CHAPTER FOUR - EVERYONE'S FAVORITE ISB AGENT
LUX
"All right Hutch, what do we have on the landowners?" I ask.
"I'm still working on it," Hutch says. "So far, I have the business end down. The land is formally owned by someone named Spencer. Molly's digging into his financials right now. Made any headway on that, Molls?"
Molly shakes her head. "Not yet."
Kiara sits next to her cousin, looking intently at her monitor. Kiara may have gravitated more toward physical thievery, but watching Hutch or Molly hack is interesting.
At least that's what I think is happening until Kiara says "Ooh, click on 'Guy slips on Banana Peel'!"
"Are we on task over there?" Hutch asks.
"Yes," Molly says, stifling a peal of giggles with Kiara.
"This is important," Hutch reminds her. "We need the landowner's financials."
"Fine," Molly sulks and keeps typing.
"For personal life, the landowner's name is Robert Spencer. Married, has a kid at home, and is high enough in the Empire to deal with the farmers on Lothal." He looks at me. "That isn't saying much."
"Hey," the kid, Ezra, interjects.
Hutch raises his hands. "No offense, kid. It's just that there are bigger planets, and with bigger planets come bigger paychecks. If he was sent to Lothal, then it's no shocker that he's coming up with a funneling scam."
"It's a sloppy one, too." Kanan says. "Wouldn't the Empire be able to trace the funds?"
"Probably has a secondary account," Ahsoka muses. "That's what I would do."
"He does," Molly pipes up. "Dad, I'm sending it to you."
Kiara sits closer to her on the couch and takes half of the computer.
"Don't watch too many tooka videos." Ahsoka calls, rolling her eyes. "All right Hutch, what do we have?"
"It looks pretty simple. Spencer's transferring the funds into this account and then directing it into a few others. He's doing it so that auditors won't – what the heck?"
"What? What is it?" Kanan asks.
"My software flagged one of the accounts. It's either on some kind of watch list, or we've seen it before."
He selects the flagged account, and sits straight up. "Aw, come on man!"
I turn around. "Kiara, can you and Molly watch those videos in your room?"
Hutch doesn't hear me. "Look at this! And I thought this was going to go well."
"What's the big deal with…" Ezra leans to get a good look at the screen. "Somebody named Night-ween?"
"Nightwine, kid. His name is Konrad Nightwine." Hutch spits. "He's a loss prevention officer for the ISB. And fourteen years ago, he blew my best alias to pieces."
That was, hands-down, the worst week of our careers. The only upside was that we got Tor arrested.
"So?" Ezra asks.
Hutch turns around in his chair.
"Excuse me kid, I'm assuming you didn't hear the part about how he ruined my best alias." He says. "No alias is airtight but that one was pretty darn close, the person using it was one of the best grifters in the Inner Rim, and he still ripped it apart."
I don't like the way this is going. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that we need to find a new scam." Hutch argues. "You guys have no idea how dangerous this officer is."
"We've handled Agent Kallus and the Grand Inquisitor," Kanan says.
"Inquisitor." Saw scoffs, "He doesn't have beans on Nightwine. Anyway, we can't send Sierra in to deal with him. Even if there's a miracle and he doesn't recognize her, she has a conflict of interest."
"How?" Hera asks.
"Sierra was using the alias when it was exposed." Ahsoka explains, almost whispering. "She walked right into Nightwine's trap and we didn't know until it was too late."
Hera and I know what that means. Ezra doesn't yet.
"What happened to her?"
Ahsoka looks at him.
"She was captured by the Empire and tortured for four days." She says. "We barely managed to save her in time."
I close my eyes. The image of Sierra in medical shock wasn't quick to leave any of our minds, especially mine.
"We can't let it happen again," Ahsoka says. "With Sierra, the commander who had her was brutal and had a vendetta, so he wanted to keep her alive longer. It was dumb luck that she was placed with him and held on as long as she did. One can only be so fortunate once in a lifetime."
"All right, so we don't use her," Kanan says. "Why don't I do her job?"
I try not to laugh.
"I'll do it," I volunteer. "I'm the auxiliary grifter and he doesn't know my face. Kanan, we need your crew for backup operations."
"That we can do," Hera says, looking to Kanan, Zeb, and the others. "Just tell us where you need us."
"To do that, we'll have to talk with the whole crew again." I lean into Kanan's ear. "Send Ezra to do something with Tav, Kiara, and Molly. We'll brief him separately."
…
"Do any of you have questions?"
I regret that question immediately after I ask it. Everyone except for Ahsoka, Mom, and Tandin, raises their hands.
"Okay," I scan the hands and select the most impatient one. "Saw?"
"Yeah," Saw crosses his arms. "Do you think I can't handle Stormtroopers?"
"I never said that."
"No. Instead, you assigned backup when we're not even sure we'll be dealing with more than regular old grunts and security officers." He scoffs. "I can do without Orrelios."
Zeb bristles. "You think so?"
"Gentlemen!" Mom raps out before I can intervene. The magic of BonScary stops them cold.
"You'll be doing what you always do," I say. "Just, you'll be working together."
"And in Plan B, I'm going undercover as a Stormtrooper?" Rex demands. "That armor is awful, and I don't fit it."
"Well Sierra doesn't fit it any better." Saw points out. "You're just the one who has the most experience with the old Grand Army of the Republic, so you blend in best. Anyway, you don't have to wear it if Plan A works."
"Speaking of which, where am I?" Sierra demands. "I didn't hear my name once."
"You're on this job." I explain, allaying her fears. The last time one of us tried to grift, we ended up getting mugged by Black Sun. "You're just not going to play a huge part."
"Why?"
For an answer, I bring Nightwine's picture up on the holoprojector.
Sierra's jaw drops. "No!" she wails.
"Yes," I nod.
"Are you serious? Who's next, Tor? The ghost of Life Day past?" She scoffs in disbelief.
"What?" Zeb asks.
"It's a long story," Steela explains. "And here's my question: If Nightwine is here, why are we taking this job at all?"
"We have to," Hera says. "The people of Tarkintown need regular food donations to survive, and we can't always get it to them. If we delivered those funds, then the donations we can bring would suffice. It's a matter of survival."
"We have to weigh all possible risks." Steela fires back. "And if we're working triage, then the lives and wellbeing of crew members ranks higher than that of civilians."
That brings pause from everyone. Steela's never said anything so cold before.
"Because it's been so long since we last encountered Nightwine, we think it's reasonably safe as long as Sierra isn't the main grifter." I explain.
"This plan is still risky," Sierra says. "Lux, I don't want to denigrate your skills or anything, but this is a complicated con and you're not a grifter."
I smile at her. "No, I was going to be a Senator. It's practically the same thing."
EZRA
When a bunch of kids are sent to hang out together, that means everyone else is having a meeting they think you're not old enough for.
I disagree.
"I've lived on the streets and been working with my friends for almost a year now. I can handle briefing for another op." I scoff.
"It's not an op," Tav Bonteri argues "It's a job. It's more complicated."
"Same difference." I scoff.
The Togruta girl raises her eye markings. "He's got a point Tav. We've worked the phones for jobs before, and now they won't even let us listen to briefing?"
"I don't know, Kiara. Maybe Mom is having one of her protective kicks." Tav suggests.
"Or maybe not." Molly interrupts. "Want to find out what they're saying for sure?"
All three of us bound over to her side.
"Are you serious? You hacked in?" Kiara asks.
"Well, I almost hacked in." Molly admits. "There's just one more firewall, and I need the password."
"Can't you just hack your way around it?" I ask, sticking a bite of fried nuna from the communal bowl into my mouth. Tav got these from the kitchen and they're nothing short of delicious.
"My dad has these bugs up as a training exercise for me and Katooni." She explains. "It's going to take forever to break through unless I get the password. Kiara?"
Kiara raises her hands. "Don't look at me."
"Guess something!" I suggest.
Molly leans into the speaker. "Passcode, um … Molly!"
An error message flashes.
"Katooni?"
Error message.
"Hero?"
Nothing.
"Um…Onderon! Hutch! St. James! Cashier from Hell! Cheese curls!" Molly guesses, to no avail. Then her eyes narrow.
"University of Onderon?"
Bingo.
The firewall disappears and our friends' voices come out the speakers.
"Ha! Dad didn't think I'd be doing this when he helped me program bugs." Molly preens.
I ignore her, instead choosing to focus on Hera's argument.
"We have to," Hera says. "The people of Tarkintown need regular food donations to survive, and we can't always get it to them. If we delivered those funds, then the donations we can bring would suffice. It's a matter of survival."
"They're going to help the people of Tarkintown? What's so dangerous about that?" I ask in disbelief. "It's nothing worth locking us out over."
I grab the bowl of fried nuna and hold it up. "What is in this stuff that makes it so good?"
Suddenly, all three of them jump back as if the bowl of nuna is a grenade.
"Is something wrong?" I ask.
"It has a yellow sticker on it," Kiara says, horrified.
"So?"
Tav gulps. "I didn't see it when I took it out of the fridge, I swear!"
"A yellow sticker means that my mom was going to use it for a different recipe." Molly explains. "We have to fix it now, or she might turn us all into a side dish!"
A/N: Replicate the recipe, kids, and replicate it well! Hero is very possessive about food. Some of you may remember an instance in "While Others Fell To Darkness" where someone messed with one of Hero's yellow sticker dishes.
Thank you to starwarshobbitfics and Johnt12345 for your reviews. And speaking of which, please review!
Until next time,
Lux's Sister