"Canvassers and pollsters are out. Data should start pouring in after the doors open." I report to my boss, Tiffany.

"Have we checked to see if the iPad polling tech works this time? It went bad in Dearborn and that can't happen again. Ashley damn near had my head over it, Evan."

Evan.

"I did it last night on the drive over. Tested it when we got here."

Relief flashes onto her face. "You're the best. This all works? We'll get you out of here and out there, with the people."

"Ehh…" I wince, unsure.

I like the obscurity of being the guy in the back.

My job title is 'Logistics Coordinator', but I've more served as a technician and repairman than actually deploying people.

"I know, everybody's nervous about going out there and talking to people. But the great thing is, once you do? People are all here for one reason: To talk and hear about what they believe. Just get them talking. You're a nice kid, just be you. Next thing you know you've asked them all we need to know, and you can direct them to our social channels."

Yeah.

"If you say so." I say with a begrudging smirk before her phone begins ringing.

"Shit—yeah that's Andrew probably about the live music—get on those copies for the stand-ins. The vetted for the live shot arrive at 2:30!"

Because this whole candle has to be lit by 3. TV gets here at 3:30.

The world still runs on trains. And they have to get around the racks on time and without crashing into—

"Evan!" A volunteer whose face I've seen three, maybe four times burst into this makeshift tent we've got here in this fairground-like area. "That app you told us to use? Cindy said it's working but my login information won't work."

Great.

(6:45 PM)

"Need an extra copy of the receipt?" The receptionist asks behind the lobby desk.

Reflexively I laugh "How'd you know that?"

"I've had like three or four people wearing Organa campaign stuff come thru here. Are you a true believer?"

Her eyes return to her computer before she begins typing rapidly. "No, not really. I'm just a volunteer. Tech guy."

"So you got roped into the whole rodeo."

"A little bit, yeah." I laugh it off.

Everything worked today. Got a 95% data collection rate, which is far above what Organa's campaign usually gets. Somebody probably just wore a volunteer shirt in order to get a better seat at the event today.

As soon as the printer is done, she spins her seat enough to pick it up, then swings back and extends it to me. "Your friends wanted an early check-out time too. Would a 5:30 wake-up call and 6 AM check-out be good with you?"

"That would be great." I smile at the secretary and spot her name badge.

A few more keystrokes and she turns to me for a final time. "All right Evan, you're all set. Your receipts are all yours, room 2139, the elevator is right behind you. And just so you know…since it's a Wednesday our bar is doing happy hour from 8-9. And usually, they'll extend if it's a big night. You should come down, it's a good time."

"Sounds fun. I might check it out. Thank you for all your help Payton." I tell her with a smile then start off toward the elevator.

"You're welcome. See you later maybe…" She says before twirling back towards her computer.

I opt to close the gap to the elevator and join the gathered guests waiting for the elevator.

The things being sociable, polite, and calling somebody by their name can do for you.

I don't know. I might come back down and see what's going on. I want to sit down for a second first.

I don't think that anything's happened back home in LA, mostly due to the time difference.

The elevator doors open to reveal a larger than standard elevator that allows everybody to pile in. Once everyone has done that and hit the buttons for their respective floors, I take a better look at the panel.

34 floors. And even though I'm on the 23rd floor, I'm not the highest one in this elevator.

Gonna be here a while.

Out of habit, I pull out my phone and—

Sabine – 3 New Messages

I missed her yesterday. We've texted pretty much every day since she left except for last night.

Honestly, I expected she fell asleep. She's been doing these camps and they've been exhausting her. Not physically, just emotionally.

"Mom told me to pass along this picture when I talked to you today. I passed out the instant I got home yesterday, sorry."

Attached is a picture of Sabine in what looks like a camp shirt, high socks, and soccer shorts while slumped into a corner of a leather couch.

"I'm in charge of me tonight so if you get a minute and wanna bug me, bug away. Where are you now anyway? Charleston?" – Sabine

Sent about 15 minutes ago.

"No," I shake my head as I smile and type out my reply. "Downtown Philadelphia. Heading to New York tomorrow."

That's going to be…a nightmare.

Instantly Sabine's bubbles pop back up.

Oh.

"YOU'RE ALIVE! Is now a good time to Facetime?"

No!

I'm still on this elevator, I've got the nano-poly mesh mask on obscuring my real identity, voice modifier, and everything.

Frantically I begin typing. "Not yet, I'm still on this elevator and you don't want to hear these two screaming kids."

I send the next, then peer up as a chime goes off and the elevator continues clearing out.

Me and my three pieces of luggage aren't super obtrusive now.

"Fair enough. Are you in a nice hotel?"

"Yes," I answer as the door shuts again as we are now within five of my floor. "I'm just tagging along like last week."

Sabine was indispensable after my first real day out on the trail. She texted me as I was just starting to put together that I was responsible for finding a hotel, food, etc. and that there's no structure for the campaign staff interns.

23rd floor…

When the chime goes off, I'm ready and thru the door as soon as I can be, laptop bag over my shoulder with my roller suitcase in one hand, phone and and overnight bag in the other.

Room 19 since it's floor 23…

I stroll down the hall, my suitcases making the only noise while I probe out.

Should be up here on the left…floor's only got one other person on it.

Trading my phone for my room key, I find the marked door, 2139, insert the magnetic key card, which lights up a green LED light, unlocking the door before I push inside a step and close the door behind me.

…

The door heavily falls back into its frame with a satisfyingly secure sound. I respond by pulling my sunglasses off my shirt and into my hands before slipping them over my ears. "Twos."

Quietly, Twos replies in my ear. "I noticed the purchase of your room for the night. Would you like me to scan for bugs, cameras, and other surveillance equipment just like the last few hotel rooms?"

Like she read my mind.

"Yes please. Thank you, Twos." I answer while Probing again.

Nobody in the rooms on either side of me.

I flip on the light from halfway across the room, revealing a dowdy furnished hotel room but with a comfortable-looking bed and large TV.

Twos scans continue running as I park my roller against the faux chest of drawers and throw the rest of my luggage onto the bed. Probing one more time, I don't pick up anything.

I think we're—

"Security scans complete. Hotel room secure. Shall I alert Master Kanan and Knight Cayle that you have found your lodgings for the night?"

Lodgings.

"That'd be great. But Twos? Find a new word for it. Nobody calls these lodgings anymore."

Silence is the initial reply before Twos conjures up a response. "Processing. Is your room secure? Would you like to unlock the photostatic mask?"

"Yes."

An imperceptible sound charms into my ears before I reach behind my neck and pull the mask up over my head before straightening up and taking a peek at the stocking, mesh netting-looking sleeve that's obscuring my identity.

A's a damned genius.

"Twos, FaceTime Sabine on my phone. And can you connect my headphones to my phone as well please?" I ask as I begin slipping off my shoes and dig in my pockets for my headphones—

Campaign key fob, trash, paper receipts, pen, phone—headphones—

"Headphones connected via Bluetooth. Secure connection established with Sabine Wren. Would you like to initiate the call?"

"Yes please. Thank you, Twos." I say, my own voice floating to my ears for the first time in well over ten hours.

Hearing another voice come out as your own is a little stressful. You're thinking in your normal voice, then I said it and it sounds so different…

It's okay. My cover's holding so far with no real close calls. Haven't fallen asleep in any uncomfortable—

A tech synth sound interrupts my train of thought in my ear before Sabine's visage appears on my phone screen. "Ezra!"

"Hey." I smile at her while wrestling with my last shoe. "How are you?"

"I'm good. Did you just sit down? Hi!"

"Hi." I laugh at the statement before finally freeing my foot from my shoe. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"I've seen your face when you go to take off your shoes. It kind of looked like that except worse. I like the dress shirt…"

I shoot Sabine a smirk before I jokingly unbutton the top button, eliciting a laugh from her. "No more…this is a PG show."

"Fine…" I droop my head and set the phone on the comforter. "I'm putting you on my comforter so I can use both hands."

"Sounds reasonable to me!" Sabine calls back as I move to start changing into more comfortable clothes.

The grit of the carpet greets my feet once my socks are off. "So how are you? How was your day? Every time we text, we text about me."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. It's been madness here on my end. Camps, home, seeing some friends for once—"

"Are you at least enjoying that?" I crack.

It sounds like she's not.

"Yeah! I love it. But I don't mean to keep leaving you on read Ezra. I see your text whenever you get a second to reply, then I get called off and next thing I know it's three hours later and when I unlock my screen it pops up to your text."

"You're fine…" I call back to reassure her as I slip into shorts instead of these slacks. "I'm not exactly responsive on the other end."

"But you're in the middle in the biggest circus of the world right now Ezra! I keep on checking the background of news clips, seeing if you're there but you're not."

I blurt out laughter again before I inform her "Yeah, I'm never where a camera is. I'm mostly a tech and logistics guy right now."

I'm Evan Dobbs. 19-Year-old Freshman from California. Born and raised, going to Pepperdine. Undecided major but my whole neighborhood is an Organa pocket so…

Here I am.

"Seriously? So you're never ever going to be on camera or anything?"

"I'm not camera worthy." I answer. "My boss wants me to get out and talk to people in the next few days though."

"That sounds great. Is this the same boss that bought you those cookies?"

After I saved the day and successfully used twos of my people to distract the press pool, allowing Organa's chief of staff, my boss's boss to get out unimpeded.

Apparently that was good. I just saw the look on her face and acted on instinct.

Looked murderous.

"Yeah. I can't get a read if she trusts me or not…" I unzip my bag and start going for a shirt.

I think I'll keep my white undershirt on and keep my options open. I still don't know about going back downstairs.

"She obviously trusts you if you do so much for her Ezra. What's your title again, Logistics Director?"

"Communicator." I correct her with a teasing tone. "Please give me and my position the respect it deserves, please."

"No." Sabine laughs defiantly. "So you have to deal with tons of people, and tech, and everything huh."

"Feels like it. I check out all the iPads and tech assets. I ensure that it's all working. I help with volunteers. I help our side when the TV crews show up and start knocking everything out everywhere. Literally. And more."

When Organa's plane lands, what we want doesn't even matter anymore. That whole show becomes the one and only priority.

"Have you figured out why you?"

I shrug, then poke my head back into the frame. "Kind of. I'm sort of the chief of staff's chief of staff. It's a lot of herding carts. They needed a leader and somebody to direct traffic."

And since I came stamped with Padmé and her apparently well-respected chief of staff's seals of approval, here I am.

"You are a leader Ezra." Sabine's voice reverberates to me. "I'm sure you're doing a great job."

I laugh at empty air. "Thanks. I'm trying."

"Do you want to talk about all that stuff? You know I'm not super well-versed in all of it. But I've kept up since I got home because of you so—"

"We can. Even though if you've been keeping up we can talk about something else." I propose.

Palpatine's been kicking Organa around all week. Organa's whole message of change and 'status quo is working how it should be' can't gain traction when things are quiet here domestically.

Everybody keeps looking to foreign matters and how the Trade Federation just used its might and influence in Laos to swing the mayoral election in a hardline, pro-business, pro-Trade Federation candidate.

Unfortunately, they did it in the clumsiest way possible and picked up more attention for doing it than they had before, and the entire thing was meant to be quiet.

Like that poor village on the Nepal, Indian border.

Things are going to heat up though. Congress' committee of Constitutional scholars on whether Palpatine can appoint a new Supreme Court judge is coming next week according to my daily briefing from the Order.

"What fun things are you doing? Non-work-related things. Or have you been a square and just worked for eight straight days?"

"Hey…" I frown in her direction. "I'm only here for twenty-two days total. They're using me like a finite resource. I haven't had much free time."

Shirt shirt shirt shirt shirt…

…

"I thought you looked kind of tired." She comments.

Quickly, I jog back to my phone and pull it into my hands once I'm close enough to disguise it. "I'm fine. I'm sleeping better."

"Have you gotten a full night's sleep?" Sabine beleaguers me. "I know you said you've stopped getting up and down but—"

Sabine…

"It's still the same. Once I'm asleep I'm okay. My hours are just crazy though." I reply before Sabine's eyes roll so hard the screen goes to point at Sabine's ceiling. Disgust fills up my headphones after a minute.

"You're still on your crazy Jedi regimen aren't you—" She groans.

"Sabine—"

"Ezra you're going to tire out. It wouldn't kill you to skip the gym for a couple of days and sleep in."

"I slept in when I stayed at Kanan and Hera's." I point out.

That was last week. That was fun.

The Council, thru Kanan essentially ordered me to stay with the kids until I left. We had fun, went to the arcade with Jacen, shopped and played with Mira.

"But then you chased after Mira. By the way, Jacen taught her to run?!" Sabine asks, looking startled.

"Yeah…"

Hera was right when she told me that Mira copies Jacen, maybe more than all of us.

Jacen runs everywhere. And now that Mira has finally figured out how to stand up and walk like the rest of us, she's…following and running after Jacen everywhere.

"That video was adorable. The way she answers her mom when Hera asks her what she's doing as she's cruising the wall to the stairs.

Kanan had to go out at 9 in the morning and buy a baby gate for the upstairs.

"It was." I smile at her before—

Three loud bangs pound on my door, snapping my head up.

"What's that?" Sabine instantly asks.

Shit.

"Hang on…I'm going to put you in my pocket." I inform her while pulling the mask to me.

"Gotcha…" Sabine replies before unintentionally breathing into the mic.

I slip on the mask as in the background, I hear a female voice say something on Sabine's end. "Hey, you check Twitter—?"

This better be good whoever is on the other side of this door.

Whoever it is impatiently pounds on my door once, twice, three more times before I yank it open mid bang. "You know, knocking is nicer." I pop off.

It's one of Tiffany's personal interns. Dylan.

"Sorry bro. Tiffany just told me to hurry and get you down to her room. It's room 1641—" Dylan says as a greeting, only to simultaneously begin leaving.

Wait what—

"Hold on—" I sputter. "Dylan! What's going on?"

Where are you going? You pound, pound, pound on my door only to say it's a meeting and leave?!

"I don't know! Twitter's blowing up, Anna's ordering in coffee for everybody's, she'll get your order when you're down there—!" Dylan calls back to me as he retreats back towards the elevators before vanishing to them entirely.

Great…

I groan heavily as in my ear; Sabine continues talking to now multiple voices. "—I don't know. He's in Philadelphia."

Is she talking about…me?

"I'm back, kind of." I report to her.

She's going to want to kill me.

"I don't like your tone." Sabine replies. "You're with the Organa campaign right?"

"Yeah." I confirm for her.

Sabine instead speaks to who she's in person with "Yeah."

"I'm still scrolling trying to find the original story…it's just getting passed around. Just the headline."

I think that's Tristan. That's a male voice that's not her dad that I don't know.

"Is that Tristan?" I ask Sabine, only for Sabine to flip the screen.

A scene is revealed of wooden floods, dual couches with a huge fireplace in between the couches. Sabine's father is on one of the couches, scrolling on a tablet. Standing are Sabine, a woman who I don't recognize, and another male in casual clothes.

T-shirt, shorts, socks. Short haircut. Does look like him.

"Yeah. I ran downstairs, Kayla grabbed me for something." Sabine fills me in.

"Is that Ezra?" The woman's voice asks.

I think her name's Kayla.

"Yeah." Sabine says before flipping the screen back before she asks me "What was that banging about?"

"My boss wants me for some meeting," I inform her. I'm sorry."

I was not expecting this job to be so all-consuming.

"Ezra's boss wants him for some meeting. Probably urgently. You think that's it?" Sabine turns off-screen.

Tristan.

"I would imagine so. It's a helluva headline. And if the campaign's heard about it then—" Tristan replies to his sister.

Sabine's mother's voice parachutes in. "—it's a massive scandal. Sources reporting that Darth Vader met with Palpatine and multiple Cabinet members back in March?!"