The waves keep on crashing on me for some reason
But your love keeps on coming like a thunder bolt
The performance deserving of standing ovations
And who would have thought it'd be the two of us
You got me feelin' hella good
So let's just keep on dancin'
Hunter was not going to be happy about this. Omega chewed her nails as she surveyed from her hiding place among the museum crates. She'd gone in with a plan: spy on whatever operations were going down in here and complete the mission for her squad. Once they were done then Hunter could send the information back to Cid and they could go before Genna got any more upset.
So far it was going great. She'd gotten in by tagging along with a school group, ditched the other kids, and snuck into the staff corridors. From there she weaved through the offices to the receiving room where it looked like things happened. Then hid herself among the crates and used her not-so-new-now comlink to snap holos. Hunter would surely be able to do something with them.
The only problem was, Omega hadn't exactly thought about how she was going to get out.
Maybe she could just walk out and pretend to be lost when she was inevitably spotted? Not likely. The one-eyed man was here, and he would surely remember her from the pub and get suspicious.
She could climb into a crate and wait for them to carry her out with the rest of the loot, but then she would probably wind up loaded onto a sailing ship and Omega had seen enough ocean on Kamino.
But if she couldn't walk out and hiding wasn't an option, what was she supposed to do? She couldn't stay here forever! Defeated, she reached for her comlink. She didn't want to let anyone know, but maybe she could just tell Wrecker.
"Finally calling for help?"
Omega whipped around and came face to face with the girl who'd ordered the crate of supposed mujas, seated casually on another crate.
"You've been here for half a standard hour; it's about time." She shrugged.
Time for Plan B. "I-I'm sorry, I came here with my school and I wanted to see the hovertrucks so I -."
The woman just rolled her eyes and Omega's mouth snapped shut.
"Let's try this again since we both know you're not here on a field trip. What are you doing in my museum?"
"Your museum?" Omega repeated. "You don't own it."
"I don't have to own it when I run it."
"You're Mollymauk?!"
The fence's brow furrowed. "What, it wasn't obvious? I thought you guys had caught me with the muja thing."
"Yeah, but we thought you worked for him!"
"You mean that ploy actually worked?" Mollymauk grinned. "Salt gods, I'm good!"
Omega's eyes went wide. "You planned that?"
"Here's some free advice kid. If you want to do something and get away with it, you've got to go all the way. Sneaking around raises attention, but people never notice the obvious." She looked above Omega's head. "Aye?"
"Aye," the one-eyed man said from the other side of the crates and Omega jumped out of the relative safety of her hiding place.
Hunter! Suddenly a lecture didn't seem like the worst thing in the world. Omega lunged for her comlink but the one-eyed man grabbed her before she could press any of the buttons.
"Easy, kid." The man grunted. "We're not going to hurt you."
"Sure, you're just going to kill me!"
"We don't do that either," Mollymauk said. "We're going to take you to my office and wait until your friends notice you're gone."
Omega stopped squirming.
"Why?"
"For dramatic effect, of course," Mollymauk scoffed. "We can't make a big entrance if they don't know you're gone."
That clinched it: this woman was completely insane. Somehow, Omega felt safer with Fennec Shand.
Not having much of a choice she trudged down the hallway, past rooms that probably housed more illegal activity before her captors brought her to an unassuming office that apparently belonged to the fence herself.
"Candy?" Mollymauk asked and gestured to a dish in the middle of her desk.
If the candy belonged to literally anyone else Omega would have snarfed half the dish already. As it was she glared at her across the desk until her eye was drawn away by a spectacle along one wall.
It was a picture of a young man printed on flimsi and attached to the wall with old, peeling tape. At some point someone had scribbled a mustache onto him with black marker, a toothpick was lodged between his eyes, and it was covered with scratches and dings like it had been hit by flying objects.
"Who's that?" She asked with a little trepidation.
Mollymauk saw what she was looking at and smiled. "That is Lux Bonteri. Ever heard of him?"
Omega shook her head.
"He's new to the game, but he runs the nastiest crew of con men in the Inner Rim." Her lip curled into a sneer. "And he's also my ex-boyfriend."
"Doesn't seem like that was your idea."
"You mean, did I mean to pour my heart and soul into a relationship only to have him dump me for a Jedi during a funeral?"
Ouch. That warranted a voodoo poster in Omega's limited opinion.
"I mean, a funeral! Who breaks up with their girlfriend at a funeral?" She sighed. "The short version is no, it wasn't my idea. It's the classic story of rejection, rejection from the greatest con man to walk this planet."
Omega rolled her eyes. "Wow, that's really sad. I mean, how could anyone get over having to move into a place like this?" She gestured to the resplendent museum around her.
Mollymauk nodded, understanding. "With more money than I could spend in a lifetime and not a single man around to tell me what to do with it," She said and wiped away an imaginary tear. "It's just tragic."
Omega sensed that this was not the time to mention that she had seen tragic. Instead she looked over her shoulder to the one-eyed henchman who stood by the door with her comlink.
"I guess she didn't follow your advice," she mumbled.
"Why?" He asked. "Did it work for your friend?"
"Well I don't know for sure but he stayed the night at her house and then threw her a birthday party the next day."
He whistled. "Aye, it worked."
"That would be a first," Mollymauk chuckled.
The man scoffed. "Can it, Dalla. I give great advice."
Omega's mouth dropped open and so did Mollymauk/Dalla's. "Names!"
"You already blew it!" He protested. "How many girls did Lux dump at a funeral? The kid's got a comlink; I'm sure she can look stuff up on it."
Omega shrugged and Dalla sighed. "I don't suppose you'd like to share your name since Sloan here told you mine?"
What did she have to lose? "Omega."
"Mhaegen?"
"Omega!" she repeated. "Why does everyone think it's Mhaegen?"
"Say it isn't so," Sloan raised his eyebrow in the same fun-loving expression Wrecker got when they went to get Mantell Mix. "Don't tell me you've been on our fine planet for almost a week and no one's told you about Mhaegen the pirate!"
"No…"
"That can't stand. Settle down kid, I'll fill you in."
…
The one consolation the Batch had was that Omega's comlink wasn't on the Marauder. The unit was switched off and not transmitting, but odds were good she still around it and might be able to get to it to call for help. Not that they were going to wait around for a comm. Echo pulled the Marauder up to the art museum and put her down with a whisper light touch.
"This has to be it." Hunter said as he put on his helmet. "The museum is midway between the docks and the university and we've seen suspects coming and going."
"Not to mention the one-eyed man and the redhead girl were around here too," Echo said. "If Mollymauk has a lair, this is the place."
"And how long have you been keeping this from me?" Hunter demanded and Wrecker and Echo cringed. It hadn't been fun to tell their commander what they knew about Mollymauk and how long they'd known it.
"Isn't the important thing that we told you now?" Wrecker asked.
"You should have told me as soon as you knew something. If you had we would be gone by now and Genna wouldn't have kidnapped Omega!"
"Genna wouldn't do this." Tech spoke for the first time since they realized Omega was gone. "The most likely scenario is that Mollymauk himself is behind both disappearances."
"We'll know for sure once we get inside." Wrecker was raring to go at the exit. "Let's get her back!"
"Them back," Tech amended. "We're going to get both of them back."
They poured into the empty museum like shadows and made their way through the side entrances into the exhibit rooms. None of them had been inside before but the blueprints Echo had downloaded showed the offices which would be the most likely place for Mollymauk to keep Omega could be accessed from a service hallway running alongside the exhibit.
"Echo," Hunter whispered and let his helmet's comms system amplify the sound to the rest of his team. "Do you see the access point for the hallway?"
"Across the room and to the right, past the statues. Once we get there the closest office -."
Echo could have gone on at length about each office and the strategic positions for breaching them, but before he could they both heard the telltale click of a light switch and the night vision on Hunter's HUD turned blinding white.
Once the helmet adjusted he saw that the main lights weren't the source. The girl who had ordered the mujas sat imperiously on a statue's pedestal like it was a throne, the pink tips of her hair blazingly bright under the light of a single spotlight.
"You know we don't charge admission. You could have come during regular hours," she said.
"We wouldn't have come at all if you hadn't taken our friend." Hunter took his feet. "Tell Mollymauk to let her go and we'll leave without any bloodshed."
"Hunter," a little voice came from the other side of the room and Hunter's gaze whipped around to see Omega standing in the doorway, held by the one-eyed man and the redhead. "She's Mollymauk."
"What?" Wrecker lowered his blaster in shock.
The girl, who couldn't have been more than eighteen years old, smiled and her teeth gleamed like crooked pearls in the beam of the spotlight. "Surprise."
She slid off the pedestal like she'd rehearsed it and glanced at each of the squad in turn. "Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Echo. Omega's been very forthcoming ever since I convinced her I wasn't going to kill her. I'm Dalla Blackwell, and these are my lieutenants Siren and Sidhe. We need to talk."
"You don't say."
"Alone."
"Not going to happen." He felt rather than saw his brothers form up beside him.
Siren and Sidhe also tensed but Dalla hardly even blinked. "This isn't about Omega. In fact you can have her back," She gestured with one hand for her lieutenants to release Omega. "This is about your squad apparently being sent to spy on my network, and I prefer to conduct my business in private."
Hunter waited until the little girl had returned to his side before he ground out "Fine."
"Perfect." She led the way across the exhibit hall. "Oh, and while we talk Sidhe found something in the vault she thinks will interest the rest of you. Sidhe?"
Grinning, Sidhe flicked on the overhead lights and illuminated the rest of the room. The squad followed her sightline to a painting of a scantily clad blonde woman who was unmistakably Genna Carid.
Tech's jaw dropped, Echo did a double take, and Wrecker and Omega actually tilted their heads at the sight. "Tech? Does she really have a birthmark right —?"
Hunter rolled his eyes heavenward and trudged off after Dalla.
...
"So your mysterious employer on Ord Mantell thinks I'm competition." Dalla paced her office floor. "Doesn't happen to be Cid by any chance?"
Hunter bristled. "What makes you say that?"
"Because you don't get into this business without knowing who the other brokers are." Dalla came to a stop behind her desk. "I've never met Cid, but I know her reputation. What does she want with me?"
"She doesn't want anything with you. We're here to collect information and bring it back to her —."
"So she can decide if she needs to send you back to wipe me out like the Partisans?" Hunter opened his mouth and she waved away the concern. "Don't worry, unaffiliated."
"We're not in the business of wiping people out." He ground the words through his teeth.
Dalla nodded, but it didn't look like she entirely believed him. "You can tell Cid she doesn't have to worry about me. My current client base is small and specialized."
"Specialized to what?"
"Things that can take a bite out of the Empire." She scooped a paperweight off her desk and tossed it to Hunter. "Ever met Governor Tarkin?"
"I wish I hadn't." He looked down at the paperweight and nearly dropped it when realization hit. "This is -?"
She smirked. "Courtesy of my con artist friends."
Hunter put down the paperweight as quickly as possible. "I assume you mean the Onderon Con Men?"
"I do, and your assumption that working with a crew of fledgling con men isn't terribly lucrative would also be correct. I may be a fence but I won't hock just anything. Cid can keep her bounties and spice running; I'll stick to being a massive thorn in the Empire's side."
Shockingly enough, Cid would probably accept that. Sure, the Trandoshan had no love for the Empire, but she wasn't about to lay her credits on either side of the fight. In Cid's words, that was bad for business.
"I'll let her know."
"Salt gods willing I can keep the doors open long enough for that."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know if you've noticed from your fruit stand, but it's getting ugly out there. After your squad left the Empire sent an officer to clean up the rest of the Partisans. He almost got them but then the con men showed up and they scattered." She shuddered at the thought of the officer. "Right now he's offworld and if I never see him again, it'll be too soon. But word on the street is that if he can't get his osik together, they're going to send an ISB agent."
"ISB?" Hunter repeated.
"Imperial Security Bureau. Some sort of trumped-up super cops as far as I can tell." Dalla exhaled to a count of five. "The Bureau is being led up by a Colonel Yularen. Supposedly he was General Skywalker's admiral during the war, and Skywalker didn't go for incompetence. Have you met him?"
"Once or twice," Hunter admitted. He only vaguely remembered the mustached admiral, having been more focused on General Skywalker during their encounters. "He's a good man, but I've seen the Empire turn good men into something unrecognizable."
"Like your friend with the target on his eye?"
"Crosshair?" Hunter choked. "What in - how do you -?!"
In reply Dalla pointed to the poster of her ex and Hunter's gaze went to the toothpick lodged just so between Lux Bonteri's eyes.
"I can see how he got his name."
"Where is he? Does he know we're here?"
…
Tech was actually trying not to look at the painting. He'd much rather be looking at the real thing. Not necessarily in that state of undress, although last night had been incredible and this morning it had seemed as if she might have wanted to pick up again where they left off, when time permitted. The question was, if she wasn't here now, where was she?
"Omega." He spun to face her. Of course he was relieved that they had found their sister unharmed but she was the last person who had spoken to Genna.
"I thought her hair was dyed dark brown when she was at the University," Omega mused.
"It was," Tech tried to focus her, "But that's not…"
The one-eyed one called Sloan or Siren, it seemed, interrupted him. "The story goes that the artist was obsessed with this blonde woman, the one who got away when he was young, so he painted all of his women like that."
The red-haired woman, who turned out to be Sidhe, and was also called Ellie, contradicted, "They're not all blonde. The Girl with the Mandalorian Lilies is more sort of reddish-brown…"
Tech practically exploded. "While that is incredibly fascinating, it bears absolutely no kriffing significance to the matter at hand, which is the current location of the living, breathing, sentient, Genna Carid!"
They all stared at him until Ellie broke the silence. "You are in love with her," she cooed.
"Whether I am or not it hardly…" He knelt before Omega to look her in the eye. "You were the last one to speak with her before she left the room. Please tell me you remember what you were talking about."
Omega scrunched up her features and studied the air above his head for a moment as if it held the answers he was looking for. "I told her about how I found you all after you returned to Kamino but you left on another mission for the Empire and then you came back to get me after your first trip to Onderon."
He reeled back as if she'd struck him.
"What is it?" "What's wrong?" Both Echo and Wrecker advanced towards them.
Tech pressed a hand over his mouth and swore in a language none of the others knew. "It was her brother. He was with Saw Gerrera."
"One of the partisans?" Echo asked.
"No, he was in plain clothes, tall with dark hair and Mandalorian features," Tech remembered from both the event and the holo image on her shelf.
"He stood in front of the children," Wrecker also remembered.
"So when Crosshair went back to finish the job…"
Tech didn't listen to the rest of his brother's supposition. He was on the move toward Dalla's office. He swept the door open in time to hear the end of their conversation about Crosshair.