PLAYING WITH THE BIG BOYS

"Is my mom here?" Sandor looked around the common room, wringing his hands in his lap.

"She's on her way," Sierra said and took her seat on one of the couches, opposite Sandor, Tav, Kiara, and Molly. Despite her insistence that she didn't need any more chaos in her and Alex's home, her family had ordered the kids to Piece of Crap 2 with the apparent logic that they couldn't give two master grifters and two fence lieutenants the slip. And they would not. The haunted look on Kallus' face, as well as the sound of Swain intermittently weeping in another room, clued in all four teens that they should obey their aunt.

"She's going to be so mad," Sandor whimpered. "I didn't plan for it to go this far but -."

"Sandor Wullf Wallace!"

The diminutive Dalla Blackwell led the rest of the con men into the room, steaming with rage.

Sandor gulped. "Hi, Mom."

"What were you thinking?" She demanded. "Robbing our museum? And then why didn't you just tell me after Hannah was assaulted? You diverted resources, you distracted Dad and I - I can't believe you did this! How did you even do this?"

Sandor cringed. "I know it was a bad idea."

"We're not just talking about your stunt with your parents' art museum," Ahsoka's gaze swept across the group of kids. "We're mostly talking about all of you taking on a dangerous job all by yourselves and not telling us. You could have died!"

"We had it under control," Tav protested.

"Right, you had it under control when Melaana was kidnapped." Saw crossed his arms, his gaze just as terrifying. "Even though there were no real museum thieves, you knew someone was going after Hannah! Did you even consider they might target you?"

"Clearly they're not very good because we didn't have any trouble getting her back." Kiara stuck her neck out.

Ahsoka wasn't fooled. "Kiara Padme Bonteri, you got her back because of Pasc."

"With our guidance."

"We can deal with this later," Lux said. "Right now we have to focus on protecting Hannah and Brent and since the museum robbery's off the table we should look for something else she might have come across."

"It has to be the museum robbery," Kallus said hollowly. "There's nothing else that sticks out."

"But -."

"There's nothing."

The other con men looked first at each other and then at Sierra. Whatever happened at the Kallus house, it had rendered him barely able to look at Swain.

"The kidnapping points to that as well," Sierra said. "Someone obviously felt threatened by the kids' investigation into the robbery and we know it wasn't the thief."

"Melaana says the kidnapper was a woman," Saw said. "She thinks it was someone named Eden or Ivan —."

"Iden Versio?"

The con men looked to the doorway which now hosted Hannah Swain. For some it was their first time meeting the infamous Selkie but whatever they'd pictured it wasn't the puffy-eyed young woman they saw.

Lux cleared his throat. "You know her?"

"She's my friend." Swain shook her head. "Iden isn't behind this. No way."

"How can you be sure?" Ahsoka asked. "Friends have turned before."

"Because I'm not dead. If Iden wanted me out of the picture for whatever reason she'd have no problem doing the deed herself. Gods know she's had the chance; I've gotten drunk with her enough times."

"She doesn't miss either." Lux rubbed his neck in remembered discomfort. "So Iden's out. Hutch, anything on the police front?"

"Zippo so far." Hutch's fingers flew across his keyboard. "There's a lot here. I might have been able to dig through if I had a couple hours to crack at it instead of annulling a marriage."

"Nothing crazy happened at work." Swain took the only available seat, next to Cogon and Kallus. "Just the museum robbery. The question is do they want me because I'm a cop or because I'm Selkie?"

Lux paced the floor. The others watched the mental gears turn in his head, having learned from many years not to mess with the man in Mastermind mode, until he stopped short in the middle of the floor.

"What if it's both?"

"Both?" Steela repeated.

Lux turned on a dime and faced Sandor. "Sandor, think back to the day of the museum robbery. What else was happening that day?"

Sandor shrugged. "It was just a regular day; that was why I picked it. Dad had a class, Mom was with a client, Uncle Sloan was at sea…"

"Anything out of the ordinary? Were there any new people hanging around the museum?"

Sandor considered. "That woman was there."

"What was she doing?"

"She's Mom's new client. I wasn't allowed to be around for the pitch but I saw them walking in the hallway right before the alarm went off. It kinda seems like she's in a hurry to get her stuff to Mom and get going, so Mom's making extra sure everything's genuine before she seals the deal."

Lux raised an eyebrow to Dalla. "Is it?"

The fence nodded. "So far, aye. It's a pretty eclectic mix so it's taking longer than I thought to verify."

Sandor bit the inside of his cheek. "I first noticed her because she looks a little like Great Aunt Shara."

Swain took in a sharp breath and Kallus and Sierra looked at each other.

"How does she look like your aunt?" Kallus asked.

"She's tall and has blonde hair," Sandor said. "That's where the resemblance stops really. Great Aunt Shara would never show up anywhere hungover like she did. She was wearing sunglasses all the time."

Kallus scrolled through his comm and showed the display to Sandor. "Is this her?"

"Yeah." The boy looked up. "How did you know?"

Wordlessly Kallus turned to show the image to everyone. It was an ID picture of a stern-looking woman wearing ISB dress whites, a scar running vertically down the left side of her face and through a glowing red cybernetic eye.

The identification plaque read SENIOR COMMANDER ALECIA BECK.

Steela rubbed her temples. "Well this is horrible."

Sierra had other priorities. "Hannah?"

"I…" Swain gripped the couch cushion so hard her fingernails nearly tore it. "I think I'm going to throw up."

Cogon grabbed her hand though he looked about ready to do the same.

Swain gulped and for a second Sierra thought she was going to have to drag the young woman to the refresher, but the only thing Swain vomited was words: "It's not because I'm a cop, or because I'm Selkie, it's because I'm me." She looked around the room, eyes sparkling with horror. "Oh my God!"

Kallus tentatively placed a hand on her back and to everyone's shock Swain didn't pull away.

More raised eyebrows toward Sierra but the grifter looked surprised as anyone. In fact she looked ready to say something when Dalla beat her to it.

"Are you telling me that I let that woman into my museum," she growled, smoldering like a torch. "I walked her around, I did business with her, and I didn't bury a knife in her throat?!"

Hutch's comm unit rang and he keyed it to speaker. "Hello?"

"Hutch, it's Soniee. I've been doing some digging and I think I know who's been going after Swain. If I'm right Dalla's new client is using a fake name and she's actually -."

"ISB Commander Alecia Beck?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Alex just put it together."

"How do you know?" Saw asked, slackjawed. "You're in the medcenter! On bedrest!"

"I can use a datapad while in bed." Soniee protested. "Well what you might not know is that after the Empire started to lose control of Coruscant, Beck took off with plunder from ISB's impound locker. She has several arrest warrants out that I'm unable to open because the HoloNet in here is awful, but when I ran Swain's name against it, the locked files lit up."

Lux took over the explanation. "She fled the New Republic with the assets from the impound locker, but the problem is that kind of thing doesn't liquidate easily. She needed a fence to offload it for her and make some credits. She eventually found Dalla, used an alias, and approached her like any normal client. But the day of her first meeting Sandor stole the painting and the police were called. She was standing with the other guests planning to brazen it out when she heard Dalla talking to Swain and realized they worked together. She couldn't risk Swain seeing her - all it would take was one look and she'd be exposed. Swain had to be silenced."

"Hutch, any idea what she's been up to since leaving Coruscant?" Rex asked.

"Staying impressively off the grid." Hutch's fingers flew across the datapad. "You think you can hide from me lady, no one can hide from me. Okay, so Beck has several warrants for several very bad things, one of which was actually initiated by a higher-up in the ISB. Looks like she …" He trailed off, gaze flickering to Swain, and then cleared his throat. "She's a war criminal, guys. This lady is bad news."

Ahsoka nodded. "She must have noticed the kids investigating the museum robbery and worried we'd find her out. That's why she tried to slow them down by kidnapping Melaana."

"It's not just that." Sierra said darkly. "Her target disappeared after the first attempt and she couldn't risk exposure. She wanted to smoke Hannah out."

"What do we do?" Hutch asked. "We can't let her get away with this."

"Not to mention we have some business with her," Sierra muttered.

She didn't need to say that twice. It was obvious to anyone looking at Kallus.

"We can't get violent," Lux said more to his sister and brother-in-law than anyone else. "At least not yet. Beck is handling this the best way she knows how, so we need to counteract her the best way we know how."

Saw smirked. "What's the plan, chief?"

"First thing, Dalla. You need to go back to the museum and continue with the sale like nothing is wrong. Can you do it?"

Dalla nodded. "And then?"

"And then we make a comm."

…

Alecia Beck was used to dealing with annoyances. Captain Hove, for example, and Han Solo. Caluan Ematt, twice. A hundred Imperial sexists who didn't think a woman was fit to do her job, and a couple of stubborn defectors who refused to break and then slipped through her fingers. She coped with them by imagining the looks on their faces when she inevitably prevailed over them, or by actually shooting or dragging them to Interrogation.

Too bad she didn't have any legal authority to do that anymore. Her usual methods would only attract attention she didn't need, so as she sat in Dalla Blackwell's office Beck instead imagined the pile of credits she would be receiving any second now.

"I thank you for your patience Ms. Leighton," Dalla said without looking away from her magnifying glass. She was nearing the end of Beck's offering and so far everything had passed muster as well it should. "It's been a crazy week with the robbery and my lieutenant out of commission. At least you got the chance to see all our museum had to offer."

"I did." Beck returned her most genuine smile. "The fountain in the main entrance was particularly striking." In fact when she saw it she couldn't believe the Empire hadn't caught this woman. The fountain told the story of Onderon's northern sea region, with mollymauks, sirens, and selkies prominently displayed. Beck almost admired Dalla's sheer audacity.

"It's a crowd-pleaser for sure." This came from Dalla's extremely annoying curator/assistant, Gyda. She'd barged in on the appointment for some little thing and now it seemed was here for the duration, her northern accent and the sound of her stilettos against the tile grating Beck's ears.

She sighed. Just think of the credits.

Dalla gave a sympathetic wink and then went back to the statue in her hands. "You said this was Endorian?"

"Lothalian," Beck corrected her, though Dalla didn't need to be corrected. That had definitely been a trick question.

"That makes much more sense." Dalla set the statue aside. "Gyda, mark this one genuine."

Gyda scribbled it down on her datapad and Dalla turned to Beck. "That's the end of what you sent me ahead of time. If there's anything else you'd like to add, now is the time."

"Just this." Beck produced a book from her briefcase.

"I can't say I've seen many of these." Dalla squared the book in front of her and flipped through the pages - all of them at first, then the first few one by one to examine the paper and ink. "Go Set A Watchman. Most surviving flimsi books are nonfiction, not novels. Where did you find this?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." She'd barely believed it herself when she pulled the book from inside Swain's jacket. "It has all its pages, is in top condition, and you spoke to the rarity already."

Dalla flipped a page and her mouth twisted into a grimace.

"Is something the matter?"

"It's not quite mint condition." She held up the book so Gyda could see and pointed to something in the corner. "Ink stains. Do you know what could have made those?"

Gyda nodded. "I think so."

"You can erase those with rubbing alcohol." Beck relaxed in her seat, sure she knew what Dalla's angle was now. "I'm sure a woman of your talents is well-versed in restoring items to peak condition."

"Fair enough." Dalla closed the novel and set it aside. "Even with the stains this is a nice way to end our business. I don't know if you've read it but it's a very touching story. It clearly meant a lot to the original owner."

Clearly. Could Kallus have been more obvious with his gift? He may as well have handed Beck a handwritten letter stating how much he and family in general meant to Swain. The second she saw the title she knew what her strategy would be. Beck shook off the pleasant memory. "There's the matter of payment."

"I think our previously agreed-upon aggressive quote will be satisfactory."

She ran the number in her head. "I concur."

"Then it's been a pleasure doing business with you." Dalla extended her hand and they shook. "Gyda, have the payment sent to Ms. Leighton's speeder and show her out discreetly please. Our friends from the precinct are in the building."

"Right away." Gyda tapped a few buttons on her datapad before stowing it. "Right this way ma'am."

"If you don't mind -." Gyda had apparently anticipated the question because she tilted the 'pad to show confirmation of the credit case placed in her speeder's trunk.

Beck didn't bother hiding her smile as they made her way out of the office.

"One more thing, Alecia."

The smile melted off Beck's face and she slowly turned around in the doorway. Dalla stood behind her desk, looking much larger than her sixty-two standard inches and positively foaming at the mouth.

"I believe in hell too," she said. "You've got it to pay."

And by all the gods, she meant it.

"What in -?"

Gyda's irritating veneer disappeared into thin air. "Hannah Swain says hello."

Beck's breath froze in her throat and training alone allowed her to size up the threat. By all means she should be more worried about Dalla, seeing as you didn't maintain control over a circuit this size without dropping a few bodies. But she was far more concerned with the woman who was definitely not named Gyda.

In fact, Beck had a good idea who she was. And she wasn't about to join the ranks of those who provoked the Onderon Con Men. Instead she took the only decent option.

She sprinted out of the office.

The credits were in her trunk and she could certainly outpace Sierra and Dalla. All she had to do was make it to the speeder and she would be home free.

"Did you even open the book?" Sierra bellowed after her. "It's my stepdaughter's, you bitch! Kallus signed it!"

Stepdaughter. Beck doubled her speed, the lobby looming into view. Looked like escape really was the only option now.

Such was her focus on the door that she didn't notice the man who flew through the air like a caped superhero, tackling her off her feet and into the fountain in one motion.

"I'm sorry," Alexsandr Kallus snarled. "I didn't see you there."

Beck wrenched out of his grip. "You!"

Kallus stood, the fountain water rolling off him and doing nothing to douse the fire of rage burning behind his eyes. He looked like he wanted to say a great many things but nothing came out but a wordless, bone-chilling cry as he lunged at her again.

Beck skidded across the slippery fountain bottom, barely avoiding him. Under normal circumstances she wouldn't have a problem going hand to hand with her ex-colleague, but there were better times and places. Especially with a second, only slightly less angry-looking, man hurtling toward the fountain and the police apparently in the building.

The police…

Beck dodged Kallus once more and scrambled out of the fountain and further into the lobby. If she handed either Dalla or the con men over to the police they might create enough chaos for her to get a decent head start.

She scanned the room until she spotted them: two officers wearing suits, their backs to her. Perfect.

"Officers!" She shouted. "I need to report a crime. This man assaulted me after I discovered the truth of the museum robbery. One of the owners -."

The man turned around, the picture of the officer who'd just caught his quarry red-handed. He had dark hair slicked back and looked fiercely familiar.

And beside him was...was…

"It's her?" The man asked his partner, who replied with a nod of her auburn head.

"Definitely," Swain said, her damning gaze holding Beck to the spot.

The man smiled. "Alecia Beck. Detective Inspector Graf Yularen, NRBI. I didn't think you'd be so kind to turn yourself in."

"No." Beck hissed. "This can't be happening."

Graf carried on without a care in the world. "I wouldn't run if I were you. Alexsandr and Saw would love for you to give them an excuse. And, for the record, so would I."

Every shred of pride screamed for her to wipe the smirks off all of their faces, but she could feel rather than see the men's anger. For better or for worse, Alecia Beck knew when to fold them.

Graf took her unmoving stance for the surrender it was. He removed a set of binders from his belt and Beck prepared herself for the indignity, but he didn't open them. Instead he held them out to Swain.

"D.S. Swain, I believe we're in your jurisdiction. You have the collar."

Swain looked at the binders in disbelief, then smiled and took them. "Thank you, sir."

No. Beck's body seized up in disbelief and that was all it took for Swain to snap the binders onto her wrists.

"Alecia Beck, I'm placing you under arrest," she said.

This wasn't over. She knew she still had her talons in Swain; she always would, and the mental image of what she was about to do would cancel out every setback she'd encountered today.

"Hiding behind your training officer again?" She hissed as Swain steered her toward the police speeder. "Does he know how you begged for mercy on my table? Does he know what I did to you?"

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of -."

"I ruined you Swain. There's no escaping it, and there's nothing you or your foolish husband or Alexsandr Kallus can do about it. You'll never be rid of me."

She waited in anticipation of the fear and doubt that would surely be broadcasting from the young woman's face. Swain always had something to say, usually a meaningless insult. One word and Beck would have her right back in the interrogation room.

"Well?" She sneered.

Swain stood unwavering, her expression absolutely calm.

"You have the right to an attorney," she said. "If you can't afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you." And then she shut the speeder door.

Beck watched mouth agape as she turned to talk to D.I. Yularen without a care in the galaxy. The same couldn't be said for the throng of people gathering on the steps of the museum.

There was Cogon, flashing her an osik-eating grin. Sierra, brushing water droplets off Kallus. ("I thought water features were our thing.") Dalla's imperious gaze made Beck sure she hadn't heard the last of the Mollymauk. Directly to her left stood Saw alongside a suited man who Beck's eye matched to the wanted holo of Lux Bonteri.

And in front of them, their parents' hands on their shoulders, were those meddling kids.

Beck consciously closed her mouth, then turned around in her seat to face straight ahead when the officer climbed into the speeder to drive her away. She must have been making it up but did he seem familiar?

The driver rolled down his window. "Swain, can I talk with you?"

No.

Swain just smiled and left D.I. Yularen to lean against the speeder. "Solo."

"Selkie," Han Solo gestured expansively as he could inside the tiny speeder. "This clears my debt to Mollymauk, right?"

"Are you kidding?" She scoffed. "This is a drop in the bucket."

"I've got the credits."

"Like you had them last time when we decided to make you work off your debt?" Swain raised an eyebrow playfully. "Besides, you can't tell me you aren't enjoying this just a little bit."

Solo shrugged. "I mean…"

"See you later Solo." She walked away.

Solo shouted after her: "You know, some people would pay top cred to meet a hero of the rebellion!"

"Good thing I'm not one of them!"

"It was worth a shot." Resigned to his fate Solo rolled up the window and looked to Beck in the rearview mirror. "How's it going Beck?"

She refused to reply.

"No talking? Okay. I always wanted to see how fast one of these things could go anyway."

Beck stopped breathing. He couldn't possibly … they were in a police speeder. Surely Solo wasn't going to attempt death defying feats in a police speeder. It would be insane! But then again, that was Solo's middle name.

Beck gripped the seat for dear life as Solo peeled out.