Star Wars: Shadow Games Read Online Free

commission. If whoever we hire to take it to Nal Hutta is dishonest …”
    Eaden Vrill surveyed the cantina. Then he turned his oversized eyes back to Dash with a blink so exaggerated it used both sets of eyelids,
and
produced an audible
click
—the Nautolan equivalent of an eyebrow raised in irony.
    “Smart guy. Just help me find us a freighter. And a
relatively
honest pilot.”
    Eaden moved off with the languid grace that was common to his species, leaving Dash to peruse the side of the room he had assigned himself. A number of spacers were standing clustered in the areas between tables, others were seated at those tables, and still others had sought the more private booths. It would be rude—and dangerous—to poke his nose into those dark little cubbies, but he could chat up any folks in the common room and let himself be seen by those in the booths.
    Strolling, trolling, and meeting as many gazes as would allow that privilege, he had gotten about halfway up that side of the large room when he spied a Sullustan spacer of his acquaintance. The Sullustan, Dwanar Gher, saw him at precisely the same moment and waved him over to his table. Seated there as well were a Toydarian Dash didn’t recognize and a human he did—to his considerable chagrin. Her name was Nanika Senoj and they’d had a bit of a thing at one point in time. That had stopped abruptly, for the simple reason that she’d driven him swamp-bat crazy. She was gorgeous, no question about that, with her copper-streaked burgundy hair, milk-pale skin, and big, dark brown eyes. But she also had a competitive nature that was perpetually in hyperdrive. No matter where she was or what she was doing—or who she was with—day or night, awake or asleep, she had to be the
best
.
    Seeing her sitting there, smiling at him, chin propped on one fist, he almost excused himself and walked away. That would have been the sane move. But he was a man with a mission. “Hey, Nani. How’s the vacuum treating you?”
    “Can’t complain. Except that it’s a bit colder out there without someone to come home to,” she said pointedly. Dash saw Gher turn away to hide a smile.
    “Bantha poo,” he said. “You moved on, babe. I heard all about it from Leebo.”
    “Leebo?” Her eyes widened. “What’s a droid doing spreading gossip? I would
never
let my droid get away with that—I don’t care who programmed him. And false, malicious gossip at that! I’m telling you,
babe
—”
    “Cap it,” Dash said. He looked past her at the Sullustan. “Dwanar, what’s up?”
    The Sullustan’s wide mouth turned up in a grin. “My associate here”—he nodded toward the Toydarian, a plump little specimen whose wings Dash doubted could carry him more than ten meters before he dropped dead from exhaustion—“is looking for a pilot of an adventurous bent to take on a particularly lucrative job.”
    Dash’s heart rate spiked momentarily. For a second the tantalizing words
lucrative job
had made him forget his circumstances. He shook his head. “Love to oblige you, Dwanar, but the
Outrider
is out of commission at the moment. In fact, I’m looking for someone to take my cargo the rest of the way to Nal Hutta.”
    Gher snorted. “I’m trying to steer clear of Huttdom these days. Very unstable situation.”
    Nani didn’t say anything; she merely sipped her drink and watched Dash over the rim of her cup. If looks could maim, he’d be doing his smuggling from inside a bacta tank.
    “He can’t do it,” said the Toydarian waspishly, glaring at Dash. “You’re wasting my time, Gher. You promised you’d find me a spacer who would undertake—”
    “And I will,” said the little Sullustan, matching his earnest tone with a soulful look from his impossibly large eyes. “Have patience, Unko.”
    “Easy for you to say,” growled the other. “You’re not losing fifteen hundred credits an hour!”
    “Why don’t you and Nani take his job?” Dash asked.
    “We’re otherwise