CHAPTER FOURTEEN – THE IN-AND-IN

AHSOKA

Lin Vikil pulls herself up using a crate, white-blond hair falling out of her neat bun. "Well, ma'am, it looks like we have a problem."

Alright Ahsoka, here's the plan. You have to stall her until the others figure out the clue and everyone can throw something together.

Also, say several prayers that Sierra or Sabine picked up on the "five-oh" and "boys" signals. Sometimes with stress, people won't pick up on subtle clues.

I deactivate my lightsabers. "How did you do it? You may have been an espionage instructor, but Sabine? Sabine isn't a fool."

"All children will follow a droid."

I look at the orange droid rolling around in the corner. He apparently decided not to go with Sabine. "You brought Sabine here?"

Chopper releases a barrage of explanation in Binary. If I weed out the swear words, I hear "remote" and "not my fault".

"He did," Vikil says curtly, brushing her palms on her legs. "With some help from Mr. Nightwine and a remote control, the droid was putty in our hands. Led the girl right in like a Loth-kitten chasing a string."

"About her," I bring up. "You said you lost your job because she defected. Has it ever crossed your mind that she might have changed sides because you didn't do your job well enough?"

I mentally cross my fingers. If I've read one signal from this woman, it's that she has an ego as big as a planet. If I can make her think that she messed up, then I have a better chance of stalling.

"I mean, you were an espionage instructor, for goodness' sakes!" I half-laugh. "You probably taught her everything she and Ketsu Onyo needed to escape from the academy. So in a way -."

Vikil's chest puffs out as if to say Don't say it.

I do. "It was almost your fault!"

Bingo.

She tenses and pulls out one of her pistols. "You're the Jedi woman, Ahsoka Bonteri. Lord Vader wants you on several counts of grand theft as well as the crime of affiliation with the Jedi Order."

"Former affiliation." I correct.

"Forget about the girl," she says. "With you, they'll pay me so much I won't have to worry about getting my job back. Heck, I won't have to worry about working ever again! And it just so happens I've had it with you, Jedi."

I smile, showing all my teeth.

"And I've already had it with you."

She lunges at me and I gracefully sidestep him with the ease of a bullfighter. I almost wish I had a cape to swish behind me.

"Well that's odd. I thought I'd slowed down after having two kids." I muse. "I guess I dodged that motherhood bullet. And really, an espionage instructor is that slow?"

You know what would be very helpful right now, team? I think. You could arrive to help me before I run out of ideas and have to settle for simply skewering her with a lightsaber.

Skewering Vikil with a lightsaber, while personally satisfying and a great deed to the galaxy, will not force her to be dragged back to jail and placed the Empire's solitary confinement cells.

But the mere thought of skewering ends with the sound of approaching speeders and police sirens.

Chopper beeps victoriously.

"Thanks for this very entertaining conversation, Ms. Vikil." I say. "You just forgot one little thing: I'm not a Jedi. I'm a thief. And when we want something, we steal it."

THIRD PERSON

"All right, team." Lux Bonteri says, rubbing his hands together. "Let's bring down Nightiwne, Vikil, and Spencer in one fell swoop."

…

Getting Agent Kallus on board is the easiest part. Tav needs only to pick up his comlink and dial Kallus' office.

Kallus picks up his desk comm. "Kallus here."

"Hey, I'm calling to report some kind of vigilante in the warehouse district."

Kallus pauses "Vigilante?"

"Yeah, vigilante. She's terrorizing a woman and a droid in a warehouse and going on and on about revenge."

Ezra dials his own comm, causing the other line on Kallus's to light up.

"Please hold." He says curtly and selects Ezra's line. "Kallus speaking."

Ezra pinches his nose to disguise his voice. "There's some crazy lady in the warehouse district! You've got to stop her!"

Before Kiara makes her call, she looks at Molly. "What are you doing?"

Molly's fingers fly over the keyboard. "Kallus is about to get six more alerts reporting this vigilante. One is you. The other five are Dad and I," she announces as she releases the text alerts.

At the Imperial headquarters, Kallus stares at the desk comm's lines lighting up like a Life Day tree.

"Send squads to the warehouse district!" he orders, grabbing his helmet off the top of his desk.

…

Ahsoka watches as the ISB and various Stormtroopers flood the warehouse.

"It's about time." She breathes. "Her speech was grating on my nerves."

Vikil glares over her shoulder as two Stormtroopers lead her away. "You have the wrong person! I am an accredited officer, and that woman is a rebel!"

Ahsoka is perfectly calm. "Not to worry, agents." She whispers. "I'm working with the Bounty Hunter's Guild, deep cover."

She hands Kallus her comlink, an Imperial Peacekeeping Contract on the screen.

"Her name is Lin Vikil, got fired from her job after a cadet defected to the rebels. She just bought her from a shady dealer. Sadly, the girl managed to escape before I could catch her." She announces. "Thanks for saving me the trouble of listening to her while I brought him."

"The pleasure is all ours." Kallus says curtly, handing her the comlink. "Thank you for bringing this scum to the attention of the Empire. I'm sure she'll enjoy her stay in prison."

"Prison? You can't be serious!" Vikil shouts. "She's a rebel! A Jedi! She should be the one getting arrested, not me!"

Ahsoka waves at him. "I have a permit for my weapons, as you saw on my contract. Thank you very much for making the arrest, Agent Kallus. By the way, has Lyst contacted you about the dealer?"

Kallus stiffens. "Dealer?"

…

Wearing an oversized sweater and comfortable pants, Steela walks into the Imperial headquarters. Commander Lyst's personal secretary notices her presence immediately.

"Excuse me," she says curtly, cutting in front of her. "May I help you?"

"Is this where Commander Lyst works?" Steela asks, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot.

"It is."

"Yeah, can you show me to his office?"

"You'd need an appointment to meet with him." The secretary informs her, looking down her nose.

"You see, I met Commander Lyst at the Jumping Jawa about a month ago and I'm not feeling too well." Steela explains, rubbing her belly.

The secretary looks down at Steela's belly, her eyes big as Lothal. Oh, no – not this!

"Do you know if he talked about being a father someday?" Steela asks, her voice crescendoing into a near-shout. "Because that's what I came to talk to him about. I think I'm -."

"All right!" the secretary squeaks, grabbing Steela and rushing her down the hallway. "This is Commander Lyst's office. Just stay in here and don't let anyone see you."

The door shuts behind her, and Steela rolls her eyes. "Why do I always play the pregnant woman?" she grumbles, opens her purse and removes a holodisk. "Easiest drop ever."

…

"Commander Lyst, a woman was in your office a while ago." The secretary says when Lyst returns. "She had to run off, but she says she left a note for you."

"Very well." Lyst says. The secretary takes a deep breath, remembering the woman who burst down the hallway with her hand clamped over her mouth in anticipation of vomiting.

Lyst settles himself at his chair and boots up his holo monitor to see what the woman left for him.

There's no note, but a financial listing with a few crime reports. Financial records for a Mr. Nightwine…

Is this what I think it is?

But a few clicks more, and it's confirmed: fourteen years ago Agent Konrad Nightwine accepted a sizable payment from a Peter Torrance on a day coinciding with the abduction of Sierra Bonteri. That was only the first of over fifty cases. And today he received a payment of rather copious size from Lin Vikil, right before Vikil was arrested for attempting to abduct a girl.

Lyst feels like a child on Life Day morning. This is just the evidence he needs to nail an ISB traitor and fast-track his route to a promotion. Even the Empire frowns upon selling children to be tortured and killed.

But before he can salivate too much, he sees a second window open on his screen. He selects it.

It's a second financial spreadsheet, but the name on it isn't Konrad Nightwine. It's Robert Spencer.

…

"Mr. Spencer?"

Spencer looks up. "Yes?"

Lyst gestures into his office, and the Stormtroopers pour in. "Robert Spencer, you are under arrest for embezzling Imperial funds."

"What?"

"And I've received a transmission from Department of Agriculture Livia Blane." Lyst snaps "She appears to have found evidence of your attempt to cover up a major soil problem."

"Livia Blane?" Spencer sputters, his eyes growing wide. "Oh no, there's been some kind of mistake. You can ask Mr. Nightwine. She's not who she says she is – she's a con woman!"

"Con woman?"

Spencer looks across the room to behold the blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman wearing a Department of Agriculture uniform and a badge reading LIVIA BLANE.

...

"Just a question, what happened to the real Livia Blane?"

"She and the auditing department both think her boss sent her an email to wait at the hotel for further instructions."

…

In Lothal's only posh hotel, a Department of Agriculture investigator lounged poolside in a deck chair, a glass of cool lemonade in her hand.

Livia Blane adjusted her sunglasses. What was supposed to be a work trip was turning into a vacation – and what a vacation it was! A comfortable hotel with a bar and a pool all on-site. She'd slept in until ten today, then moved only from deck chair to hot tub and back for the past few hours. When she returned to her room tonight, she thought she'd watch a movie before ordering room service and turning in. And it was all on the Empire's credit chip.

The sound of her comlink ringing startled her from her relaxed state. "Hello?"

"Livia Blane? This is Emma in the lab. We just received some samples from the Lothal operation and the nitrate levels in these fields are disturbing. I'm sending the reports to you right now."

Livia jumped out of her chair and started power-walking to her room to change into something suitable for work. "Of course. I'll check them immediately," she said, wanting nothing more than to return to her vacation as soon as possible.

"Emma" smiled.

"We would appreciate that very much," said Sierra Bonteri.

…

"Honestly," Livia Blane says as Spencer is loaded into a speeder. "The things people come up with. You'd think that someone's controlling everything we do. A con woman, indeed!"

A/N: Did you expect any less? Stealing is what they do best, after all.

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Lux's Sister