"Neero was spotted sir, but he managed to evade the investigators."

"Good. Just one loose end to secure."

"Sir?"

"Find your associate, Irandan. Kill him."

"Now? If the investigators find the body-"

"Let them find it. If he dies, they have nothing."

"Yes, Overseer."

Two Days Later

It took the bounty hunters two whole days to chase down the small and weak leads Kar'tan had managed to extract from the glut of interviews. The temptation to skip tracking down each more-than-likely-useless lead was huge, but it wasn't worth the chance that they would miss that vital bit of information from an improbable source. More than once in the past, the pair had been glad to have paid such close attention to detail. Unfortunately, after tracking down every scrap of evidence in town and in the barracks with no lucky break, there was no choice but to directly tail their most obvious informant.

The wind had picked up as the sun fled from the sky. The heat of the day was quickly fading, and periodically gusts kicked up trash in the streets or whirled off in small dust devils. It was the time of day when most honest citizens were beginning to disappear, replaced by the seedier elements of society.

"The minicam feeds we've collected on Mr. Irandan haven't given us much as of yet, but I'm certain you'll be able to pick up something with an old fashioned stakeout tonight. If I'm right, whoever is calling the shots will use the weekend crowds as cover to slip new orders in to our mark."

"That makes sense," said Cairn, "but if this is all we can do..."

"I wish we had more to go on, but you already know how tapped out we are at this point," responded Kar'tan.

Cairn nodded in understanding; sometimes all they had was one lead and a load of guesswork. Mandalorians had a saying: "When there is no path, blaze your own till you find one." In those situations, Kar'tan's bull-headed nature caught the trail they needed more often than not, though Cairn didn't seem to have the same luck. Last time he had been in charge, they'd chased a lead right into the middle of a gang war.

As they crossed the empty district to reach the stakeout point, he donned a simple cloak to conceal his beskar. The warm padding would make Cairn appear larger. It would be harder to look inconspicuous, but in an area as covered in shadows as Port 17's low-income neighborhoods, he would blend right in.

"So what are you going to do, sleep in?" Cairn asked as they came to a stop outside the apartment complex that both their target, Crane, and his associate, Irandan, shared.

Kar'tan chuckled.

"Hardly," he said, "I intend to get back on track with our little Rodian friend."

Cairn was now visibly irritated. "So you're going back to the KDY Not; you're going to get a pint of net'ra-gal, and I'm going to be faffing about in the cold - " His tirade was interrupted as a particularly harsh gust whipped his cloak up and he was forced to bat it back down. Cairn glanced at the sky. Thankfully, he could see no clouds gathering; as much as he liked the rain, it made for miserable stakeout weather.

"Don't be ridiculous," Kar'tan retorted, "the piss they serve here won't be nearly as refreshing as Black Ale. It will probably be Dubserwei or some other horrible nonsense the Kuati brew. Furthermore, you grabbed your outdoor gear before I even said anything. You picked your own assignment."

XXX

Fortunately for Kar'tan, the cantina's choice stock was not Dubserwei, but it wasn't much better. The drink the bartender brought him was a frothy, red concoction that tasted something like an Arkanian Mud Slug, although the regulars seemed to enjoy it just fine. Kar'tan let his sit after a polite mouthful; after all, he was on duty. Besides, he needed something to do, and if he had just sat there with his helmet on, people would get suspicious.

Kar'tan surveyed the interior of the pub. Despite the intentionally old fashioned furnishings, the place was depressingly modern in its construction. Its interior was designed to evoke images of the harsh, supposedly fulfilling life on old colony worlds. The walls were covered with manufactured wood grain paneling, the booths were made to look chipped and worn, and the dim, amber colored glowpanels were meant to suggest a warm incendiary light source, but Kar'tan had been to the Oyu'baat enough times to see how fake it all really was. Worse, the exterior broke this fragile illusion with its obviously prefab construction.

The night's gusting wind snaked through the ill-fitting door. While it made his chosen spot rather cold, the breeze at least carried away the smell of unwashed bodies and spilled drink. A tendril of frigid air found its way down his neck and into his armor. He scrunched his shoulders against it, wishing he could put his helmet back on, and contemplated the drink in front of him. Kar'tan couldn't decide which was the tougher job, enduring the alternation of cold air and strange smells, or enduring the drink for appearance sake.

Still, it beats standing outside, Kar'tan thought; another gust of frigid air blew past his neck.

Mostly.

With the weekend coming and the weather turning the way it was, Kar'tan would have expected quite a lot more visitors, but neither the Rodian nor its three friends had deigned to show their faces. He had been waiting for at least two hours and the most activity had been when the owner's Spukamas lifted itself off the bar and curled up in the shadow of the windbreaker that was Kar'tan Venn, who idly petted the misplaced Corellian house cat to pass the time.

"Seen anything yet?" Kar'tan mumbled loud enough for his ear-bead to transmit to Cairn. The pea-sized radio in his ear linked to the helmet clipped to his belt, boosting the signal to reach well over 30 kilometers.

"No." There was a pause. "It's damned cold."

"Oh, quit griping; it reeks in here. Worse, I'm starting to freeze on a hard stool pretending to enjoy my red... whatever-the-shab-this-drink-is-supposed-to-be. At least you get to move around to keep warm."

"So the cantina isn't heated, I feel my mood improving."

"Glad to hear that you're happy." Kar'tan retorted.

"Still no sign of that jittery Rodian?" Cairn asked.

"Neither him nor his friends," Kar'tan said. He took a second to force down another mouthful of his drink for appearance sake; the swill was now two thirds gone, and Kar'tan's taste buds couldn't take much more. "I'm starting to think that maybe this wasn't a usual place for him to duck int – "

"Shh." Cairn cut his partner off with a low hiss.

Kar'tan struggled through an tense silence.

"Movement, apartment 3B, Crane's place."

"So he's there?" Kar'tan asked.

"Maybe," said Cairn. "It's hard to identify by the shadow."

There was another long pause.

Biding his time in the silence, Kar'tan scratched behind the Spukamas' ear; it purred in delight. He smiled, pleased by the little beast and the cover it provided. Anyone watching would assume that he was lightheartedly talking to the feline. As he waited, Kar'tan noticed the bartender impatiently looking at a glowing chrono on the wall.

"Hm, it's a Rodian; he just got close to the window," said Cairn.

"That sounds familiar," said Kar'tan, "Any chance he's on his way out? Bartender's getting shifty, as if he's expecting a visitor."

"Maybe he's waiting for a regular, now shush. Okay, lights are off; there he goes," said Cairn. "I need better cover if I want to pursue. Time to hit the roof."

There was another long pause. The cat rolled over and playfully batted at Kar'tan's hand. He toyed with it while keeping a relaxed watch on the door. The last thing he needed was the bartender recognizing that he was also waiting for someone to "drop by." Kar'tan wished his helmet didn't need to stay clipped to his belt; its wraparound sensor came was very handy at times like these.

"Looks like he's headed straight for you. Stupid hu'tuun isn't even trying to check for a tail," said Cairn. "I'm going to circle around and settle near the back door just in case."

"Copy that." Kar'tan replied.

The Rodian walked in moments later with an air of extreme nervousness.

'Jittery' indeed. Kar'tan thought.

The bartender glared at the bug-eyed alien as it tried, and failed, to act casually; his icy stare forced Kar'tan to wonder what part the man played in all of this. The Rodian winced under the hard gaze and sat down in a mostly private booth. Kar'tan could now at least keep an eye on it through the mirror mounted on the stock cupboard opposite his seat. After several minutes of fidgeting and unconvincing calmness, the green alien did something that Kar'tan could not have anticipated: it completely disappeared from view.

Kar'tan's bafflement nearly gave way to audible noise; it took everything he had to remain completely still as he watched the bartender turn towards him. Kar'tan quickly pointed his eyes down as though there was something incredibly interesting in his drink.

Despite his outward composure, a reflexive tongue-click cued Cairn in that something was amiss.

"What? What happened?"

"It just... disappeared," Kar'tan mumbled, now relaxing his posture a bit. He glanced at the bartender as the other man opened the stock cupboard to fiddle with the bottles inside. Kar'tan was hard pressed to clear the scowl off his face by the time the man turned and caught him looking up.

"Drink not to your liking?" The man asked. "Perhaps I can get you something else?"

"What do you mean 'it disappeared'?" Kar'tan's ear bead quirked insistently.

"No thanks, I'd rather not have a massive headache in the morning," said Kar'tan distractedly. He tossed a few credits on the bar. "If a little blonde number comes in looking for me, tell her I got tired of waiting," he said, gave the Spukamas one last pat, and headed for the door. The bartender's gaze followed him out.

"Nice cover," Cairn said.

"Figured it would explain sitting on my backside for two hours."

"So what did you mean by disappeared?" Cairn asked.

"I mean" Kar'tan said when he replaced his helmet, "It disappeared and I don't have a clue where it went."

"Fierfek."

XXX

The Following Morning

"So… what was it? Cloaking, a sliding wall panel, a hologram?"

Kar'tan looked up from his fruit salad with a discouraged expression. Whatever that drink was made out of, it had not played nicely with his stomach.

"I'm still not sure." Kar'tan counted off on his fingers, "You and I saw him the entire time he was out of the apartment; last I checked holograms can't open doors, which he did, a sliding wall panel would have been too slow, and even if that drink was drugged it wasn't a hallucination because you tailed him there."

"What about camouflage?" Cairn asked.

"Unless he's some sort of genetically modified Rodian, hardly."

"And you're sure you didn't look away for anything? Not even a little blonde number?"

He leaned back and sighed in exasperation. "The place was basically empty. All I can say for sure is that Opus, the rodian, and the bartender are part of the same equation. If we can get the values to a few more variables, we might find an answer."

Cairn looked down at his breakfast; his eggs and nerf steak were looking less and less appealing. The authenticity of the meat seemed rather dubious and he began to consider that maybe this tapcaf wasn't worth the long walk from the spaceport.

"You think this might be Alliance work?" he asked pushing the food around on his plate with his fork. Maybe he just hadn't been all that hungry anyway.

"Doubtful. Theft hasn't been their style since before Derra IV, especially since they recruited the Mon Cals," Kar'tan said before popping another slice of fruit in his mouth. "Regardless, if you were going to hinder the Empire, would you steal weapons from a ground base on Kuat or simply blow up as much of the planet as you could?"

"Personally, I'd hit the Ring." Cairn pointed at the KDY space station; its thin, arch-like presence was clearly visible in the morning sky.

The pair sat in the ominous silence of the statement while the crowd moving past the tapcaf began to grow.

Kar'tan ran his fingers over his shaved scalp. "Maybe it's a more local thing."

"I'd like to see a hutt make someone disappear as fast. Besides, that's some pretty advanced tech for small timers," said Cairn, "It sounds more like Black Sun or Tyber Zann."

"No, it's not Zann" Kar'tan said confidently. Cairn gave him a confused expression. "It doesn't feel right. You remember when the Consortium stole those prototypes about 5 years back?"

"How could I forget?" Cairn growled, "It was an insult to all of us as Mandalorians. If MandalMotors can't keep track of its designs, how can the rest of us be considered competent?"

"Yes, yes, I know," replied Kar'tan, but Cairn was still scowling. "Regardless, when his mercs made the initial blueprint raid, there was a very noticeable bloke leading the operation."

"I remember the vids. Red armor over black bodysuit, stupid hat."

"Exactly, Zann's goons loved being visible, loved being the center of the operation. Black Sun's more or less the same. This isn't like that; it's too subtle, inasmuch as piracy can be subtle." Kar'tan practically spat the last word. "Between Crane's utter absence, this business with the Rodian, and a complete lack of evidence elsewhere, it seems like this group is trying extremely hard not to be noticed. I'm beginning to suspect that there was some very thorough clean up over the last week."

Cairn continued staring off into space, "We should hit Zann."

Kar'tan sighed, but stopped short of rolling his eyes; he felt the same way, no doubt, but there was a job at hand. "Like we're ever going to get a contract on the guy. We're bounty hunters, not vigilantes." He thought for a few moments while Cairn continued frowning, "We should check the armory. You told me that all of the interior footage had been corrupted; maybe we can find something that the Imperials missed."

XXX

Summoned by Kar'tan's cordial transmission to the barracks, Lieutenant Bonari met them at the gatehouse.

"Excellent morning lieutenant," Kar'tan said as he and Cairn passed the guard's checkpoint booth, "The proceedings of our investigation currently require that my partner and I more thoroughly analyze the crime scene. Something was missed." he said snidely.

At the word "missed," Bonari made a disapproving expression, but showed no other reaction to Kar'tan's baiting. He motioned to the guards his intent to provide escort, and the pair of visitors walked calmly behind him.

Kar'tan mentally evaluated then nodded in greeting at nearly every Stormtrooper they passed. His knee-jerk reaction to notice and appreciate soldiers in helmets had been part of his character since his father first displayed what a Mandalorian could do in full armor. In an empty section of the interior complex, he took a moment to focus on Cairn.

After years of working together, it had been made very clear who did what on a reconnaissance op. While he was capable of performing detailed environmental assessments, Kar'tan's observations would generally come across as rather scatterbrained. Small details would often end up at the forefront of his consciousness and connect with other, possibly related bits of information at the expense of the larger picture. It worked well in an investigation and dealing with personnel by feeding his intuition, but untempered, he could easily get lost in the minutia of a suspect's backstory.

In this regard, Cairn was his balance. His even temperment allowed Kar'tan to set a more stable pace, and while Kar'tan could disseminate data quickly, Cairn collected it best.

Kar'tan watched his partner stride through the base. Cairn's head made minute movements as his gaze shifted from point to point, and Kar'tan could almost see his HUD swinging left and right as they passed adjacent corridors. His body language changed slightly. Cairn slouched a bit, made quieter steps, and stopped moving his arms. He seemed diminished, unnoticeable, like a beggar in the underlevels of Coruscant.

There should be lots of information to pick through, thought Kar'tan.

The Lieutenant spoke, breaking the apparently awkward silence that had persisted among the group since the base's entrance. "We ran all the standard scans, but there wasn't anything incriminating. Crane must have cleaned up before he left. The only real lead we had was that he left the base and never came back."

"And his presence on the security footage during the theft," said Cairn.

"What?" asked Bonari as he came to a stop. Kar'tan, who had been paying more direct attention to the security chief, thought he saw something flash over the man's face before he regained composure. "Oh, yes, of course, he was the only one to enter the armory that afternoon."

"Yeah, I watched the recordings over and over. I could probably draw that hallway from memory by now," said Cairn with an air of absentmindedness. Kar'tan wondered what had caught his attention so thoroughly.

Bonari chuckled lightly as he continued on again. "I'm sure I could recreate the layout of the entire complex in my sleep. I've inspected every inch at one point or another."

"I see you take your job very seriously, Lieutenant," said Kar'tan, "This must be a grave insult to your professional pride." He twisted his helmet slightly towards Cairn, who nodded in return.

"Commander Karjeel places a lot of faith in you," said Cairn "It seems well spent."

"Yes, well, the Commander has been suffering from his post here. He finds it easy to trust me to handle all of the day to day rigmarole of over-watch in a city," said Bonari. He began counting with his fingers, "Inspecting shipping manifests, keeping the municipal government in line, managing the civilian crew, it's all so tedious to a battlefield commander like Karjeel. I'm simply used to the task by now."

Bonari stopped walking again, as they had reached the heavy durasteel door of the armory. The trooper posted there saluted before stepping out of the way.

"Karjeel must know a good officer when he meets one," said Kar'tan, "Now if you will excuse us, Lieutenant, we would like to conduct our investigation in as much privacy as we can manage. Our inspection gear is fairly sensitive, and we wouldn't want to find false evidence." The insinuation felt a bit heavy in his mind, but Bonari simply nodded as if he didn't notice.

"I will be in my office if you need anything."

The security chief closed the blast door, leaving the bounty hunters alone in the armory.