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gest.
The tour took him through the commissary next, where hundreds of adult clones-all young men Anakin's age-sat in neat rows, all
dressed in red, all eating the same food in the same manner.
"You'll find that they are totally obedient," Lama Su was saying, seemingly oblivious to the Jedi's discomfort. "We modified
their genetic structure to make them less independent than the original, of course."
"Who was the original?"
"A bounty hunter named Jango Fett," Lama Su offered without any hesitation.
"We felt that a Jedi would be the perfect choice, but Sifo-Dyas handpicked Jango himself."
The notion that a Jedi might have been used nearly floored Obi-Wan. An army of clones strong in the Force?
"Where is this bounty hunter now?" he asked.
"He lives here," Lama Su replied. "But he's free to come and go as he pleases." He kept walking as he spoke, leading Obi-Wan
along a long corridor filled with narrow transparent tubes.
The Jedi watched with amazement as clones climbed up into those tubes and settled in place, closing their eyes and going to
sleep.
"Very disciplined," he remarked.
"That is the key," Lama Su replied. "Disciplined, and yet with the ability to think creatively. It is a mighty combination. Sifo-
Dyas explained to us the Jedi aversion to leading droids. He told us Jedi could only command an army of lifeforms."
And you wanted a Jedi as host? Obi-Wan thought, but he did not it say aloud. He took a deep breath, wondering how Master Si-
fo-Dyas, how any Jedi, could have so willingly and unilaterally crossed the line to create any army of clones. Obi-Wan realized
that he had to suppress his need for a direct answer to that right now, and simply listen and observe, gather as much information as
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he could so that he and the Jedi Council might sort it out. "So Jango Fett willingly remains on Kamino?" "The choice is his
alone. Apart from his pay, which is considerable, I assure you, Fett demanded only one thing-an unaltered clone for himself. Cu-
rious, isn't it?" "Unaltered?"
"Pure genetic replication," the Prime Minister explained. "No tampering with the structure to make it more docile. And no
growth acceleration."
"I would very much like to meet this Jango Fett," Obi-Wan said, as much to himself as to Lama Su. He was intrigued. Who was
this man selected by Sifo- Dyas as the perfect source for a clone army?
Lama Su looked to Taun We, who nodded and said, "I would be most happy to arrange it for you."
She left them, then, as the tour continued, with Lama Su taking Obi-Wan along the areas that showed him pretty much the entire
routine of the clones at every level of their development. The culmination came later on, when Taun We rejoined the pair on a bal-
cony, sheltered from the brutal wind and rain and overlooking a huge parade ground. Below them, thousands and thousands of
clone troopers, dressed in white armor and wearing full-face helmets, marched and drilled with all the precision of programmed
droids. Entire formations, each made up of hundreds of soldiers, moved as one.
"Magnificent, aren't they?" Lama Su said.
Obi-Wan looked up at the Kaminoan, to see his eyes glowing with pride as he looked out upon his creation. There were no ethi-
cal dilemmas as far as Lama Su was concerned, Obi-Wan knew immediately. Perhaps that was why the Kaminoans were so good at
cloning: their consciences never got in the way. Lama Su looked down at him, smiling widely, prompting a response, and Obi-
Wan offered a silent nod.
Yes, they were magnificent, and the Jedi could only imagine the brutal efficiency this group would exhibit in battle, in the arena
for which they were grown.
Once again, a shudder coursed down Obi-Wan Kenobi's spine. For the first time, he appreciated Senator Amidala's crusade to
stop the creation of an Army of the Republic, and the inevitable consequence: war!
A Jedi Knight here on Kamino. The thought was more than a little unsettling to Jango Fett.
The bounty hunter fell back in his seat and tightened his face in frustration-such were the problems with working for the Trade
Federation. They were masters at weaving deception within deception, and they were up to so much right now that there was no
single focus Jango could determine. He looked across the room at Boba, who was hard at work poring over the schematics and ca-
pabilities of a Delta-7 starfighter, and matching them up against the known strengths and weaknesses of an R4-P unit. Life was so
simple for the boy, Jango thought with a touch of envy. For Boba, there was the love of and for his father, and his studies. Other
than those two givens, the only real challenge before the boy was in finding enjoyable things to do at those times when Jango was
away or busy with the Kaminoans.
At that moment, looking at his son, Jango Fett felt vulnerable, so very vulnerable, and it was not an emotion with which he was
the least bit comfortable. He almost told Boba to go and pack, then and there, so they could blast away from Kamino, but he recog-
nized the danger of that course. He would be leaving without learning anything about his potential enemy, this Jedi Knight who
had arrived unexpectedly. His boss would want that information.
And Jango would need that information. If he took off now, after receiving a note from Taun We telling him that he would be re-
ceiving a visitor later that same day, it would be fairly obvious that he was fleeing.
Then he'd have a Jedi Knight on his tail, and one about whom he knew practically nothing.
Jango continued to stare at Boba, at the only thing that really mattered.
"Play it cool," he whispered to himself. "You're nothing more than a clone source, well paid enough to want to know nothing
about why you're being cloned."
That was his litany, that was his plan. And it had to work. For Boba's sake.
A wave of Taun We's hand brought forth the chime of an unseen bell, reminding Obi-Wan yet again of how foreign this world
of Kamino, this city of Tipoca, really was. He didn't give it much thought, though, for he was focused on the locking mechanism on
the door before him, an elaborate electronic clasp and bolt. Quite a bit of security, it seemed to him, given the supposedly genteel
nature of Jango Fett's relationship with the Kaminoans, and the obvious control the cloners held over their city. Was the locking
mechanism designed to keep people out, or to keep Jango in? Likely the former, he reasoned. Jango was a bounty hunter, after all.
Perhaps he had made more than a few dangerous enemies.
He was still studying the device when the door suddenly opened, revealing a young boy, an exact replica of those Obi-Wan had
been viewing all day. The identical one that Jango had demanded, only this one was actually ten years old.
"Boba," Taun We said with great familiarity, "is your father home?" Boba Fett stood staring at the human visitor for a long mo-
ment. "Yep."
"May we see him?"
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"Sure," Boba answered. He stepped back, but his eyes never left Obi-Wan as the Jedi and Taun We stepped across the thre-
shold.
"Dad! "Boba yelled.
The title struck Obi-Wan as curious, given that this was a clone and not a natural son. Was there a connection here? A real one?
Had Jango wanted the exact replica not for any professional gain but simply because he had wanted a son?
"Dad!" the boy shouted again. "Taun We's here!"
Jango Fett walked in, dressed in simple shirt and trousers. Obi-Wan recognized him immediately, though he was many years
older than the oldest clone, his face scarred and pitted, and unshaven. His body had thickened with age, but he was still physically
imposing, much like many of the old gutter dwellers Obi-Wan encountered in far-flung places. A few extra pounds, sure, but those
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