Last time: The trio headed north and found candy and a clue.

Now: The trio heads back to the night club.

Chapter 16- Double Check

A couple of hours later, Sasha, Viran and Oppie returned to the embassy, dropping off their confectionery treats, before heading off to the nightclub. They had discussed on the way back that the little town up north had brought up nothing really suspicious that pointed towards the cartel. The town itself was creepy, but that wasn't enough to say that the cartel was running the place. Except for maybe running business and visitors away. So they decided on returning to the nightclub in the hopes of finding something more concrete than a creepy mining town or a strange tread mark in an alleyway.

As they approached, they noted that the militia was still present, picking through the debris. Among them was marshal J'onz running the whole thing. He glanced up from his datapad as the three Jedi approached. His face wore the same unamused look it always did, but he didn't seem to be in a hostile mood at the moments, especially after last night.

"Ah, I was wondering when the three of you were going to show," J'onz observed as they approached. "As you can see, we have been at this for hours and we have come up with nothing of use to us. But you are welcome to look." He was definitely in a better mood today and it was kind of freaking Sasha out.

"Thanks," Sasha said as she headed for the main entrance of the nightclub.

Oppie nodded at him, "thanks," he said, before brushing past to walk with Sasha.

"We should start combing through all of this," Sasha said looking at the wreckage around them. "I'm going to start at what used to be the VIP lounge." She gestured to the elevated platform.

"I guess I'll go check out the bar," Viran said as he looked around what was still intact. "Maybe they have a hidden compartment or something back there."

Oppie followed Sasha over to the VIP section, looking at the damage from the firefight where she and Kait had been. "Where did the Lieutenant disappear to?" He asked her.

"I'm not sure," Sasha said, looking around. "The militia would have seen him running out the back door. He must have snuck out another way." She looked at Oppie. "Feel for a hatch."

She knelt down and started looking around the booth. Oppie walked over and started raiding the cushions, moving them aside and looking for some sort of hatch. "Did this hinge away from the wall or something?" He asked her.

Sasha glanced up at him. "I'm not sure," she said with a shrug. "It's worth trying I guess. I'm sorry I don't remember all of this. I was kind of preoccupied with fighting." She looked away at that.

"That's understandable." Oppie said with a slight smirk. He took a step back and looked at the booth reconsidering it.

Sasha got up from searching underneath the booth and looked around as well. However, she allowed her gaze to go along the wall for anything out of the ordinary. Aside from the new blaster marks, there was nothing that stuck out to her. So she approached the wall and placed her hand on it. Reaching out with the Force, Sasha searched for any type of hatchway.

There.

She opened her eyes and moved around the booth towards the wall panel in question. Placing a knock on it, it gave a hollow response unlike the rest of the wall. She looked at Oppie. "I think I found it."

"What was it?" He asked as he came over to help. He still couldn't see what she was looking at.

J'onz, who had been nearby talking with another militia troop, came over in curiosity at what they found.

"His escape route," Sasha said, smirking. She used the Force and opened the hidden hatch. It revealed a ladder that went straight down into a tunnel far below.

"How did you find this?" J'onz asked, not believing what he was seeing.

"It's called using the Force to guide me," Sasha answered simply.

J'onz rolled his eyes at that as he came over to look into the hatch. "Move aside. I'll send someone down to investigate it," he said, glancing down the ladder.

"We can manage it," Sasha said before looking back to Viran, who was sifting through the rubble around the bar. "We will be right back." She called to him.

"Don't take too long," Viran said as he waved to them. "I'll keep an eye on things."

Sasha smirked at that as she was glad he read her mind on keeping an eye on J'onz.

"Want me to go down first?" Oppie asked, taking his short shoto blade out from where he still had it hidden in his jacket. The short length would work better in the confined space.

"Sure," Sasha said, stepping back slightly to allow him a clearer entrance.

"I can go down first," J'onz argued. "You two can follow after me."

"Look, we don't know what's down there. And if there is someone who is ready to shoot you, are you ready to block in an instant or duck for cover before you get hit?" Sasha questioned. "I'm sorry, marshal, but please allow us to go in before you."

J'onz looked down at her, narrowing his gaze. After a second, he begrudgingly stepped back.

Oppie looked down the ladder. He ignited his short lightsaber and leapt down, ignoring the ladder. He landed in a crouch at the base of it, standing up and stepping forward so Sasha would have room as he brought his saber over his head to use as a light in the gloom.

Sasha grabbed her saber, but held off from igniting it. She jumped down and landed similarly to Oppie. As she stood up, she looked around the dimly lit tunnel.

"What do you see?" J'onz called down.

"A tunnel. It looks like it leads somewhere, but we can't tell from here," Sasha called back. "We will be back in a second."

She looked back to the tunnel that stretched out before them. The thing only looked big enough for an average sized being to walk down. However the other end was still hidden in the darkness. Sasha glanced down and could see dried blood spots on the ground. "He went this way alright," she said, pointing to the blood.

"Yeah." Oppie said, shifting his blade to his left hand and unholstering his pistol. "You mind if I lead off?" He asked.

"Go ahead," Sasha said as she gripped her lightsaber tighter.

"Okay." He said. He awkwardly tried to carry the saber above his head while keeping his blaster forward. "I need to start carrying a flashlight with me." He commented with a slight smirk as he kept his attention forward.

Sasha chuckled at that. "You always used to," she said. "What changed?"

"I got annoyed carrying three tubular things with me, and I never had to use it." He answered over his shoulder.

"Fair enough," Sasha said with a smirk.

They kept along the tunnel for another few moments until a large pile of rocks and broken earth blocked their path. There was no way around it or even through it. And the beginning of the tunnel was only one way. This was a literal dead end.

"Kriff," Sasha cursed. "That's not good."

"Think we can clear this?" Oppie asked, looking at the pile of rubble.

"Let me check," Sasha said as she placed a hand to the wall. She reached out with the Force and then frowned. "No, the whole tunnel is destroyed. This is the end of it."

"Think they might be able to use ground penetrating sensors to follow it?" He suggested. "They might be able to pick it up if only a section of it collapsed."

"Possibly," Sasha said, dropping her hand. "Let's get back and see if they have anything like that."

"Okay." Oppie said, holstering his blaster but keeping his shoto out. He picked his way back out through the tunnel and stopped at the ladder. "You go on up, I'll be right behind." He said.

Sasha nodded and climbed back up the ladder where Viran was waiting at the entrance way. He held a hand out to her and helped her back inside.

"Where's J'onz?" She asked curiously.

"Over there," Viran nodded with his head over to where the marshal was. It appears he got bored and turned his attention elsewhere.

"Ah," Sasha said before moving aside so Oppie could climb out. He hefted himself over the top.

"We're zero for two today." Oppie groused as he looked around.

"No luck then?" Viran asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, the tunnel was destroyed so no one could follow," Sasha said with a shake of her head.

"Great. Well I haven't found anything either. I was going to go search the back area if you want to join me," Viran said. Then in a lower volume added, "and he seems to be bored here. I don't think he'll bother us if we look back there."

"Yeah, might as well get a look at the back." Oppie said.

Viran nodded and led them into the back area. Sasha moved to take the lead as they passed the restrooms. She led them back into the room where the Togruta guard had been. She slowed as she approached the door.

"This is where we were trying to get to last night," Sasha said, as she put her hand on the door. "Let's find out what's inside." She pushed open the door to reveal a small anteroom where the guard had waited. Beyond that was another door. The door was open, and they could see a stairwell headed upwards beyond it. Stepping through, the stairs lead upward for some distance towards the second story that was above the nightclubs main floor, which itself was two stories high. At the stop of the stairs was a small, well appointed reception area that led off to various offices. All the offices had militia investigators scouring for evidence and intelligence, but one doorway led into a room that had blasted the doors outward, and scorched the exterior.

Viran headed up the stairs and inspected the destroyed door. "Well, someone got what they needed and fled with a nice bang," he observed.

"Let's spread out and see if we can find anything still intact," Sasha suggested as she came to the top of the stairs.

"You guys go ahead. I'm going to look into this," Viran said as he ran his fingers along the busted door.

Oppie nodded and started looking around. Explosions had a strange habit of leaving the oddest things intact afterward. There may yet be flimsies or datapads still useful as evidence. He looked at one of the militia people that was nearby. "Did you guys determine what kind of explosives these were?"

"Just small ones, sir," the female militia trooper answered. "It appears they were thermal detonators made for one third the yield of normal damage. They did quite a job on the second level sir."

"They sure did. Thanks." He said, glancing around the space again. "All of this seems pretty well cleaned up by the Militia." He observed to Sasha and Viran.

"Yeah it does," Sasha said, annoyed. "That means this is a dead end too."

"Yeah," Viran groaned. "I wanna check back downstairs and one last time before we go."

"Sounds good," Sasha agreed. "I'm going to keep looking up here."

"Yeah, I want to check this floor out a bit." Oppie said.

Viran nodded and headed back down the stairs towards the main level. He looked around as he wandered back towards the dance floor. He sifted through the rubble, pushing aside larger pieces and finding nothing except for what came from the ceiling and cables from the lighting rigs. He was at this search for several long minutes, ready to give up, when suddenly something off colored caught his eye from under a piece of rubble. It would have gone unnoticed by anyone else, and from any other angle.

"Oh what's this?" Viran mumbled as he looked at it. He knelt down and moved some of the soot away. It revealed an intact commlink. "Jackpot," he said under his breath. "Op," he summoned with his own commlink. "You might wanna come see this."

"Be right down." Oppie replied.

Viran glanced around to make sure no one was looking his way. He acted as if he found nothing as he waited for Op and Sasha to get downstairs as he quietly eyed the room.

"What have you got?" Oppie asked, coming to Viran's side.

"A clue," Viran said as he stood and passed the commlink to him inconspicuously. "And a pretty damn good one at that."

"A commlink?" Oppie asked, under his breath. It was like a cheap throwaway model, not something someone attending a nightclub would be caught dead with. Not even the kind of comlink staff or anyone else would have. He glanced around, none of the militia seemed to notice. "Do you think you could get any information off of it Vir?"

"Yeah, I can get information off of it," Viran said. "I'll get Tac and QT on the line to help me. I recognize this is as burner comm. I've seen dozens of them when I used to work at the ship docks when people tried to get somewhere undetected." He paused for a moment. "And I think we keep this between us. No one should know we have this until the time is right. Especially with the mole," he whispered that last part.

"Yeah." Oppie agreed. "Let's take another look around for anything, and then maybe we can head back and work on this."

"Agreed," VIran said as he pocketed the commlink.

As if on cue, J'onz came up to them. "Have you found anything interesting?"

"Aside from the busted door upstairs that looks like modern art, nothing," Viran joked as he turned to him.

J'onz rolled his eyes at them. "You better report anything you find," he demanded.

"Don't worry, we will," Sasha said as she approached from behind Oppie from upstairs.

"Good," J'onz said before moving past them to look around himself.

Oppie looked around, stretching out with his senses trying to discern if anything else might be here. But he kept going back to the comlink as a solid lead. It felt like the break they were going to get here.

Sasha groaned after a few moments. "I'm finding nothing," she said as she leaned against the wall. "This makes us zero for three."

"Maybe." Oppie said. "Viran has an idea, we were going to go talk to Ceros about it." Oppie said.

Sasha raised an eyebrow at that. "Okay, I'm done here anyway," she said.

J'onz came back over to them from his search. "Are you leaving?" He asked incredulously.

"Yeah, this is a bust," Viran said with a sigh as if defeated. "We were going to go talk with Ceros. Do you wanna come with?"

"I'll pass thanks," J'onz said, uninterested. "I still have an investigation to conduct here."

"Good luck with that. And may the Force be with you," Sasha said as she started back towards the front door. Viran followed right behind her, with Oppie trailing him.

She led the two of them out of the nightclub. Once they were a fair distance away to not have wandering ears, Sasha stopped and turned to the guys.

"So what's this idea of yours?" She asked, curiously.

"Not here," Viran said as he wrapped an arm around her to keep her walking.

Sasha looked at Oppie. "Did I miss something?"

"Not really." He said continuing along to the truck, and throwing his eyes in that way gesture to her that they would explain once they had privacy.

"I see," Sasha said, understanding the glance. She held her tongue until they were back to the truck.

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