Steela's part in stealing the warehouse is so easy, a child could do it. After all, kids love stickers, right?
Hero walks around the shipping containers ripping the old stickers off, Steela slaps new ones on, and Rex follows us around with a scanner, registering the crates.
"Steela, you're putting the stickers on upside down!" he protests after the third crate.
"But they read the same way, right?"
"You will put the stickers on right side up. That is an order." Tandin snaps, muttering about toddlers.
The con men ran out of Tandin's caf last night.
Steela winces and takes extra special care to put the next sticker on right side up.
"Why are we doing this?" Hero asks.
"In case the mark tries to scan it to prove it's ours. Sierra's going to do her best but there's only so much she can do."
Hero nods. "Point taken. How do you feel about this job? Think it's going to go well?"
"The mark loves to throw around money. We can't ask for a better target." She sticks on another sticker.
Hero moves down to rip off another label. "I don't know, Steela. Something always manages to go wrong for us at the last second."
I'm very aware of that, but I try to keep the mood up. "Well bad luck comes in threes, so ours should have run its course."
"Oh, it's past its course." Hero says. "During the rebellion, Saw got captured. Then you fell off a cliff. Then you were not actually dead, Lux had to dump his girlfriend at your fake funeral, the guys and Sierra got arrested, Dalla went all scorched earth with Lux's heirlooms because she was pissed that he dumped her, and there was that whole charade with Dendup, and Ahsoka getting framed, the Empire, and…" her voice falls. "John."
A lump rises in Steela's throat. A little over eight months ago, John Bonteri fought an Inquisitor so they all could live.
Ahsoka says that Lux was up all night crying about how Tav wasn't going to have a grandfather. When Sierra heard what had happened, Steela held her for hours while she sobbed.
"He saved my life," Ahsoka said a few days after his death. "Tor would have killed me if he hadn't intervened. He and Mina…"
John helped Steela when she was sick, too. He was always there when she was throwing up, and always kind even when she puked on his shoes.
He didn't deserve to die.
She clears her throat. "Yeah. Yeah, we're due for some good luck soon."
Rex coughs three times.
"Do you need a lozenge?" Hero asks.
Rex shakes his head, and coughs three times more.
"Are you sure? Because I have one in my pocket right…"
Rex faces Hero square on, and coughs three times. Slowly. Deliberately. With a pause between each cough.
The mark is here!
No sooner has the thought left Steela's head than she hears Sierra's voice, practically yelling over the sound of forklifts, coming through the comm.
"This is only one of our warehouses, Mr. Crossway ." She says, "As you can see, we have plenty of stock to sell."
The mark must ask how many warehouses there actually are, because next she says. "Twenty-five, and our factories turn out more supplies by the day. With the new contract, we will be able to expand to fifty."
Rex furrows his brow. "Fifty warehouses?"
"He better not ask for locations, for Sierra's sake." Hero mutters.
In all honesty, Steela is a greater threat to Sierra's safety than Hero. She and Sierra share a room.
"That's good, though. A mark like this would be happy to invest in a growing company which is churning out supplies to feed his preparedness plan." Rex points out.
Steela walks over to the edge of one of my shipping containers and looks down to spot Sierra walking up the aisle with two men in suits.
"The mark has a bodyguard?" Hero pops up next to her. "Better tell Saw."
Steela shakes her head. "A bodyguard wouldn't be talking to Sierra."
"Well then who is he? A lawyer?"
"Of course this would all be outlined in the contract, Mr. Nightwine." Sierra says. "Down to the last credit. Security is one of our top priorities here at Eagle."
Lux's voice comes through my comm. "Steela, I need that guy's identity. Sierra can't find a way to sneak it in the conversation."
Steela hands her stack of labels to Rex and he gives her his scanner in return. Then she sets off down the aisle, holding the price gun in her left hand and limbering up the fingers in her right. She may be a competent pickpocket, but she doesn't have the Force like Katooni, who can lift someone's wallet half a mile away, does. And the man she's going up against has a holstered blaster, meaning some kind of combat training.
She pretends to scan a random shipping container, then continues on her way.
Sierra sees her coming and directs a question to the suit accompanying the mark. "Mr. Nightwine, what exactly did you have in mind when it comes to our contract?"
"Exclusive, with clear parameters on what Eagle can spend Imperial credits on..."
Steela's fingers slip into the mark's pocket, and his wallet is hers. She hides it in the pocket of her coveralls and squeezes between two shipping containers to open it.
"Guys, I have the wallet. This guy's name is Konrad Nightwine."
"Konrad Nightwine…let me put that into the system." Hutch says.
"You don't have to, I have his badge right here. He's ISB. Loss prevention."
The comm goes quiet. The Imperial Security Bureau has been trying to find their crew from day one. Of course, the mark would ask for a loss prevention officer to accompany him to a meeting for a huge contract! Steela would do the same thing in his place.
Saw sighs. "This job just became a whole lot harder."
"Yeah, I think it did."
...
In the manager's office, Mina's taken down all her pictures, switched out her nameplate, and taken a seat in her chair when there's a knock on the door.
"Come in!"
Sierra opens the door, two men behind her. "Mrs. Driscoll?"
"Emily, how are you today?"
"Very good. May I introduce Moff Crossway, and Mr. Nightwine from the ISB."
Mina holds out her hand for each to shake. "Lorena Driscoll, business relations. I know you've already met Emily. Please, take a seat."
Crossway sits immediately. Nightwine hesitates, which doesn't sit well with Mina or Sierra.
"So, has Emily shown you our contract?"
Crossway nods. "Miss Spring has gone over it in detail."
"Wonderful. Do you have any questions?"
"Miss Spring answered some of them," Nightwine butts in. "What I would like to know is what specific security protocols your company has in place."
"All our accounts and our records are protected with state-of-the-art firewalls as well as round-the-clock security staff to monitor them for any kind of virus or hacker intrusion."
The "round the clock security" is Hutch, waiting with a bowl of cheese puffs for the money to go in so he can squirrel it away in one of their many secret bank accounts.
Nightwine barely twitches a facial muscle. "And we can be guaranteed an exclusive contract?"
"You would be our biggest customer."
Crossway straightens. "Miss Spring said Eagle would be prepared to assist in pandemic preparedness."
"We would. We have the capabilities to produce protective equipment, treatment drugs, and the laboratories to test vaccines if the situation were ever to arise."
"And what can the Empire expect to benefit from this contract?" Nightwine jumps back in.
"Besides swift and effective access to medical supplies?" Sierra asks.
"With a three hundred thousand-credit down payment, I would expect something out of our deal." He says icily.
"We are prepared to offer the Empire a ten percent stake in the company." Sierra answers.
Mina nods. Good, Sierra. We rehearsed this. Keep it as close to ten percent as you can.
"Fifteen," Crossway counter-offers.
"Twelve," Mina cuts in.
"Thirteen."
"Twelve point five."
"Ms. Driscoll, would you prefer I brought this issue to my superiors in ISB?"
"Twelve point five it is." Crossway interjects. "Now, if you could just write that in the contract…"
"Of course," Mina whips out her stylus and scribbles the new terms between the lines. "Just sign on the dotted line."
Crossway reaches for the flimsi but Nightwine stops him.
"Moff Crossway and I will be going over this tonight. We'll make our final decision in the morning."
"Of course," Mina puts the contract into a folder and hand it to them. "I'll send Emily to your offices to pick it up in the morning."
Crossway stuffs the folder into his briefcase. "Very good. Does ten suit you?"
The door opens a crack, and Steela's dark hand slips through, holding a black wallet. Sierra takes it from her and discreetly sticks it in Nightwine's jacket pocket while Mina tries not to visibly hold her breath.
Luckily, the transfer seems to have worked, because Nightwine doesn't arrest Sierra. He doesn't move a muscle.
"It's been a pleasure doing business with you gentlemen. I look forward to Emily bringing the contract back tomorrow."
"I do also." Crossway beams, pumping her hand.
A few seconds after Sierra leads them out the door, Ahsoka pops in.
"Did she give him back the wallet?"
"She did. Are all the shipping stickers in place?"
Ahsoka nods. "How long do you think we have before the manager gets back here? An hour?"
"Yeah, about the manager." Hutch says. "Soka, it's a good thing you're in there. Because you're going to have to pack up that office really, really fast."
A pit of dread opens in Mina's stomach. "How fast?"
"This woman apparently drives like Saw and hit every green light on the way to the animal shelter. She was in and out of there in record time."
"Hutch! How much time do we have?" Ahsoka demands.
"Two minutes and counting. Go! And Saw, remember you've got to change the sign!"
Two minutes?
Mina frantically opens the desk drawers and starts putting the manager's pictures and her diploma back on the wall. Ahsoka swaps out the nameplates on the desk and arranges some family photos.
Panting comes in through the comm: "Hutch, I can't change the sign in time. I'm on the other end of the warehouse."
"I've got it!" Steela says. "Hopefully, they won't notice I'm not part of the ladder crew."
Having Steela swap out the datacards wouldn't be their first choice, but it will do. At any rate, Mina and Ahsoka have more urgent concerns to attend to.
Ahsoka's eyes sweep the office. "I think that's everything!"
"It is. Hurry, before the manager comes!"
The two of them hightail out of the office as if their lives depend on it, because they do.
On the way out, the manager comes down the hall.
"Why would someone do something like telling me my tooka is with Animal Control?" she whines to no one in particular. "I almost had a heart attack!"
For the good of the galaxy, Ms. Manager. For the good of the galaxy.
And also for three hundred thousand credits.
...
Konrad Nightwine sits at his desk and pores over the contract.
It seems legitimate, but one can never be too careful. After all loss prevention is his job, and one can never be too careful when one has the time.
He fires up the HoloNet and enters a name into the search bar.
The first few results are fine. Graduation from a competitive university, and a good job where she quickly rose through the ranks.
Nightwine digs further. He finds an excellent high school transcript and a few extracurriculars – debate team, book club.
But it's not enough. He goes to middle school.
There's a transcript and a few clubs, even an emergency room visit for a broken arm. He digs further.
And hits pay dirt.
How do you go to middle school without an elementary school transcript?
Nightwine straightens in his chair, runs an image through facial recognition, and lights up when he sees the results.
He's definitely getting promoted for this.