.
System reboot in 26 seconds… 25… 24… 23…
The numbers in the onscreen countdown message keep dwindling down, and Jyn has to forcibly relax her hands, which seem to ball into fists on their own accord. The screen she is watching transmits data through a remote hookup that she and Nairi patched together, but it does not make the wait any less anxious. The real action is happening half a dozen blocks away, on the top floor of Nairi's weather lab on campus where she has just triggered a minor system crash as a cover for switching the original relay with their rigged replica, having smuggled it in as a cargo pallet carrying a new storage cabinet to replace one that, apparently, suddenly collapsed. If anyone were to question her actions, she explained, she could truthfully argue that it would have taken ages to order a replacement using standard procedure, causing her to take matters into her own hands. As for the crash, it might be attributed to the consequences of a power surge from a recent lightning strike.
8… 7… 6…
Jyn realises when she starts feeling dizzy that she is literally holding her breath. If anything goes wrong, they may not have a second chance.
2… 1… 0
The lines of diagnostics code scroll up the screen in a rapid black-and-white blizzard, but it is only about half a minute later, when these are replaced by the Industrial Automaton startup logo and, finally, by the weather station data dashboard, that Jyn draws a deep breath and slowly exhales it, her shoulders sagging in relief.
They did it.
xxx
"Going well so far, isn't it?" Nairi takes a quick look over Jyn's shoulder at the replica screen. She watched the readouts in the lab for the initial half hour or so while she hurriedly stuffed parts of the old relay into the repulsorlift pallet shell before driving it off campus, and into the safehouse.
"Looks good to me." Jyn, who has been glued to the screen all this time, has been watching anxiously for glitches but has seen none.
"Great. I guess we've done our job," Nairi concludes with a hint of a grin. "Now we need to break this apart into the smallest and least recognizable bits we can manage," she adds, indicating the wreckage of the original relay, "and schedule a maintenance droid pickup a couple of blocks away to have them taken to the nearest recycling smelter. And then we can send a test message to our mutual friends."
"Sounds like a plan." Jyn pulls up a toolbox and grabs a couple of laser cutters, handing one to Nairi. She cannot wait to be done with the destroying the relay part so they can get to the message part.
Before they left the Home One, they agreed that once everything was in place, when they knew the date and time of the upcoming relay switch, they would signal for Headquarters to send a freighter carrying a squadron of Alliance-owned TIE fighters, piloted by their Rogue Squadron comrades, to do a fly-by of the six orbital weather stations on that date to check that they correctly transmitted the encrypted intelligence data messages when queried by the right passcodes. The next step will be for a pair of light apparently-civilian spacecraft to send the Alliance HQ response to them via these same stations using established protocol; and from that point on, for so long as it is needed, this routine will be followed daily, with automated drone ships replacing live pilots after the first few rounds, shuttling back and forth in a random pattern between Coruscant's orbit and the nearby Ralltiir system, a busy trade crossroads from where they can safely transmit the information they collect to the Alliance. That way, any informants the Alliance may recruit on Coruscant will be able to send data to it directly, right under the Empire's nose.
But before any of that happens, they have a heap of hardware to reduce to shreds.
"Has your ambassador friend left?" Nairi asks her as they set about their task.
"They got out yesterday, yes."
"They?" She raises a quizzical eyebrow at Jyn.
"Didn't have time to tell you. His wife flew in and joined us at the closing reception. Actually, she was the one who got the pallet out of the spaceport without anyone suspecting."
"How did she manage that?"
Jyn smiles and shakes her head before answering. "She knew how to charm the right people." To Nairi's incredulous look, she adds: "She's really amazing… and I never knew it until now, but she's one of us."
"One of us meaning..?"
"We all work for the same people. Her Alliance handler, for that matter, is the same as yours."
Nairi's incredulity gives way to a laugh. "I guess there are more of us than we even know."
Jyn grins back at her. "Looks like you're right. And thanks to the Empire, there'll be more of us every day," she adds, in a darker tone. What with the Empire's widespread cruelty and condoning injustice committed by its supporters, it is no wonder the Rebellion is making advances. If Jyn's parents had lived, she may never have become a Rebel. If Alderaan had not been annihilated, Nairi would have remained a law-abiding citizen, as would many fellow expatriate Alderaanians. If Shani's sisters had survived and remained free, she may have remained a happy housewife. "For everyone they kill, there will be someone else to join the cause."
"Yeah, you could say that again." Nairi's scowl is an eloquent sign that her thoughts mirror Jyn's. "Does her husband know?"
"He does now. She managed to keep it secret for almost twenty years, but she had to tell him after this stint, and from what Cassian told me, they looked very pleased with themselves when they were leaving." It did not hurt, of course, that Nawara managed to poach a senior banker for his Dorvalla endeavour – apparently, the fat human who had been chatting to him at the reception was more important than Jyn had thought.
"I guess it leaves some hope for Dave and me," Nairi says wistfully. "What about you two?" She looks up at Jyn. "When are you two getting out?"
Jyn hesitates. She was so caught up in the matter of getting the relay, and getting it to work, that she did not give much thought to their eventual departure. But now that she and Cassian have successfully completed the respective parts of their mission, there is nothing keeping them on Coruscant. And, absurdly, it almost seems a bit too soon. Almost.
"We need to send a message to the Alliance to arrange fake Imperial transfer orders for Cassian. That way we can leave on a scheduled transport as bona fide Imperials."
"Well, what better way to test our new relay?"
"Yep, makes perfect sense." Even to her own ears, Jyn's response is notably lacking in enthusiasm.
Sure enough, Nairi picks upon it. "If you're worried it may not work, I'm still going to fly up in two days' time for a regular maintenance trip, I can duplicate the message – "
"No, it's not that. I know it sounds stupid, but I'm kind of, almost, sorry to leave…" Jyn feels embarrassed the moment she says it.
"Don't be." Nairi's tone is suddenly forceful, and Jyn expects the other girl to berate her for having taken a liking to the comforts of the Imperial Center, but when Nairi continues, it is clear that she means it differently. "I know it must be a reprieve for you guys to live in a city like this, I imagine you spend most of your time on capital ships…" When Jyn nods, she goes on, "but believe me, you've seen the best of it, even if you've been to the slums. There is so much ugliness here that isn't visible to the naked eye. When you've only lived here for a short time it doesn't hit you, but the longer you stay, the more obvious it becomes, so in the end you can't see past it. This pervasive fear and distrust and contempt towards non-humans and non-Imperials that they cultivate…" She shakes her head in disgust. "Believe me, you're better off with the Alliance fleet where you are surrounded by friends and can look at your enemies through a targeting scope."
She sounds so bitter saying it that Jyn is once again embarrassed, this time of her relative naïvete. For all the constant precautions they have had to take, their spy games still had a frisson of excitement to them; but only, she has to admit, because they knew they would be back with the Alliance in a matter of days or, at most, weeks. And she is sorry for Nairi who has to stay and pretend to be part of the system she resents. "Why don't you come with us?" Jyn offers. "We can ask HQ to give you a cover story that will take you offworld, and we can leave together. There's no need for you to stay now that the relay is in place – "
Nairi shakes her head for an answer before Jyn has finished, but does not speak at once. "No," she says finally. "I can't. I'd like to," she goes on, "and thank you for suggesting it, but I… can't leave Davin like this. I know you're thinking he's an Imperial and all, but I- we really do care about each other. I can't ask him to come with us, but I can't – I don't want to leave him."
"I understand," Jyn says. She did not expect to say it, but for a single instant, she thought of what she would say if someone tried to persuade her to leave without Cassian; and she immediately knew what Nairi meant. "Well," she continues in an attempt to lighten the mood, "at the very least, we should all go out for dinner together before we leave. The four of us, like Davin suggested."
Nairi looks up at her, her attempt at a smile is not entirely convincing, but she sounds a little more upbeat when she says Jyn's line back to her.
"Sounds like a plan."
xxx
1930 at the Corner?
Cassian's message may look like an idle dinner invitation, but Jyn suspects that it is a case of deceptive appearances – perhaps deliberately so. The fact that he is asking for a relatively early meeting time, so he will be going there straight from the Palace office, could, in principle, mean that he wants to share good news without having to go through complicated charades at their apartment; but she suspects that with their recent success, they may have exhausted their good news quota for the time being.
Sure enough, when she gets to The Abregado Corner via a circuitous route, having left the speeder three blocks away, and carrying the bug sweeper-equipped datapad just in case, Cassian's expression confirms her suspicions.
"What's wrong?" she asks when they are seated and certain of not being monitored.
He shakes his head. "No, it's… it's not something that's happened, it's something I found."
"What?"
For once, he looks uneasy. "I… you know, I think it would be better if we quickly grab something to eat here and then go look at it somewhere else."
Look at it? So presumably, he was able to copy whatever information he has found. "You have it with you?"
He nods for an answer.
She ponders their options. The apartment is too much hassle; if they need time to look at files they will probably do it in silence, and will have to pretend they fell asleep at a ridiculously early hour as they keep up the tedious process of writing and deleting their conversation onscreen instead of talking. A public space, or an open space like a terrace, could be good for a quiet talk, but not for studying a document. The only fully acceptable option is risky in its own right, for a different reason, but it may still be the best under the circumstances.
"We could go to our study room, you know." Meaning the safehouse. "We can get a rental swoop nearby and then come back to where I left the speeder."
He is surprisingly quick to agree. "Let's do it. We can ask for a takeaway instead of eating here. What did you want to get?"
xxx
"What is it?" she asks him once she has powered up the safehouse computer, when he hands her the datacard.
"I'm not completely sure, but it looks pretty bad." He still looks as if he got a beating. "I had to do a background check on an Onderon delegation arriving next week for trade talks, and Merkon arranged a read-only access passcode that let me access this database kept by Imperial Intel. There was no way to copy the files, but I was able to save images."
She opens the first of the two dozen image files, it looks like a screenshot of a database entry for one of the Onderonian delegation members. Name, age, official ID number, residential address, last known actual residence and recent movements, contact details, family members with their respective ages and IDs, and extensive annotations below listing what looks to be chronological evidence of the Onderonian's anti-Imperial sentiments.
Objected to Imperial requisition of a plot of industrial-purpose land formerly in his possession on 7141.
Signed a petition to the Governor of Onderon for leniency toward minors apprehended defacing Imperial property on 7370.
Participated in a demonstration against "Imperial violence" on 7604.
Wrote a letter to the local news outlet advocating against the elimination of rebel factions active in the Inner Rim sector in favour of negotiations on 7713.
And, below this damning evidence, a chilling verdict.
Alliance Intelligence assessment: Subject shows resilience and persists in subversive thinking.
Suggested course of action: subject to be detained no later than 7900 and transported for processing at LSK, batch 37.
She looks through the rest of the files; they are all database entries following the same format. Mon Calamari, Bothans, humans, Selonians, a Gand, and several other species; all accused of similar transgressions, all destined for detention over the coming two or three months, followed by "processing" at the cryptic LSK. The last image is of a query page, listing the detestable resource as the Imperial Intelligence Political Allegiance, Integrity and Reliability assessment tool; Jyn's breath falters when she sees the total number of searchable entries.
1 871 952
"What in blazes is LSK?"
"Lusankya."
Of course.
She was too nauseated from reading the files to immediately make the connection, but with Imperial Intel apparently in charge of this nightmarish practice, what else could it mean but the top-secret prison for political detainees and captured Rebels? That place's reputation for horrifying cruelty is matched only by the utmost secrecy surrounding its location, as befits the pet project of one Ysanne Isard, daughter of the late – most agree, dead by her hand – Internal Security Director, who has used her father's demise as a springboard to the Emperor's inner circle and to her present position at the helm of Imperial Intelligence. Many believe that she has her sights on even greater things, possibly even replacing Palpatine some day… which explains her extreme obsession with secrecy while, as suspected, she is building her own empire within the Empire.
And now she looks to be single-handedly masterminding the Empire's dirty work of eliminating dissenters; not content with waging open war against the Alliance, the Empire is clearly in the middle of a large-scale internal purge.
No wonder Cassian looked so crushed when she saw him earlier.
"We can't…" For an instant, Jyn's voice fails her. "We have to do something about it."
Cassian nods, but does not speak right away. "The question is how. I was only given read-only access, and even that under tight supervision. All I managed to do was get these screenshots. For us to try to warn all the suspects we'd need to have a complete set of these, and I'd never be able to get them."
Not to mention, it would take forever to get nearly two million screenshots, and to contact as many beings across the galaxy; there is no way they could save them, or even the majority, on time. It would have helped speed things up if they could make a full copy, but with Imperial Intel's paranoia, the database is bound to be protected by impenetrable firewalls.
And since no one except Isard and a handful of her closest confidants apparently knows where Lusankya is, they have no chance of sabotaging the prison itself and freeing the captives.
And no prison, no matter how big, can hold two million inmates, which means that "processing", more likely than not, implies execution. And as these suspects are being dealt with, surely new ones will be added in their place.
Which leaves one possible option that is marginally less impracticable than the others.
"We need to find a way to get admin access."
Not surprisingly, Cassian has been thinking along the same lines. "I know who the Imp Intel liaison in my unit is, but there's no way to tell if he has the required level of authorization. Even assuming I could somehow get to use his access credentials."
For a moment Jyn is uncertain whether he says it to mean there is nothing they can do; but his next words fly in the face of any such doubt.
"I guess you need to ask your friend tomorrow to send a message to HQ and tell them to send us all they know about it."
xxx
"Well, on the upside, now we know for sure that it works."
Nairi's remark is delivered in an incongruously dejected tone, considering that they have just received definitive proof, in the form of an acknowledgement from Alliance HQ, that the relay transmission chain is fully functional.
Then again, with the screenshots Jyn has just shown her, it is no wonder she sounds downbeat.
"And it is a good thing, as we need intel from our guys asap." Jyn's own weak attempt at a pep talk is undermined by her own deep frown.
"You think we can pull it off?"
"We have to," Jyn insists. "And if anyone can get it done, it's Cassian." What with his two years at Carida, and the countless undercover missions, and his month of unimpeachable Imperial service now; and all the nearly impossible espionage achievements he has to show for it all. "So long as our colleagues at Headquarters help point us in the right direction, we're un business."
"OK, now's your chance," Nairi prompts her as she gets up from the terminal, now displaying a blank message screen. "Better if you do it, seeing how you want to write directly to your boss."
"Most likely he won't be the one answering it," Jyn mutters as she sits down and puts General Airen Cracken as the principal addressee. "But this way it is more likely to be seen and read with minimal delay." Which is especially important considering that right now, the members of Alliance Command are likely to have their hands busy preparing to ambush the Emperor as per their earlier intel, she figures.
Two minutes later, her missive is ready for dispatch.
Priority: urgent
Subject: mission authorization / information request
We have uncovered factual evidence of a large-scale Imperial effort to eliminate internal dissenters. The target list is kept in a database managed by Imperial Intelligence, currently numbering circa 2 000 000 entries. The targets are scheduled to be apprehended and transported to the Lusankya facility for processing, presumed to signify execution, in the next 100 days (see attached image files for a sample we were able to obtain).
We hereby request authorization to sabotage the above effort.
In order to maximise the chances of mission success we need all available information on the following:
List of Imperial Intelligence liaisons working in or interacting with the Diplomatic Service Protocol unit headed by Maj. Merkon that have full admin access rights to the Imperial Intelligence Political Allegiance, Integrity and Reliability assessment database
All available data on the database access protocol and related restrictions
Any available data on access credentials
Captain Jyn Andor
Colonel Cassian Andor
Nairi Panteer
Jyn reads through her text again; there is a faint whiff of desperation conjured up by her repeated references to any and all available data, but on second thoughts, it may be a good thing; the situation is indeed critical, and this is a less blunt, but no less obvious way of conveying it than saying you'd better give us all you have and hurry the hell up.
"What do you think?" she prompts Nairi, who has been following the progress of her message onscreen.
"Looks like you've got it all in here," the other girl replies. "There's one detail that is…" her face darkens, "imprecise, but it is not relevant."
Jyn makes an effort not to bristle at the implied criticism.
"What? You mean that there are fewer than two million targets? They'll see the exact figure in the query screenshot, anyway, and the worst thing is, they can, and sure will, add new ones over time-"
"No, it's not that," Nairi interrupts her, her voice suddenly quiet. "When you say "processing" means execution, it is factually correct in the sense that they are supposed to be killed. It's just that they won't be killed outright."
"First thing Isard's goons do to anyone brought into Lusankya, they torture them," she goes on. "Those who resist eventually die, or are executed if they physically or mentally collapse into an unresponsive state. Those who break are tortured again until they reveal the maximum of information that is of use to the Empire. Earlier on, when Isard had just become the head of Imp Intel, she experimented with… programming some of these prisoners and releasing them, or letting them escape, so that they would go back to their lives and families but become sleeper agents, able to reveal any new information or commit acts of violence when triggered. It wasn't very effective in the end, as very few were able to withstand what she put them through and go back to any semblance of normal life afterwards. Most of those she experimented on ended up killing themselves, or turning to drugs, or going insane. That's how the rest of it became known, because a couple of former prisoners became delirious and started talking. It seems that her practice now is to execute the ones who break as well, once they have outlived their peak usefulness. But their families are kept in fear and hope and heartbreak thinking they could see their loved ones again."
Nairi delivers this nightmarish monologue in a quiet, level voice, sounding almost mechanical; but it does not make the horror any less crushing or chilling.
"They did it with a few faculty members at the University who were seen as opinion leaders and who spoke up repeatedly against Imperial oppression. I never saw any of them again, but one of those… escapees… mentioned seeing two of them in a near-vegetative state at Lusankya."
Jyn remembers Nairi's ominous words about the ugliness beneath Coruscant's shiny surface, and about the good fortune of being able to confront the Empire in open warfare. "I see what you meant the other day. But mark my words, one of these days, not now, but soon, we'll bring the rebellion here and take this place away from the Empire. And we'll find this Lusankya wherever it is, and free everyone in it, and then blow it to bits."
And in this moment at least, she believes it.
xxx
"What does it say?"
Jyn and Nairi are back at the safehouse early the following morning; and on the upside, the Alliance message is waiting for them as they sit down side by side to read it.
You are authorized to proceed with the plan. \
"Like there was any doubt," Jyn mutters. The part she leaves unsaid is that in the highly unlikely event that they had not been given the go-ahead, they would have done all they could to accomplish their new goal regardless, by any means available.
According to our sources, admin access to the ImPAIR database can only be effected from the data stations assigned to subjects with the respective admin access rights. Initial access to these data stations is verified by palm print.
"Sith," the two of them say in unison. This means that even if Cassian were somehow to get the access credentials to type in, he would still have no chance of powering up an admin data station on his own.
Admin access to the database is effected via passkey. The key is a physical device that randomly generates and displays a 10-character numeric code that changes every 10 seconds and is synchronized to the database verification module.
The key is specific to the data station. It is the only additional form of authorization required for admin access to the database if the user is already logged in.
"At least that's good," Nairi remarks wryly, and Jyn nods; it means there is no need for a palm print if Cassian can sneak in while the Intel officer steps away, so long as the data station is still powered on. Assuming that he also manages to steal the passkey, that is.
Our data show the following Imperial Intelligence liaison within the Imperial Palace Diplomatic Service Protocol unit having the required admin access rights:
Lieutenant Umak Drysso, data station location SSW21/4B/168, user number 0027438017
Hopefully, it is the same liaison officer Cassian was talking about the other day.
Report on any material developments. Upon mission completion, follow agreed-upon procedure for extraction.
The agreed-upon procedure being a message to Alliance HQ signalling for them to create fake reassignment orders for Cassian; this was to be expected, but Jyn bites down on a wry smirk at the inherent optimism. Strictly speaking it should be in case of mission completion, not upon.
"See, he did answer you personally," Nairi observes, seeing how the message is signed simply, Airen Cracken.
"Sometimes it's good to be wrong," Jyn replies with a hint of a grin. In truth she is glad to see that Cracken took the time to do it. "So what do we do now?"
"We get to work." Nairi's tone implies that it is self-evident, but they are yet to decide what exactly they will be working on.
"I take it you plan to write a virus," Jyn ventures.
"Sure."
"To delete all the data?"
Unexpectedly, Nairi hesitates. "No… I'd write one to replace them." She continues, growing more animated in the process: "I can write a data refresh command in a way that will go in a continuous chain, so instead of refreshing one entry it will pull data for all entries from a designated source, replacing them one by one. It won't stop until it's done and all these citizens' details have been overwritten. Compared to just deleting data, it has better chances of remaining undetectable long enough for the code to work through all of it. It will only need a few hours, anyway, but the added upside is, it will also overwrite whatever backup they may have."
"What do we use to replace the data?" Presumably, it will take forever to create two million fake entries that will look remotely plausible even upon a cursory random check, as would happen if an Imperial happened to make a query mid-process and feel compelled to raise an alarm.
"Entries from a similar-sized database that will hopefully have a similar structure," Nairi explains. "So our first task will be to look for one. I can tweak the code to account for empty fields, but I'll need to see exactly how the data field sequence is arranged to correctly align them. As a minimum we need something that starts with a name, age, official ID, and some kind of location marker."
"But then… anyone whose data we may use will end up in Lusankya," Jyn reminds her.
"Not if we choose our source well," Nairi points out cryptically. "Let's take a look around for relatively low-security Imperial databases to see if we can break into, say, an Imperial Security planetary roster… or better yet," she goes on with a wicked twinkle in her eye, "a galactic listing of active Imperial administrators, Empire-appointed governors and mayors and such. It's sure to be accessible from an Intel liaison's data station in the Palace so I can safely write a virus that will use it as a source. They won't kill those," she explains, coming back to Jyn's question, "even if they end up getting arrested and get a big scare for a few days. But the confusion it's bound to create will give the Alliance a priceless advantage."
On hearing this, Jyn shakes her head in admiration of the plan's devastating elegance.
"You're a genius, you know."
Nairi looks at her, and actually smiles for the first time in two days. "No. I'm just a weather scientist with a bit of a grudge against the Empire."
xxx
"Hello darling," Jyn drawls over her "official" comlink; Cassian carries a clean one as an emergency option, but she has to call his "official" one during work hours, and thus it makes no sense for her to be calling from a clean one, either. "Am I disturbing you?"
"No, I have a minute," Cassian replies in a purposely neutral tone; he cannot be seen to be overly enthusiastic about distractions while at work, even if he is happy to hear her.
"I just wanted to suggest that we have dinner at the same place we went to two days ago. I really liked the food." Hopefully, Cassian will get her real meaning; they got their food at The Abregado Corner, but they actually had dinner at the safehouse.
"Sure." His quick and confident answer suggests that he knows exactly what she is talking about. "I'll go there right after my shift. See you there."
"See you," she coos into the comlink, and turns to Nairi once she has switched it off. "He should be here in about an hour, allowing for time to cover his tracks." They agreed earlier that instead of Jyn retelling Cracken's message to Cassian, it would be much easier if he joined them to read it firsthand. "I guess we'd better really get some food in here."
Regardless of Cassian, they are both starving, after spending the entire day looking for, and trying to break into, an assortment of Imperial databases. The one they successfully hacked so far, a listing of stormtroopers stationed in the Core Worlds, is not the best option, but may have to do in a worst-case scenario. They are much more hopeful about another database they came across in Imperial administrative archives, which looks very much like the detailed directory of Imperial governors and mayors that Nairi was hoping to get, but it looks like cracking it may take longer; they can only hope to do it before Cassian gets a shot at the Intel liaison's duty station.
"I'll go get something," Nairi volunteers. "I know the best joints around here."
xxx
"The famous Cassian Andor," Nairi says with a sly grin after Jyn has made the introductions. "I'm honoured."
Cassian, on the other hand, looks acutely embarrassed, and shoots an accusing glance at Jyn for, presumably, having represented him as some kind of celebrity. All the while, Nairi looks to be having fun watching them.
"All I did was accidentally mention Scarif. She figured out the rest," Jyn mutters.
By now, it looks like Cassian has remembered the suave diplomatic self he has cultivated in his more recent assignments. "All that is ancient history, anyway. You, on the other hand, have been the most important operative for getting this to work," he tips his head at the monitor remotely hooked up to the comm relay. "So it is I who should be addressing you as the famous Nairi Panteer."
"I couldn't have done it without Jyn's help," she argues. "And yours, and that of your Twi'lek ambassador friend and his wife. Compared to working on my own here for years, this has been so much better."
"Hopefully, though," Jyn points out, "the bit of info you sent on last week will go a long way to putting us all out of business, at least as spies and such." The Alliance killing Palpatine may not mean immediate victory, but it has a good chance of dealing the Empire the decisive blow. That way Nairi can get to do what she really wanted, and become famous as an AI scientist.
"But for now we still have this ImPAIR thing to mess up between the three of us," Nairi reminds her.
"We got Cracken's response this morning," Jyn tells Cassian. "We're on, and he sent a pretty useful situation summary. You'd better take a look."
"Yep, that's the one," Cassian concludes, after seeing the Intel officer's name toward the end of the message. "Good thing he has the passkey."
"Is he easy to get around?" Jyn ventures.
"Not that easy, but on the positive side, his office with the data station is two doors down from mine. So it's easy to see whenever he gets out. The only catch is, I may never be certain as to when he may be getting back in. How long do you think it will take to upload the code?" This latter part is addressed to Nairi.
"We haven't got around to writing it yet," she begins. Not surprising, considering that they only just got started earlier this same day. "But I'd say it shouldn't take longer than three to four minutes. Once it's launched it will run automatically, and take a few hours for a full overwrite. We decided to overwrite rather than delete the data to minimize the risk of detection," she explains for Cassian's benefit, and Jyn notices his approving nod. Wait until you hear what we're going to replace it with, she thinks; she is certain Cassian will appreciate their – Nairi's – creative idea. "But the only time when you will have to be present, and risk detection, is during the first three to four minutes when you upload and launch it. And of course you should remember to take out and destroy the datacard. But I shouldn't be telling you this," she finishes with a smirk.
"It never hurts to be reminded," he counters. "Sounds feasible, so long as I can be certain Drysso will be out for five minutes or more, and no one sees me get in."
"What if someone sees you get out?" Jyn asks.
"That's easy. I'll just say I was looking for him and didn't know he'd stepped out of his office."
Makes sense.
"And while the two of you work on the code, I'll keep an eye on his routine. I didn't have reason to watch him too closely but with any luck, I may see a pattern."
"Before I forget," Nairi puts in, "now that I've got both of you here, maybe I should get your palm prints."
"You think you can switch Drysso's print for mine so I could get to his station after hours?" Cassian asks, somewhat incredulously. It would be too much to hope for, and Nairi's answer confirms it.
"No, it wouldn't work. There's no way I can access Palace data stations with all the firewalls. Plus in any case, it's impossible to associate more than one print to a single user ID for obvious reasons. The reason I was thinking of getting them," she continues, "is to add the two of you as authorized visitors to my apartment, so that if either of you should need a place to run to and can't get to a safehouse, you can get in there."
"What about your fiancé?" Cassian asks. "Won't he be jealous?"
Nairi shakes her head. "No, I've been telling him about the two of you…" Seeing Cassian's confusion, she explains, "as an upstanding Imperial couple, so he won't be suspicious. As a matter of fact he was suggesting that the four of us have dinner together, so I can just tell him we're going to have it at our house."
"Sounds good," Jyn says, and hopes that they really get to have that dinner when they are done with this latest challenge; and hopes even more that neither she nor Cassian end up having to use that access right for the other potential reason.
xxx
"You all right?"
"Yeah," he answers absently, but it is obvious to Jyn he is anything but. Now, a week after their meeting with Nairi, she has been noticing how quiet and thoughtful Cassian has become recently. It can't be because of any shortcoming on their part of the plan; by now she and Nairi have successfully hacked the Imperial administrative officials' directory, written and compiled the virus code, and are now in the final stages of testing – for the past two days they have been running simulations, using the virus to copy directory data into a mock-up of their target ImPAIR database, too well aware that there will be zero margin of error in reality. Assuming, of course, that Cassian manages to get the passkey and sneak into Drysso's office.
No; his recent gloomy mood must have a different reason. Normally Jyn does not press him for answers to this kind of question, knowing self-reliance and reticence to be long-established habits, and knowing that he will eventually tell her on his own accord; but this time, with the stakes as high as they are, she does not have the luxury of waiting.
"I was thinking maybe we could go to a ride," she begins tentatively; and to her mild surprise, he eagerly agrees.
"Great idea. I was just thinking about the same thing."
They take the airspeeder, in silence, to the main entrance of the same office block where they took Nawara to show him the Palace panorama – and to discuss their tactical situation in private – and once again, take the lobby turbolift to the rooftop terrace, as deserted now as it was then. Still, Jyn runs the surveillance sweep on the datapad and only relaxes when it comes up clean.
She is slightly surprised when Cassian is the first to speak, but then, his opening remark is a question about her and Nairi's progress.
Maybe he is worried about their end of the plan, after all.
"We're practically done," she reassures him. "Nairi said she wanted to do a final simulation run tomorrow, and then I'll go pick up a copy on a datacard and bring it so you can take it with you the day after." It is risky, of course, for Cassian to be carrying it around, but they have no choice.
He nods but says nothing, and then silence reigns again, accented only by the hum of airspeeders flying by several floors below.
Clearly, if Jyn does not take the initiative, they may be staying here well past midnight.
"What's the matter?" she asks. "I can see something's bothering you. What is it?"
He takes a few seconds to answer.
"I've been thinking," he starts quietly, "maybe the two of us should break up."
His voice may be quiet, but his words hit her with the force of the most deafening Coruscant thunderclap.
"Why?!" is all she can manage.
For a second he stares at her in confusion – completely irrational, in Jyn's view – and then he shakes his head a fraction.
"No… I didn't mean it like that. I meant we should pretend to break up for public benefit, as it were." Now that he has got past this point and has met no objection from Jyn – in truth, she is still too shocked to answer - he goes on in a steadier voice. "You could make a show of moving out of the apartment, go to Nairi's or to a hotel or rent another place."
"Why?" is all she can say, again. It actually really hurts to hear him say these things.
"That way if they catch me, you won't be under suspicion. Otherwise you may become a fellow suspect. Or worse, a fellow convict." Or a second corpse. The part he left unsaid is nonetheless crystal clear. "And if you move to a place they can't track you to, you can stay safe even if they do suspect you."
None of which convinces her one single bit that his absurd reasoning has a milligram of sense in it, or makes her any less furious. Or any less hurt.
"I'm not doing this," she says bluntly.
"What if I get caught? If they have the slightest suspicion of my real allegiance, and it's very likely that they will if they catch me uploading the code, it will be a direct trip to Lusankya." A direct one-way trip; once again, the part he leaves unsaid rings out the loudest.
"I'm not leaving without you. I can't believe you were seriously considering breaking up with me," she adds, unable to keep it to herself.
"I wasn't seriously suggesting it. Well, I was, but you know why I suggested it, I told you."
"I heard you say why you suggested it." She still has a hard time dealing with it, even after hearing his reassurances.
It looks like Cassian may have finally realized what a heartless monster he was being, because he now looks kind of heartbroken; and she is happy to see it.
"You know I'd never really want to leave you," he argues, and takes a step toward her, only to see her take a step aside. "Jyn?"
She glances sideways at him but says nothing.
"Jyn, please..." She can finally hear anguish in his voice, and avoids looking at him again for fear of having her resolve crumble.
"I didn't- I know it came out all wrong, but I'd never in my life want to leave you, or want you to leave. I just want you to be safe, and I want you to get out if I get caught, and go back to the Alliance. If you stay here, it probably won't help me, and it can definitely get you in mortal danger." Seeing how his entreaties fail to convince her, he makes a final pitch. "Whatever happens, meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me. And whatever happens, it will have been worth it."
"What?" She is still angry, but cannot help the question.
"All of it," he answers, not very helpfully. "Every day, every moment we had together."
Still, she notes, in the past tense. As if they have really broken up.
As if he were dead already.
"Stop talking like this," she says; she wants to say more, but her throat is burning.
But now he seems desperate to confess all manner of things.
"I probably never told you but you really blew me away the first moment I met you on Yavin."
He did tell her, kind of, onboard Krennic's shuttle when they were jumping to Dorvalla, and he was under heavy medication and half-delirious. Admittedly he used different language back then, something about her being a natural leader, but the general gist was there, sort of. The irony is, it had taken her a few days longer to fall for him; in that first meeting, standing in the shadows with a set expression, he had looked much older, not to mention much less approachable, than she discovered him to be.
"I saw you were special, not because you were Galen's daughter but because of who you were, yourself. The way you spoke, the way you carried yourself with Mon Mothma, with Draven, with me. I couldn't get you out of my mind after that meeting, even if wasn't happy to have you come along to Jedha. I've never been able to get you out of my mind since."
"Why weren't you happy?" She glances at him, and seeing him watch her face with a strange mixture of pain and fascination and, yes, love, she takes a step toward him; and he takes it as his cue to step right up to her and wrap her up in his arms.
"It was Draven's idea. Like you said back then, we were going into a war zone. I didn't want you to get killed. That's why I want you to leave now." She has her temple pressed against his jaw, her face against the side of his neck, and she feels the tension as he says it.
There is still no way in hell she is leaving, but she figures it is no use arguing.
"Why are you telling me all this now, when we've been married for four years?" she asks instead.
And while she is no longer angry, his next words still feel like a sharp blade against her heart.
"Better now than never."
She is too drained to protest, and can only hope, for once, that he is wrong.
.
TBC
.
Notes
Ysanne Isard is a canon EU character, very much as I described her here, and of a somewhat striking appearance that I had no need to go into. Lusankya, the top-secret prison facility, is indeed her pet project, and no one knows its location until it reveals itself, as it were. Also, Jan Dodonna, the Alliance general who ran the mission briefing for and commanded over the Battle of Yavin, ended up in it, but was ultimately freed. Isard gets her comeuppance, and the Alliance discovers Lusankya, but it only happens two years after this plot in the EU canon timeline, in the X-Wing series' final book, The Bacta War.
By way of full disclosure, I do not know if it is technically possible to do what I have Jyn and Nairi do with the virus, but I'd like to think so ;)
I will aim to post the (much shorter) chapter 12 over the weekend.
