"Yeah, it has. I've got a pod I like to take out into the canyons when I'm feeling itchy."

"Ever been in a pod race?"

"Not yet. No one who isn't a slave - or you - knows I exist."

"If you did enter," he says, "do you think you could win?"

She hums, gaze going briefly distant. Then, smirking, "Of course. Even the Boonta Eve Classic."

"What makes you so sure?" he asks.

He has a pretty good idea, though.  And he's definitely intrigued.

"They change the course and rules every time, but there's some things that stay the same - and some patterns. I've watched the earlier races, and know I can do the tracks for those, since they're fun."

"And after the Classic's, during Boonta, is the best time for my plan to start. So I've been poking a lot at what the track is this year, and who the racers are, and how they can be nudged, and who's the big competition, and who's betting what. And no one can see me - except you - so I've been able to get a lot of info just looking over shoulders."

Grin.

"And my friend's pretty confident in me."

Qui-Gon's grinning too.

"Here is my proposal.  I approach every slaver in the city, and offer to gamble my magnificent star-yacht against all of their slaves that the city's favorite to win the Boonta Eve Classic will lose.  We enter you in the race.  When you win, I'll be able to free all of the slaves of everyone who accepted my offer."

She hums. "A pretty risky idea. Not all of them are gonna accept, and it might get me hurt, and it'd take away from my plan. Why should I go along with your plan, then?"

"Well, for one thing - I'm an outsider here, but it's my understanding that all the slaves in Mos Espa are legally owned by one of the Hutt families.  There aren't many of them, and I think you and I together could come up with an angle to use on each of them."

"I know how to get them to kill each other, and I can probably figure out other angles... But helping you's still a lot of effort from me, and I don't really think your plan's gonna work perfectly - Hutts don't really have a sense of honor, and it'd be hard to get them to all follow through on a bet they lost, and then they'd be annoyed at you and harder for me to kill off 'cause they'd be leery or angry, not drunk."

"That's why I need your help," he says.  "But what would you say if I suggested we make a wager of our own?"

"Oh?" She seems intrigued.

"We try my plan first.  And you'd need to put your heart in it, too.  We work out an angle for every Hutt family, we enter you in the Boonta Eve.  If you win, and if we can get all the Hutt families to give up their slaves without hurting any of them - well, that would only be the beginning of my plans for this planet."

"What kinds of plans?"

"Queen Amidala, the woman you saw on the holocall, is the reigning monarch of a planet called Naboo.  Right now it's being threatened by a planet called Enarc.  We're taking her to Coruscant, both to keep her safe and to try to stop a war from breaking out.  Queen Amidala, and all of Naboo, is very invested in bringing an end to slavery, and if we succeed in protecting Naboo, she would turn her attention, and the attention of the Galactic Republic, to liberating Tatooine.  The Republic can be hard to get moving in the right direction, but once you do, it's also very hard to stop it."

"So I help her get off this planet and save her planet, and she helps me..."

"Yeah, that could work - if you win."

"What if you lose our bet?"

"If I can't save more slaves than your plan would've saved," he says, "then I help you with your plan."

He's a maker of peace, wherever he can; but one way or another, he is leaving Mos Espa with as many refugees as he can carry.

She brightens. "That'd be good!"

"And - your plan's a shiny Core Worlder plan, but... I trust you wanna try. So we'll do it your way first."

He grins, a little.  "I'm glad we could come to an agreement."  He stands, and takes a step to the center of the alley, and holds out a hand.

She stands too and shakes his hand.

"Here's probably not the best place to plot in detail," she says with a grin.

"Perhaps not," he says.  "And I should get back, they're going to start wondering about me."

"Are you gonna tell them about me?"

"Would you like me not to?"

She bites her lip.

Slowly: "I'm not sure. I guess if they won't talk to the slavers, it's okay if they know I exist, but I dunno I want them to know my plan yet..."