Maze of Deception

by Elizabeth Hand

  Boba shook his head. His fingers tightened around the card in his pocket. He felt sweat beading on his forehead. What was the alien really after?

  He glared at Nuri. He was still bigger than the alien. Stronger, too.

  But then Boba remembered where he was: in a strange tunnel, on a strange planet. Even if he did escape from the Bimm, where would he go?

  As though reading his mind, Nuri raised his hands. His expression was mild. “You misunderstand, young sir! I am no thief! I am here to provide a service, that is all. I can help you get your credits!”

  The Bimm looked pointedly at Boba’s pocket. A shining corner of the card stuck out. It glinted in the dim room.

  “That is what I do,” Nuri continued. “I help visitors. For a fee, of course.”

  Boba hesitated. If the alien tried to steal his card, Boba could knock him down. He could force the alien to do what he wanted.

  Isn’t that what bounty hunters did? Capture people?

  Yet Nuri did not look dangerous. He looked friendly. He looked like he really did want to help Boba. To—how had the Bimm put it?—to provide a service.

  Could Boba trust him?

  Boba remembered the dream he had about his father. The Dream.

  “Trust no one, but use everyone.”

  Boba looked at the Bimm’s bright, friendly eyes. Slowly he pulled the card from his pocket and nodded.

  “Okay,” he said. He held the card out. His own eyes were hard. “But remember—I’m a bounty hunter. Just like Aurra Sing. You wouldn’t make her angry, right? Well, you don’t want to even think about double-crossing me.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  The Bimm stared at Boba. Then he bowed respectfully. “Of course, young sir. I am here to help you—for the fee I mentioned earlier.”

  Nuri took the card from Boba. The alien’s fingers felt soft, furry, and very, very warm. Boba frowned slightly. “How much is the fee?”

  Nuri held the card up to the soft yellow light of the passage. He examined it carefully. “That depends,” he said.

  Boba moved closer to him. He tried to figure out what the alien could see in the card. “Depends on what?”

  “On how much this is worth.” Nuri held up the card. “I can arrange for you to procure your currency, without, er, complications.”

  The alien glanced meaningfully at the door leading back out onto Level Two. Boba knew that by “complications,” he meant Aurra Sing.

  Boba asked, “How can you do that?”

  Nuri shrugged. “By avoiding attention. As I am sure you have noticed, there are many rules on Aargau.”

  Boba nodded. “I saw that,” he agreed.

  “Well, some of us—many of us—have made our own rules. Now, I have shown trust in you, young sir, by telling you my name. But before I check this—” Nuri held up the shining card “—I must be able to trust you. I must know you are not dangerous, or a wanted man. I must know your name.”

  Boba nodded slowly, thinking.

  He had to admit it. He liked the idea that someone thought him dangerous. It made him feel powerful. It made him feel that he had a secret.

  Which, of course, he did. He knew that Count Tyranus and Count Dooku were the same person. That was a dangerous secret—but it gave him power.

  And he was the only one who knew.

  Also, of course, he was wanted—wanted by Aurra Sing!

  Boba looked at Nuri. The Bimm still held his card up, waiting.

  “My name,” said Boba proudly, “is Boba Fett.”

  The Bimm stared at him. After a moment he bowed. “Boba, sir,” he said. “I am proud to meet you.”

  Boba bowed back, a little awkwardly. “And you—Nuri.”

  The Bimm straightened again. Suddenly he was all business.

  “Now,” Nuri said. He opened his pale yellow vest. Under it he wore a thick leather belt. On the belt was a small rectangular object: a computer of some sort.

  Nuri fiddled with the computer, and it blinked to life. He held up the card, then inserted it into the top of the computer. The computer beeped and blinked. A small silvery screen lit up. There were numbers and letters on it which Boba could not understand.

  Must be in Bimmsaarii, he thought.

  Nuri peered down at the screen, reading it. His furry eyebrows raised in surprise. He looked up at Boba and said, “Well! You are quite a fortunate young bounty hunter, Boba, sir! You are worth a great deal.”

  Boba nodded. “I know.”

  “It says that this fortune was acquired for you by someone named Jango Fett,” the Bimm went on. “Your father?”

  “Yes,” said Boba.

  “Is he with you, then? He is the only other person allowed access to this treasure.”

  Boba shook his head. “N-no,” he said. He could not keep the sorrow from creeping into his voice. “He’s—he’s not with me.”

  The Bimm looked up at him. His eyes were sympathetic and understanding. “I see,” he said. He seemed to think for a minute, staring first at the card, then at Boba.

  At last Nuri said, “This Aurra Sing. She is not someone I would want pursuing me. She has killed many people. Many powerful people. Here on Aargau, we are neutral. But we are not stupid. And we are not without sympathy for those in need.”

  He smiled at Boba, then held out the card for him to take. “Here, Boba, sir. I will help you retrieve your treasure. There will be a fee for my services, but you do not have to pay me in advance. I will deduct it from your card.”

  Boba looked at him. “Thank you,” he said. He took the card and put it back into his pocket. “Could you tell which bank has the treasure in it?”

  “No.” Nuri rubbed his chin. “To get that information, you would have to go back to Level One, to the security desk.”

  Boba’s heart sank. He looked at the door that led onto Level Two.

  Somewhere out there, Aurra Sing was looking for him.

  And, knowing Aurra Sing, she would find a way of obtaining a weapon—whether it was allowed or not.

  Boba turned to Nuri. “Isn’t there any other way?” he asked. “Besides going back up there?”

  The little alien smiled. He put a reassuring hand on Boba’s arm. “Boba, sir, I have told you that here on Aargau, some of us have made our own rules. Well, we have made our own place, too. A place where the other rules don’t apply—and our rules do.”

  He turned and gestured toward the dim passage behind them. “I will take you to this place now, if you wish.”

  Boba looked at the Bimm, and then at the passage. He felt his neck begin to prickle with fear and excitement. “What is this place called?” he asked.

  Nuri gazed down the passage and smiled—a strange, knowing smile.

  “It is called,” he said, “the Undercity.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “The Undercity?” Boba echoed Nuri’s words. “But—”

  He stopped, remembering what he had been told on Level One.

  You can find some very shady characters in the Undercity, the attendant had warned him. It is terribly dangerous, especially with the recent skirmishes against the Separatists.

  And now Nuri wanted to take him there!

  Just the thought scared Boba. But then he remembered what his father used to say—

  Fear is energy, Jango had taught him. And you can learn to control it. If you concentrate, you can change your energy, from fear to excitement. Then you can use that energy, instead of being used by it.

  Boba concentrated now. He closed his eyes. He could feel his heart pounding. He could feel his own fear.

  He took a deep breath. He held it while he counted to three, then exhaled slowly.

  This is energy, he thought. And I can control it.

  Breathe. Exhale.

  Already he could feel his heart slowing down. Growing more calm. More in control.

  Not afraid, but excited.

  “Okay!” he said. He opened his eyes and saw Nuri a few feet ahead of him. “I’m ready! What are
we waiting for?”

  Nuri smiled. “This way,” he said, and pointed down the passage.

  Boba followed him. The passage twisted and turned. Tubes of glowing yellow lit their way. Now and then he saw small holosigns, covered with symbols he did not recognize. The images shifted and changed, from red to green to blue to purple. They made his eyes hurt to look at them. After a while he concentrated on staring at Nuri’s back and nothing else.

  After about five minutes the Bimm stopped. Set into the ground in front of him was a heavy, round, metal door. Nuri stooped and, with an effort, yanked the door open. He straightened, catching his breath, and stared at Boba.

  “In a moment we will begin our descent to the lowest level of Aargau,” Nuri said. “The actual surface of the planet. It is the remains of a vast city. It was built by the original natives of Aargau millions of years ago. The pyramid has grown out of it, layer by layer, level by level, over thousands of years. Aargau is a highly civilized planet now. As I told you, it has many rules. But it was not always so.”

  Here Nuri’s expression grew serious. “In the Undercity, individuals are not as well-behaved as they are up here. It is dangerous to visit there. Sometimes fatal.”

  Boba swallowed. He tried to look brave—although he certainly didn’t feel brave.

  But that was okay. He felt excited. He was doing something he had never done before! And he was doing it on his own.

  Well, almost. He looked at Nuri and smiled. “I can handle it,” he said.

  Nuri cocked his head. “You are not frightened?”

  Boba shrugged. “Yeah. I am. But I haven’t changed my mind. I still want to go.”

  Nuri looked pleased. “That is good. To admit fear is a good thing. It makes one careful. And carelessness has killed more visitors to the Undercity than anything else.”

  Nuri rubbed his chin, regarding Boba thoughtfully.

  “And besides,” said the little Bimm. His smile grew even wider. “A visit to the Undercity is an important part of any bounty hunter’s education!”

  That made Boba feel good. He grinned back.

  “Well then—” Nuri gestured at the opening in the floor in front of him. Boba took a deep breath, then stepped alongside him.

  “I’m ready,” he said, and looked down.

  “Ready for anything?” asked Nuri.

  Boba nodded. “Ready for anything!”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  As Boba looked down, he saw what had been hidden behind the round door in the floor. A capsule, big enough to hold two people. It had clear sides, so you could see out of it. It had a control panel but no steering mechanism. It reminded him of the cloud car he had flown in Cloud City, only smaller, and with no way to change direction.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  Nuri bent to press a button on the capsule’s side. Its top hatch opened. “Hop in and find out,” he said.

  Nuri climbed into the front. Boba slipped in behind him. The top closed again. Boba looked around and saw that the capsule was inside yet another tunnel—like a sort of tube, or slide, that curved and swirled and twisted ever downward.

  “Is this how you get to the Undercity?” he asked.

  Nuri nodded. “It is one of the ways. There are thousands. Many are only known to a handful of people. Many have been hidden for so long that they’ve been forgotten. Of course, there are official routes to the Undercity—turbolifts and such—but one needs special clearances for those. And money.”

  With no warning Nuri flicked a switch on the control board and the capsule plummeted downward with a sudden whoosh.

  “Whoa!” Boba shouted. It was as though the entire floor had dropped away beneath them. The capsule shot almost straight down, then curved abruptly to the right. It corkscrewed around and around—like going down a gigantic, kilometers-long slide. Boba braced himself with his hands and looked out.

  Everywhere he saw lights. Shimmering, blazing flashes of red and orange and blue and violet.

  “Those are the other levels,” Nuri explained. He had to shout to be heard over the rush and roar of their descent. “We are traveling at a rate of kilometers per minute—but in realtime, not in hyperspace.”

  “Cool!” said Boba. He wished this thing had controls!

  He stared out again. He had glimpses of huge leaping flames, of tunnels that seemed to be filled with molten gold. One level was like a giant aquarium, where huge dianogas floated, their tentacles waving.

  Boba wrinkled his nose. “Smells bad here,” he said.

  “Sanitation level,” said Nuri. “We’re almost there.”

  Suddenly everything went black. Not the kind of black you see at night when you go to sleep. Not the kind of black inside a closet, or a darkened ship. Not like the darkness of space, which was not darkness at all, but spangled with stars and planets and distant galaxies.

  This was darkness like Boba had never seen. Like he had never imagined. It was like a huge, smothering hand pressed upon his face. Boba couldn’t see Nuri in front of him. He couldn’t see his own hand. For a heart-sickening second Boba imagined that he himself had disappeared. That he had somehow been transformed into antimatter. That he was—

  “Here!” exclaimed Nuri.

  An explosion of light surrounded them. Purple, green, deep blue. Boba blinked. The light flickered. It was not an explosion now, but flashes of color. Shapes. Buildings. Moving waves that were people. The familiar figures of droids, creatures, men, and women. Above them all was that terrible, strange darkness. It was like a cloud or a huge black curtain.

  The capsule began to slow down. Boba let his breath out in relief. “That was great,” he said. “Kind of creepy at the end, though.”

  Nuri nodded. “That was the emptiness between the Undercity and the upper levels. Sunlight never comes here. Only artificial light. And darkness.”

  Boba shivered. The capsule came to a halt. He gazed out at a teeming city. It was more crowded than anyplace he had ever seen. A disorderly mass of living things, more like a hive than anything else.

  The capsule lid popped open. Nuri jumped out. He bowed to Boba.

  “Welcome to the Undercity,” he said.

  Boba had thought that Level Two was crowded. He had thought that Coruscant was crowded, and the Candaserri, too.

  None of these compared to the Undercity. There were so many people, so many beings, so many droids, so many everything, that his head whirled.

  “Stay with me!” said Nuri. “If you get lost, you’ll never find your way out.”

  Boba scowled. “Don’t bet on that,” he said. “I’ve got a good sense of direction.”

  “That might not be enough to help you here,” replied Nuri.

  Boba hated to admit it, but he had to agree with the Bimm. High above them, the sky that was not a sky was crisscrossed with thousands of shining objects. They looked like ribbons, or rainbows. But they were actually other chutes, or slides, like the one Boba had taken down here. He could see capsules speeding through them, up and down. The air was filled with bright airspeeders, swoop bikes, robo-hacks, even Podracers. On the ground, streets and sidewalks wound around tall, crumbling buildings. The streets were filled with rubbish, broken stones, mangled airspeeders.

  And everywhere he looked, he saw people—nonhumans, mostly, but a lot of humans, too. None of them looked friendly. A lot of them looked dangerous.

  “Hey, watch it!” someone snapped at Boba. A tall, angry-looking Caridian glared down at him.

  “Sorry,” said Boba. The Caridian jostled past him. Boba looked around: Nuri was gone!

  Ulp. Boba swallowed. A group of swaggering space pirates went by him, laughing. Boba stared back at them, trying to look unimpressed.

  “Young sir!” Nuri’s voice carried from a few meters away. “This way!”

  Boba hurried to join him. Past shops and markets, through abandoned structures that looked like ancient starships, under a vast broken glass dome. They passed food vendors, too. Some of what they we
re selling looked disgusting—things with claws and tentacles and too many eyes. But some of the food looked and smelled delicious. It made Boba’s mouth water. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he had eaten. He was pretty sure it hadn’t been today.

  At first he tried to keep track of the way they were going. But after a while, Boba gave up trying to keep track. Their path wound in and out, back and forth. Once he was certain they were backtracking. He wondered if for some reason Nuri was trying to fool him. Keep him from being able to find his way back on his own.

  And no matter where they went, there were crowds. Despite the rule against nonnatives being armed, most of those he saw carried weapons of one sort or another. Vibroblades, stun batons, blasters, wrist rockets. Boba was pretty sure most of them weren’t citizens of Aargau.

  And he was pretty sure he would not want to bump into any of them, alone and unarmed.

  “Where do all these people come from?” Boba asked.

  Nuri led him down the street, toward an alley. “They come from all over the galaxy,” he said in his high, singsong voice. “They are drawn by the fortunes to be made on Aargau, trading currency. And here in the Undercity, anything goes. Betrayal. Murder. The black market is busy here. Smugglers trade and sell gold, credits, data, droids, jewels, weapons, ships. But the single most valuable thing is information.”

  “Information?” Boba frowned. “That doesn’t seem very interesting.” Not compared to weapons, or ships, he thought.

  “Trust me,” said Nuri. “I know what I’m talking about. And stay near me—it’s risky just coming down here. Especially for a first-timer.”

  I trust nobody, Boba thought angrily. At that instant, a figure rushed from the dark alley.

  “Get back!” commanded Nuri.

  “No!” said Boba. He reached for a broken brick to throw at the figure. It had nearly reached them, its arms outstretched. It was too dark to make it out clearly—

  But not too dark to see that it was holding a blaster. And the blaster was pointed right at Boba Fett.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Boba swung his arm back, ready to hurl the brick. But before he could, Nuri stopped him.