There had been Jedi, in times past, who were so well known across the galaxy that it was impossible for them to carry out an undercover mission. Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on the mission—neither Anakin nor Ferus had reached this level of fame yet. After they'd boarded the transport, Ferus related the rest of the mission's details, though there weren't many.
Piran Macket, apparently one of the foremost engineering experts in the universe, taught at the Chalacta College of Advanced Learning. Or at least, he had until recently. According to what little information the Jedi had, the professor had simply not come to work one morning. When the faculty had tried to contact him, they had discovered no one at his home. The man had vanished.
"What's your guess?" asked Anakin after Ferus had finished. His friend shrugged.
"Macket had several different theories that he was working on," he said. "I don't know much about engineering, but they were supposedly very revolutionary. Any one of them might have been the reason he was kidnapped."
"So we're ruling out the possibility that he left of his own free will?"
"I think that would be a safe bet. He hasn't missed a day of work in years."
Anakin's face fell into a pensive expression. "So who kidnaps a scientific engineer?"
"Someone with a rival theory, someone who didn't want Macket's theories published for whatever reason—" Ferus broke off with a shrug. "Could be anything. That's not important right now."
"We don't have a contact, do we?" Anakin asked. "No one there knows we're Jedi?"
Ferus shook his head. "No one," he said, "which means we've got to be careful. Anti-Jedi feeling is pretty strong there, from what I've heard. I'm not sure why, though…"
"I think we may have stolen a holocron from them a long time ago. And by 'we', of course," Anakin added, with a trace of self-righteousness, "I mean not us, but Jedi of the past, with looser morals."
"Jedi of the past did not have looser morals."
They landed about six hours later, after having changed into civilian clothes. Their lightsabers they had been allowed to keep, but only under a stringent promise to keep the weapons hidden. The college was several blocks from the docking bay, so they took a taxi to the campus.
"The Council has already gotten our names entered as transfer students," Ferus said, his voice low, as their speeder weaved at a lazy pace between the many tall buildings, "so all we need to do is tell them we're here."
"To be honest, this feels a bit degrading," said Anakin, looking around him at the campus. "It took me twenty years to become a Knight, and the Council sends me right back to school."
"Here you go," called the taxi driver from the front seat, setting down in front of a large, pristine, white brick building. "This is the Administrative Center." The Jedi thanked him and paid, then pulled their things out of the taxi and went inside.
It was the typical office building; hushed murmurs echoed off plain white walls and thin carpet muffled their footsteps, making the idea of noise seem abhorrent. At a desk in front of them sat a pretty blonde, her eyes glazed over with boredom. At their entrance, she straightened and blinked.
"Can I help you?" she asked. When they gave their names, she nodded. "The transfers, right? I have some things for you." After rummaging around in her desk for a few moments, she handed them each a small datachip. "There's a map and your schedule on that. You'll be sharing Room 304 in Building A."
"Thank you," said Anakin, taking his. "Can I ask you a question? I'd heard that Professor Macket would be giving private tutoring this year. Do you know if that's true or not?"
The woman stiffened. "I'm afraid it's not."
"Oh." Anakin's gaze fell to the ground, as if disappointed. "But he will be teaching regularly, at least?"
"The professor is—will be taking a vacation this semester. Of indefinite length," she added. She was not a very good liar, even with obviously prearranged material.
"Well, thank you for your trouble anyway," said Anakin, giving her a smile as they left. Ferus's eyes rolled into his head.
"Flirting already?" he asked as they stepped back out into the bright sunlight.
"If you've never done it, then you've probably gathered a lot less information on your missions," replied Anakin coolly. "And anyway, we know that they're doing their best to keep it quiet. She obviously wasn't allowed to say anything. Now…where's Building A?"
After no small amount of trial and error, they managed to find their way to their room, which consisted of two sleep couches, a closet, and a door that led to the refresher. Completely ignoring the closet, Anakin threw his pack on the ground, pulled a datapad from it, and inserted the chip the blonde had given him.
"So here's a question," he said, looking at his schedule. "Do we actually have to go to class?"
"Yes, I should think so," said Ferus. "There's not much to it."
"Do we have to get good grades?"
"What?" Ferus looked up, startled. "What kind of a question is that?"
"I'm serious!" Anakin insisted. "If we have to get good grades, then we have to study, which takes time that we could be using to look around and figure out what happened to Macket."
Ferus appeared at a complete loss for words. "We just—do the best we can, I guess," he said finally, shrugging.
Anakin pressed a few more buttons and stood, grasping the datapad in hand. "Well, I'm off," he said carelessly. "I've got Galactic History in ten minutes."
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Ferus's schedule contained an engineering class, which, Ferus complained, was extremely unfair, since Anakin was the one who understood that sort of thing. It did give him a chance, though, to talk to some of those students who had taken engineering before, under Macket. What they found seemed promising, though it took several days to find out anything at all.
"Apparently he's been doing a lot of work on the side," Ferus said, tossing a page full of notes onto his bed. "Mostly going through plans with architectural companies, but there are a couple names in there that I don't recognize. And there's a rumor that he's done some work for Adurian some time in the past, though I can't be sure if it's true."
Anakin's breath left him in a slow whistle. Every Jedi knew the name of Adurian, a Falleen crime lord who operated from the Outer Rim and surrounded himself with such a complex web of disposable henchmen and hit men that it was impossible to ever legally connect him to a crime.
"You think he's the one who kidnapped Macket?"
"Could be."
"Do you know how long ago this was?"
"Four, five months ago. That's what people say."
"What was he doing for him?"
Ferus shrugged wearily. "I have no idea. Probably something illegal."
Leaning back against the wall, Anakin sighed. "In other words, we've got almost nothing to go on."
"Pretty much, yeah."
That was discouraging. In having been here almost four weeks, still all they had to go on were guesses and shreds of information, and both Jedi were growing frustrated. Anakin sighed again, then glanced up at the chronometer.
"It's almost time for lunch," he said. "You want to come?"
Ferus shook his head, and Anakin left on his own. It felt strange to move in civilian clothes, so much lighter than Jedi tunics and robes. He rather enjoyed it.
The halls were nearly empty now, but slowly students began filtering out of classrooms, driven by hunger and boredom to the hall where lunch would shortly be served. Then suddenly, something in the Force caught at the back of his mind, like noticing something out of the corner of his eye, and he stopped.
The door that the Force pointed him toward seemed in no way outstanding from its neighbors, except that it lacked a plasteel label. It was impossible for Anakin to get to it—the halls were already so crowded that he could do nothing but follow the general stream. But that door remained stuck in his mind.
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When Anakin told Ferus about the door, his friend was able to confirm its significance. It was, he had been told, Macket's office.
"And they'll never let us in," Ferus had added. "Not under normal circumstances, and certainly not now."
So their only option was a break-in, which was easier said than done. Anakin—an eager volunteer—could not be seen going in, and times that the hall might be completely empty were few and far between. The only time to do it, they decided, would be when the hall was so crowded that a hand on the door, the disappearance of one student, would not be noticed.
Three days later, his chance came.
It took only a split second of concentration before the door slid quietly open, and without bothering to look around, knowing it would only call attention to him, Anakin stepped inside. The door closed, abruptly muffling the chatter of a hundred tweens outside, and Anakin was free to assess his surroundings.
The walls were plain and white, like all the others in this place, but they were covered with paintings done in loud and gaudy colors, as though trying to compensate. There was a desk in the far corner, facing a large computer screen, which had all the appearances of having been very disorganized very recently and then hastily cleaned.
Anakin sat down at the desk and took a look in a few of the drawers, but found nothing that seemed to be of any importance, which was all he had expected. If there was any real information to be had, surely it would be digital.
"Computer on," he said, and then prayed a second too late that the computer would not recognize his voice as unauthorized. Fortunately, Professor Macket did not seem to be the sort that cared much for security. The screen flashed on, giving Anakin immediate access to whatever files it contained.
There didn't appear to be anything worth finding, though. Macket had put down several notes, but they all appeared to be nothing but abstract numbers, ideas and thoughts. Slightly discouraged, Anakin ordered the computer to open its last file.
It turned out to be Macket's personal calendar. Anakin went to the beginning of the year and began flipping through it, but found nothing interesting. The previous months were filled with personal notations like "class at 7" and "dinner with D—bring brac". It was only when he reached the current month that Anakin noticed something amiss.
Too late he heard the door begin to slide open once more. Anakin only had time to murmur hastily "Computer off" before he whirled around to see a figure standing in the doorway.
Oh kriff.
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"So, what happened?" demanded Ferus as soon as Anakin returned to their room.
"I got caught."
Ferus's expression fell. "Seriously?"
"I forgot to lock the door behind me after I got in."
"Who was it?"
Anakin sank down on the bed. "Your engineering professor, actually," he said. "I don't know what she was doing in there, but she found me, all right."
"And…?"
Anakin's gaze flickered; the faintest blush swept across his cheeks. "I got detention, basically," he muttered. "She told me to go help sort files in the Administrative Center after classes are over for two weeks, starting today."
Ferus's eyes opened wide in disbelief, and then he began to laugh. "I can't believe you—you—"
"All right," Anakin grumbled, a sheepish smile coming onto his face. "It's not that funny." He sat up straighter. "And I forgot—I did actually find something, just before she caught me."
It took a moment for Ferus to stop laughing, but then Anakin had his full attention. "Anything important?"
Anakin nodded. "I found his calendar."
Ferus's expression embodied anticipation, waiting for the catch. "I suppose we can't hope for an entry like, 'Meet mysterious dark stranger at midnight on Helona the third'."
"No," said Anakin, grinning. "Something better. I looked through the whole year and—get this—his calendar was completely blank from the day he disappeared, for about six months or so. Then entries started appearing again."
A slow blink was his only reaction, at first. Then Ferus's mouth fell open. "Then Macket meant to leave," Ferus breathed. "He left on his own."
"And he knew he'd be back," Anakin finished. "And no, I don't think it's actually a vacation."
Ferus reached for his commlink. "We need to tell the Council about this," he said. Anakin stood.
"You do that," he agreed. "If you want me, I'll be in the Administrative Office."
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Author's Note: I finished this chapter yesterday, actually, but I waited to post it until today because according to my computer, I started writing this story exactly one year ago, on September 10, 2005. I just thought that was kind of cool. One whole year...and it's still not done. But many thanks to the people who've been reading this story from the beginning and faithfully reviewing it. (cough-hint-cough)