Sentinel and Sneak (Hera, Jamo)

[Pierce Tondry]

The doors to Poseiden's Gate slammed open. Sniper, Intelligence Operative, and Jedi Knight Pierce Tondry stepped through and cast his eyes about at the patrons. They took a momentary look at him and then slid their eyes back to their drinks, disinterested. Here, Pierce was known as a smuggler and scoundrel.

Knowing Pierce's true identity would have sent the entire bar scrambling for blasters.

Pierce took his hand from the door and allowed it to swing closed. As he started towards the bar, he caught sight of a Rodian in a flightvest still staring at him. Pierce returned the stare with double the intensity until the Rodian looked away.

With all attention off him, Pierce looked over the bar once again. A pall lay over the entire place, a pall so thick as to be called a taint. In his lifetime, Pierce had ordered drinks from bars seedier, older, more low-tech, more tightly controlled, and more populated by thugs and criminals.

But none of them were Shadowfaene. Here, the very air of the bar was an infectious agent, permeating one's nostrils with a claustrophobic hatred. The patrons could not be more hard, or more self-centered. No, none of the other bars had what Poseiden's Gate had: possessiveness sunk into the very foundation of the building.

Pierce took a seat at the bar waiting for Hera DrenKast, queen of greed, to make her rounds.

[Eluna Thals]

A table nearby, a blonde-haired woman caught Pierce's eye. She smiled sweetly to the Jedi, and returned to her drink. Something about her seemed familiar.

[DarthHERA]

Hera had been alerted to Tondry's arrival after a short interval, and following hard on the heels of her security, the Faene Mistress exited her back office to find the rogue whom she'd half imagined would never show again.

But there he was, large as life sitting at the bar.

Hera approached the bar and took a seat on the stool beside him.

"Wonders never cease, half thought you'd not come back to Enton.."

Tondry was unshaven and looked a little tired, but his eyes held the same sure sharpness that Hera remembered from their first meeting.

"..And all in one peice even. The Jedi really are as dumb and as stupid as we all assume them, then?"

For all her easy manner Hera had a beligerant menace about her that was just waiting for a trip or misstep to pounce on. She had never really trusted Peirce fully. Sending Jamo along with him on his "mission" was part of that mistrust. Speaking of which..

She looked around the bar, not finding what she sought, and a hardness replaced her original welcome.

"Where's my man? You did bring Jamo back with you....?"

Her tone told Peirce the answer had better be yes.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce's eyes slid sideways, then returned to the drink he'd ordered to help pass the time. They stared into the murky liquid as though at any moment, the bubbling clouds would part and reveal the answers that everyone sought.

But nothing came, and after a few seconds Pierce looked to Hera. "He's alive."

Pierce snatched up his glass and downed the entire drink in a single pull, slamming it back down to the wooden countertop with a thunk. "You sent him to spy on me, didn't you?" he asked sourly.

[DarthHERA]

"I sent him to protect my interests"

Which they both knew was the same thing.

"Jamo better be more than just alive" she said darkly. "He better be in good health with his eternal sugar high bouncing him off the ceilings like he usually is."

She waited for confirmation of this, her eyes boring into Tondry who had remained staring at her in acusation.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce turned back to his empty glass, which had been refilled in the interim. "You didn't pay me to keep an eye on him," he said, raising the glass to his lips. "You paid me to get you this."

As he took a drink, Pierce's free hand pulled a datapad from his other side where it had been out of view. He tossed it to the counter, where it settled face up. "As for Jamo, he should've been more careful. There was... trouble, and he's not as good at looking out for himself as he thinks."

[DarthHERA]

Hera was off her stool and the barman had one beefy hand twisted into Peirce's hair while the other pinned his head to the bar, before the data pad had barely settled to a stop.

Hera shattered the end of Tondry's glass against the countertop and held it mere inches from his face. His lips puckered slightly as the barman did his best to push flesh through polished wood.

"You want to run that by me again?"

Others in the bar had hushed and all heads sprouted upwards at the commotion.

Peirce was in a most precarious position.

[Pierce Tondry]

"No," Pierce managed to spit out. "I told you he's alive. You want information on something not related to Navaria Tarkin, you get it from him. That's what you sent him for, isn't it?"

[DarthHERA]

Her face changed from open threat to a sardonic grin as she pulled away from Peirce to sit once more on her stool.

"Thats right"

The barman released his hold and Tondry angrily shook the mans beefy hands off him. The rest of the patrons went back to their drinks.

"So, Jamo is safe - we will come back to him."

She gestured for the barman to replace Peirce's drink, replacing the glass as well, as she pocketed the data pad.

"What did you find out - summarise for me."

[Pierce Tondry]

"It bothers you to even think you've lost something you consider yours, doesn't it," Pierce said instead. His words were soft and insistent, his gaze probing for the most minute of facial reactions. "That's your button, isn't it? All you want, is everything."

"Fine."

Pierce tossed the entire drink into his throat, shifted his grip, and slammed the empty glass into the countertop. The bottom half shattered into tiny glass fragments. Pierce's gloved hand dropped a ring of still-intact glass onto the pile of shards. "I'll tell you everything you want to know about the trip, but not here. Some place private."

His gaze landed on one of the patrons, an extremely beautiful blonde that left his gut uneasy. "I don't trust the scenery."

[DarthHERA]

She declined comment on Pierce's phycoanalysis of herself, though he was close to the truth of things. Added to the fact though, was that Hera was fond of the flame-haired techno freak. The quirky ones always seemed to find a place of affection in her twisted black heart.

She followed instead his furtive glance at the attractive blonde across the way and laughed at Tondry freely. Men were so strange.

"Dont worry - I'll protect you"

She got up once again and nodded in the direction of her office.

"That be private enough for you will it..?"

[Pierce Tondry]

Don't know why you're laughing at me, sweetheart. You're probably the most dangerous thing in this room, and- go figure- an attractive blonde. "It's fine. Long as you don't mind the goons speculating what an attractive rogue is doing in your office alone with you."

Hera glanced backwards over her shoulder. "They're probably wondering why I haven't killed you yet."

Oh, you're a damn cold one, aren't you Hera? Not like Eve. "Right."

Attractive rogue followed attractive blonde over to the office door. Hera tapped in a keycode ("No peeking") and then the two of them were in a small, but modestly furnished office area. They each took a seat. "You were summarizing, Mel?" Hera prompted.

Right. "The starting material you gave me was decent. Most of it checked out easily, but just to be sure I spent some time off of Coruscant doing a data search or two. Once I was sure I had what I needed, I made planetfall on Coruscant. That was a month ago."

Hera nodded. "Go on."

Before continuing, Pierce made a mental note not to let his explanation run-on, military style. He needed to keep everything in character. "Wasn't easy getting my eyes on her, let me tell you. The Jedi Order's got security six ways from center. Lucky for me, the Bar and Grill of theirs isn't as tightly watched. First time I saw her in there was in the company of a guy called Sanis Prent."

Pierce paused, this time out of curiosity. "You know the guy?"

[DarthHERA]

"Ive heard of him" she replied vaguely.

"You and I both know how it goes - in this business everyone knows everyone and noone at same time"

Hera fiddled with a pencil, spinning it on her desk.

"What about the Jedi's routine. How regimented is she?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"Funny you should ask that."

Hesitation in answering Hera's question came not from his desire to conceal information in this case. Fact was, Pierce did not know what to expect from Navaria. Aside from being one of a few people who knew she was a clone of Dalethria Mal Pannis, the things he'd seen...

A thought struck him. Hera played the darker side of the fence. Perhaps she had information that could put this into a different light.

"Oh?"

It was Hera, demanding his attention again. Mentally reminding himself to be careful what he told and what he didn't, Pierce started. "Yeah. Something may be up with her..."


######

The ship on loan from Intel failed to qualify as a good hauler, in Pierce's opinion. It came fast and manueverable, two traits any good smuggler would like, but for cargo space there were only two small side-by-side bays towards the bottom of the ship. Critical parts laced the adjoining wall, making any modifications to remove the wall tricky at best, and expensive at least.

Then again, he'd selected the ship because nothing available in the Republic storehouse had the same firepower. It had twin Taim-and-Baik X5-90 blaster cannons, the best combination of reliability, strength, and accuracy one could get on a midsize hauler.

Jamo Jakatta, on the other hand, was enjoying the vessel just fine. He'd taken it upon himself to have complete run of the ship, knowing that Hera had shelled out for replacement sublight engines. Only one place remained absolutely forbidden to his curious nose- Pierce's cabin.

At the outset of his assignment, Pierce took great care in keeping nothing that might incriminate himself to Shadowfaene smugglers in that cabin (one or two very illegal items were stashed away in case Jamo should go looking), but one could never be too sure. Plus, suspicion played a core part of his character.

Because Jamo could not sleep in Pierce's cabin, he'd set up shop in one of the cargo bays. Apparently Jamo liked to tinker- within hours of coming on board the bay was strewn with parts and two or three half-finished droids. He'd even restored one of the mouse-droid units that came with the ship.

Whack.

Pierce snatched the mouse droid off the floor eliciting a whir of protest from the machine. He glared at Jamo, who returned the expression with a look both guilty and smug. Rubbing his sore heel, Pierce made a mental note to sell the damn thing as fast as possible.

"I'm heading out to start this little chore your boss gave me. I'd suggest you stay in here, but you're not gonna do what I say anyway, so you might as well come with me. I can use you as cover."

Jamo pocketed the droid's remote control. "Where are we going?"

"To a certain bar and grill. Now get a move on."