A.N. Thanks so much for your reviews, Jedi Kay-Kenobi!
Chapter 7
After spending some time going over their options, they decided that the best thing to do would be to somehow convinvce Zan Arbor that she was being called back to the offices of The Covenant.
"It'll get her of this planet so that she can get arrested," said Siri, "But we'd need The Covenant's password and know how they word messages if we want to be convincing."
"Let's take advantage of still being able to be Slam and Valadon," said Obi-Wan. "We can ask The Covenant for a partnership of some kind and use that to get into their offices. Then we get their password and send a message to Zan Arbor. Then we arrest her when she gets to wherever she's supposedly going on a mission."
It still seemed like a long shot, but Siri and Anakin agreed that it was the best chance they had at this point. And with Anakin's skills and midicholorian count, they had a hunch that they could get the password if they were left alone near one of The Covenant's computers. It was really a shame that they would be sure to be too strong minded to use a Jedi mind trick to make sure that happened. But they didn't suppose an organization like the Covenant would have someone that weak minded - they appreciated having people who couldn't be talked into going against them easily.
The three of them took their time writing the message to make sure The Covenant would be interested as well as to make sure of course that it sounded as though it actually came from the Slam gang. They then waited for a response. When none came right away, they spent time doing what they had been, although Siri was getting even more tired of having to be Valadon all the time and was starting to wonder what would happen if the Covenant didn't get back to them. It wasn't like they had several alternate plans in mind.
However, they did get a cautious reply from them eventually. The message didn't promise anything, naturally, but it was an invitation to go to their offices and talk to them at least, and if everything went well, perhaps they could work together if it was a good deal for everyone.
They knew they would have to prepare for this. After all, they would only get one chance. So they decided to have one of their contacts get a hold of the Covenant when they were inside. Hopefully this would create enough of a distraction that they would be alone next to a computer for a minute – as that was all the time they needed. He was just happy to have a chance to get revenge on The Covenant and liked the idea that he could play an important part in bringing it down.
And at first, everything seemed to be just fine. Siri was nervous as they were approaching the Covenant building. Here it was, a keep cover or risk being shot at situation, and she didn't think for a minute that they wouldn't be at all suspicious. Even though nobody on Ronin had appeared to suspect that they were not actually the Slam Gang, this would be harder as anyone who went into Covenant buildings could obtain evidence necessary to get a warrant for their buildings.
Sure enough, the first thing they heard at the entrance was "Please show your identification," from the guard droid. They were able to show Slam and Valadon's actual IDs, which had been confiscated by Coruscant law enforcement when they were arrested. The droid led them into a room with bars on the windows and of course, with no computer. Then they were told to wait until the Covenant representative was ready to talk to them. From what Siri could sense from Obi-Wan and Anakin, they were just as nervous as she was, and that didn't happen easily. They had no way of knowing what was going to happen next, and in a place like this, that was rarely a good thing.
Finally, one of the Covenant agents came in to talk to them. "The Slam gang. I must admit the idea working with such a well-known gang of thieves is intriguing. We could use people like you. But we need more details of the plan you have – that is, how exactly we can help each other."
"Of course," said Obi-Wan. "As we explained to Jenna Zan Arbor, we're looking for someone who can disable the biometrics system of a certain bank vault. However, she said that she is working for you and would rather not leave Ronin."
"She absolutely is working for us," he said. "And we don't want to order her to leave a planet that she feels comfortable on. If you offer enough of a percentage of the profits, however, we may be able to find someone to work with you."
"We can offer a generous percentage of the profits," said Siri. "But we hear that Zan Arbor is the best at disabling biometric security. Do you have anyone as good as she is?"
"We do have a man who is quite capable of disabling biometric scans," he said.
This was an interesting development. "Would we be able to meet him?" Siri asked.
"Of course. He's here now. Why don't you come in and you can talk to him about this plan of yours? If he's interested and you three check out, we may be able to work together."
He then started to lead them further into the building. The three of them couldn't look at each other while heading in for fear that they'd give their excitement away. They managed to stay calm and professional when they realized that the new room they'd be waiting in did in fact have a computer.
"I'm going to get him," said the man. "Just stay here and he'll be right in."
"Keep your lightsabers ready to go," said Obi-Wan as soon as they were alone. "They're suspicious. For all we know, they may come in with blasters going."
So Siri and Obi-Wan kept their weapons ready, yet not too obviously out in case they were actually well-disposed towards them after all while Anakin sent a message to their contact to try and create a commotion.
Soon enough, there was an alarm going off throughout the Covenant facility. That's when Anakin tried to break into the computer to find the password that they'd need to make it appear that the message had actually come from the Covenant. His concentration even with the noise of both the alarm and running feet was amazing.
"We've got it," called Anakin excitedly after a minute. "As soon as we get out of here we can start writing that message to Zan Arbor."
The three of them sat down and tried to appear to be as calm as possible with their hands ready to go to their hidden lightsaber if necessary.
After another minute, with nobody coming in to get them, the Jedi were starting to think they'd been forgotten about. So they started to simply walk out with the last of the Covenant workers, thinking about how well this was working.
And sure enough, once they were outside the building, nobody was paying much attention to them in the chaos. They were able to get in their ship and out of there without any problem except having to tell someone who called that they should stay that they'd be back later. They didn't want to cause any problems with the alarms going off.
Now came the time to see if that password would actually work. First, they had to compose the message to Jenna Zan Arbor and they hadn't even decided on the details of the mission the Covenant was supposedly giving her. They talked about this for a while and decided that they needed her to deliver one of her inventions to a client of theirs. They were apologetic that she would have to leave her comfortable home, but this client, who could bring in quite a bit of money for the Covenant, would only talk to her. All this was written down and the password worked, so they knew the message had been sent to Zan Arbor. She would be reading it before long.
Comment [N12]: Delete this
What the Jedi didn't know was whether or not this message would be believed by her. Although they didn't think that she could have any proof of who had actually sent the message, they also weren't exactly sure what the writing style of the Covenant heads were. They also weren't sure whether they would actually send her on a mission off of Ronin, no matter how tempting it was. After all, Jenna Zan Arbor didn't exactly seem like the type who was used to being told what to do, and they had at least been told that she wasn't interested in leaving. So she might know very well that this was just a ruse to get her to leave the safety of Ronin.
Even when they got the reply, it still wouldn't be clear what Jenna Zan Arbor actually thought. After all, she might pretend to believe the message while hoping to trap the fraud who was pretending to be someone from the Covenant. And the three Jedi knew all of this very well and were planning for every possibility. They were going to have backup at the supposed who had permission to arrest her and would be well armed. They were also trying to think about what they would do if Zan Arbor never responded to the message, which was a possibility if she knew it was a fraud and simply wanted to keep safe on Ronin.
Jenna Zan Arbor did, however, respond to the message. She claimed that it would be just fine to meet this client of the Covenant's, but she would rather they come to Ronin if they wanted her invention so badly.
