"May I help you?" A very bored-looking secretary asks, not even lifting her head
"Hello," The attitude doesn't bother Sierra. "I have a 1030 appointment with Moff Crossway."
The secretary glances at the computer. "Spring?"
"That's me."
"Moff Crossway's office is down the hall on the left." She says, going back to her computer.
Sierra uses the motion of picking up her briefcase to hide her turning on her ear comm, and starts down the hall. It's simple enough to find the corner office and knock on the door frame.
"Moff Crossway?"
A wiry man stretches his neck to look at her, deep-set eyes ill and soulless. "Yes?"
Sierra takes that as her invitation to walk in. "Emily Spring, corporate liaison for Eagle Medical Supply."
"Medical, you say?" he says, shaking her hand. "I've done a few years working with the white coats and medical droids myself."
"So I've heard. And look at how you've risen."
"Someone has to bring the needs of the medical community to the Empire's ears." He says as they lower themselves to our seats. "What business do you seek with the Empire, Miss Spring?"
Step one of grifting: make the mark feel important. People who feel important are more likely to make mistakes.
"I thought a man with a background such as yours would be perfect to bring our operations to light."
"In what way?"
"Eagle wishes to do business with the Empire."
"In what specific fields?"
Step two: Give the mark what they want. And do it fast.
"Among other things, emergency preparedness."
Crossway doesn't say anything, but his eye twitches. He's interested, all right.
"What form of emergency preparedness?"
"Wildfire, severe storm, tsunami, earthquake, terrorist attack, really any disaster will do as long as it leaves wounded. We have plans and protocols which would administer immediate medical aid on a large scale to those involved in the crisis."
Lux's voice crackles to life in the comm. "You forgot to mention pandemics."
You gotta leave them hanging a little, Lux! Sierra snaps open her briefcase, removes a datapad and hands it to Crossway. He scrolls through the holodocs with a quick but attentive eye.
"What types of supplies would be provided?" he asks.
"Beds, medical personnel, bandages, bacta, antibiotic drugs. Anything ordered by our customers and anything we deem appropriate for the situation will be flown directly to the disaster site."
"I see," he puts the form down. "Now why do you think the Empire will accept this proposal?"
"After the Blue Shadow Virus, it can't hurt to be too prepared. Who knows what the rebels are doing after all?"
"Nice save," Lux says.
It wasn't a save, but it's not exactly like Sierra can tell him. She let it go.
"You're willing to undertake treatment for a pandemic?"
"The thing about pandemics, Mr. Crossway, is that they are very, very expensive."
"Why does that make me take the slightest interest in your product?"
She sets an infocube on the table.
"Eagle is willing to offer the Empire the unique opportunity of factory-direct prices."
"Factory-direct?" Crossway muses, opening the doc and poring over the contents.
"It's the quickest way to implement our policies."
"As well as the cheapest." Crossway says, shutting the contract. "You have my attention, Miss Spring…"
"Just 'Emily,' please."
"Emily. Before I agree to anything, I'm going to need to see these supplies."
"That shouldn't be a problem."
Suddenly the whole team is in her ear.
"Are you insane?" Hutch shouts. "Sierra, do you know how hard it was to create this business electronically? Now you're asking for a physical location?"
"Steela and Saw, get out as fast as you can. We've got to cobble something together, fast. Sierra, we're going to need to schedule the meeting for tomorrow or later. Preferably, never." Lux says.
"What if something important goes by while I'm stealing a corporate building?" Steela demands.
"That kind of goes on the back burner because of Sierra's smooth move." Ahsoka grumbles.
Through all the yelling Sierra smiles serenely and takes her leave until she finds the nearest refresher.
"Any legitimate company would allow him to see the merchandise." She argues.
And, just like they've rehearsed it, the entire team yells "We aren't a legitimate company!"
"We have to pretend to be."
Hutch forces his way through the noise. "Do you know how many firewalls med companies have on the locations of their storehouses? They're meant to keep drug addicts and people like me out."
"But you can crack it," Saw says. "You're super Hutch with his little super computer."
"Yeah I am, but Super Hutch's kryptonite is this awful coffee shop HoloNet connection."
"Just hog the broadband," Steela proposes.
"You…you can't just do that, Steela." Hutch says tiredly.
Sierra decides to stick her neck out. "Um, no pressure, but we've got to have the fake supplies by ten tomorrow."
"Ten?"
"I got us twenty three hours, I don't think we can get much more!"
"Okay, everybody come back to the ship. We've got medical supplies to steal."
...
"Explain again why we need to steal medical supplies." Tandin asks evenly.
"Because somebody whose name rhymes with 'mascara' told the mark he could see them in the flesh." Hero says.
"Mascara? Really?" Sierra grumbles.
Hutch looks up from his computer. "Would you all calm down, please? I'm busy trying to find us something to steal."
"Can't you just search medical supply warehouses?" Lux asks.
Hutch rolls his eyes. "They're not just sitting around like 'hey, drug addicts! Come and rob me!' And the patient confidentiality laws make it even worse. I'm trying to work through one of these firewalls and get us an address."
"Why don't we just follow a truck bringing supplies?" Hero asks.
Hutch pauses for a second, the wheels turning in his head almost audible. "Follow a truck…okay, we can try that." He says, reaching his virtual fingers into security camera feed, bringing up the image of a paneled truck arriving at the hospital.
Then he goes to the next camera, showing the truck coming into the parking lot.
And the next, showing it coming up the road.
This might actually work!
But alas, the camera angles end. Hutch sighs. "It was a good idea…"
Rex steps in. "Hutch, you should look for a warehouse district around that area."
Hutch blinks. "Right. Right!"
"Looks like I'm not the only one off my game today," Sierra whispers.
Lux whispers into her ear. "Don't start with it, Sierra."
"But-."
"Sierra. Look at Steela's face. Do you want to start something with her?"
"…Nope."
Tavin starts to fuss in the next room and Ahsoka steps out to grab him. In just a second, she returns with the baby and dips her head to kiss his forehead. "He just wanted some attention."
Tav reaches up and almost gets his chubby little hands on Ahsoka's lekku. Fortunately, she maneuvers just in time. "No, Tav."
"Goo," Tav responds.
Steela almost jumps out of her skin. "Is he talking?"
"It's just baby talk," Ahsoka explains. "He knows how to say things, but he doesn't know how to use our language."
"Whatever it is, it's cute."
Ahsoka positions herself so Tav is easily visible to all the occupants of the room. "Look, Tav. There's Daddy, and Grandma, and Aunt Sierra, and Aunt Steela, and -."
"Baa!"
Saw puffs his chest out. "He just said my name!"
"Baby talk, Saw."
"You just don't want to admit it." He says.
Ahsoka bounces Tavin in her arms, "He'll say his first words in a few months. Hutch, how's the search coming."
"It's nuts, Ahsoka." Hutch grumbles. "Hospitals know how to hide their stuff."
"You can crack it."
The computer beeps and a smile spreads across Hutch's face. "Damn straight. They might be able to hide from the hospital records…but nobody can hide from the electric bill." He brings up a manifest. "A warehouse in the district the truck came from paid the electric company last month. The name on the check was a pharmaceutical company."
"Do you have an address?" Hero asks.
"Of course I do, babe."
"All right, let's get a move on." Lux announces. "We don't have a lot of time to steal this place."
"I've stolen fake offices before. They're easy," Steela says. "But an entire warehouse? That involves inventory people, hoverlift drivers, managers…we don't have the bodies for an operation like that."
"I know. That's why we're going to use the original employees. Hutch, get me the manager's HoloNet blogs."
Steela looks at him.
"Huh?"
…
"Thank you for calling Lockwood Pharmaceuticals. This is Kathy speaking."
"Hello, Kathy? This is Marge from the humane society." Mina says. "Do you have a brown, orange, and white tooka named 'Mittens'?"
"Oh my goodness. What's wrong?"
"One of our catchers found him out wandering, ma'am. We have him at the shelter, but I would advise getting over here as quickly as you can. We have so many animals, it's hard to keep track of all their statuses when people come in to adopt, or when we have to-."
"I'll be over there in thirty minutes! Don't give him away!" the woman cries and hangs up.
Mina keys off her comlink No more than five seconds later, the manager comes rushing out the door next to the group of gathered thieves.
"Mommy's coming, Mittens." She murmurs.
Almost the instant she walks out the door, they enter in two groups: the people wearing suits, and the people wearing coveralls.
In the former group are Mina, Ahsoka, and Lux. Saw, Steela, Hero, Rex, and Tandin are all wearing coveralls.
"Everyone's got all their supplies?"
"I don't know how to work that holo-sign," Saw whispers.
"Don't worry," Hutch says through the comm. "You just have to do what I tell you. It's easy. Now get yourself on a ladder at the sign."
…
"Okay Hutch. What am I doing?" Saw demands.
Hutch leans back in his chair. "You should find a holodisk port on that sign, probably somewhere toward the left. I need you to take out the data chip and put in the one I gave you."
A pause.
"That was too easy. You could have done it." He mumbles.
"Sorry, but I've got a lot of stuff to do here. Very, very technical stuff." Hutch quickly ends the comm transmission and walks into the main room where Katooni is already parked on the couch with a bowl of cheese curls and her U of Onderon Rupings jersey.
"Did you find it?"
In answer, the University of Onderon playoffs blare from the TV.