Chapter 18

Manhunt

Sifo-Dyas and Qui-Gon sat at the breakfast table, coffee in their hands as they discussed the impending raid on LMC headquarters and the possible whereabouts of Lok'ayy and Nurkkis.

"We'll go in later today, sometime just before the employees head home. Any one of those employees could know something that can lead us to Lok'ayy and Nurkkis, so rounding up as many of them as we can is a priority. You, Master Gallia, the Padawans, and myself will go in along with a few dozen CSF officers. I don't know what the security looks like, but given the fact that many of them are likely former members of Nurkkis' Legion, we'll need more than just the five of us. I talked to CSF, and they'll have SWAT on standby in case things get out of hand. Once we've secured the area, we pick the premises clean and question every last one of the employees until we find something we can use to locate the fugitives."

"Very well, Master Sifo-Dyas. I'll inform the others of our plan."

Suddenly, Sifo-Dyas' commlink rang. He answered it as Qui-Gon tried to make sense of his conversation.

"Yes? Ah, it's you…What? What's come up…What?"

At this, Qui-Gon could see surprise and bewilderment on the Jedi Master's face.

"She reported him missing? What is she playing at…Well, send a prowl unit to pick her up. We'll meet you at the station…We can be there in roughly 30 minutes, provided traffic cooperates…Understood. We'll be there. Goodbye."

Qui-Gon's mouth opened before Sifo-Dyas could pocket his commlink.

Whatever that was, it was urgent. And something tells me it's related to this case.

"Who was that?"

"My contact with the CSF. Something just came up."

"What?"

"It's Lok'ayy's secretary. She just called the police to report her boss missing."

"What? Why? Do you think she has something to do with…"

"There's only one way to find out. I told CSF to send a prowl speeder to pick her up and take her downtown. You and I will meet her at the station. Whatever her involvement in this, she's the key to this whole thing. I can feel it."

So can I.

The Jedi Masters entered the station, searching for the Watch Commander's desk. They soon found it, with a corpulent police sergeant sitting at his desk behind the window.

"Jedi. We have your secretary. She's in Interview Room 1, just down that way."

"Thank you, Sergeant."

The Jedi worked their way through the bustle of the station, with officers, police droids, and civilians going to and fro or waiting on benches and chair along the walls for whatever business they had in the police station to come to them. The air smelled of coffee, cigarettes, and sweat.

Busy job indeed, keeping this city in line.

Qui-Gon and Sifo-Dyas arrived at Interview Room 1 and walked through the door to see a familiar figure sitting at the table in the center of the room. A female Bothan sat in a chair opposite the door, wearing a functional, smart blouse and skirt. A sharp contrast to that yellow dress from the Museum gala.

"You…I recognize you. That banker from the Museum…you're not really a banker, are you?"

"I am Master Qui-Gon Jinn and this is Master Sifo-Dyas of the Jedi Order. We're here to ask you some questions about your boss."

"Jedi…why? Is Mr. Lok'ayy in trouble? Am I in trouble? What's going on here?"

"Calm down, Miss Hux'ter. We're just trying to figure out where your boss is."

Sifo-Dyas picked up the interrogation from Qui-Gon.

"We need you to go through all your interactions with Mr. Lok'ayy between your shift ending yesterday afternoon and your reporting him missing this morning. We may ask a few other questions related to Mr. Lok'ayy in between."

"All right…you said the end of yesterday's shift?"

"Yes."

"So, I told Mr. Lok'ayy I was ready to leave just after 5. I usually lock up the office for him when we let out. This time, though, he told me to give him the keys, said he was working late and that he would lock up himself and leave the keys on my desk. He's done that before."

She still seems uneasy about the whole thing. Still, let's see where this takes us. I'll wait for Sifo-Dyas to finish with this before I pounce.

"Does he usually work late?"

"It's not uncommon. He is the owner, after all. He has a lot of things to manage."

She's definitely uncomfortable. There's something going on here that she isn't telling us.

"What happened then?"

"I went home, came in the next morning, and found the keys on my desk where he usually puts them. It was strange, though: he's usually there before I am. Normally, he opens the office. Those keys are there for whichever one of us comes in first."

"So the office was locked when you got there? Implying that he hadn't arrived?"

"Yes. I opened up the office, just thinking he was late. But when I opened the door, the office was…"

"Was what? Empty?"

"Not just empty. It looked like it had been ransacked. Papers everywhere, drawers thrown open…it was as if someone had broken in during the night. And Mr. Lok'ayy was nowhere to be found. I tried calling him, but his line was dead. Even his apartment line wasn't functional."

"Were there any signs of forced entry?"

"No."

"What happened then?"

"I locked the office up again and called the police."

"And now you're here."

"Exactly."

Now is the time.

Qui-Gon made his move.

"Miss Hux'ter, was there anything suspicious in the days leading up to Mr. Lok'ayy's disappearance? Any strange calls or movements? Any unusual meetings?"

The Bothan seemed taken aback by Qui-Gon's question. Qui-Gon pressed the attack.

"There was something unusual leading up to this, wasn't there? You knew there was something off the minute Lok'ayy handed you those keys! What was happening there to make him disappear like this?"

Now, the Bothan was shaking, unable to look the Jedi in the eyes as she spoke with a quivering voice.

"That gala at the Museum…where I met you…when I came in to work the next day, something seemed off about Mr. Lok'ayy. I could tell something had spooked him at the Museum. I was too afraid to ask what it was."

It was us. We put him on edge. Nurkkis must have told him who we were.

"After that night, his behavior was strange. Sometimes, I would come into his office to tell him something, and he would be looking out the windows, as if he thought someone was watching him. I had to remind him of various meetings and other tasks that he usually doesn't need my reminder for: he was absent-minded in a way he never was before. Overall, he seemed scared. As if something or someone was after him."

He was right.

"Did he do anything else unusual during this time? Any unusual conversations or meetings?"

"Not with me, but he was talking to Mr. Nurkkis more than he normally did."

"Raton Nurkkis? The Head of Security?"

"You met him at the Museum, then. He's a shady character, that's for sure. All the employees, myself included, stay away from him. There's just something…dark about him. And he rarely speaks unless he's telling us to do something. The security staff all loves him, though. I've never seen them question any of his orders or disagree with him in any way. They always obey him unquestioningly."

That's because they're not security guards. Those habits were drilled into them from the moment they began working with Nurkkis in the Outer Rim. No doubt helped through by his connection to the Force and his consequent ability to manipulate their minds without them even realizing it.

"These conversations, describe them. Were they formal meetings? More informal office visits?"

"They were unscheduled visits. Typically, Mr. Nurkkis would come to my desk and request to see Mr. Lok'ayy. I would buzz Mr. Lok'ayy's office, and before I could fully communicate the request he would ask if it was Nurkkis. Almost as if he was expecting the visit."

"Did you hear what they said?"

"No. As soon as Mr. Nurkkis entered the room, he would shut the door. They would stay in there for a long time, sometimes hours. I could hear bits and pieces of their conversations, but it was mostly just indistinct voices muffled by the wall."

"What did the voices sound like? Were they stressed? Angry? Calm?"

"Most of the time, I could hear Mr. Lok'ayy yelling at Mr. Nurkkis. From what I could piece together, he was angry at Mr. Nurkkis for failing to do his job in some way. I also heard Mr. Nurkkis yelling at Mr. Lok'ayy over some sort of decision he had made recently."

"What was the decision?"

"I don't know. Whenever it seemed they would discuss it, their voices were too quiet for me to hear."

Figaro? Was Nurkkis criticizing Lok'ayy for ordering Figaro's murder, knowing that we would get involved?

"What else do you remember about these meetings?"

"Mr. Nurkkis would leave the room and go back to his own office. He wouldn't even look at me as he walked out."

"What was Mr. Lok'ayy like when you spoke to him after these meetings? Was he more at ease? Or less so?"

"Less. I came in, and he looked even more stressed than he had been earlier in the day. And with every day and every meeting, it got worse and worse. The last time it happened, yesterday morning, I came in and he shouted at me to get out. He's normally very level-headed; he's never lost his temper with me until then."

Sifo-Dyas took over the interrogation once again.

"Do you know where he could have gone, Miss Hux'ter? Had he said anything to you since the Museum gala about going someplace? About a possible business trip?"

"No. He just got more and more stressed until I came in this morning and he was gone."

Sifo-Dyas paused before giving his reply.

"Thank you, Miss Hux'ter. Master Jinn and I will go outside for a moment. If you can think of anything else that might help us locate Mr. Lok'ayy, do it now."

"Yes, Master Jedi."

As the Jedi turned to leave, Miss Hux'ter spoke once more.

"Masters? What's all this about? Is Mr. Lok'ayy in some sort of trouble?"

Sifo-Dyas responded before Qui-Gon could.

"You're not in any trouble for the time being, Miss Hux'ter. That's all you need to know right now."

The Jedi exited the room and closed the door behind them.

"So? What do you make of this, Qui-Gon?"

"She seems to be telling the truth. I certainly don't think she's in on Lok'ayy's scheme."

"She's his secretary, Qui-Gon. She manages a great deal of his business affairs. How do we know she isn't in on Lok'ayy's shady dealings? Chances are she's seen some of what Lok'ayy is doing on the side. You just have a weakness for a pretty face."

"Whether she is part of Lok'ayy's illegal activities or not, I think we can both agree that she's in over her head now, and she knows it. If she was involved and had some inkling that Lok'ayy would flee, calling the police would be an act of betrayal. And given what the evidence says Lok'ayy did to Master Leet, he's not above murder. She's either ignorant of the whole thing, or she's putting her life on the line to give us this information. Either way, she's our only lead now. I say we follow her to wherever this labyrinth ends. And if she is part of it, all we need to do is remind her of what awaits if we cut her loose. She won't trifle with us then."

"Fair enough, Qui-Gon. Still, we have no leads on where Lok'ayy and Nurkkis are."

"Let's ask some more, then."

"If you say so. You'll have to ask the questions, though. I can barely tell where to begin. Lok'ayy could have gone anywhere, and I doubt she knows where he would run to in a situation like this."

"There's only one way to find out. Let's go back in."

Sifo-Dyas nodded in assent, and the Jedi reentered the interrogation room.

"Miss Hux'ter?"

"Yes?"

"We need to ask you a few more questions."

"Okay. What else do you need to know? I've told you all I could."

"Have there been any places in particular that Mr. Lok'ayy has gone to?"

"Places?"

"Different planets. Job sites, business venues, that sort of thing. Are there any that he has frequented in the last few months? You're his secretary, so you must know the places he goes."

Qui-Gon gently coaxed the Bothan's mind with the Force as he uttered the last sentence.

I think she's too intelligent for a mind trick, but a subtle use of the Force might jog her memory.

"Come to think of it, he was going to and from Vodran a lot. We discovered a new deposit there, and he wanted to supervise our setup himself. I even went with him on one of the trips. I spent a week working out of a desk in a tent in a muggy jungle clearing on the edge of a dianoga-infested swamp. What a trip that was!"

Vodran! He told us about that at the Museum! Is that where he is?

"Vodran? You said Lok'ayy told you at the Museum right after the gala, but do you really think he would go there after telling you?"

The two Jedi were in their speeder on the way back to the Temple, discussing the day's events after leaving Miss Hux'ter in protective custody at the station.

She'll have to remain in custody until all this is over. I'll need to remind the officers there to take sworn statements from her about Lok'ayy based on what she related to us. With any luck, she will agree to testify when all this goes to court after we arrest Lok'ayy.

"It's in Hutt Space, Sifo-Dyas. It's outside the jurisdiction of the Republic. If he wanted to go to ground somewhere, Vodran is a likely candidate. He probably knows the planet well enough from his mining operations that he can find a place to hide. And the Hutts won't extradite him for trial."

"The Hutts…"

"What about them?"

"Lok'ayy's underworld ally, Ni'Pa. I'll look into him in the Archives."

"Why?"

"If he has any holdings on Vodran, I'm all but certain your theory is correct."

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan walked into the Council Chamber, where Adi, Siri, and Sifo-Dyas awaited them, a holoprojector in the center of the chamber. Obi-Wan had no idea of why the investigation team had been summoned: all he knew was that Qui-Gon and Sifo-Dyas had left the Temple earlier that day and come back much later after what seemed to be some sort of lead on Lok'ayy's whereabouts. When Obi-Wan asked his Master where he had been, Qui-Gon replied with a predictable retort of "patience," that all would be revealed in time. After the previous evening's encounter with Siri, Obi-Wan had been too ensconced in meditation to care for very long. Something told him that Siri had done the same.

I need to clear my mind…I can't go in front of the Council dwelling on what happened yesterday. Focus on the here and now, Obi-Wan, like Master Qui-Gon always says. The only reason the Masters would have left would have been to follow up on some sort of lead, and judging by the fact that everyone is now in the Council Chamber, that lead was an important one. What you're about to learn in the here and now could save your life. In all likelihood, they now know where Lok'ayy and Nurkkis are, and neither of them will come in without a fight. Especially Nurkkis.

The mere mention of the Miraluka's name sent a shiver down Obi-Wan's mind, as he pushed the memories of his torture in that back room out of his mind.

Focus, Obi-Wan. Remember, the here and now. And remember, whatever he did to you and whatever he wanted to do to Siri, this is about justice, not revenge.

"Obi-Wan. Qui-Gon. You're here."

"We are, Master Sifo-Dyas. You said you found Lok'ayy?"

"That I did."

"Very well then, you have the floor."

"Thank you, Master Jinn."

Sifo-Dyas turned to face the rest of the Council.

"Master Yoda, Master Windu, Masters of the Council, is there anything you wish to say?"

"Nothing else to say, there is. Proceed with the briefing, you may."

"Thank you, Master Yoda."

Sifo-Dyas switched on the holoprojector, and an image of a planet came up.

"You're looking at Vodran. It's a swampy jungle world out in Hutt Space, discovered and colonized by the Hutts long before the Republic even knew the Hutts existed. It's home to none other than the dianoga, and that species has spread across the galaxy thanks to intergalactic trade, including right here on Coruscant. For their part, the Hutts have hunted dianogas on Vodran for generations."

Sifo-Dyas hit a switch on the projector, and an image of one of the octopus-like beasts came up. Siri's voice briefly echoed in Obi-Wan's head through their Force bond.

Those things give me the creeps.

"However, that's not what we're interested in here. I called this meeting because Vodran is our best hope for locating Sull Lok'ayy and Raton Nurkkis, both currently fugitives from justice and suspected of involvement in the murder of our Order's very own Master Figaro Leet, among other things. Ni'Pa the Hutt is a close associate of Lok'ayy in the latter's illegal smuggling of Sith artifacts, as Master Jinn and his Padawan have discovered. Lok'ayy himself runs a mining operation on the planet. According to his secretary, Vodran was also a frequent destination of Lok'ayy during his most recent business trips. And, after digging through the Archives based on all this evidence, I found a critical clue that points to Vodran as Lok'ayy's most likely hiding spot. In addition to Lok'ayy's mining operation, Ni'Pa's primary residence is on Vodran. What's more, his palace is only a relatively short distance from the mining facility by airspeeder."

"Investigators, if I may."

"Go ahead, Master Windu."

"Lok'ayy has an almost galaxy-wide reach, with mining facilities and other potential hiding spots he is familiar with on countless worlds. Besides that, why would he flee to a planet with a known LMC facility? He knows all too well that LMC's facilities on other worlds are the first place we would look for him."

"He has more than just company property on Vodran, Master Windu. He has a personal connection there, one that could easily hide him, or spirit him away elsewhere if needed."

Adi chimed in, adding to Sifo-Dyas' explanation.

"And with Vodran being in Hutt Space, the Republic cannot extradite him for trial."

"In addition to what Master Gallia said, there's another, more disturbing reason that Vodran is probably the place."

"And what is that, Master Sifo-Dyas?"

"In the Archives, I found references to some sort of Sith colony on Vodran, thousands of years ago. I couldn't find much in the way of specifics, and it said that some believe the colony was merely apocryphal. However, if the Sith did indeed have some sort of settlement on Vodran, they probably left many artifacts behind. Given Lok'ayy's 'other' business activities, I suspect this might be the real reason he established a mining facility on Vodran."

Mace looked over the investigators, clearly processing the information before him. After several seconds, he spoke again.

"What do you propose, Master Sifo-Dyas? You also spoke of a raid on LMC headquarters last night. How will that fit into this plan?"

"I can handle that alone, Master Windu. I have CSF on standby, and all they need is my authorization before they go in. As for Lok'ayy himself, that will be the responsibility of the other two Masters and their Padawans."

Sifo-Dyas turned towards the others, still remaining somewhat open to Mace and the rest of the Council.

"Our plan of attack will be twofold. There are two possible locations for Lok'ayy and Nurkkis: the dig site itself or Ni'Pa's palace. In all likelihood, Lok'ayy and Nurkkis will be in Ni'Pa's palace, as that is the more heavily guarded and easily defensible of the two potential locations. The Masters will enter Ni'Pa's palace and arrest the fugitives. Meanwhile, the Padawans will infiltrate the mining camp and uncover whatever incriminating evidence they can. Padawans, keep an eye out for Sith artifacts in particular. Be careful around them: you'll be exposed to the dark side when handling them, and they will likely cause adverse physical effects as well. Once this is done, the two teams will rendezvous and extract via shuttle. All of you, keep in mind that this mission will be very hazardous indeed. Between Master Leet's murder and Obi-Wan's reception at the Museum gala, Lok'ayy has already shown that he's willing to take this to the next level. On top of this, he's likely brought LMC security personnel with him to Vodran, as well as a probable detachment at the mining camp. Keep in mind that these aren't merely security guards: they are battle-hardened veterans of brutal Outer Rim conflicts and are extremely dangerous. All this is to say nothing of their leader, Nurkkis. From his history and his interactions with you, we know he is a skilled commander and strong in the dark side. He is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous."

"How will we be going in?"

"You'll be taking a Judicial Forces shuttle. It's small enough that your landing should be undetected. We'll have a Consular on hand to take you and the fugitives onboard once you've completed the mission."

Sifo-Dyas paused to allow his briefing to sink in.

"Any questions, then?"

No reply came from the four Jedi.

"Then let's get to it. Masters of the Council, we take our leave."

Mace Windu stood to address the investigators before they could turn to leave.

"May the Force be with you all."