliable electricity and lights that still functioned down there were the work of the Den's resident genius Han's now deceased friend Tsuulo who before he died had managed managed to tap into the power grid of a nearby factory so they
could keep some of the power on some of the time Han walked faster but stepped carefully aware as always that the darkness around him was alive and squirming It was no coincidence that Bansee's rat hunting skills had promoted her to the position of Third Girl The Den was infested with vervikks screerats and other unwholesome vermin and he and the other Worms were tasked with hunting them and taking them to Proxima's pools where she chewed them up and fed them to her baby worms Approaching the heat of the furnace he could make out the shapes of young bodies asleep on the floor or piled into hammocks and cots exhausted by fear and the sheer ugly brutality of life He stepped around them with an agility agility borne of long experience his eyes already adjusted to the darkness Rounding the corner he felt an arm reach out the figure emerging from the shadows to draw him close to her Qi'ra he said and grinned as she drew him to her and pressed her lips to his At eighteen she was Proxima's Head Girl confident quick thinking and just about the only thing in the Den that Han valued above his own existence There amid the squalor and the stench a stolen kiss from her was a minor miracle he would gladly have stopped time at least for a while to keep enjoying a little longer Qi'ra drew back and looked up at him taking in the injuries on his face You were gone too long today I knew something must've gone wrong
