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CHAPTER FOUR

Aidon frowned. This was a tougher task than he thought. He'd been to all the local pilot hangouts in the city, and all the hotels. Right now they only had three hours. He'd already talked to Bectra and that was settled. Now he and Petra were looking for this Duncan guy.

"Pet!" he called.

A girl about three years younger than him with long brown hair and a medium height, slender body looked at him from across the street. He beckoned her over and she looked at him, asking the question what with her eyes.

"We've checked everywhere, all the bars, all the mechanics, all the hotels. Where can this one guy be?"

Petra frowned for a second and then her head snapped up. She raised her hands and started to make gestures with them. That was another interesting thing about the girl. She was mute. As Aidon "listened" he smiled. This was another thing he knew Tavish liked about Petra, she always had the answers.

"BBQ, OK let's check it out."

A couple minutes later they were at a really wild looking place, called BBQ, or Bad Boys Quest. It was a hangout where only really wild pilots, gutsy young men, and the forces went. Aidon had been in it once.

"Come on," he said to Petra.

They entered the bar, and Petra waved a hand in front of her face for a second. Aidon could understand why. The smell of alcohol was so strong that someone who wasn't even drunk could pass out. He made his way to the bar, keeping a hand on Petra's arm.

"Hi Kel, we need some info."

The bartender, a large man, with a cigar in his mouth turned and laughed. "Oh yeah Aidon. What kind of information?"

"I need to find a man named Duncan Larasso." Aidon tilted his head. "You know him?"

"Lets say I know exactly who he is," Kel turned his head to Petra and looked her up and down with a gleam in his eyes. "What do I get?"

Aidon, who caught the bartender's move suddenly lashed out, grabbing Kel's hand, and slammed it down on the bar, with the fingers spread out. He leaned forward.

"I'll tell you what you get if you don't tell us? A injury to the hand that won't heal." With that he pulled out something and flicked his wrist. A blade snapped out of the pocketknife in his hand.

Kel frowned. "All right, all right. You see that table over there by the window."

Aidon and Petra looked in that direction, and saw a couple of regular pilots playing a game of cards with a couple of Forces pilots. He nodded.

"The pilot with the black vest, light hair, and blue eyes is your man."

Aidon gave Kel a smirk. "Thanks." Then he let go of the bartender's hand and they walked towards the table.

"Excuse me Mr. Larasso?"

The guy stood up and turned around. He glared at Aidon and Petra, and out of the corner of his eye, Aidon saw Kel slap his forehead. "Uh oh," he muttered.

"Do you know that calling someone by a different name is an insult boy."

Aidon kept his mouth shut seeing that this guy was like a foot taller than him, and just stared. The guy grabbed him by the collar and yanked him forward. "It's also rude to just sit and stare at people."

Then before Aidon could do anything, the guy, who Aidon knew now was stone dead drunk, punched him hard in the face. Aidon felt himself fly backwards and ram into another table. His body, especially his nose, hurt like hell as he groaned and sat up. Petra ran over to him, and quickly asked him in their silent language if he was OK. He nodded, and wiped blood from his heavily bleeding nose. Just then the guy appeared over them, swaying slightly. He had a broken bottle raised and Aidon had a very bad feeling of what was about to happen next. But suddenly something lashed around the bottle yanking it from the goon's hand. The guy whirled around, and Aidon saw a young Forces pilot holding a whip, and another blond man holding a blaster. The blond guy stepped forward and even though he was quite a bit shorter than the goon, got in his face.

"Why are you hassling these kids, you interrupted my game."

"Buzz off."

The guy tilted his head and laughed. "That wasn't very nice, but then I guess this isn't either." With that he kicked the man hard in the groin, the goon went down to his knees. The blond turned to some other guys who looked like the goon's friends and shook his head. "Get this carcass out of here, before I hurt more than his pride."

The guys nodded, and grabbing their friend dragged him out. The blond haired man smirked and went back to his table. The young pilot nodded at them, giving Petra a smile. He folded up a whip and hooked it to his belt. The he joined the man with blond hair and another man at a table. Petra turned to Aidon and nodded. She helped him stand up and they made their way to the table.

"Excuse me, Mr. Larasso?"

The blonde guy looked up. "You found me."

Aidon breathed a sigh of relief as he held a napkin up to his nose.

Duncan grinned. "Have a seat boys."

Petra glared at him, and Aidon yanked her down on top of his lap. The young man laughed and Petra turned her stare on Aidon who gave her a quick grin. Then he was all business again. "I'm here with a message. You have to come with me to the hanger at midnight."

Duncan frowned. "Why?"

Aidon caught Petra's glance at the other two men and he turned to Duncan. "Maybe we should discuss this in private."

Duncan shook his head. "No need for that son. I'll probably tell them anyway."

Aidon sighed. "The Senator is planning on murdering the Jedi by tomorrow night. Tark has already been informed, and I was sent to you by Tavish."

"Who?" Duncan asked. "And why does the senator want to kill my friends."

"Tavish is the senators son and he want's to kill the Jedi because they're about to uncover something hidden." Said the pilot with the whip.

Aidon turned to the young pilot. "How do you know that," he hissed.

"One I'm friends with Conrad, and two anybody with half a brain could figure that out. Why else would the Jedi's lives be in danger?"

Petra looked at the pilot and suddenly her hands flashed quickly. The man frowned. ""What was that?"

"What's your name?" Aidon asked.

"Oh Blaine, Blaine Russo. I'm a pilot for the Black Squadron."

"And I'm Duke Garren," the third man finally spoke up.

"Well Blaine you're right. The Jedi are going to be killed before they discover something. Tavish is going to Meldona to try and talk peace."

Duke laughed. "You think they'll let him pass. He'll never get to talk peace, not with them."

"Not unless he knows someone who can get them in," Blaine said and leaned back.

Duncan held up a hand. "Wait where do I come in?"

"Tonight at midnight, you're going to fly Tavish and the Jedi to Meldona."

Duncan nodded. "But Blaine just said he'll never get past the guards."

"Unless he knows someone who can get him in."

Duncan turned to Blaine. "What are you hiding?"

Blaine gave him a lopsided smile. "The Black Squadron is not a Forces squadron."

Aidon looked at him. "What?!"

Duke grinned. "The squadron is made up of spies for the faction, we were assigned to learn the layout of the land. Not to kill anyone, but just learn how our people could get in."

"But you've killed members of the faction," Aidon pointed out.

Blaine's eyes flashed. "Yes I know, but to our leader it's a price to pay."

Duncan snorted. "A war over politics."

Aidon glanced at him and turned back to Blaine. "Who's your leader?"

Duke and Blaine exchanged a glance. "Our leader doesn't want war but he will do what needs to be done, except speak to the Senator and his family, but I think I could arrange a meeting."

Aidon raised an eyebrow. "Really? How?"

Duke smiled. "Blaine is the leader's brother."

Aidon turned to Blaine, who nodded. "All right, but how will you meet there."

"Well tonight, around midnight, we are going out on a patrol. We could just have the squadron say we got blasted out of the air by Meldona ships. They wouldn't come looking. The Forces think it's a waste of time. We'll meet with you at a small market bar called the Black Dragon. It's right by the landing docks. You won't miss it."

Duncan nodded. "OK we have a plan." He turned to Aidon and held up a hand. "Take me to your leader."

Tark paced outside the offices of Senator Tora for two hours. Finally he retired to Duncan's flat to meditate. Near dusk Rib and Elliot came back. They both looked exhausted and Elliot especially did not look at all happy.

"Master Saln, I'm so glad your back. Something has happened, and we have little time." Tark jumped up and started talking. Rib held up his hands.

"Wait please, slow down. Use the technique I showed you and calm yourself." By this time Elliot had fallen on the couch, as Tark quickly ran through the calming technique Elliot spoke through the pillow he held over his head.

"I don't care how important it is. All the troops that this mudball has in its Forces could come through that door right there," he pointed at the said door," and that still would stop me from getting some rest. I have to tell you, I've never met someone so stubborn in my life, how he thinks he can get…would someone turn that light off please!!, How he can get away with what he does…"

"Master Elliot would you be quiet this is important.." Tark was practically jumping up and down. Rib looked aghast.

"Tark, that was rude.. "Tark cut him off.

"No wait, we have exactly 40 minutes to get to the palace gardens. There we will meet a person who will take us to Duncan. Duncan will then pilot us to Meldona. If we don't go, then we're dead." All this was said as fast as he could. Elliot mumbled something about shutting up the people in the street below. " Don't they know I've had a hard day…my training did not include this."

Rib turned to his friend. "Diplomacy is learned my friend."

Tark was almost yelling now. "MASTERS, we have to go now!!! "

"Tark please, this is unbecoming. Until you explain yourself further we aren't going anywhere."

Elliot walked over to the window, his intentions being to tell the people below in a very un-jedi-like manor to shove it. "Uh…Rib…yea he's right. We're going…NOW!"

Rib ran to the window and looked down. The doorman was arguing with several hostile looking men. The conversation went along the lines of, you can't come in here to yes we can. Neither would budge. Which was just as well, thought Rib, it'll give us more time to get away. He had no doubt that Tark's yammering of being killed was true. Though he did think he could handle a few thugs he didn't want to expose a very inexperienced padawan to fighting at this moment.

Tark began to push his master to the door." Come on! Let's go, we don't have a lot of time!"

Rib nodded and Elliot, who was now all business stepped in front of Rib. "Wait, those men down there must have been sent by the senator, he's the only one who knows we are staying here. Which means he's got a lot of fire power in his hands. He may not keep to subtle tactics after this."

Rib frowned. " What makes you think the senator is the only one who knows we are here? "

Elliot looked slightly embarrassed. " Well, I sorta edited the land lords memory. Far as I know he's the only other person who knows Duncan isn't the only one staying in this flat. Think about it Rib," he added as Rib started to say something about the memory tampering, " it's just me and you against whoever Tora sends against us. Plus you have Tark here to look after. We aren't really "equipped" to handle a whole planetary defense force."

" What do you have in mind?" Tark questioned. Maybe he had misjudged this Elliot.

"I can get off the planet or at least try to send a message to the council. They should know the situation has gotten more complicated. We aren't dealing with a simple negotiation anymore. There's something deeper." Elliot started toward the door. "You go and meet Duncan. I'll find you wherever you end up."

Tark looked out the window. The thugs were gone. "Yea OK Elliot. Great, notify the council, good plan. Now can we please go? I don't feel like having those men following us. If we kill them it will put Tora on our scent right? So we go."

"No argument here padawan. Good luck Elliot. I'll see if I can't quiet this storm before the council needs to send reinforcements."

Elliot nodded and ran out onto the balcony. Looking around he jumped to the ground using the Force to slow his fall. The last Tark saw of him he was running down the street. Then Rib pulled him into the hall and they were running in the opposite direction. Taking a round-a-bout way to the palace, which wavered in the distant perimeter lights.