Last time: Sasha and Op put together as to why Kait was summoned to Caranas. Viran apologized to Kait.
Now: The 19th try and figure out what the raiders are up to.
Chapter 3- The Cartel and the Sith
Lieutenant Thrase stepped away from the small interrogation room that was a part of the Defiant's brig complex. The corridor outside was not dissimilar to a police office in a way. The interrogation room was adjacent to another room that let observers look into the room and watch the process for themselves. As well as be recorded so that independent sources could verify that the Navy wasn't just becoming the Empire again in the way they handled such matters.
She took a moment to collect herself, once the door was open. The mercenary that was back in the interrogation room had been leering and making baudy comments at her until he grew bored with it and clammed up. She'd been in there pretty much all night, having to keep up the facade of a prim and proper New Republic Lieutenant that was completely unaffected by the hours of interrogation time they had spent together. And she was so very, very glad to be calling it a day. She stepped into the observation room where Cien, Kyr and Scamp were watching him with crossed arms. Cien was in her full armor, properly cleaned, and she had asked to have a go at the interrogation. Thrase had gotten the note about the request earlier, and raised an eyebrow at it, having some knowledge of her background but not entirely sure what she meant. The Admiral had shrugged and approved the request to be part of the process. So after Thrase had spent all day and all night softening him up, she was hoping Cien, with whatever her expertise was, could continue the process, and after a few days of this he might finally get annoyed enough to spill something.
"All yours." Thrase said, ignoring the caf machine since she hoped to take off for bed soon.
"Thanks." Cien said as she walked out. Kyr followed her out the door with his gaze and a frown but said nothing.
"So what's her level of expertise with this?" Thrase asked, tiredly. Curious to see at least the start to her interrogation techniques, and hoped that as a Sith they weren't too gruesome, or anything that would get them written up.
Kyr just shrugged. "She's pretty good at it."
The door opened, and they were able to hear the exchange in the other room from the commline. The raider glanced up at her with some mixture of pirate bravado and annoyance, and a few subtle signs of being pretty exhausted.
"So what's this? I'm supposed to be scared of a Mando or something? Send the cute Lieutenant back in." He said with a chuckle.
"I'm not particularly interested in if I scare you." Cien said, as she sat down in the chair across from him.
"Okay." The raider said with a shrug. "So what're you going to do then? Are you the one that's going to cut my fingers off one at a time?" He asked, unimpressed.
"No." Cien said. She took her buy'ce off with both hands. "I just want to talk." She said, in a disarmingly calm way.
Thrase hadn't been expecting this from her.
He raised his eyebrow at Cien taking her helmet off and what it revealed. "Well fine, what do you want to talk about sweetie?" He asked with a leer.
"A couple of things. Mostly who it was that hired you and your crew?" Cien said with a sweet smile as she took her gloves off, first the left, then the right, and put them in her buy'ce. "How much you got paid. And why you were raiding Sith Temples."
"And what's in it for me, exactly?" He said, still leering at her. "Cutie just offered a nicer jail cell. What've you got to up the ante?" He asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Nothing much." Cien said with a dazzling smile. It made Kyr a little uncomfortable.
She reached across the table, where his binders were affixed to the table and his hands were lazily clasped together. He just looked at her very confused as she took his rough, calloused hand.
They froze for a few seconds. In a way that was familiar to Kyr, but probably was a mystery to everyone else in the observation room. Thrase looked on incredulously, trying to figure out what Cien was doing.
After about six seconds Cien let go of his hand, and the raider jerked backwards as if he'd been kicked in the chest, or electrocuted with a prod. And he looked at her with absolute terror as he started hyperventilating.
"Thank you." Cien said very sweetly, as he stared at her. She got up, grabbing her buy'ce with the gloves in it and left the room. Thrase, Kyr and Scamp looked at her as she walked in.
"What was that?" Thrase asked confused, "what did you do to him?"
"I didn't do anything to him." Cien stated.
"What did you do, then?" Thrase asked, wondering if they would get written up. But nothing had apparently happened.
"Do you know what a Corgallen mudsnake is?" Cien asked her.
"No." Thrase answered, confused.
"I didn't either." Cien stated. "They evidently eat their prey whole." She turned to Kyr and Scamp, her face turning dower. "I think that this may have turned into something very different than we thought it was." She said in a more serious tone than she had walked in with.
"What did you figure out?" Scamp asked, impressed by her Force trick, but also concerned by her tone shift.
"He wasn't entirely sure who it was that hired them. But they did the research to try to figure out who the client was in case he needed some kind of leverage." Cien said, frowning. "He was higher up in the ranks of the raiders than we thought, he was a confidante of their leader. Their trail went cold when they traced the account to Sipravae Spice Holdings." She looked at Thrase. "Do you recognize that name?"
"No." Thrase answered, tired as she was she wasn't sure she could remember the name of the ship they were currently on, though. A question like that would require some caf.
"It was one of the shell companies for the cartel." Cien said, "it took me a while to recognize it from when I… interrogated… her." Cien said.
"You got all that in five seconds?" Thrase asked incredulously.
Cien glanced at the chrono on the wall. "I guess so."
"Well I sure am impressed," Scamp said, smirking just slightly. But it faded as he asked his next question, "but what does the cartel on Caranas want with Sith Artifacts? They didn't exactly strike me as the collector types. More the smuggling drug types."
"I have no idea, and it has me concerned." Cien said with a frown.
"Another stream of revenue?" Kyr suggested. "They were trying to get into the reliquaries, maybe they just wanted artifacts to sell on the black market. Jedi stuff is priceless, Sith stuff is even more so. And with us moving in on Caranas, their main source of revenue is being taken away."
"That's a possibility," Scamp said, scratching his beard. "You guys mentioned that Sasha, Viran, and Oppie are on Caranas right now, right?"
"Yep." Kyr answered. "And we were going to head there after we got done with this."
"I admit I am very, very surprised these two situations ended up melding together." Cien stated.
"I agree," Scamp nodded.
"You trust that he was 'telling' the truth?" Thrase asked, not sure how she even got the information.
"Absolutely confident in it." Cien told her.
"Can you write up what you… learned?" Thrase asked, stifling a yawn.
"Yeah, I can write a report for you." Cien said.
"Okay, thank you. I'm going to call it a… morning, if you'll excuse me, sir." She said, looking at Scamp.
"You've earned it, Lieutenant," Scamp said. "Rest well. I'm going to talk to Sulam. I don't think this job is quite done yet. While we may have dealt with the problems at the temples. Now we need to go to Caranas and figure out why the cartel suddenly became interested in collecting. It might help solve both cases your family is working on." He looked at Cien. "Good work."
"Thank you." Cien said with a nod.
Scamp nodded. "Alright, you two are dismissed. I'm gonna drag this rat back to his cell." He said, jerking his thumb towards the window and the still shaken man inside.
"Roger roger." Kyr said. He turned to Cien. "Want to go get something to eat?" Kyr asked her.
"We just had breakfast." She stated, and looked at him a little incredulously.
"Yes, but what about second breakfast?" Kyr asked.
She looked at him very confused. "What's that? Is it like brunch?"
"No, it's after brunch. Something from a book I read. They also had Elevensies." He said, wrapping an arm around her back and guiding her to the door and the second breakfast that awaited beyond.
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