Star Wars: Rebel Rising(73)

Including fear.

Allehander picked up a hand press, the tiny spikes twirling through the metal plate as he twisted it. When he looked at Jyn, his eyes widened a little at her complete and utter disinterest in the weapons spread out before them.

The corners of his mouth slid up in an appreciative smile. “I must confess that I did notice two things,” he said, putting down the hand press. “First, you did a very, very good job.”

Jyn wondered if he realized he doubled up on words as if that would make them truer.

“I appreciate skill,” Allehander confessed. “And second, you didn’t flood the market. I’ve checked with the other gambling lords. Only my palace had the counterfeit credit chips, and I know who commissioned them. You did a job. You could have made more, kept some, used them for yourself. But my men have searched your little apartment, searched you, and there was nothing, nothing . Not greedy. I like that. You do a job, and you’re done.”

He paced in front of her. Jyn tested the plastoid ties, not because she was trying to break out but because she was curious how strong they were. The answer was very .

“Useful,” Allehander mused, looking at her. “You made the credits for Commander Solange, yes?”

Jyn nodded. She had no reason to keep up the act.

“When I confronted her, she and I were able to come up with something of a solution. A way for the Empire to pay her debt without knowing it.”

Jyn blinked. This was a skill she had learned on Five Points, from waiting in the park across from the beggars. Men loved to talk. All she had to do was wait and listen, and they would tell her everything.

“I have some products I need to get off the station. Commander Solange has arranged for the Empire to buy them at a good price for me, one that will clear her debts. Win–win, yes?”

Because he seemed to expect an answer, Jyn nodded.

“But we need some documents altered. And I think you can do that, yes?”

“Will it get me off this station?” Jyn asked.

“To Rumitaka,” Allehander said. “And after that, you do as you wish.”

“And you’ll pay me.”

Allehander barked a laugh. “Your freedom will be payment enough!”

Jyn lifted an eyebrow and waited.

Allehander scowled, but then the corners of his mouth quirked up in a smile. “Oh, I like you. Fine, yes. A payment. A thousand credits?”

“Imperial, not those.” Jyn nodded to the pile of forged Pso’s Palace credits on the table. “They’re too easy to fake.”

Allehander’s eyes flashed, and for a moment, Jyn thought she had gone too far. But he laughed again and waved his hand for the straps to be removed from around her ankles and wrists. “We have need to hurry,” Allehander said. “Can you be ready to leave in an hour?”

“I’m ready to leave now,” Jyn said.

Allehander gave her instructions to head to docking bay NC13 and board the Amarills -class freighter that was waiting. “My men will have everything you need to alter the documents on board the ship. You can work on them as you travel.”

It was ironic that Jyn could move across the galaxy faster than she could hop between the planets of one solar system. But the hyperspace routes that enabled high-speed travel didn’t stretch to the tiny planets of the Five Points system, often littered with asteroids, and the freighter would be limited.

“Commander Solange has provided clearance for our ship to land on Rumitaka,” Allehander continued. “But there’s a chance there will be checkpoints on the way that she is not aware of. She thinks herself more important than she is. If we run into such checkpoints…?” He let his question drift between them.

“Not a problem,” Jyn said. Imperial checkpoint clearances were her specialty.

“Good, good ,” Allehander said, nodding. “And if you ever find yourself in need of future work, come back to Pso’s Palace,” he said. “You’re exactly the kind of girl I could use.”





The ship was larger than Jyn had expected; Allehander had said there were only twenty units to move. Of course, he hadn’t said what the units were, and Jyn hadn’t asked. It was easier to move contraband through the space station, where only Commander Solange’s corrupt eyes could see, than between planets or on more traditional trade routes.

“You Allehander’s girl?” said the captain of the ship, a rough-looking man about fifty years old.

Jyn nodded.

“Get in. Mathey will get you started.”

Jyn boarded the ship, and before she’d found Mathey, she felt the engines lighting. The ship shot out of the station and into the blackness of space. “They’re in a hurry,” Jyn said to herself.

She pushed open a door at the end of the main hallway and discovered a group of three men sitting at a table. These were not the kind of men who would visit Moeseffa’s Cantina. These were the kind of men who’d guzzle whatever was left over in the glasses sent to the back for cleaning.

“You that girl?” one of them asked. He had a patchy red beard that was only just starting to shadow his chin.

“You Mathey?”

He grunted. Jyn took that for a yes. She pulled out a chair and sat across from him. The other two men stood up and left. “Gonna check on the cargo,” the older one said, drawing the last word out as if it were two.