Spy vs. Spy

Sien was crying, but she wasn't too worried. If this was a Jedi, he wouldn't do it. If he wasn't... there was someone else. A backup. She couldn't remember who exactly, but she remembered a name. Opal something. Opal something would fight the Jedi for her. Opal something might not be able to beat the Jedi, but she'd be able to rescue her. And Sien knew her way along the streets well enough that, once Opal something saved her, Sien could escape on her own.

"I saw you shoot and carry off a cop," she replied, more calmly. She was way past the point where emotions could save her. She had to convince them to be rational, to see the truth from her point of view. She trembled physically, but her voice was steady. She looked the female straight in the eyes as she spoke, conveying utter honesty, as she knew it. "I followed you, and when he woke up, he said you were Jedi. I thought, 'what would a Jedi be doing in street clothes, shooting cops?' I figured maybe you were quitting, and wanted a new job, a better job." Her voice hardened. "Obviously I was mistaken."

---

Riina frowned as she let loose a line and dropped from the roof. "Detective Ruzzel," she greeted him coldly as she landed behind him in the alleyway. "What ever could you be doing in a neighborhood like this?"

The man turned around, startled, but he had already received a mild neurotoxin dart in his arm. His arm went numb, but she quickly saw that he had not been holding any weapon with which he could attack her. This was indeed the man that Opa had seen the Jedi interrogating. That meant something had gone wrong.

Riina projected her anger into the man's slightly addled mind. He had failed the Empire. He had given the spies what they were looking for. These sentiments weren't hurt by the fact that they were true, and slowly dawning on the man already. "Where did they go, Jak?" she asked.

"How do you know my-" he started to ask, when Riina used the Force to invisibly propel a second toxic dart from the tube in her hand into his chest. He would numb; his breathing would slow. After their conversation ended, his heart would stop beating, and he would die.

"Where did they go, Jak?" she asked again, once more pushing with the Force. Russel raised his left arm, his good arm, and pointed down the ally. Then he fell to the ground, a victim of oxygen deprivation.

Riina considered leaving him as is, and decided to make one finishing touch. Igniting her silver-bladed lightsaber, she cut the man across the chest. With an obvious cause of death and the paralyzed organs disintegrated, it would take a fairly determined autopsy to implicate poison. That wouldn't happen- it was already known he was going to be killed by the Jedi spies.

Once back out of sight, Riina lifted up two items. One item was her commlink, with which she called the Security Forces anonymously. The other was a piece of flimsi, along which she ran her finger.

She found the building; the Force would not lie. But she would.

Riina hoped that when the team arrived to end the Twi'lek sex slave trade, she would be able to see what happened to the big male Jedi. She owed him that much, she was sure of it. She didn't know... but she was sure of it.

The Twi'lek's story made some sense, and on top of that, he felt some truth to her words. Yet he also felt a thin film of his danger sense going off in the back of his mind, like a sheet of water suddenly being filled with electric current, charged and ready to go.

That buzzing sensation was distracting him.

He turned away from the girl, suddenly disinterested in anything she might know. He face Adelaide. "I think we should get out of here. We can leave her behind...maybe a sleeping pill or something...whatever...I just feel like we need to go. Something's not right."

He couldn't quite place the feeling. It wasn't as strong as a Jedi's usual danger sense. Not like a laser bolt screaming toward your head or a lightsaber swiping for your legs. This was like a tsunami building up in the distance, hidden behind a bank of fog. It was a slow build up of anticipation, but elusive.

He didn't like it at all.

Adelaide nodded as Otto spoke. She was feeling it too. Her misgivings grew as she turned to leave, just before the outside door smashed inward.

Time slowed. In a few moments, whoever had broken into the warehouse would enter their room, so they wouldn't be able to leave the way they came. She turned, and began running deeper into the warehouse as she felt half a dozen beings enter the room. As she ran, she was trying to gain a lock on the Twi'lek's mind. Obviously, there wasn't time for a sleeping pill, but if she could do it quickly enough, she could execute a quick mind rub...

Something was blocking her efforts, but behind her, she felt the Twi'lek slump. She wasn't sure how thorough a job she'd been able to do, but neither of them could think about that now.

They were coming to a door, and Adelaide felt Otto's intentions. She altered her course just enough to let him dash by her and drive his shoulder into the door, which buckled under the impact. She heard footsteps behind them as part of the force gave chase, and instantly swerved to avoid blaster bolts.

They had now reached the largest room in the warehouse, designed for storage and thus very open. Here, Adelaide was able to lengthen her stride and put more distance between herself and her pursuers. Beside her, she felt Otto keeping pace.

Split up! she sent him through the Force, and a moment later, she felt him veer off, and a couple of their pursuers likewise. It was time to make her escape.

Which might pose a problem. To do that, she would have to get out of the warehouse, which was most likely locked. Thus, she would have to break through either the door or the wall since she was considerably less solidly built than Otto, and didn’t have time to fiddle with a lock.

With my hands, that is, she thought. But who needs hands? I’m a karking Jedi, right?

By a lucky chance, Adelaide noticed a door ahead, and sensed the city behind it. She adjusted her ducking and weaving to expend minimal energy, and concentrated on opening the lock. It was tricky. Come on, it’s like trying to remember a line midspeech in front of the Senate. It’s like trying to beat that Mon Cal intern back at the temple in a staring contest. Concentrate, kriff it! Concentrate!

Inside her head, she sensed the lock disengage. Oh, it’s a push door. Thank the Force it’s a push door! she exclaimed. This way, she wouldn’t have to blow her cover as a Jedi. She swung the door forward a tiny bit, enough so that she could just push right past it, but not enough that her pursuers would notice. She smiled. Here she went.

Adelaide increased her speed. As the door banged behind her, she ran out into the street and down the boulevard, heading for a highly populated area before turning toward her apartment.

Otto dodged between a pile of crates as Imperials took pot shots at him with their blasters. Darting through the congested aisles of stored goods was strenuous, but Otto continued to head toward the building's wall. Without thinking, he whipped out his lightsaber and sliced a triangle through the thin plasteel sheet wall. It was only later that he would wonder if the Imperials would trace the cuts to a lightsaber.

Outside the air was fresh, free of the dusty smell that had been so strong inside the warehouse. Snapping his head left and right, Otto didn't see any Imperials. This side of the building was just a long tall wall with very high windows. There wasn't a door in sight. Ahead of him was two more buildings and a narrow, garbage strewn alley way.

Not much choice. He charged forward at full speed, hoping to lose any tails by gaining a good head start. But whose after us?

Of course they had infiltrated a Imperial police station and downloaded a bunch of secure files. So the simple answer was Imperial intelligence.

I wonder how good these guys are? He jumped and somersaulted over a dumpster that was blocking the alleyway. There's only one way to find out.

Ineptitude, Riina cursed. Somehow, the two Jedi had escaped her trap, and she could feel their presences, well hidden yet nevertheless detected by her, moving away from the warehouse.

Very well. She would just have to wrap up the matter herself. From her perch on top of an adjacent building, she vaulted over the alley separating them onto the warehouse. Another leap took her down into the alleyway the male Jedi had just jumped into. She landed neatly in front of him, blocking his path, and turned to face his bewildered expression with a smug one of her own.

“As an agent of Imperial Intelligence, I hereby arrest you in the name of the Empire for illegal espionage,” she said. Both hands remained slack at her sides, but her lightsaber was readily available on her belt. She studied the male Jedi’s expression, watching for his next move.

Milking rodder. It looked like Otto wasn't getting any breaks today. He saw the lightsaber on the woman's belt, and instantly a flash of suspicion popped into his mind. Is she the one, is she behind all of this? And just as quickly, he cursed himself for not having his katana at hand. He loathed fighting with his lightsaber.

But she hadn't activated her blade yet. It simply dangled there harmlessly on her belt, her fingers delicately poised to rip it from its slumber.

He'd already wasted precious time in these initial observations, but thoughts had a way of flying at the speed of light. With the ingrained training carved into his nerves by his Jedi Master, Otto reacted as fast as the human eye could possibly follow.

His hand was a blur.

The blaster bolt appeared from nowhere.

Riina crumpled to the ground, still shivering from the stun bolt, and already Otto was continuing his flight in a mad determination to lose his pursuers.

It took several hours before Otto felt confident that he had shook the Imperials on his trail. He'd shut himself down in the Force. Right now, sitting in a little street side cafe in a new set of clothes, he appeared to be just another businessman in the crowd. He had the Bastion Gazette held before him as he scanned the financial section, a cup of caf steaming before him. A quick check of his wrist chrono reaffirmed his decision.

It should be safe now.

He got up, leaving a tip, and headed across the street to Adelaide's apartment. His droid, BOZ, was already safely inside along with Adelaide. With the information they had managed to secure, they'd be able to head back to the Jedi Council now with their mission completed. He didn't know quite yet just want kind of intel they'd gotten, but he knew it was the best they were going to get without causing anymore trouble. The last thing the Jedi needed now was a scandal with the Imperials. The schism on Coruscant was bad enough.

With these thoughts floating around in his mind, Otto slipped into the apartment. Adelaide was perched to one side of the door, her lightsaber at the ready, while BOZ was blissfully plugged in to the HoloNet.

"It's clear. I wasn't followed." Otto spoke to Adelaide, reassuring her that they would be alright, for now.

[[OOC: okay, so I pulled and Indy and sort of killed the plan we had, let me know if you want me to change it and we could do the full lightsaber battle instead, the Indy thing just came to me as I was writing it so I went with it. It wouldn't be any trouble to change it, just let me know.]]

[[OOC: Yeah, that's fine. Riina can always pop up again if you want a duel since I have control of the account now. May I use Otto's voice for some basic conversation to speed things along to Kashyyyk? I can always change it later if you don't want me to.]]

"Great," said Adelaide as Otto stepped into the room and relaxed. She indicated that Otto should take a seat at the small table inside the apartment and slipped into the chair across from him.

"So what do we do now?" asked Adelaide.

Otto mused. "I got a lot of information out of that detective who followed us last night. And even though I haven't gotten to take a good look at the data stored inside BOZ, I'm sure it's valuable." He shifted a little in his seat. "I think our work here is done. We don't want to risk another encounter like last night."

"Agreed," said Adelaide. "We can take the next shuttle out of here, go to a couple different planets to throw any pursuers off, and then head to Kashyyyk. I'm sure Grand Master Grae will be happy with us."

And so there work on Bastion came to an end. Just as Adelaide had proposed, they hoped on the next shuttle leaving Bastion. In order to ensure that any Imperial tails were thoroughly lost, they made a multi-stop journey that included the likes of Bespin, Telos, and Nar Shaddaa.

By the time they made it to Kashyyyk, not only were they supremely confident in not being followed, but they had also deciphered most of the intel BOZ had stored in his databanks. Their report to the Jedi Council would be very appreciated indeed.

[Ready for Kashyyyk ]