Smuggler's Gambit (Garret)

[Linn O'Conner]

The three days seemed to have crawled by. They were like any other three days on Tattooine.

But they stood out most in the young bounty hunter's mind. They were three days she wouldn't forget. Becasue those three days had been spent planning, discussing, preparing, agonizing over what would come at the end of the three days.

Linn O'Conner knew the ground was under her feet, but she couldn't feel it. She knew the scent of food was curling around her but she couldn't smell it. She knew the horizon was beautiful this time of evening, but she couldn't see it. Most of all, she was aware of the man striding next to her, a man that meant a great deal to her, a man she loved very much...but she couldn't touch him.

All her senses were dead. She had to deaden them. Because if she didn't, she knew the feeling of dread would fall over her again. The feeling that maybe thier plan was faulty in some way. That they hadn't spent enough time on a certain thing. That they wouldn't get within three steps of the Hutt's home without setting off some sort of alarm.

But they had, and she knew that the Hutt would most likely be too drunk to know what was going on, and chances were, the guards would be, too...that is, if they had partaken in the holiday festivities.

Carefully, Linn glanced over at the man walking next to her and at the sack he carried on his hip. Linn looked at her own bag, then looked up again. Garret Treborn had come with her this far. She hoped he would not back out now. Indeed, Linn hoped that she didn't lose her nerve and go back on her own word.

[Garret Treborn]

Garret kept pace with the bounty hunter that walked along beside him. Both of them had plenty to think about so it remained relatively quiet. If the slightest mistake was made they would be in serious trouble. Running through the mind of the smuggler was a series of checklists to make sure he had done all that was necessary to prepare for what it was they were about to do. It was no easy task that lay before the two.

Garret felt somewhat distracted, which was one of the biggest reasons why he felt so nervous about the upcoming mission. His feelings about his accomplice were strong and he feared that something might befall her during the execution of their plain. He would of course do all that was possible to ensure her safety, but nothing was yet certain.

The smuggler shielded his eyes with one of his hands. The suns of Tatooine were still slightly visible over the horizon. Sand was stirred up by the wind and stung at the eyes. Garret cursed softly under his breath. He loathed the planet in its entirety and could not understand why any sentinent would make it their home. He turned his head to face Linn.

"How much further."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn was almost surprised to hear the smooth voice of the man walking with her. But her numbed thoughts kept her from reacting to it. She tilted her head and squinted a little in the light of the suns. Linn turned her eyes up to Garret.

He looked upset. Or angry. Or scared. Or...worried? Linn wasn't sure how to read the emotions she found hidden in the smuggler's face. So she turned back straight so she wouldn't have to wonder what he was thinking.

Linn raised her hand and pointed to a large sand dune ahead of them, maybe one hundred yards, give or take a few feet. The light of one of the suns shimmered over the top of it, creating a diamond-like effect that circled out into a great ring that stung Linn's eyes for the brightness.

"Just over that dune," she all but whispered, and felt as if she were talking to no one, and everyone. "It won't take long."

[Garret Treborn]

Garret noddes his head. It was a useless action, for the sole reason that the only person present wasn't even looking at him. He wondered what was going through the mind of Linn.

They approached the dune and began the ascension to the pinnacle of it. Garret put his weight forward so as not to fall backwards. It's almost time, he thought to himself.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn felt her feet sink slightly into the sand she tread on, and some of it blew up and stung her eyes, and got into her mouth. Lifting the wrap around her neck, she placed it over her mouth and nose, keeping the sand out of it.

Linn could see the home of the Hutt they were after. It was large, containing probably servants chambers, areas for the prostitutes to inhabit, and a barroom. Not to mention any other rooms the Hutt would have added on in his life there.

Linn smiled grimly when she saw that she had been right. No guards stood at the doors, no guns sat trained on them, nothing. Not even one hint that anyone even lived there. Linn could have laughed, and could have cried. One in relief that she was right, the other that it all might be futile anyway. Instead the bounty hunter bound up her hair, and pulled a hood over her head, ignoring her instint to take Garret's arm and make sure he was still alright.

[Garret Treborn]

The two stopped when they were a good distance from the Hutt palace.

"Are you ready?"

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn stuck her hand down into her sack to touch the cool of the weapons she found there. The suns were slowly sinking lower and lower, the night creeping up on them. She tilted her head towards Garret.

"As ready as can be expected when you're about to hurl yourself in the midst of drunken, and soon to be angry, assassins. You?"

[Garret Treborn]

"I hear you. Feels like I'm about to walk into the cave of a Krayt Dragon."

Garret squinted and gazed at the Hutt palace. Hutts were little more than overgrown slugs with greed unlike any other sentinent in the galaxy. Being in the presence of one repulsed the young smuggler. He wouldn't likely be seeing this Hutt so that came as a relief.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn smiled grimly. A Krayt Dragon would be a welcome comfort next to the Hutt sitting, at the moment, dormant in his hiding hole.

Then, without a word, she started off again, walking diagonally toward the palace, skirting what seemed to be a specific area before approaching it straight again and being at the side rather than the front.

Linn touched the building with her fingertips and the scaly exterior felt somewhat slimy, although she knew it was just very smooth. The dying suns glinted off it and could have hurt Linn's eyes at this close a range. However, she lowered visors, pulled a seam locater from her bag and pressed it to the wall, running it over and over, hoping to soon find what she was looking.

[Garret Treborn]

The smuggler watched on as Linn went about her task. He nervously glanced over his shoulder and along the wall of the Hutt palace. They were out in the open and would be easy targets.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn saw Garret look around them and knew he was slightly apprehensive. They could easily be spotted by any guard who decided to go out for a little fresh air. Linn worked quickly, using all the basic skills she'd learned from her early teacher. She recalled his movements, and the ease with which he found his way into places.

Feeding off the calm she found from the memories, Linn moved the seam locater in just the right way, and it attached quickly. Linn punched in a code on the locater and it jumped to life, finding the center of the opening and making a hissing sound as it strained to pull open the door.

Suddenly, the seam popped out an inch. Just enough for Linn to get her fingers under it and pry it loose. Detaching the seam locater, Linn replaced it in her bag and looked carfeully down the damp, dark passageway they were about to enter. Taking a breath and looking over her shoulder at Garret, she went forward, the darkness swallowing her vision.

"Whoa..." she whispered, but it sounded like she was screaming for the echoes.

[Garret Treborn]

Garret followed closely as Linn entered the dark passageway. He winced when the voice of the bounty hunter echoed back. Detection so early on would prove fatal. Once out of the light cast by the open door, darkness engulfed everything. An unpleasant odor lingered and caused the smuggler to wrinke his nose with distate.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn looked around her. This was the smuggler's run. This was where the Hutt recieved most of his illegal substances, and other things. Linn thought it slightly ironic that a smuggler should be going down this passage planning the Hutt's downfall instead of eagerly awaiting his handsome funds.

Linn stopped as the passage split into two ways. Carefully, she pulled out her map of the palace. Two red dots blinked on the screen indicating she and Garret. The two passages were pale but she saw one leading to a large room, she knew to be the smuggler recieving room, and the other leading on off of the screen.

Typing quickly, the screen moved to allow her to see past thier current point and down the other passage. It led to a huge room, filled with glowing green blips, few of which were moving, but all of which were living creatures. Linn would need to go down the smuggler's hallway. She looked over her shoulder, and pulled out the second map she had been carrying. She handed it to the smuggler.

"Garret," she barely breathed, fearing that if she spoke too loudly they would be found. "You need to go left. At the end of that tunnel is the Hutt's commen room. Chances are, nearly everyone is sleeping at the moment. But you don't need to go that far. Near the entrance to the commen room there is a newly cut passage that leads to the main hallway above the commen room. Our safe is in this hallway. I'm going to go right and go up through the smuggler's hall to get there. We'll each be at opposite ends. I need you to make sure every guard you find in your hallways are out for the count," she paused pulling out her comlink. "We'll need to keep track of each other."

[Garret Treborn]

Garret nodded and reached into one of his many pockets, pulling out the comlink she had given him earlier. His heart was racing like mad and he vaguely wondered if Linn could hear it. If anything went wrong....Garret shuddered at the thought. He would prefer anything over being in the custody of a Hutt. After all, the reputation of the Hutt's was not one of kindness.

He stared down the passage and sucked in a deep breathe. Now they would see if all their preparations would pay off. Garret turned back to Linn and took her hand.

"Be careful," he said as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze of reassurance.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn looked up at Garret, though she could barely see him. Only his eyes shimmering slightly in the dim light of her map. He took her hand.

Be careful, he said, and she felt him squeeze her hand softly and Linn shut her eyes for two heartbeats. When she opened them again, she nodded.

"You too," she said. She looked hard at the smuggler. "I'm going to see your face at the other end of that hallway, Garret," Linn said seriously. Then she smiled a little. "Luck," she wished him, then turned toward her hallway. Raising her map and looking ahead of her, she began her way down the smuggler's hall.

[Garret Treborn]

Garret looked back toward the passage that he had been assigned to and then at the map in his hand. All of the little dots were motionless for the time being. Crouching slightly, the smuggler began to make his way slowly down the passage. He winced whenever he made the slightest sound for he was sure that everyone in the Hutt's chamber could hear it and would be after him any second.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn felt like the darkness may swallow her. Bringing the map closer to her face, she watched Garret's dot as well as the dots that were in the passages above and around her.

Three dots moved slowly about in the hallway above her. She would have to do something about them. A small, nearly inaudible tone sounded on her map, indicating that Garret's dot had gone out of range. Now, only a small arrow pointed in his direction. Linn looked ahead of her again, keeping her footsteps as silent as possible.

[Garret Treborn]

Garret neared the entrance of the hallway that connected to the passage he was in. Just a little bit further he though to himself. One of the blips on the map caught his attention because it had begun to move. The smuggler nearly panicked when he realized the blip was moving towards the passage he was concealed in. It was almost to the mouth of it that led into the Hutt's chamber.

As silently as was possible, Garret went quickly for the hallway that was on the right. He reached it and flew through the entrance. He pressed himself up against one of the walls and held his breath while glancing at the map. The blip moved past his position and keep on moving down the corridor. He exhaled slowly and paused for a few moments so his heart could slow down.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn was reaching the opening to the smuggler's recieving room. She could see light, faintly, but it was there. Looking down at her map, she was looking for any dots in the room ahead. None, as of yet, but she would have to keep her eyes open.

Approaching the opening, Linn squashed herself against the wall in the shadows and looked around the room in front of her. There were shipping crates everywhere and she could not see the door out of the room. Many of the crates had Huttese scrawled on the side. Others had Basic neatly written, and still others were labeled with languages that Linn didn't recognize at a glance.

Pulling out a security scanner, Linn scanned the room for security lasers. None.

Sliding into the room, Linn made her way from stack of boxes to stack of boxes until she was directly under the drop door to the hallway. She reached up for it, but heard a steady tone sound on her map. Looking down, Linn saw a blip moving outside the door into the recieving room. It was headed for the door.

Shoving her scanner back into her bag and grabbing out her seam locater, she attached it to the middle of the drop door and it whirred to life, pulling hard. Nothing happened. It pulled again. Nothing.

Great. She was going to have to do this the old fashioned way.

Her map was still beeping as the figure moved closer. Grabbing what she could of the lip of the door, Linn pulled, lifting herself off the floor. Her map was beeping insanely now, and Linn heard the door to the recieving room open. Linn dropped to the floor behind boxes and held her breath.

She didn't know if they had seen her or not, but they wren't moving.

[Garret Treborn]

After waiting a few moments with his back pressed against the wall, Garret began moving again. He went down the passageway he had turned into for a few paces and stopped at a ladder. This would lead him directly to the hallway that Linn needed secured. He glanced again at the map and pushed a button that provided a layout of the floor above. A few guards, most likely Gamorreans, patrolled the hall.

Garret pocketed the map and place both hands and feet on the lower rungs of the ladder. He slowly began his ascension, careful not to make any sound. The smuggler paused once he reached the top of the ladder and the trap door that would bring him into the hall. Securing a firm grip on the ladder with one of his arms, he took another look at the map. Nothing had changed. Taking a few breathes to steady himself, he slowly pushed up on the trap door.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn was still crouched breahtlessly behind a stack of boxes labeled in Huttese. The person at the door hadn't moved since they'd come in.

Her map had ceased beeping. She looked at it. The person was standing stalk still in front of the door. Linn heard the door to the smuggler's recieving room shut, and footsteps as they began to move. They walked slowly around the edge of the room and paused in front of a stack of boxes. Then they continued towards another stack. They were looking for a certain box.

And knowing Linn's luck, it would probably end up being the topmost one concealing her from view.

Linn looked over the box and saw the person. Well, she didn't exactly see them. They were dressed in armor and a mask hid thier face from view. Linn looked up at the trap door. It was slightly ajar, but still a little stuck. She looked back at the person. they turned away to examine other boxes.

Taking the chance, Linn stood and reached up, grabbing the lip of the door and pulling down with all her strength. The person seemed to be occupied with the box they were examining. Linn pulled harder. Suddenly, the door slid open. Linn held her breath freezing in place, afraid the person had heard the slight grinding sound.

They hadn't.

Linn carefully let the door down all the way and grabbed the edge. She could see stairs that could have been pulled down to allow easy access. But she didn't have time for that. Getting a good grip on the edge, Linn lifted herself up into the hallway, sitting on the edge for a moment. She pulled her legs up to her chest, then spun to lie on her back, lean out and pull the door back up.

Sighing out the breath she was holding, Linn lifted her map to make a quick sweep of the hallway around the corner. A few guards. She should have no problem.

[Garret Treborn]

Slowly the smuggler pulled himself up and through the trap door as silently as was possible. Any loud sound could quite possibly seal his fate as well as Linn's. Once through he closed the trap door and glanced at the map he held in the palm of his hand. 2 guards....

OOC: to take out the guards, would i use a blaster set on stun or something different?

[Linn O'Conner]

OOC: A blaster or whatever weapon you have is fine.

Linn spotted one guard just around the corner and one near the middle. Easy work.

Approaching the corner, Linn unholstered her blaster and crouched down. She crept along until she came to the corner. Peeking around, she was looking through the guards legs. She could see the second guard near the middle. Raising up, Linn wailed on the back of the guard's head, wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him around the corner to dump him behind her.

"Hey!" the other guard called, and Linn could hear running towards the corner. Quickly searching the guard she'd just taken out, Linn found an electric stick and as the other guard came around the corner, she smacked him in the face with it. It electrocuted him enough to put him out for the count. He stared at her dumbly for a moment before falling over on top of his comrade. Linn nodded, smiling.

"Sleep well," she said, then turned and sprinted to the end of the short hallway and looked into the larger one. There were four guards along the passage. Linn crouched, and waited for Garret's face at the other end.

[Garret Treborn]

Garret unholstered his blaster and pocketed his map again. He set his blaster on stun. The smuggler had never taken another life and he saw no reason why he should start. One thing he did not want was the death of others to plague his conscious. He crouched down and worked his way slowly down the hall until he saw the first guard . The guard's back was turned.

Garret took careful aim with his blaster and squeezed the trigger. It was equipped with a suppressor and barely made a sound. The guard collapsed to the ground in a heap. Knowing that the sound would attract the other guard, Garret sprinted down the hall and landed a blaster shot to the other man's abdomen before he could call for help.

Holstering his blaster, the smuggler extracted his map once more. Clear. Garret went down the rest of the hall and saw where it connected to an even larget one. He crouched down and looked around the corner.

[Linn O'Conner]

There!

Linn saw Garret peek around the other end of the corner. She smiled and pulled back around the corner so the four guards would not see or hear her.

She pulled her comlink out.

"Hey, Cowboy. You doin' alright over there?"

[Garret Treborn]

Garret heard Linn's voice emitting from the comlink that she had given him and he took it out from his pocket. He was glad that she was okay. Vaguely he wondered why he had been more worried for her sake then his own. She possessed a much better ability to survive. He shrugged it off though and answered her.

"I'm doing fine. I've taken care of the two guards. Seems your doing okay yourself."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn smiled wide, relieved to hear the voice of the smuggler coming from her comlink. At least he was alive.

"Not too shabby," she said. "I took out the two guards down here too. It seems that the Hutt was more on the ball than I expected. I didn't think he'd station four guards here. No matter. No change in plans."

Linn paused to look around the corner. The guards, though armed, did not look quite sober enough to even know how to operate the weapons. She gauged the distance between her and her an the first guard. Not far. A good two big strides should bring him in reach of her electric stick. Pulling back around the corner, Linn looked back at the comlink.

"I'm going to draw thier attentions here. Once they're all turned towards my corner, you get the two down there. I'll take care of these two up here. Okay?"

[Garret Treborn]

"Got it."

Tucking away his comlink, the smuggler waited with his head peeking around the corner.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn put her comlink back into the folds of her cloak and looked around the corner again. Digging a simple glass marble from her pocket she threw it as hard as she could towards the first guard and ducked back behind her corner.

"Hey!" came a voice.

"What? What happened?"

"Something just hit me. It came from over there."

Linn the shuffling of feet as the guards approached her corner. Readying her electric stick, pulling out her blaster and setting it on stun, Linn stood.

Linn jumped out from her corner and stood in front of the the bewildered guards. Charging up her electric stick, Linn smiled wide, her eyes flashing.

"Ready to dance, boys?"

[Garret Treborn]

Once the backs of the guards were all turned, the smuggler stood up and rounded the corner. He unholstered his blaster and sprinted down the hall. Garret's approach was far from being quiet, but none of the guards heard him. As Garret ran by one of the guards he shifted the grip on his blaster and whacked the guy in the head, rendering him unconscious. The second one recieved a stun in the back as Garret came to a stop not far behind the man.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn smacked the first guard across the face with her electric stick and the second merely watched his comreade fall.

Linn took the opportunity. She ran over and rammed her knee into his crotch. He doubled over and Linn hit him square on the back of the head. He was out cold.

She and Garret stood facing each other over the four fallen guards. Linn smiled, nodding to him and winking.

"Mr. Treborn."

[Garret Treborn]

Garret couldn't help but smile wide. Although the danger was not entirely eradicated, it somehow seemed to be lessened with the dispatching of the guards.

"Linn," he said nodding.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn smiled, the edge of the situation being eased for her some just by Garret's smile. Linn then turned her attention to the door on her right.

Right inside that door was the security data that would either prove or disprove Garret's innocence. Linn pulled out her seam locator and put it in the center of the door. Whining a little the locator pulled on the door as Linn placed an lock/alarm disabler over the lock.

The seam finder whined and ground angrily as it pulled against the door's lock system. Linn looked over her shoulder nervously as the sound echoed through the hall. She looked at Garret.

"Did you shut your trap door?" she asked breathlessly. "God only knows what would happen if any of the keen-eared guards heard this racket."

[Garret Treborn]

"Yes, I made sure it was secure."

[Linn O'Conner]

Finally, with and unholy clunking sound, the door popped open and the alarm disabler did exactly what it was meant to do.

Before them lay all the security data that belonged to this Hutt. Boxes and boxes full of saved data. Linn hoped he'd saved the data she needed. She looked at Garret.

"Ready to prove your innocence?"

[Garret Treborn]

The smuggler gave Linn a smile

"Since the day I met you in that bar on Coruscant."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn smiled wide back at the man as she remembered that night, though it seemed centuries ago. Beckoning to him, she crept into the room and pointed across to a stack of boxes.

"They're either in there or in here," she said, indicating the stack she stood next to. Checking her map quickly, she deemed the coast clear and set in on her stack of boxes. "It should be labeled 'Treborn.'"

[Garret Treborn]

Garret turned to his stack of boxes and began shuffling through them looking for the correct data. He didn't know what he would do if the information wasn't in one of the boxes.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn could hear Garret searching his stacks. She was looking through her own, and there was alot of it.

Some of them were labled with names she recognized as people she'd knocked off. Blakely, Rowain, Savage. It was ridiculous how many jobs she'd taken from this Hutt. And now, she was in a plot to foil him. Linn smiled grimly.

How ironic.

[Garret Treborn]

Garret perused through the files slowly, he didn't want to miss what he was looking for. He finished with the first box and moved on to the second. The smuggler wanted to find the data and get out of the Hutt's palace, being there was completely nerve racking and he couldn't help but think that they still might get caught.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn finished her first stacks and shoved the box to the side and dove into another. Name after name. File after file. But none with the name she was looking for. It should have been near the top, but naturally, it wasn't.

Linn studied the names hard, almost as if she hoped one of them would morph into Garret Treborn. But none of them did.

Kincade, Black, Jerusalem, Cindle, Terrex, Talan...Treborn.

The name screamed at Linn as it poked out from the bottom of the stack. She stuck her hand down the side of the box and gripped it, pulling it up and out. Linn opened it and saw a picture of a man who looked quite a bit like Garret because the resolution was so terrible. She looked over the information and then saw a call number on the bottom.

"Garret?" she said absentmindedly, still reading the information. "Look for a box labeled 278TrbrnG85."

[Garret Treborn]

Garret heard Linn say his name and his head turned in her direction. He saw that her eyes were locked on something she held in her hands and he realized that she had not said his name to get his attention. After hearing the string of numbers and letters that she read out, he set about finding the specified box. He repeated the numbers and letters in his head so as not to forget them.

It took the smuggler a few minutes of pushing around boxes until he found the one he was looking for. He picked it up, carried it over to Linn, and set it down.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn, still distracted by the grainy picture in the file, heard Garret set the box down beside her. Tearing her eyes from the file, she shut it, dropping it on the floor and kneeling down beside the box.

Linn tore into the box, shredding some of it and littering the floor. By the time anyone got here and found this, they would be long gone.

She finished getting into the box and was met with layers of cloth. She plunged her hands into it and searched. Her hands touched a cool, smooth surface. Grasping it, Linn pulled it up and saw a small case. It was simple and black, held closed by silver latches that winked mockingly in the dim light.

Linn unlatched the box and opened the lid. Sitting quietly inside, wating for someone to find it, were several chips of security data. Papers were tucked into the pocket on the lid. Linn slid them out and glanced over them. They specified from where each piece of data came. She looked up at Garret.

"This is it. This is your data," she said, turning it towards him so he could get a good look at it. "This'll make it or break it."

[Garret Treborn]

Garret sighed with relief. Finally, the proof that he had done nothing to warrant a bounty. Now they could leave the Hutt palace and examine the contents of the data chips back at his ship.

"Good. Let's get out of here."

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn nodded shutting the lid of the case and locking the latches that chuckled at her in the light, as if they knew something she did not. Sneering a little, Linn shoved it down into her hip sack, and went back out into the hall. She looked around a moment, then flipped open her map. Nothing moved on it. Nothing even shivered.

Linn nodded and stole down the hall towards her trap door. She paused a moment to listen, for fear thier footsteps may wake the keen of ear down below them.

[Garret Treborn]

Garret trailed not far behind the bunty hunter, making sure his footfalls were as quiet as possible.

[Linn O'Conner]

Linn led Garret back down through smuggler's recieving room, and then into the tunnel. She could see the opening up ahead and sped up, finding herself almost sprinting for the opening.