CHAPTER THIRTEEN – WE ARE YET BUT YOUNG IN DEED
AHSOKA
"The music box?" Jack repeats when Lux and I show it to him. "I picked it up because Maria liked it. Figured it was some cheap metal knockoff, considering it was on the guy's coffee table."
"This is solid gold and the stones are real." Lux tells him. "It's worth a fortune. You two never considered selling it?"
"I wouldn't have even picked it up if she didn't like the music." He shifts from foot to foot. "To be honest, I liked it too. It was relaxing to listen to at night."
Lux picks up the holo from the table. "Did you take anything else that had a similar color scheme, or looked old?"
Jack shakes his head. "No, we didn't have space to carry around old stuff; the box was an exception. Why? Is it important?"
"Thank you for your cooperation. You've helped a great deal," I say quickly and turn to exit the room, Lux close on my heels.
"Master Jedi?" Jack calls after us. "What's going to happen to me now?"
My expression softens. "Well you're still in trouble, but Maria was manipulating you. You have a good chance of getting out of prison relatively fast. Maria, on the other hand..."
He looks down at the table. "The public defender told me. Thanks for helping me with the charges."
"It's our job to serve justice, Jack. Take care." I shut the door between is and look to Lux. "Now regarding the music box..."
He reads my mind. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"When's the next flight to Onderon?"
…
"Welcome back to Onderon, Commander Tano," Tandin says when Lux and I walk into one of the palace's back rooms carrying a brown flimsi bag between us. "Congratulations for putting our killers – er, killer – away."
"It was an experience," Lux says, which is absolute truth. "Ahsoka has shore leave for a few days to recover from the case; she'd like to spend it here."
"I don't see why not." Dendup speaks up from the other side of the room where he's playing a game of dejarik with Saw, who looks as if he's trying to recover both from his injury and from boredom. "Commander Tano, you are always welcome on Onderon."
I smile. "Thank you, your Majesty."
But Tandin's attention isn't focused on the king, or Saw, or me. Instead, he's fixated on the bag.
"Did you bring some lunch?" He asks in the galaxy's worst attempt to change the subject.
I roll with it. "No, actually. Saw, we have something I think you might be interested in."
Lux reaches into the bag and removes the music box, making sure everyone gets a good look at it.
Saw's eyes go huge. Dendup nods approval. Tandin relaxes visibly.
"We found it," Lux beams.
Saw reaches out for the music box and we gladly hand it over. He puts it on the dejarik table and lifts its lid, but before the drexl can begin spinning to play the song I speak up.
"Saw, we also found something else you might be interested in." I say and set the bag on the floor to pull out the baby blanket.
The reaction is instantaneous. The instant Saw sees the pink flannel he cranes around in his seat, the music box utterly forgotten.
"Is this yours?" I ask and set it in his outstretched hands.
Saw buries his face in the soft pink cloth and gives a shuddering sob.
"I didn't even realize they took it!" he chokes out.
Usually I can describe what I feel in the force in a word or two. It's conflicted, or at peace, or clouded.
But the only word that can describe the force signature coming from Saw Gerrera as he sobs into the blanket is empty.
Lux rushes to his side and wraps an arm around Saw's shoulders. He squeezes up next to him, a position that can't be comfortable considering the size of chair, and doesn't speak, doesn't move, only listens.
I come to Saw's other side and cautiously rub his back in a circle, humming a half-remembered tune from the crèche.
King Dendup says "Oh, Saw…"
The room is silent except for the sound of sobbing and my humming; everyone is focused with laser precision on Saw and the blanket.
A male Bivall pokes his head into the door before stepping back and asking "Is this a bad time?"
"I'm afraid it is, Advisor Cree," Dendup says and looks up to the chronometer on the wall. "I know you take your lunch at high noon, and I'm afraid I'm going to be busy. We'll have to reschedule our lunch meeting."
"Of course, your Highness," Cree says and gives a bow.
And out of the corner of my eye, I see General Tandin pick up the music box while his king is occupied with Advisor Cree.
…
Tandin's sleight of hand is all I need to see before the tactical gears start turning in my head. And by the time the three of us get Saw back to his room, the dejarik game forgotten and the blanket wrapped round his shoulders like a shawl, I have a plan.
Lux is not a fan.
"You want us to do what?" he whispers when we excuse ourselves to retire to our rooms. "Ahsoka, have you been drinking? That's crazy!"
"Jedi don't drink. Do you have a better idea?"
He doesn't answer. "Ahsoka, Tandin is a general. The chances of him not having a security system are probably equal to the changes of me winning the Galactic Lottery two times in a row."
"I can handle a security system." Why would Lux think I can't handle a security system? I do so every day. "I can rig it so he'll never even notice there's been a breach until we're long gone."
"He has an anooba!" Lux blurts out in what's probably a last-ditch effort to dissuade me from breaking into Tandin's house.
I call bull. "Really? What's its name?"
"Sprinkles."
I bite my tongue to keep from laughing out loud. Lux tried to join Death Watch, helped to lead a rebellion, and tracked down serial killers and he's afraid of an anooba named Sprinkles?
"Don't worry, I'll protect you," I punch him in the shoulder, grab his arm, and pull him toward the exit. "We'll stop at the kitchen and get some treats for the oh-so-dangerous Sprinkles."
Lux's not-convinced state becomes apparent when Tandin's home looms into sight. All the lights are off; it's a safe bet he's asleep at this hour. But the way Lux is acting, you'd think Tandin was standing in the window with a blaster.
I stop. "Lux, if you don't stop shaking then he's going to notice we're in his house."
Lux vocalizes his fears. "Even tiny anoobas can bark and wake their owners, Ahsoka."
"Not if they're eating nerf bacon," I announce and hold up the baggie of nerf bacon I snagged from the palace kitchens.
The anooba bait has the desired effect: Lux relaxes and shuts his mouth long enough for me to drag him the rest of the way up the street and to Tandin's back door.
"I don't know if or where he hides a spare key," he whispers.
"That's okay," I close my eyes and focus on the inner workings of the lock before me. "I don't need a key."
The lock clicks and the door opens. Lux switches on his flashlight.
"I just want to maintain that I think this is a bad idea," he whispers as we tiptoe into Tandin's house. "We don't even know if the music box or the blade is here."
"Tandin's the common denominator between both of their disappearances, Lux. And if they're his family heirlooms, of course they're in his house. You've been here before. Where would he display things?"
"Short of his bedroom, which I'm not entering because I value my life? The living room."
I step aside. "Lead the way."
Lux cautiously steps in front of me and plays his flashlight down the hall. "Right this way."
I follow him down the hallway, making a mental map of the house as I go. The refresher is directly off the hallway, along with another door I assume goes to the bedroom or a closet. We entered through the kitchen, and the living room appears to be on the other side of the house. In short, it's your classic bachelor pad. The only furniture I see is a sofa, a chair, and some kind of irregularly-shaped coffee table.
Lux plays his flashlight beam onto a short cabinet in the corner. Tandin seems to be using it as a holovision stand.
"That's the only place I think he could hide them,"
"That's where we'll start." I approach the cabinet and open the left drawer to rifle through the items. Envelope, holo, knickknack, stylus, pad of flimsi, cloth pouch, power cord – cloth pouch?
I experimentally dump out the pouch and almost slice my palm open in the process. A huge, three-pronged stake blade with a golden handle slides out, sort of grazes my hand and lands on the floor with a dull thunk.
Lux freezes. "Did we just -?"
"It wasn't very loud." Thank the force Tandin has a rug to muffle the sound.
"Ahsoka."
"This has to be the blade," I pick it up with the Force and set it safely in my hand. "Look, it's gold like the other two heirlooms, and there are two jewels in the hilt that match the ones on the ring and the music box. They're all part of the same set, but what kind of set is that?"
"Ahsoka."
Something needles me in the Force, but I ignore both it and Lux. "This is Saw's, right? If Bonnie and Clyde didn't steal it, then why does Tandin have it? If he was concerned about it being stolen, then the evidence locker would be more secure than a private home. If he wanted to hold onto his family heirlooms, then why did he give them away in the first place? It just doesn't make sense."
"Ahsoka," Lux repeats, and points.
I follow his point to the dark of Tandin's living room. "What are you pointing at?"
The coffee table growls.
It suddenly occurs to me just what was needling me in the Force.
Once he's out of his curled coffee-table position, Sprinkles the anooba stands as tall as my chest and is probably my equal in weight. Now that he's no longer sleeping I can see his beady eyes honing in on Lux and I, sizing us up.
Let me put it this way: if someone told me Sprinkles was among the anoobas that chased Master Piell and me at the Citadel, I wouldn't bat an eyelash.
Lux blindly reaches for my pocket where I keep the nerf bacon, but I'm way ahead of him. "H-hi, Sprinkles," I squeak, hold out the nerf bacon, and toss it into the air. Sprinkles opens his giant mouth and gulps it down all in one go.
Then he gives me a look like Thanks for the appetizer, Ahsoka. Got anything else? Hey, you and your friend here look pretty tasty…
Against my better judgement I defer to Lux. "What do we do?"
"Do you think we can make it to the fridge? Maybe Tandin has a few steaks," he suggests weakly.
The kitchen is on the opposite end of the house, so that plan's shot. If we so much as move, Sprinkles will either tear our throats out or wake up Tandin, who will then tear our throats out.
No, there's only one option. "We have to knock Sprinkles out."
Lux wraps his hands around his Taser. "You distract, and I'll stun. One…two…"
But before he can say "three," a blaster cocks in the doorway.
"One round wasn't enough for you, was it?" The voice of General Tandin growls. "Looks like Sprinkles didn't deter you this time. You've come to rob my house again?"
"Tandin, it's Lux and Ahsoka!" Lux shrieks. "Don't kill us."
I hit the lights with the Force, illuminating the room. Tandin's eyes widen in sudden recognition.
"Sprinkles, down!" he orders and the anooba slinks back.
"Lux and Ahsoka," Tandin seethes, trying and failing to mask his anger. "What – exactly – are you doing in my house in the middle of the night?"
"The real question is what you're doing with Saw's knife." I snap and hold out the blade in question.
"I was keeping it safe," he protests.
"It's safer here with you and Sprinkles than in Saw's house, which is a guarded crime scene?" Lux demands. "It's safer here than in the evidence locker? And what cause do you have for taking the music box?"
"I have my reasons," Tandin shoots back. "And holding onto some valuables for a friend does not a criminal make. Breaking and entering, on the other hand…"
"Actually, it does." I shake Saw's knife around to get his attention. "This was in Saw Gerrera's house after the burglary, and the house is still a crime scene. If you took it, then you're guilty of tampering with a crime scene."
"Ahsoka, this is part of something bigger than the two of you." He takes a step forward. "It's bigger than this investigation, bigger than the Jedi Council can wrap their heads around. You need to trust me, give me the blade, and pretend this never happened."
"If I intended on leaving without answers, we wouldn't be here. You have a choice here. I can report you to the Jedi Council and have you arrested, but I might be convinced not to." I shove the blade into my utility belt.
"You'd better explain, General." Lux orders. "And I don't want some long, convoluted explanation. Tell me, in one word, what's going on here."
Tandin swallows hard, and tells us everything with one word.
"Magic."
Lux and Ahsoka should have known that no good would come of trying to burglarize General Tandin's bachelor pad. Pets' names can be deceiving!
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Until Next time,
LS
