The next time Asyr got a request to go meet with Tresk Im'nel, she was surprised at the location. According to the message, she was to go to the BSA headquarters for Cephalia's northwest precinct, where Tresk would meet her. She was certain the message was authentic so she agreed to go, though with trepidation. She'd gone to considerable lengths to avoid being seen with Tresk and certainly to avoid making her presence known to local authorities. Now Tresk seemed ready to smash that precedent, and she had no choice but to trust him.

When she stepped through the front doors, a young human BSA officer immediately approached her. He identified himself as Aryon Ven and led Asyr to a small meeting room walled off from the rest of the head-quarters offices. Tresk was already there, seated atop the plain white table in the room's center with his arms crossed over his chest.

"It's good to see you again, Asyr," Tresk nodded. "I see you've already met Detective Ven."

"Very briefly," Asyr nodded to the young human. If he was phased by being in the same room with two Bothans, he didn't show it. He must have known more about what was going on than she did, not that that said much.

"Detective Ven is one of the main officers assigned to investigate Pohl-Had-Narr's assassination," Tresk continued. "I think that's something all three of us should be talking about right now."

Asyr looked back at the human. She was surprised he'd been assigned such an important case, especially when he was so young; it showed not just in his face but in his eyes, and the eyes never lied. She wondered if he'd simply been thrown into the investigation as a token human amidst all the Cerean police officers.

"Detective Ven," Tresk continued, "This is Asyr Sei'lar. She's working with the NRI independent of Colonel Pakpekkatt's division. I believe you two could help each other."

"I hope so," Ven said seriously. "I'm not sure if you're aware, but the investigation into Pohl-Had-Narr's death has stalled out. There's even some doubt as to whether the BIL was involved at all."

"The Cerean separatists?" Asyr asked.

Ven shook his head. "We don't think so. We're running out of leads."

"I was hoping you two could help each other," Tresk said.

Asyr looked at him sidelong. She didn't think lying to a supposed ally about her being NRI was very Jedi-like, but Tresk seemed confident enough about this, so she tried to be confident too.

Facing Ven, she said, "We've been trying to find out who has been supplying the BIL. I've heard that your people think a Republic-made weapon was used to kill Pohl-Had-Narr-" she waited for him to nod, "-and I think our main goal should be to try and track down the man some BIL members have said shipped them weapons."

"Pedric Cuf," said Ven. "We've gotten that name from some captured cell leaders. My partner in this investig-ation, Sham-Vi-Diin, has been handling a lot of those. So much, actually, that he's barely had any time to work this case even though it's supposed to be our top priority."

"So they're shifting manpower from this investigat-ion to breaking the BIL as a whole?"

"That's right. After all the attacks, I guess they think that's the main priority." He was trying not to sound dejected, with little success.

"It's not unreasonable," Tresk said. "Right now, Prime Minister Syne's goal is to prevent the cycle of violence from spiraling more. She feels that breaking the BIL is the best way to do that."

"And keep the Republic from intervening," Ven said.

They were both right. And of course, dismantling the human separatist league would also be a statement for a human woman than some saw as having been put into office because of their violence.

"I'll be more than happy to help catch Pedric Cuf," Asyr said, "But there's no reason to even think he's on this planet. I'm not sure how much good I can do us here."

"Whoever his contacts are, they're still here," Tresk said. "Pedric Cuf could be any place in the galaxy, but his links to this crisis are somewhere on Bavinyar, maybe in Cephalia right now. If we handle it right, they can even give us Pedric Cuf."

"All right," Asyr said with a small sigh. "How do we begin? And what can I accomplish that the police can't?"

"You have contacts with NRI and beyond, contacts that helped us find the place where NRDF weapons were being leaked to arms dealers," Tresk said, more for Ven's benefit than hers. "As for Detective Ven, I'm sure you have sources befitting your profession."

"I do," the young man nodded. "I was going to talk to BDF and investigate their traffic control records. I'm hoping we can find a way to pin down which ship Pedric Cuf was using, even if he used fake identification codes."

"That sounds like an excellent place to start." He put one hand on Asyr's shoulder, one on Ven's. "Together, I think you two can help each other immensely."

Asyr didn't know if Tresk was using a little kick of his Force powers, but she had to admit that she felt just a little bit better about this.

-{}-

Aryon Ven had never spent much time off Bavinyar; even the short flight from Cephalia up into orbit made him a little space-sick, and he tried to hide his queasiness when he stepped onto the deck of the BDF traffic control ship Yvolton, where he was warmly greeted by its captain, a woman less than ten years older than him.

As he was led through the hallways of the Carrack-class light cruiser, he couldn't help but be struck by how different this BDF naval crew was from the BSA policemen he saw in Cephalia every day. For a start, the vast majority were human instead of Cerean; they were also, as a whole, visibly younger. Most of the Cerean police officers looked middle-aged, and that meant a lot considering Cereans had longer lifespans than humans. Generally it made Ven feel like a constant child in their company. By contrast, he passed human BDF officers with lieutenant's stripes who looked younger than he was.

Yvolton was not the most powerful ship in Bavinyar's local defense fleet, but it was the centerpiece of Bavinyar's orbital traffic control system. He was pleased that his association with the BSA and the Pohl-Had-Narr investigation still worked in his favor, and the offers aboard Yvolton did everything in their power to help him search through the flight records for any Corellian Action-model freighters on supply runs. It was a common type and ship, and even a relatively low-traffic planet like Bavinyar received many visits by such vessels. Ven recorded the flight routes and times for all such vessels before taking his copied data back down to the surface.

That evening he met with the Bothan NRI agent, once more in Cephalia's northwest precinct office. The black-furred alien worked with him to parse through the data and try to identify the ships that might have been carrying weapons to the BIL.

"This isn't very helpful," Ven sighed at one point. "All these ships transmitted manifests, but there's no way to tell which are fake or not."

"Search based on time," Asyr said. "See if we can identify which might have made drops right before major BIL attacks."

"They might have been stockpiling weapons for months. There's no way to be sure."

The Bothan woman tried hold up a sense of optimism, but as they continued to work with the data it was clear they'd need more variables. Ven was about to try and comm BSA central headquarters and leave a message for Sham-Vi-Diin, his erstwhile partner, when there was a knock on the door to their room.

Ven had repeatedly obfuscated when asked what the Bothan woman was doing at the precinct office, and were it not for his newfound celebrity he probably wouldn't have gotten away with it. He braced himself for another awkward conversation when he opened a door and found a young Cerean officer looking up at him.

"Detective Ven," she said, "There's a visitor that's come to see you."

"A visitor? For me?"

"Yes, Detective. He's a civilian. His name is Rev Lessex."

The name was utterly unfamiliar. He said, "I'll be out in a moment," and waited until the door was closed to look back at Asyr. "Does that sound familiar to you?"

The Bothan shook her head. "You should go talk to him, whatever it is he wants."

"Agreed. You should stay here. Hopefully this won't take long."

Asyr nodded and remained at the table while Ven slipped out and went down the hallway to the same lobby where he'd met Asyr a few days previous. Sure enough, there was a human man there, dressed in civilian clothes, with dark skin and a shaved-bare head. His alert blue eyes immediately picked up Ven when he stepped around from behind the security desk.

"Ah, detective!" the other man said, and he practice-ally lurched up to offer his hand.

Ven shook it and asked, "Thank you for calling on me, Mr. Lessex. What can I do to help you?"

"I remember you, Mr. Ven," Lessex replied, still squeezing his hand. "I recognize you from that broad-cast they made after Pohl-Had-Narr was assassinated."

"I'm glad." Ven smiled thinly. "Now, is there some-thing specific you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Oh yes," Lessex nodded and finally released Ven's hands. "It's been so long and I hadn't heard anything about the investigation, or any progress you've made."

"We're still working on it," Ven said simply. He wasn't sure what else to say, or why this man had gone to the trouble to track him to his currently location.

"I think I might be able to help. At least, I hope I can." Lessex leaned in a little closer and lowered his voice. "I have some information. I'm not positive it will help, but I figured you were the one I needed to talk to."

Ven glanced around at the guards who watched with thinly- veiled interest from behind the security desk. "I take it you want to talk someplace private?"

"Yes, definitely," Lessex said, voice still low.

"All right. I'm sure we can arrange that."

It took Ven a minute to find another room like the one Asyr Sei'lar was currently working in. This one was at the far end of the same hall but was otherwise identical; Lessex sat down at the white table, shifting nervously in his chair as Ven remained on his feet.

"Now then, Mr. Lessex, what kind of information do you think you have that could help us?"

Lessex became suddenly awkward. He looked down at the hands in his lap. "Well, Detective, I'm not quite sure how to say this."

Ven was, truth be told, starting to get annoyed. "Let's start with why you're here right now. What motivated you to come see me?"

Lessex sighed and kept staring at his hands. "This is about my brother. I believe he's… involved with the BIL."

Now they were getting somewhere. "Why do you think that?"

Lessex sighed. "We live together with our younger sister in the southeast past of Cephalia, along the Corniche. Just south of Martyr's Square. Do you know the area I'm talking about?"

Ven nodded an affirmative. The southern part of Cephalia was primarily made up of human neighborhoods, and the ones strung along the seaside near the Corniche were typically inhabited by new immigrants to Bavinyar who had yet to find well-paying jobs in the city or in the mining islands to the south. Frankly, it had acquired a bit of a reputation as a slum, full of poor humans who'd come back to their fabled home-world only to find it had nothing to offer them.

Lessex went on, saying, "Our parents were killed by the empire but Sarissa, Javen, and I always tried to stay together. But Javen, he started, well, hanging around with types I didn't trust. A few times he even brought some of them back to our flat, though I didn't get a chance to hear what they were talking about. At first, I thought he might be getting involved with some pretty crime or something, but now I'm not sure. The very day after Pohl-Had-Narr was killed, Javen just vanished, instantly. I had no idea what happened. I still don't."

"Did you file a missing person's report?"

He shook his head. "What was I supposed to say? That I thought brother might be a criminal, or that he might have had something to do with the prime minister's death? I don't know any of that for sure."

"So why did you come to me? And why now?"

Lessex sighed again. "Everything seems like it's going crazy, and we still don't know who killed Pohl-Had-Narr. Then I remembered you, from the broadcasts, and I thought if I should talk to anyone at the BSA, it would be you. So I called the headquarters and they told me I could reach you here."

The man couldn't bring his eyes up to meet Ven's at any time. He was clearly confused and afraid to trust anyone, and Ven could sense the immense effort it had taken him to come and talk to the police now. And he knew, too, that Lessex was only trusting him now because they were both human, and that Lessex was ashamed to admit it out loud.

He had to admit his heart went out to this man. He knew growing up by the Corniche couldn't have been pleasant, and many members of the BIL had been recruited from that and similarly downtrodden areas.

"I'd like to help you with your search, personally," Ven said.

"Oh, that's excellent!" Lessex's head popped up. He reached into his jacket pocket and drew a piece of flimsy, on which he'd written a long scribbled list of notes, mostly affixed to dates and times.

"I put this together for you," Lessex said as Ven picked up the somewhat messy document and looked it over. "These are some times I remember seeing my brother with those strangers I mentioned, and times when he stepped out without warning, like he'd been suddenly called someplace else."

One notation, sloppily handwritten, immediately jumped out at Ven. It gave a date and time and beside that it said Stepped out – went to landing complex – for what?

It might be the extra piece of data they needed to locate when Pedric Cuf had made his drops. It was a long shot, and the odds that such a great snippet of information would fall into his lap right now, while Asyr was still parsing the flight records down the hall, was almost too good to be believed.

He looked back at Lessex. "You must have a very good memory, to have put this together from scratch."

The man looked at his hands again. "I keep a journal. A private one. I've been worried about my brother for a long time. He's always had… questionable judgment. But I never thought he could be involved in anything like this."

"I'll tell you what, Mister Lessex, it's going to take me some time to look into this. But how about this? We'll exchange comm freqs so you can call me and I can call you any time either of us finds important new inform-ation?"

Lessex nodded eagerly. "Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. And I'll help any way I can with this. I don't know the names of the men he met with, but I think I could recognize them again if I had to."

"That's very helpful, Mister Lessex. I promise I'll do everything I can to get to the bottom of this. Every-thing I can."

After exchanging comm freqs with Lessex and seeing him out the front door, Ven practically ran back down the hall to the meeting room where Asyr was still at work going over flight patterns.

Ven went right up to her and slapped the flimsy down. He tapped the line about Lessex's brother going to the landing pads and said, "This might be what we need. Cross-check it and see if any CEC Action freighters set down at that time."

The Bothan frowned. "Where did you get this?"

"The visitor I just saw off. He's a human who's asking about his missing brother. He went missing right after Pohl-Had-Narr died. This is a list the guy made about his brother's movements leading up to the assassination."

Asyr kept frowning. "He just showed up and gave all this to you now?"

"I know. It's quite a coincidence."

"I'm not in the habit of trusting coincidence."

"Neither am I, but I think this could be really useful."

"The visitor, what was he like?"

"Scared. Confused. He wants to protect his brother, I think, which is why he didn't go the BSA about any of this until now."

"This could be about something else entirely," Asyr reminded him.

"I know, but it's worth a shot. Cross-check that time and date. See if there's any incoming flights that might match it."

Asyr did as she was told, and Ven hovered over her shoulder, looking at her screen. He felt his pulse quicken as he saw the flight record for a cargo delivery by an Action V-model freighter called the White Night under a captain named Xandel Harbrid. According to the traffic logs, the freighter set down once for delivery at the main landing complex south of Cephalia, then took off and flew down to the southern hemi-sphere, where it made another drop, this time on the island of Leonal.

"What's the second location?" Asyr asked him.

"It's a major mining site."

"All human population?"

"Pretty much. There's a lot of rumors that the corporation running it fronts a lot of money for the BIL, and we know its president had some ties with Aviran Kolin in the past, but investigations have never been able to prove anything." He added with a frown, "Of course, we haven't had the resources to launch any-thing thorough until recently."

"This shows Cuf set down for only four hours at Cephalia." She glanced at the flimsy Lessex had provided. "The times seem to match. Do you think you can pull footage from security cams?"

"The port is government-run, so its security cams are handled by BSA. It should be no problem." Once this over, Ven was going to regret not being able to get anything just by asking. "I'm going to try and make a copy of it. Our contact said that he sometimes saw his brother with suspicious people. If he can identify his brother or any of those guys in the security footage, that might be our break."

"What about records from Leonal?"

"I'm not sure about those," Ven shook his head. "Everything there is privately owned. I'm not sure how happy that mining corp is going to be when I ask them to hand over their data."

"Can't you force them to, legally?"

"Yes, but that'll take time. And if there were illegal weapon shipments coming off that ship, they'll use that time to delete or modify the records we want."

Asyr sighed. "Well, you should at least get to the port on Cephalia as soon as possible. That might be the drop we're looking for."

"Is there any other record of a freighter called White Night in any of those flight registers?"

Asyr tapped a search key into her datapad. "I don't think so. But then, he might have flown in with a new ID every time. If I were running illegal guns, that's what I'd do." She looked up at him. "So what's the running theory now? Do we think Pedric Cuf made one drop where he sold weapons to a rouge cell on Cephalia, then another to the second island-"

"Leonal."

"-to Leonal, where he dropped his weapons off with Kolin, or one of Kolin's allies?"

"That seems to be the theory. And frankly, it's the best lead we've gotten since this damned case began."

Asyr's frown came back. "It still seems a little to good to be true."

"I know. But we can't afford not to check it out."

"Agreed. What should I do?"

"Go back to your hotel. Wait. In a little while I'll come and meet you there. I might bring my contact, Lessex, along too."

"If you think that's wise."

"Like I said, I think it's the best plan we've had in a while."

Ven started for the door. Asyr gathered her things and followed him out. They walked together down the hallway and out toward the lobby. When they stepped through Ven was surprised to see all the front-desk security staff clustered around a holo-projector. None of them spoke; their eyes were all glued to the screen with expressions of surprise and, it seemed to him, raw horror.

"What is it?" he asked as he slipped his way next to them. "What do you see?"

The Cerean next to him gestured feebly toward the projector, where a human female newscaster was speaking to her audience. "It's the CPF," he said. "They've made their move."

"What did they do?" Asyr asked behind them.

In their shock, none of the guards seemed to care about this strange Bothan visitor. The Cerean who'd just spoken shook his head and said, "They've seized the mining complex at Leonal. They say Palt-Ri-Gen is there himself. He's taken over the whole island, and he's demanding Syne step down immediately."