THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS

A rebel fence and an ISB colonel walk into a room, diametrically opposed foes...

In which Dalla plays with fire, and either makes a new ally or a big mistake.

"That's not a bad idea." Bernard said when Dalla finished pitching her idea.

"You're supposed to be talking me out of it," Dalla protested.

"Oh, I am. Because it's not a bad idea; it's a terrible, horrible, are-you-on-spice idea!" Bernard bleated. His hands fisted in his hair and he was in serious danger of having twin bald spots on either side of his head. "We just got rid of the ISB and now you want to go knocking on their door?"

"Not the ISB's door, just Yularen's."

"He's the boss of ISB!"

Bernard's shriek was nearly drowned out by an animal trill from outside. Both of them looked and found, of all things, a mollymauk perched outside their window and looking inside with almost human interest. It must have gotten lost – she'd never seen one this far south before. What kind of galactic joke was this?

Dalla ignored her apparent mascot and went back to Yularen. "He ignored us once before."

"Do you think he would rather let it go twice, or arrest the leader of a rebel cell that's getting rich stealing from the Empire?"

He had a point there, but Dalla couldn't let the idea go. "We need allies and Yularen could potentially—."

"He's not a potential ally, he's our enemy. His organization is dedicated to hunting us down."

"I'm not saying it's ideal, but it might be our only chance."

Bernard threw up his hands. "You're not helping me talk you out of this!"

"Try harder!" She cried and clenched her hands. "Oh my gods, I think I'm going to do it. I'm really going to do it."

Bernard exhaled and lowered his hands. "One last time, you're not on spice?"

"I wish."

"Okay…" he said. "Well if you're going to do this you should go in with a plan."

Dalla couldn't agree more. She laid out her probably-suicidal plan.

Bernard nodded along. "That's...not horrible," he said, which was the highest praise she was going to get at this rate. "What's your backup plan for if it goes sour?"

"If it goes sour, I'm not going to need a backup plan."

"Fine. Since I obviously can't talk you out of this, I'm coming with you."

"You can't come," she protested. "I'm the leader; I'm the one who should be doing this. You should stay here where it's safe."

"I'm not letting you go by yourself," Bernard scoffed.

"Why not?"

"Because you're my wife?"

"Not actually. Anyway, I think you still get the tax benefits if I die." Bernard's lips parted and she stopped. "What is it?"

"So that's what it's…nevermind." He shook his head. "I guess I'll check out the galactic museum while you do your crazy, suicidal thing."

"Don't buy your ticket yet. I'm going to need intel on ISB investigations, agent assignments, and everything I can find on Yularen."

It was going to take forever and she'd probably have to call in some favors to get everything she needed. Oh well, that was more time she got to live.

…

Colonel Yularen lived in a tastefully decorated apartment building in Coruscant's upper levels. It wasn't on the very top, there were definitely a few levels between him and the sky, but it wasn't the underworld by any means and Dalla felt relatively safe walking down the street by herself after she and Bernard separated at the galactic museum. Even though it might be better if a random mugger took her out before she got to the door.

The apartment itself also looked pretty normal. Someone had decorated the door with a potted plant and a mat which cheerfully proclaimed "Welcome to our home!"

She paused in front of the mat, swallowed her terror, and knocked on the door.

A well-dressed woman with dyed blonde hair answered the door and after apparently determining that a lone, diminutive teenager wasn't a threat to her safety, asked "May I help you?"

"Hi, is Colonel Yularen here?" Dalla asked. "I'm sorry to bother you at home, but I need to speak to him urgently." Maybe he wasn't home. Please, let Yularen not be home.

"I'll see if he's available." The woman looked over her shoulder and called out "Wullf? There's a young lady here to see you."

"A young lady?" There was some movement further inside the apartment and Colonel Yularen entered the hallway. As soon as he spotted Dalla his face did a dance from oh, great to I hate my life.

The woman who must have been Mrs. Yularen raised an eyebrow at him and he schooled his expression at her glance. Yup, definitely Mrs. Yularen.

"Miss Blackwell," he said. "I wasn't expecting you."

"Good evening Colonel. I'm sorry I didn't call ahead; this all happened so quickly."

"It happens. Estelle, Miss Blackwell is the witness Alexsandr and I met on Onderon."

"The girl with the note." Estelle relaxed a bit and stepped aside. "I bet you're glad all that Torrance business is over and done with. Come in, please."

"Thank you." Dalla wiped her feet before stepping into the Yularens' foyer. "And aye, I'm glad it's over."

"What brings you to Coruscant?" Yularen asked and positioned himself between Estelle and Dalla.

"You, actually." She held up the dossier she'd spent the last few weeks compiling. "I have concerns about my home and I wondered if you could help."

"I can certainly take a look. My study?" He led the way down the hall, Estelle following behind them and watching carefully while Yularen pulled out Dalla's chair.

Estelle raised her eyebrow again and Yularen replied with a nod.

"I'll put some caf on," She volunteered and shut the door behind her.

As soon as his wife was gone the irritation returned to Yularen's expression.

"As I recall, it was Officer Kallus who gave you his comm frequency for if you had any further needs."

"I didn't think he could help me with this one."

"Oh, I don't doubt it," he muttered. "Would I also be correct in assuming that your concerns do not relate to your home planet, but to your house?"

Here went nothing. "You didn't seem to like my decorations very much."

"They were striking for sure, but not quite to my taste." He leaned back in his desk chair. "I believe that your house has a mollymauk problem."

"That doesn't sound too bad. I heard they were a sign of wealth."

"Is that so?"

"Legend has it they bring crates of credits."

Yularen rolled his eyes heavenward and dropped the pleasantries. "In that case why are you here? It can't be financial, Torrance is long gone, and coming here only puts your security at further risk. What kind of assistance do you need from a man who should arrest you?"

"The problem isn't credits, it's mollymauks."

"Mollymauks."

"I have enemies coming at me from all sides and I'm down a man; I need all the help I can get." She swallowed hard. "You turned a blind eye once before. If I play ball, what would you say to doing it again?"

"I would say that's treason." He said. "And then I would ask what exactly 'playing ball' entails. What are you willing to lay on the table?"

"You have bad apples. I can help you get rid of them."

"What sort of bad apples?"

Dalla flipped open the dossier. "There's an agent embezzling funds. He's siphoning a little at a time, almost ten thousand credits to date."

Yularen didn't budge and Dalla moved on to the next: "Another, checked into the interrogation rooms on her days off and with no open interrogations on her case record."

Again nothing. Did he know about all of this and just didn't care? "Agent Jovan. He tried to rape one of the nurses at Bethesda Memorial Medcenter after she insisted Officer Kallus be admittted to a military medcenter."

"Excuse me?" Yularen grabbed the dossier from Dalla's hand and scanned the evidence, his eyes darkening with every second. "Do you have proof of this?"

"I have a statement from the nurse. Apparently Jovan threatened to turn her in as a traitor unless she slept with him. She barely got away."

"And this was happening while Officer Kallus was a patient at the medcenter?" A flush of red crept up from Yularen's collar. "This is his nurse?"

"One of them, yes. Her name is Madeline."

Yularen looked up from the dossier.

"As in Madeline Labiin, one of the group of healthcare professionals who left Onderon and are now rumored to be part of a rebel cell?"

"...Aye. That's her."

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know I can't do anything about this."

"No, but I can. I might not be able to arrest him, but I can mess with his career enough to justify demoting him and keeping him away from other vulnerable women."

Yularen paused. Released his nose.

"Tell me how you would meddle with his career."

"Target him," she said. "A series of repeated failures from multiple apparent sources would make him look incompetent and his supervisor would have to demote him."

"What if he wasn't an agent? What if he was a major, an Admiral, a Moff? What would you do then?"

"Mostly the same thing. I might have to monkey with politics as well, discredit his allies, that sort of thing." She realizes what she had just said and puffed up like an indignant chick. "But you won't get me to spill my entire playbook just sitting here!"

"I don't believe I'll need to." The ends of his mustache twitched upward. "You see Miss Blackwell, I know we have bad apples. I do what I can about the ones I find, but there are a few I can't quite reach. You might be able to prune them for me."

"You'll do it?"

"Only because if there's a fire you're trying to douse, you can't put it out from inside the house. And you, young lady, are very much outside it." He leaned forward, settling Dalla with a look that reminded her of a hungry chirn. "Are you familiar with the concept of a criminal informant?"

Dalla nodded.

"No loyal citizen of the Empire may associate with known rebels. However, I am allowed to have informants and if one of them happens to be a rebel and just isn't telling me, then I have a way out. Here are my terms: I'll pretend I don't know about your network, and assist my colleagues in looking the other way. In return, you will occasionally take certain men down a peg."

"Which men?" She was in no place to ask and yet here she was asking.

"You've already meddled with Tarkin, so that would be nothing new. That blowhard Krennic probably doesn't need you to destroy his career, but Major Gideon certainly will. I'd rather he not rise terribly far in the ranks."

"I've heard about this Gideon, and I'd like to keep him down as well. But I'm going to need more than ignorance if I'm going to touch him or Tarkin."

"I would provide information for those circumstances, of course."

"What about other information I need to survive? Other investigators closing in, threats from rival syndicates, that sort of thing? If we do this, it's a two way street."

Yularen thought about it for a moment. "I suppose that's fair."

Dalla opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by a knock on the door and Estelle entering with a tray.

"Caf!" She announced and placed the tray on the desk.

"Thank you, my star." Yularen smiled, a real smile instead of a hunter's grin.

"Aye, thank you," Dalla echoed and reached for the tray.

The mug rattled when she picked it up.

"Honey," Estelle asked with the concern of a primary school teacher. "Would you like decaf instead, or maybe some tea?"

"Thank you for offering Mrs. Yularen, but this is more than enough." She wrapped her hands around the mug. Maybe the heat would help calm her nerves.

"Alright," Estelle said skeptically . "If you change your mind, just have Wullf call for me and I'll bring it right over."

She and Yularen had another nonverbal conversation on her way from the desk to the door. Dalla was less than fluent in Spouse, but even she picked up on Estelle's Wullf Yularen you had better explain this as soon as possible and Yularen's I know, I will, just let me finish this.

"How long have you been married?" Dalla asked when the door was closed.

"Many years," Yularen replied. "She's a remarkable woman, and our son is an incredible young man. I would hate for some of my more vicious colleagues to rise to a position where they might target them in an effort to bring me down."

"You'll do what it takes to keep them safe? Even work with a fence?"

"To my detriment." He sighed. "And the fact that if you turn out to be an unreliable witness, it would be a black mark on Officer Kallus' career and I'm rather fond of that young man."

"Then do we have a deal?"

"Yes Miss Blackwell, we have a deal." He extended his hand.

Dalla took it, and they shook.

"I guess we should have some way to contact each other," she said. How were you supposed to take your leave after hashing out an arrangement like this?

"I have a secure comlink." Yularen told her the frequency. "Comm me with yours and we'll be ready."

"You have a burner comm?"

"For emergencies."

Not so much now. She didn't have her black comm just in case Yularen decided to arrest her, but she would add his burner as soon as she got ahold of it.

"Thank you, Colonel."

"Thank you." He gestured to her still-untouched caf. "Shall we drink to it? Estelle wouldn't poison you, nor would I cause harm to a guest in my home."

Dalla wasn't sure how much she believed the second part, but if Yularen wanted her dead he wouldn't have to resort to poisoned caf.

She lifted her mug. "To a mutually beneficial arrangement?"

"I look forward to the benefits."

The warm caf did nothing for the chill Yularen's expression sent down her spine.