CHAPTER TWO

LUX

Back when we rebels were still getting ourselves together, we had some fleeting free time. One of our favorite things to do in said free time was to watch a cop show called "Criminal Minds".

The show was about police officers who solved crimes by figuring out what the perpetrator was like. From the evidence, they could tell if the criminal was a man or a woman, how old they were, what kind of job they had, and lots of other things. That type of science is called "profiling."

Don't get me wrong. Sometimes, that show was downright disturbing. But it was interesting, and a lot of fun for us all to watch together.

"I swear," Dono would say, cramming popcorn into her mouth as some guy was brutally murdered on the screen. "The cops are going to show up any minute now and save him."

I looked over at her, revolted. "How can you eat while watching this?"

Dono shrugged. "Doesn't gross me out."

Saw claims that while Tandin was interrogating him, he used tactics from the show to get Tandin on his side. According to Tandin, Saw's efforts extended to muttering "profiling" while Tandin told him to drink his energy juice.

Either way, we've used this to catch the Big Kahuna. We can do it again.

We fall back into our old positions. Steela takes point.

"Sierra and Hero, get on the computer and start digging. Hutch and Saw, examine the old documents for the Lazarus Project. Lux, you and I are going to put together a new profile."

"What am I looking for?" Sierra asks.

"Anything we missed." I suggest. "Something or someone who was in the Lazarus Project."

"And how are we doing to do that?"

"The Empire isn't on the planet yet, so my password to the Senatorial database should still work." I tell her. "It's Mom and Dad's anniversary."

Hero sits down at the computer. "Hey, we found Oz. We can do this no problem."

"I guess," Sierra says flatly, typing in the password.

Good luck, sis.

I sit down at the table next to Steela. "Quick question, Steel. Where's Ahsoka?"

"Headache. I personally think it's more than that, but whatever she says." She shrugs. "Okay, so about our new profile. I vote we call this guy the Puppet Master."

Beats "Big Kahuna." I shrug. "Due to the targeting of women, we can safely say the Puppet Master is a man. He's probably a human, and has a high-powered career since Tarkin was willing to work for him. We should try politicians and the military."

Steela nods. "He clearly hates the Jedi. Combine that with hatred of women, and we can assume that he is bigoted and narrow-minded. He might have an affiliation with a hate group or human supremacy."

"If he holds those views, then someone may have brought a discrimination lawsuit against him." I suggest.

Over on the other end of the room, Hutch and Saw pore over the documents.

Hero's fingers hammer over the keyboard.

"All right, we have a basic profile." I say. "Now all we have to do is run it against politicians and high-ranking military officers."

Steela snorts. "Human, male, bigoted politicians and officers. Yeah, that'll be real easy."

She has a point. People in that profile are a dime a dozen.

I sigh.

We are getting nowhere.

"Hey Hero," Hutch says, standing up. "Can you and trace a comm number for me?"

Hero minimizes her current window. "Shoot."

Hutch rattles off a string of numbers and Hero plugs them in.

"It's a Republic number," she says finally. "And it's definitely our guy."

"Who is it?"

"Here's the kicker." She says. "It's registered to someone named Winston Smith."

I resist the urge to bang my head against the table. Winston Smith is the main character in the book 1984.

"So he's the literary type." Steela mutters.

"All the payments on the burner were made with cash." Hero notes.

"Luckily," Hutch notes. "That's not as much of a dead end as you'd think."

Hero looks quizzically at her husband. "Huh?"

"All credits have a serial number so they can be tracked." Hutch explains. "I'm betting that the guy used money from his paycheck to buy the phone. If we track the serial numbers on the credits, we can find the bank they were issued to."

"And then run the profile."

Hero rolls her eyes. "You know, how about we put Hutch on computer duty? I'll help Saw look over the documents. You already know I have a good eye."

Hutch and Hero switch places, and his fingers fly over the keyboard.

"I'm picking the newest credit." He explains, code flying across the screen. "Looking it up in the Galactic Reserve…and we've got it! This credit was shipped to the Bank of Coruscant."

"No offense Hutch, but you are a cashier at Reddy Mart." Saw says. "How did you learn how to do this?"

Hutch shrugs. "The registers are basically computers, so I did this with the cash in my drawer when I got bored. The other cashiers and I would have competitions where we would find two items with the same price. They taught me to cross-reference the shipping manifests and the stock records."

"Well." I comment.

"Unfortunately," Hutch says, "Bank of Coruscant is very, very popular and there's no way to tell which person received the money. So, we're stuck."

I grab the profile Steela's scribbled down on a datapad. "Cross-reference the list of customers with politicians and military leaders."

"We're down to 127 customers. Keep going."

"He might have been sued for discrimination."

Hutch rolls his eyes. "Seventy-three. Every bigwig gets sued for that. Next!"

"Try suits that were settled or dropped before the hearing." Steela says. "A guy like this can't have a court battle tarnish his image."

Hutch turns around in his chair. "That brings us down to fifty. Got anything else?"

There's the distinct clearing of a throat from the doorway.

Oh Force, please not Tandin. Or my parents.

But (wonder of wonders), it isn't. It's Captain Rex.

"What in the universe?"

Steela and Hutch are too frustrated to answer, so I do.

"We're trying to find out who Tarkin's boss is."

Rex stares at me.

And stares at me.

And stares some more.

"Captain..?"

"Emperor Palpatine is behind Order 66."

Remember what I said about banging my head against the table. Saw does just that. And leaves it there.

"You could have just asked." Rex says quietly. "It's Palapatine. He…he's a Sith Lord."

I look down at the profile.

Human male with a high-powered career? Check.

Hates Jedi? Well, the Sith sure are their sworn enemies.

Bigoted? Ditto.

Sheev Palapatine is a perfect fit.

We just went through all this profiling and computer digging stuff…for nil.

Cheer up, Lux. My common sense says. You still need to find the rest of the Lazarus Project's workings if you want to slow down this carnage at all.

The other half of my brain proclaims: You kriffing idiot. You should have just asked Rex in the first place.

I breathe in through my nose, out through my mouth.

"Thanks, Rex."

"Ahsoka's making coffee." Rex says. "She, ah, she wants to know if you guys want any."

"I think we all need coffee." Hero admits.

"Can she spike mine?" Saw asks, voice muffled by the table.

"Sorry," Rex says, the shadow of a smile playing at his lips. "We don't have Moonshine around to get us some whiskey."

Hero shuffles her feet.

"Well, actually…"

A/N: Because we all know they would take the complicated route before it occurred to them to just ask.

Thank you to starwarshobbitfics for your lovely review! And speaking of reviews, please drop one on your way out. They make me happy and keep me motivated in terms of getting chapters published. And not to worry, the tension will be ratcheting up quickly in the next couple of chapters.

Until next time,

Lux's Sister