Retrieval Mission: The Ghosts of the Iron Citadel

[The Black Man]

continued from here (http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=16247)

Empress Teta: Cinnagar: Four Days Later

It'd been a silent journey from Bothuwai to the Deep Core for Estelle and her companion, most of it spent going over the controls of her new ship. The Rebel Agent loved the feel of the controls in her hands and the thrumming of the ship beneath her feet. It felt good to have something that was 'hers'.

"We're coming up on the Imperial base now," the Rebellion's Special Operations director, only known to her as 'The Black Man' spoke..

"You have your orders: slip into the sewer system just outside the east wall and make your way into the base. I'll be on the comm the entire time, guiding you through.

"Your target is in the middle of the base, a computer console with the target list."

He was only repeating what he'd told her on the trip to the Deep Core and Estelle was learning to hate briefings as much as her partner, Aurelias Kazaar, did. Russard missed her partner, but he was still laid up with injuries received on a failed mission to Trandosha. She felt bad about leaving him behind, but Liew (who Estelle suspected wasn't using his real name at all) said they had to do it. Apparently this mission was more important. Of course it would be nice to know what was actually on the data she was looking for. But that was 'classified'.

Stupid BlackOps. Oh my lord, she thought, I'm starting to sound like Aurelias.

"Russard!" Liew's voice cut into her thoughts, "Pay attention! you're almost as bad as your partner."

Estelle inwardly cursed and her boss continued. "Find that list and make your way off. You are not allowed to kill anyone. I don't want an action-holo in there. Just get in, get the data, and get out.

"Understood?"

[Estelle Russard]

"Understood" Estelle affirmed.

Not killing anybody would make a nice change to her recent exploits. Busting out of trouble in a blaze of glory was all well and good, but silent and unseen were much more her preferred style.

It was part of the logic behind the naming of her new ship, "Apparition." Kazaar had pulled a face at the name, but she liked it - it evoked the feeling of an elusive presence, which is just what she wanted to be. Someone who could accomplish things to the confounding of her adversary, namely, the Empire. And this new mission would be a good opportunity to utilize this philosophy.


"Are you sure the sewers are the best way in...?" she questioned The Black Man, though she knew better than to second-guess him. But the thought of sloshing through waste and filth was very unappealing and so she had to try.

"They are" came the unequivocal reply.

Oooo-kay...

She could hear Kazaar now, laughing at the mental image of her traipsing through all that muck. That'd cheer him on to recovery.

"The security is standard" which meant tight, she said as she reviewed the data Liew had given her. "Is there any reason they may be expecting a visit from the Alliance?"

A head's up to any unusual pressure would be helpful. It was hard to go in blind, and on such short notice. But this was what she'd signed up for, she supposed.

"Any advice you'd care to give me, Sir?"

[The Black Man]

"Trust your instincts and your training," Liew replied without hesitation. "If something doesn't feel 'right' then don't do it."

The fact she asked the question said volumes about her character. And her chances of survival.

Estelle picked up her utility belt, and 'The Black Man' handed her a couple of gas grenades. They were quickly placed in the slots behind her back.

"There are always three ways out of a situation," he added, handing her several recording rods (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Recording_rod). They ended up in her belt as well.

"The sewer entrance into the base is guarded by a single stormtrooper. Every hour he checks in with the base, then patrols the sewers.

"Your options are simple: either knock him out or wait for him to go on patrol."

The door to the transport opened and Estelle got ready to exit.

"Move out OPHELIA. Remember, I'll be in your ear the entire time."

[Estelle Russard]

"Got it" she said, departing.

Estelle checked her wrist chrono, the guard would be patrolling the sewers any time now and it would be best if she could avoid him entirely. In a perfect world..

It was nightfall and Russard had the shadows for an ally. She advanced quietly through the lightly wooded surroundings, covering the distance from the <i>Apparition</i> drop-off point to the outskirts of the Imperial Base in good time.

As she neared the sewer outflow port, Estelle checked her comm connection with The Black Man, "Ophelia to Brother John (Liews codename for the operation) -- Range check, 1-2. Repeat, Range check, 1-2"

[The Black Man]

"Brother John to Ophelia," the deep voice of 'The Black Man' cut through her ears like he was standing right next to her.

"Your mic is sensitive enough, you can whisper and I'll hear it just fine."


* * *

The stormtrooper stood by the grate to the sewers and was bored. He hated pulling this duty, especially on nights when Aarya the Dancer was at the 'Club Corellia'.

"This is Beta Three, checking in. Everything's quiet."

He stook lackadasical by the grate, then started his patrol.

[Estelle Russard]

The guard was not overly wary, but neither was he negligent in performing his duty. He walked the length of his assignment only after good inspection of the sewer grate and the ground immediately around it, looking closely for any sign of tampering or unauthorised approach. His flashlight arced its brilliant beam over the area and into the shrubs beyond. Estelle lay flat on the ground and watched him for five full minutes before he radioed the all clear and moved on.

It was eight minutes exactly before she moved. If the intel was accurate, she would have 45 minutes--give or take-- to get in, get the data, and get out.

Taking a slim pen-point laser from one of the many compartments of her utility belt, the young agent got busy cutting through sewer grate lock. It took only seconds before she tugged the grate open, climbed in and pulled it closed after her, hooking the lock back over to give the appearance of being in tact.

The smell inside was dreadful and Russard did her best to breath only through her mouth. As it was, the noxious fumes burned her throat with each inhale/exhale.

<i>"In the sewer, Brother John"</i> she whispered into the comm indicating the first successful step.

<i> -- Proceed -- </i> came Liew's perfunct reply.

[The Black Man]

The young Rebel agent slipped quickly down the long sewer corridor, doing her best to avoid stepping in the greenish sludge that moved past her at a slow rate of speed. Her brown eyes noted something in the sewage...was that an eye?

"Stay away from the liquid," 'The Black Man's' voice rumbled in her earpiece, "Dianognas (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dianoga) have been known to lurk in the water."

"Great," Estelle mumured and continued her trek down the corridor. At the sudden sound of voices, she slipped quietly into the shadows.

"I tell ya Mac, I dunno why they want this security camera installed. It doesn't matter what we do 'round here, that air duct is always gonna get broken," the first voice was higher pitched and rat-like.

A second, Mac, his voice booming in volume, replied, "Doesn't matter to me, Conrad. Captain Newton said we needed to get this done or else it was our hides. You want to tell him we didn't get it done because you wanted to make sure we had all the parts?"

As Conrad started his defensive reply, Liew's voice suddenly crackled in Estelle's earpiece, "Get rid of them."

[Estelle Russard]

"Acknowledged"

She replied and immediately drew a small disc, no larger than a bottle cap, from a zippered pocket. Flicking the "on' switch on the unit's underside with her thumbnail, Russard launched the activated device at the corridor wall. It had a magnetic bottom and instantly attatched itself to the corridor wall between the two laboring trooper's heads. Both turned instinctively to examine what had come propelling through the darkness toward them. That was all the time that was needed. The unit hissed out a clear mist upon contact with the wall and the droplets seered into the eyes of the two men, causing an instant -- and rather unpleasant -- reaction.

The moisture caused a burning sensation and the men instantly scrunched their lids closed and began rubbing their eyes vigorously. Estelle stepped up, nerve pinched one, then the other, trooper to drop them both to the ground without resistance. Neither had seen her coming. She retrived the small bottle-cap device, then uncapped atube of another solution and held it for three seconds under the men's nostrils. They would wake up in an hour or two with a pounding headache. By then, she would be long gone. Then plucking out a trusty roll of duct tape (a spy's best friend) she bound the pair together back to back, taping mouths, hands, feet as well.

Then, dragging them through the sludge a ways along the sewer, she brought them to where the floor inclined on a small gradient, where she left them out of reach of any Dianognas, should they be lurking about. The thought of the men becoming a meal for the sewer-dweller was unimaginable to the young agent, and it would not happen to them on account of her.

A small distance further on, Estelle came to a service door. It would be the same one the troopers had accessed the sewer from. Using the ID and access cards she'd lifted from the troopers, Estelle, having removed her plastic boot covers and discarding them to the sludge, stepped unobserved into the basement level corridor of the Iron Citadel.

[The Black Man]

"Hold here a moment," the Director of Rebel SpecOps ordered and the Rebel agent complied. Her eyes spotted two lights shining on the floor across the room and a security camera near it. A darkened corridor was beyond it. The lights flicked on and off a moment, then shut off completely, plunging the portion of the basement into darkness.

"Go."

Estelle wasted no time heading past the, now blind, security camera and down the dark corridor.

"Turn left at the end of the corridor. You'll be in a large room stocked with carbonite sculptures. Take the door at the left of the room."

OPHELIA gave a *double click* on her radio and crept towards the sculpture room. She paused a moment, didn't see any bucketheads, then took a step into the room.

A small gasp came from her lips.

These weren't sculptures...they were people. Estelle wasn't sure if they were Imperial prisoners or from some long forgotten era. What she was sure of was the pain they'd been in at the time of their carbonite covering. One woman cowered in a ball, trying to protect something; while a man stood defiantly, his fists clenched. There were 30 or so statues, all alike in form and horror.

Her ears perked up at the sound of the door opening.

Someone was coming....

[Estelle Russard]

Crouching behind one of the twisted carbonite forms, Estelle had to will herself to pull her eyes from the macarbe statues and fix them on the entry door to her right.

It was an eerie feeling to be alone with the dead. The violation of life so well represented all about her prickled her skin. The Imperials had much to answer for.

<i>"I got company"</i> she whispered softly to Liews.

[The Black Man]

"Copy," The Black Man acknowledged, "Stand by."

Estelle didn't know, but Liew had abandoned The Apparition for a small transport which rested near her ship. Inside, a team of heavily armed men plus two techs waited, the latter currently staring at a computer layout of the castle.

"What do you have, Sarna?" the agent rumbled towards one of the techs.

"Hang on...hang on..." Sarna pressed her tongue against her upper lip and furiously tapped on the keys.

"Got it!"

Inside the base, Estelle noticed a fine mist start spraying from the ceiling, as half the flame retardent systems switched on. Pressing her body against the wall, she allowed herself a small smile, as curses came from behind the door. They faded quickly as whoever was behind it, now left to fix the problem with the system.

"You have a small opening. Get out the door. Go down the hallway and up the first ladder you see. That leads to the first floor."

"There are two security cameras near the ladder. Disable or avoid them all together.

[Estelle Russard]

As the mist descended and the noises behind the door faded into the distance, Russard smiled inwardly -- it certainly paid to have the right kind of friends. She did not know how Liews had accomplished it, but she got the sneaking feeling Brother John, too, was not operating alone.

Slipping silently through the door and into the hallway, Russard crept against the wall, a small cannister palmed in her hand, which Intel had designed for such a circumstance.

She depressed the nozzle with a forefinger, and created a mist of her own. Spraying a layer onto the first camera lens, Estelle waited just a second to assure herself the mist was fizzing, and then moved immediately to the second camera to do the same.

From the other side of the lens, whomever was watching would see static snow on both screens now and would assume a temporary interruption in communication. As the mist would quickly evaporate in the air, "communication" would be restored and the gliche self-resolve.

By that time, Russard was up the ladder and negotiating with extreme care, the first floor.

Over the comm she queried "distance to objective..?"

[The Black Man]

"Four Floors, not counting this one," 'Brother John' answered immediately. He was now staring at a holographic display of the base. A red dot signified OPHELIA's location on the grid. There were several yellow dots on the grid as well; signifying the location of Imperials.

The problem with the locators, they weren't always accurate. Sometimes the locators said an Imperial was there when he wasn't or vice versa. 'The Black Man' knew he couldn't rely simply on the technology.


* * *

Estelle pushed the trapdoor opened and crawled into the room. High stony walls reached up towards a single light, which bathed the room in an eerie yellow glow. The Rebel spy didn't see any cameras, but did see plenty of cargo containers. A single, metal door was in front of her and she started creeping towards it.

"Exit the door and head down the hallway. At the end of the hall is another service ladder. Take it up two levels."

OPHELIA *double-clicked* her comm in response.

"The main turbolift halfway between your location and the ladder. Four to five guards.

"You know what to do."

Estelle pressed the controls for the door and it slid open.

The beauty of the corridor was amazing. Various tapestries and paintings hung from the medium-sized corridor, depicting scenes from various ages of Empress Teta: from its humble beginnings to the rise of the Krath. The Rebel spy could see a break in the corridor, where the turbolift, with its guards, was.

She crept forward, keeping to what little shadows there were.


* * *

"Sir," Sarna stated from her computer panel. "I just did a check of the base's logs.

"It's shift change. "

"Palpatine's black bones," 'The Black Man cursed, then cued the comlink.

"'Brother John' to OPHELIA. Getting really 'busy' over there. Expect double the company.

"Repeat, expect double the company."

[Estelle Russard]

Double the company?</I> That meant approximately 10 guards. Too many to pacify quietly and without an alarm being raised. Russard withdrew, easing herself into the first door behind her in order to wait out some of the traffic.

"Can I help you?"

Estelle spun around to meet the enquiring face of a uniformed female stepping out from behind a desk toward her.

[The Black Man]

OPHELIA's reaction was almost instant. Leaping forward, she swung a balled fist into the uniformed officer's temple. The Imperial went down in a heap, but not before tumbling over her chair with a small *clatter*

"What happened," The Black Man demanded in the Rebel's earpiece.

"Ran into some company. They're down."

Another voice suddenly popped into Estelle's head, "I've got movement on level, OPHELIA," It was Sarna's voice, "Get out of there now.

"There should be a large window in the office. It leads to an unguarded garden area. Take the body and get rid of it."

"Twenty seconds, Russard," 'Liew' rumbled. "Move!

[Estelle Russard]

As Liew was carping to her through the earpiece, Estelle was already autopiloting the task of binding the woman's hands and feet with a slender nylon thread, akin to fishing line. It was horribly durable and served to be extremely difficult to break - perfect for such use as Russard now employed.

Four quick strides took her to the window Brother John had spoken of and opening it with a glance left and right assured the rebel that the immediate area was clear.

Crossing back she re-righted the chair, then hefted the woman, who was of a build similar to herself only a good six inches taller, over her shoulder. Lowering her burden, then herself to the outside, Russard closed the window after her.

She waited one minute, ducked below pane level before cautiously lifting her eyes to peer into the office she had just vacated. It was empty. If the guards had investigated the noise, they had been and gone. So far, no alarm had been raised. Reopening the window, Estelle reversed her previous efforts and lifted the unconscious woman back in through the window, sliding her form down gently to fold into a heap on the carpeted floor. Again, Russard clambered back through the window after her.

Moving to the desk, Estelle located a box of tissues and wadded four or five into her captive's mouth. She then taped her lips over with clear tape from the desk drawer. There was no telling how long the woman would be out for, but this would keep her quite just that much longer. Estelle did not need too much time, but every moment might make a difference.

Having dealt with that time-consuming interlude, Russard stalked silently to the door. She listened for any sound or movement and heard none. Deftly opening the door a crack, she confirmed no one was right outside and then slipped through and back into the corridor.

Negotiating the hallway toward the turbo lift once more, Russard took her blaster in hand. Four or five guards should just be left there now, given that shift change should be completed. Four or five unexpected laser bolts should be all she'd need. They would be kill shots as there was no time now for stuns and tying people up. Such courtesies took too long.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, Estelle rounded the last curve to arrive at the lift.

[The Black Man]

"Sir," Sarna spoke as she tapped a few more keys on her keyboard. The image on her screen shifted from an overhead view of the compound to an image of the lift area.

"There are still five guards on duty. What's she doing?"

BROTHER JOHN's eyes narrowed as he stared at her movements.

"Russard," his voice was short, "Don't you dare do your best imitation of your partner. You are not allowed to kill, understand? That's an order.

"Find another way to the next level."

[Estelle Russard]

That remark cut hard. Was that what she was doing? Becoming just like Kazaar..? The idea was quite shocking. She had seen Aurelias at what she considered his worst. The past interrogation of a prisoner had brought out an incredibly violent and dark side of the ex-bounty hunter. Whether it got darker than that, Russard could only guess. And fear.

She double-clicked her acknowledgement to Liew and retreated back the way she'd come.

"Any plan 'b's boss?" she said softly into the comm.

[The Black Man]

"Stand by," 'The Black Man' turned to Sarna, while she continued to tap at keys. He could almost hear the curse hiss out of Estelle's lips. She was becoming close to her partner.

Very dangerous but in a different way. If she'd let The Black Man mold her...she'd be an agent of a different kind.

"Service staircase in the door across from yours. No guards. One camera. Take you up two levels.

"Two guards outside the door on Level Three. Take 'em out. Non-lethally, of course."

[Estelle Russard]

One camera, two guards. Right.

Russard entered the stairwell and took one of a small number of mirrors from her utility belt. Coming alongside and from underneath, she stretched an arm upward, and reaching up from her tiptoes, she attached it to right angles of the rim of the camera lens by the use of its magnetic siding. The mirror face reflected into the camera the empty hallway and effectively created a blind-spot for Russard to walk down. Such items as the mirror, the nylon thread etc were all standard issue for Intel agents. Some items were more sophisticated than others, but oftentimes, the simpler was the better.

While taking the stairs at a brisk pace, Estelle changed the setting of her blaster to stun...as per her direct orders. At times, lethal force had its benefits as Kazaar would agree. But Liew was right, she could not become so arbitrary with the taking of lives just because it made things easier.

With a rush, she exited the stairway. Sighting the two guards instantly, she dropped one, then another to the floor with the use of her blaster. The second guard had almost had time to press the panic button on his radio - she'd seen his hand reach in that split second. Relieving them of the radios, she dragged them back into the stairwell and left them slumped together.

"Level Three acquired" she notified The Black Man.

[The Black Man]

"Good," Liew's praise was not unnoticed by Estelle. He did seem like the kind of boss who hardly every praised people, except for when they deserved it. In the darkness of the stairwell, she allowed herself a smile.

The Rebel spy poked her head out of the doorway and scanned her surroundings. The hallway was a lot like the one down two floors, with more windows and less artwork. There was something about the windows which didn't make sense, they seemed to distort the view of Cinnegar a bit. It clicked in her mind...these windows were at least two inches. They'd stop almost any blaster bolt from outside or inside.

A *whirring* noise caused her ears to pick up and she quickly turned towards the sound. A protocol droid wandered down the hall, its eyes staring forward.

"Oh my!" it raised its arms in surprise. "What are you doing here?? Who are you??"

[Estelle Russard]

Frell

That was her first thought. The second was to wrastle the droid back into the stairwell with her and deactivate it. Which was what she did, but she knew the effort to be more than futile. The droid - if it was worth an ounce of the oil spent on it to keep its joints greased - would have sent off an alarm via its internal circuitry. Estelle was technically shutting the barn door after the bantha had bolted.

Double frell

"Problem, big Brother" she said leaving the bodycount behind in the stairwell and jogging briskly down the corridor. "Timetable is shot to heck. We've likely got Noxious (the rebel codename for Imperial security) eyes opening as we speak. I need the most direct route asap"

She stepped into the turbo-lift and as the doors closed behind her and the lift shot upward, the words Liew was saying broke down into garbled static noise. Arriving on level four, the doors opened and Estelle tapped her ear, "Say again, Brother John....?"

[The Black Man]

"Get to the next level OPHELIA." The Black Man's bass voice rumbled in her earpiece. Go down the hall and turn left. There's another service staircase."

"Sir!" Sarna hollered from her station, "I've got a full squad of stormtroopers approaching her position."

"Understood. Russard! Fifth Freedom's been relinquished. Do what you have to do to get to the next level. If it means shooting your way out. Do it."

Liew's demeanor was relatively calm through all this. As usual, he had a backup plan.

"Tell Killbrew's team to start their run. I'll meet them halfway."

[Estelle Russard]

Relinquished? Damnit. Estelle did not want to accept that order.

"Confirm last, Brother John? There's still time to complete task in hand" she said, her course unchanged. "Am continuing on to primary target"

Estelle got to the data room before the approaching troops had rounded into the south corridor. She drove her vibroblade into the lock crevice and snapped the latch open. The room was devoid of personell, which was unusual, but Estelle did not waste time or thought on it.

Sweat was beading on her face and her fingers shook with the pumping adrenalin that was making every move and thought a clarity of methodology. It was just like training. Sorta.

She approached the computer consol and took a datacard from the lining in her pants pocket and a jack-jump device that was rebel-designed to parasite onto an Imperial data-port. She could hear the footfalls outside the door and could picture the security troops positioning themselves to burst through.

--Click-click--

Russard snapped on the jj-device and then lifted her blaster ready to shoot the first body into the breach.

Liew was shouting something into her earpeice.

..Looks like she didn't have time after all.

[The Black Man]

"Russard! Be ready to duck! Repeat! Be ready to duck!"

Multiple stormtrooper squadrons were racing into the room now, their blasters ready to fire. A rat-faced Imperial Officer strode in, his face twisted into a smirk that made Kazaar's smirks look like smiles.

"Well...well...well," the Officer's smarmy face didn't change its look, "What do we have here. Our 'ghost' appears to be nothing more than a moppet.

"So Young Moppet. What are you doing here?"

Before Estelle could either open her mouth, or shoot the smirk from the Imperial's face, the entire room exploded in bursts of blaster fire as a team of masked and heavily armored men broke through the tempered glass on the outside.

Their blasters fired with precision and one of them grasped the young Rebel's arm. She started to fight off, but the man's voice stopped her cold.

"Calm yourself, OPHELIA."

It was 'The Black Man'.

[Estelle Russard]

<i>Liew? What the--</i>

A blaster bolt whizzed by her head and the timely yank of The Black Man spared her a big molten tunnel through her brain.

"Who?" she couldn't grasp what..or rather how the tide had turned so much in the rebel favour. Bodies dropped, or were flung back more accurately, as Liew's team sprayed the Imperials without bias, the smarmy officer being among the first to go.

Liew grabbed the jack-jump device and the data card from the consol and pocketed it and then ushered his charge out, giving no room for argument.

"There's no data on that card!" Estelle cried out.

"We got what we need" was Liew's unconcerned reply.

"We got nothin!" Russard was emphatic. "I had no time to search"

Liew smiled cryptically, "I know"

Estelle did not like that smile. Her mind raced over events, but her thoughts were pulled quite emphatically to the present dilema as a second squad of Imps came running to them from the end of the corridor.

[The Black Man]

'The Black Man' wasted no time tossing a thermal detonator towards the squad, causing them to scatter as quickly as they could. The explosion killed most of the Imperials, but both Rebels were forced to use their blasters to dispatch several others as they tried to fight back against the invaders.

Estelle was still angered by the intrusion to her mission, her apparently failure, and 'Liew's' silence on their goals.

"We go down two levels and escape through the garage," 'The Black Man' spoke quickly, as he hustled Estelle towards the ventilation shaft. "There's an unmarked speeder which will take you to your ship. You'll immediately leave.

"No one saw your face, yes?"

[Estelle Russard]

"The droid, the woman." she said, cringing on the inside. "Any others are dead on the dataroom floor"

The Black Man's face was impassive, all except for the faintest tick of his cheek.

"Sorry" she added lamely.

[The Black Man]

Wekom raised his comlink to his face. "Niskanen. There should be a woman trussed up...where..." he settled a gaze on Estelle, who quickly gave him the location.

"Third floor. Outside a window. Also look for a disabled protocol droid on the fourth floor. We're taking them."

"Aye sir."

"Next time, " The Director of Special Ops glowered at Estelle, "Wear a mask and change your face. Do it anyway. When we get back, I want to see you with short hair. That's an order."

The two were now at the entrance to the ventilation shaft. They crawled through it silently, then emerged in the garage where a speeder, driven by an unnamed Rebel, waited.

'Othniel' motioned for Estelle to get in and she complied.

They rode in silence, before the Rebel spy opened her mouth.

"Why didn't we get the data card?"

"Because," The Black Man answered, not looking at her, "There was no data on it. The list was fake."

[Estelle Russard]

"Fake..? Then why the heck..?" the question trailed off, Estelle answering it for herself within her own mind.

Her demeanor soured even further. She was still smarting inside for her task failure; the carelessness of being seen and the correllating rebuke. And the fact Liew wanted her hair cut. It wasn't so much the cutting as the way he'd commanded it of her. She knew how to take orders, but somehow this one grated on her.

"It was a setup" she stated flatly and Liew slid her a glance as if to prompt her to continue, knowing she'd get there eventually.

"And I was what? Bait?"

The Black Man smiled. "Dont be offended, you play 'cheese' very well"

Estelle bit back a retort, leaving just an unspoken bitterness to line her mouth. She decided there and then that she didn't like Liew all that much.

"Why did I have to be kept in the dark? Seems like it wouldn't have made any difference"

[The Black Man]

For a moment, her companion hesitated.

"You can stop here Darwyn. I'll drive the rest of the way."

The driver nodded, then pulled the speeder over to the side of the road. He exited, nodded to his boss, then seemed to disappear right before Estelle's eyes.

Liew got in the front seat and pulled away from the shoulder. More silence followed, both Rebels staring up at the rearview mirror to see if they'd been followed.

Nothing.

"Because," The Black Man stated simply, "Only a select few know there's a traitor within the Alliance. I needed to see if it were anyone in my organization. Since it's not...I can proceed in seeing who does know."

Estelle was flabbergasted, "How do you--?"

"Because two are dead and one is currently recovering from wounds sustained on a mission. A mission they were with me on," his black eyes flashed, "I was with them from the time I informed them of the traitor to the time of their deaths or injury."

"But what about when--"

"I know what you're thinking and the answer is, 'No'. The Inquisitors have their agents within the Rebellion and I have mine." Othniel let it linger whether he meant within the Empire or within the Rebellion. Estelle had a feeling it was both.

"My organization was not involved," he continued, "Valten has made some very subtle moves. Even I am having trouble detecting them. But I had to see which department might have leaked the info to him. I can eliminate mine, now I have to see who else is involved."

He pulled the speeder to the side of the road again.

"Do you understand?"

[Estelle Russard]

She understood well enough to be afraid of her own short-vision. She should know, know, that the picture is always much bigger than the sphere of her own rotation of experience and knowledge.

She was just one cog in an enormous and intricate wheel. The world of Intelligence was an ever changing face of shadows and half-seen, half-understood truths. Estelle turned a candid appraisal on Liew. The man exuded quiet confidence and capability. She had so much to learn. What a child she was compared to the agent seated beside her. Somehow, with her runnings with Kazaar - the successes they'd had and the rush of completing missions with such an older operative - had fooled her into thinking she was much farther along the road than she was. Just by being who he was, not even saying a thing, The Black Man glaringly spotlighted just what a self-delusion that actually was. Estelle tried not to feel overwhelmed.

"I have a long way to go, dont I?" she asked with complete transparency.

[The Black Man]

For the first time in a while, 'The Black Man' smiled. A true smile, not one placed on to placate someone. This was genuine.

"You've learned a lot and continue to do so," he stated as the speeder pulled into traffic again, "But you must apply what you're learned. Changing your face or your voice, even slightly means much in your occupation.

"Perhaps it's unwise to partner you with Kazaar..."

[Estelle Russard]

"I request that you dont change that"

She didn't want another partner. There was a bond shared between her and Aurelias that her gut-instinct told her did not come around very often. He had come back for her on Mastala. She knew she could trust him with her life.

Her tone was more telling to Liew than her actual words, honest as they were, "I trust him. And you know what that means in this business"

[The Black Man]

"It means everything," The Black Man answered without hesitation. At the same time, he angled the speeder down a side road.

"Your cover is excellent, but you aren't using it to your advantage. You father's business dealings make it an excellent opening."

He pulled to the side of the road and Estelle spied two people waiting for them. One was a female, Sarna, her right ear covered by a headset. The other a male, younger than her, who looked like he could go 20 shockboxing rounds with almost any day.

Sarna came up to her boss and whispered in his ear. 'Liew' cursed silently, then turned to OPHELIA.

"Your ship is a mile that way. Take a circuitous route back to your partner, but do not go by Coruscant without him. Appearances...must be kept.

"Get a hair cut along the way as well. Understood?"

[Estelle Russard]

Estelle was relieved that there was to be no partner change more than Liew could know. Or maybe he did know..Estelle acknowledged his admonishions with a soft smile, "Yes sir" and exited the speeder.

She would make her way carefully back to the "Apparition" and set a course for home.

She had always thought her father's business association with the Empire would afford her some advantage for the Alliance through social gatherings and suares and the like. But perhaps, as Brother John hinted, there could be other avenues. She mulled these things over, together with the news of a mole within the network and all that that meant, as she moved through the streets.

But, as was typical to alot of females, the most pressing thoughts kept returning -- into just what style she should cut her hair.