Loic Monerat & The Lizard Brain Spice Smuggling Syndicate - Chris Herron, Greg Provan (red seas under red skies txt) 📗

turn around to see, he could feel it instinctively, a strange, hot tickling sensation across his back as if it sensed danger regardless of the eyes’ input to the situation. He knew the situation was bad because Bossk hadn’t immediately advanced on him and it was reaffirmed by a low guttural growling, emanating, almost purringly, from just over his left shoulder. The two dinkos behind him circled round, observing their quarry.

 

Dinkos were small, when you compare them to something like, say a Krayt Dragon, but they were big enough that they could take a man’s head off with a bite – these particular dinkos were caged, tormented and starved, antagonized by their cruel owners in order to make them ferocious and brutal fighters. Okkra’s booming laughter echoed around the arena accompanied by the cackles and guffaws of his entourage. The Hutt lord’s spiced senses had been slow to catch on to what was going on, but now he realised he was getting a little extra bloodsport for his credits and he was delighted. Shoving another writhing, squirming, live squid-like creature into his drooling, crooked maw, his eyes twinkled from beneath hooded lids and he clapped his small chubby hands against his repulsive slug-like mass gaily.

It was all over. The last thing Loic saw was the dinko lunging on an undeviating trajectory for his throat. He didn’t run, he didn’t even try to dodge, he just clenched his eyes shut and froze in horror, a wamprat caught in the headlights.

 

Then there was the unmistakable sound of a blaster going off and the flash of it shined through his eyelids leaving fractals on his retinas. He opened his eyes; the dinko lay convulsing on the sandy floor, a charred blaster hole in the side of its neck, another shot from the blaster and the second dinko rolled to the floor to join its predecessor. Bossk has shot both Loic’s reptilian aggressors, of course, he wants me alive, thought Loic. He took too long to react to the new situation, and there was nowhere to run regardless, Bossk set his blaster to stun and the last thing Loic saw was a bright blue flash, before the all-encompassing blackness.

 

A long time appeared to pass in the black inky void of Loic’s subconscious.

 

His hearing faded in before he opened his eyes and he listened carefully to his surroundings to assess where he was. He could still hear the crowd at the fight, off in the distance, muffled through walls, he was obviously in some sort of back room. The fetid smell alone told him immediately that Okkra the Hutt was in close proximity, and sure enough the Hutt’s booming voice spoke out in guttural Huttese, which Loic understood perfectly from working with their kind for years.

 

“You mean to tell me that, this, this cretin was making plans to kill me?” Loic then heard Bossk reply in his hissing, sibilant, croaking snarl.

 

“He was, but I stopped him, he is my bounty so now I must leave with him.” It wasn’t so much a request as an affirmation.

 

“No, I’ll pay the bounty, plus a little extra to facilitate the deal, I have some fun torture methods in mind for this one.” The crime boss issued a declaration of his own.

 

“It’s not as simple as that.”

 

 

There was a silence that hung in the air before Okkra asked, simply, “Why?”

 

“The bounty for this one is high, over a million, an additional quarter if he is alive.”

 

“Really?” Okkra purred, there was a slobbering, he must have been stuffing something into his gluttonous mouth, Hutts never stopped eating. Loic dared not open his eyes for fear it would attract attention to him. His body ached in several places from the fall from the rafters.

 

“Who has posted the bounty?” Inquired the Hutt lord, another silence, before Bossk answered grudgingly.

 

“Sarkraa.” Loic fancied he could see Okkra’s rimy, slitted yellow eyes light up at the mention of a rival clan’s Hutt’s name.

 

“Is that soooooooo.” He held onto the last vowel and growled it out.

 

“Listen,” said Bossk, you could tell by the bark he said it with that he was through playing around, “you know, and I know, I am not leaving here without my bounty, I went through a lot of trouble to get him here, I saved your life, let’s call it quits.” Loic cringed, he was definitely stuck between a rock and a hard place here. Nobody messed with Trandoshans, they hunt Wookies for their pelt, who hunts Wookies for chrissake!? And Bossk wasn’t just any Trandoshan, he was the most notorious and feared of all Trandoshans, and one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy. On the other hand, Okkra was a powerful and nefariously well-known crime lord, Loic doubted either would back down and he would be ripped to shreds in a tug of war between them, literally, like a toy torn between two fighting dogs, his future suddenly looked very short and bleak.

 

“I only have your word that he was trying to kill me,” said Okkra, “why would some scrawny humanoid from who-knows-where want to kill me? Tell me that and I’ll consider his release.” A low growl from Bossk told that he was running out of patience. He could kill Okkra in a heartbeat, right now, but Okkra was likely surrounded by at least sixty minions, a lot of whom were guards, of all species and skills, Loic knew that Bossk wouldn’t fancy fighting his way through that lot with a live hostage in tow.

 

“He was trying to get in favour with Sarkraa by assassinating you. He owes her a large debt. That is all.”

 

“You’re implying that Sarkraa wants me dead?” It was a loaded question, the Hutts were cutthroat among themselves, but they remained a united front against outsiders.

 

“Not actively, but this pathetic human decided it was what she would like and acted alone.”

 

“Well I can’t let this worm get away, an attempt on my life can not go unpunished, I must make an example of him, publicly, as a message to any other would-be assassin.”

 

“He’s only a would-be assassin because I stopped him, otherwise you’d be dead you fat oaf!” Loic felt the tension building, he didn’t need to open his eyes, it was palpable, he sweated and struggled not to move and betray his consciousness, he barely breathed, this squabbling over him like he was the last slice of roast shatual at a barbecue was driving him crazy, he wanted to scream but couldn’t, it wouldn’t help at any rate. All he could do was sit and speculate whether he’s to be fed to the dinkos by Okkra or to Sarkraa’s pet Nexu…

Now, this is one hell of a volatile situation, thought Loic, as he chanced opening his eyes to take in his surroundings. They were in some type of brick and marble antechamber, hexagonal pillars the same shape as the baronial wall. Bossk was not five paces from him with a blaster in one great fist; the blaster was more like a hand-cannon, It would have taken Loic two hands just to lift it to his chest. One shot from such a weapon would blast Okkra in half. Okkra knew this. Bossk had the drop on him, there was no way he could give the signal for his minions to take out the bounty hunter, despite how subtle, without Bossk getting a shot off first. Bossk was a ruthless battle-hardened killer, largely fearless, but even he knew the odds were stacked against him.

 

An entire posse of Okkra's remorseless killers nervously fingered their weapons. Bossk’s reputation would drive a little doubt into their heads, but their weight of numbers hold, one opponent against many. Surely there could be only one victor? They understood Bossk’s predicament. Bossk was duty-bound to take Loic back to his client. He may have listened to a payoff from Okkra, some deal, but bounty hunters worth their salt tried to avoid that where possible, you could easily get a reputation that you weren’t to be trusted to carry out a hunt to the end and were liable to change your outlook every time something enticing was dangled. Besides, Okkra wasn’t going to pay double, not at the exorbitant rate Bossk alleged. He would lose too much face in front of his goons and that couldn’t happen. Show weakness to your underlings and inevitably one or more of them start getting cute, thinking they can muscle you out or take you down. Also, Okkra wasn't prepared to pay an obscene amount of credits for a piece of space trash that had tried to kill him. Okkra wasn’t prepared to lose face, neither was Bossk. Something had to give.

 

Loic was crumpled on the floor, the pressure in the room was oppressive, it suddenly felt very hot. He felt like he was in an underground oven, right over hell’s kitchen. The most important thing was, despite being a little bashed around, he was fit enough to run. All he needed was an opportunity. The chamber housed two exits, one situated behind Okkra and his men, the other at the far side of the room, an archway leading to somewhere unknown. But unknown was better than stuck between Okkra and Bossk. Bossk maintained eye-contact with Okkra, starting to take slight side-ward steps toward Loic. His hand-cannon was centred always on Okkra's hide. Kneeling down the bounty hunter gripped Lioc round the back of the scruff of the neck.

“He’s mine, I’m taking him out of here.” Perhaps Bossk had the slight upper-hand, one Move from Okkra and he would be killed. But Okkra was notoriously stubborn.

 

“Don’t be a fool bounty hunter. You’ll never make it out of the building and you know it. You’re good but you’re no Boba Fett. How do you expect to get to ground level when I have men in every passageway? I’ll not hold a grudge Bossk, I may even have a bit of work for you. But right now you put down that gun do you understand?”

 

Bossk understood only too well, as soon as he dropped his blaster he would be vaporized by Okkra's trigger-happy henchmen. It was incredible one of them hadn’t opened fire unbidden. Okkra understood also, he knew Bossk had to pay for his audacity. He couldn't let the Trandoshan slight him like this and get away with it. Loic understood also, only too well. It was a lose-lose situation. He was as good-as-dead. That was why, with nothing left to lose, he decided to really add some fuel to the flames.

 

Loic felt like his head was on fire, sweat lashed from his bald pate, his neck encircled in Bossk’s terrible iron grip. The mighty cold-blooded reptilian could snap his neck like a matchstick, but Bossk had other concerns. Loic decided to add to them. In a blur of movement he reached to Bossk’s belt and snatched a grenade and rolled it along the floor towards Okkra’s goons. Everyone in the room froze for second, not quite taking in the enormity of the occurrence. As the grenade rolled ever closer to the gap-mouthed cut-throats Bossk was the first to react. He fired off his blaster into the midst of the assembled goons and dived for cover behind one of the pillars, dragging Loic with him in a severe headlock. The laser blast punched through several of Okkra's men leaving burning holes where their chests had been. The frag grenade detonated a millisecond later with a near deafening boom, immense heat washed over the room. Bossk hissed. Loic cursed his bald head covering its peeling flesh with red hands. Limbs, blood, and gore, sprayed in all directions.

 

The detonation had taken out a portion of Okkra's henchmen, but there was plenty left. Laser blasts started coming at them in small bursts, until a stream of fire ensued. The pillar protecting them wouldn’t hold out much longer. Bossk had one hand round Loic’s tunic, with the other, he unclipped another grenade and