Last time: Sasha tried to interrogate J'onz and almost took it too far. Thankfully, Cien stepped in.
Now: The trio and Kait go to Ceros with the new intel they learned from J'onz.
Chapter 8- Search for Frey
The ride back to the militia headquarters felt like it went by in a flash as they parked in the motorpool what felt like mere minutes after leaving the hospital. But they had important intel for Ceros and there was no time to waste. The four of them headed into the building and straight for Ceros' office. Sasha, who had led them in, raised her hand and knocked on his door.
"Enter." He called from inside.
Sasha opened the door and led them into the room. "We've got good news," she exclaimed as they entered and once the door was closed.
"Oh?" Ceros said, looking up at them and taking some reading glasses off his face.
"We went to go see J'onz to see if he would spill anything when we talked with him," Viran started. "He didn't. He was being stubborn as hell. However, Sasha used a special Force trick on him and managed to get him to talk. With some outside help from our sister, Cien." Sasha nodded to that.
"And what did you learn?" He asked, very curious.
"J'onz not only gave us information on where we can find Lieutenant Frey, but he also listed off several militia officers who are pulling double duty," Sasha explained. "However, that's all he had. The cartel was very thorough in making sure he only got the intel he needed to stop us in our investigation. And they apparently paid him well with the added benefit of potentially getting revenge against the Jedi."
"Revenge for what?" Ceros asked curiously.
"He was a part of the Separatists during the Clone Wars," Sasha replied. "The Jedi fought against them. I guess it kind of makes sense."
"But that's a long grudge to hold onto," Viran pointed out with a huff.
"Ya think," Sasha agreed.
"That weirdly explains a lot." Oppie said, trying to suppress a roll of his eyes.
"So Lieutenant Frey would be our next target?" Kait asked, speaking up.
"It would seem so." Ceros said, "and hopefully he could lead us to grander targets."
"Agreed," Sasha said. "He is currently hiding in a shack in the woods north of here, recovering. My guess is he is waiting for someone to come get him or for an opening to flee. Either way, he won't know we are coming this time."
"And you said you have the names of several turncoats among us?" Ceros asked Sasha.
"Yes," She nodded. "Here I can write them down for you," Sasha said looking around for something to write them on.
Ceros passed her a pad. "This is excellent work, very well done," he said. "It is amazing what can be done when the investigation is not being led by an agent of the cartel, no?" He asked with a grin.
"I'd drink to that," Viran agreed as Sasha busily wrote down the names on the notepad.
When she was done, she pushed the notepad towards Ceros. "I hope this helps finally clearing the cartel out of the militia," she said, smiling softly.
"It will go far towards the goal." He said, looking at the names and grimacing at some of them. "How sure are you of the quality of this information?" He asked, looking up at Sasha.
"I'm a hundred percent sure," Sasha said, noticing his grimace and frowning slightly. She sounded sure, but she instantly felt bad that she ratted out people he potentially saw as friends or comrades.
He nodded. "I will take care of this. Does anyone else know of what you found out?" He asked, looking up at them.
"Aside from those in this room, only Cien since she helped me get it. No one else knows. Also, for your information, the 19th are on their way here. Apparently their mission is also connected to the cartel," Sasha answered.
Ceros looked up at that. "Indeed?" He asked, almost confused. "What may I ask was their mission? I only knew they were deployed elsewhere, and I had not thought the cartel had spread beyond our space?" He asked, in a somewhat troubled manner.
"Apparently Cordova has taken up collecting as a side hobby for the cartel," Sasha started. "He hired a group of raiders to attack Sith Temples in order to get certain relics from them. The 19th and our family were able to stop them. But somehow they were hired by the cartel to play jewel thief." She explained.
"That's weird," Viran said, confused heavily by that.
Ceros leaned back in his chair, looking at her very confused. "Why?"
"They don't know. And they are on their way here to find out why. Just like I'm trying to do in regards to… to something else," she replied distantly.
"Well its good to know we will have a lot of back up when we finally do take on Cordova's hidden base," Viran said, reassuringly.
"True, I will gladly welcome the 19th back." Ceros said with a nod. "Kyr and his wife Cien will be visiting as well?" He asked.
"Yes," Sasha nodded.
"Good," He said with a grin. "I must ask, Cien's name sounds like it is from a trade language in this area, is she a local girl?"
"We think so, yeah," Sasha said. "But none of us are completely sure."
He nodded, "I will ask them about it when they get here." He leaned back forward in his chair. "So your next steps will be to track down this Frey? Do you need any support from me or my people?" He asked.
"That's the one that makes the most sense," Viran answered. "As for back up? It may not hurt to have some on stand by, but I think the four of us can handle this guy. What do you guys think?" He asked, looking between the others.
"I think it's a good idea to have back up. But you're right. We could handle it on our own," Sasha agreed.
"I believe seniority falls to Deputy Messan now, so I will put them at your disposal." He said, nodding to her. "Especially now that we know who not to include in that roster." He finished, tapping the list of names Sasha had provided.
Kait was frozen for a moment as that sunk in. "Thank you." She said, a little confused since the others had been deputy marshals longer than her. A lot longer than her.
"Of course." Colonel Ceros said, "good hunting, I look forward to your further success in this matter."
"Thank you, sir," Sasha said. "We will do our best."
"Then let's move out," Viran said eagerly.
Oppie just smirked as he held the door open for them. Together they filed out of the room, and over to the conference room they had taken the other day. Since they were actually trying to take the cartel down instead of cover for them, having the dedicated room at their disposal seemed more useful than their desks which were part of the general open workspace. Especially if they were discussing anything important, and they still had to deal with people on the cartel's payroll in the militia.
"What details did he provide on where Frey is?" Kait asked as the door closed and she leaned back against the conference table, looking back at Sasha.
"All he provided was that it was a shack in the woods north of here," Sasha as she sunk down into one of the seats. "He didn't seem to know the exact location. Only a vague one. I'm sorry I should have asked for more details on it, but it genuinely seemed like he didn't know more than that."
"It would make sense if he was an informant that the information was only going one way." Oppie said with a shrug. "Do we know of any safe houses that might match that?" He asked, mostly looking towards Kait since she had spent more time studying such things.
"Maybe." She said, trying to think.
"Do we have a map of the forests north of here?" Viran asked. "Maybe we can start there."
"Do we have one on here?" Oppie said, walking over to the holoprojector and bringing up a map of the planet, then zooming it in to show the immediate vicinity to the north of the city.
Sasha straightened up in her seat as she looked over the area. "Okay, so according to that shop keep in Cerrasses and the militia this road right here is controlled by the cartel," she said pointing at the visible road on the map.
"And Frey was still injured when he fled the city. So if he was hiding in a safe house we have to guess it isn't too far from here right?" Viran added on as he gestured to the edge of town towards where the nightclub had been.
"Possibly," Sasha pondered as she stared at the map thoughtfully.
"I'm guessing he is probably just holed up there until he could be taken further north to a better cartel facility. Do they have better facilities?" He asked, pondering. "Like warehouses, infrastructure and such, or is it just, like tents in the forest?"
"The militia has gotten reports that there is some sort of super factory up north, somewhere. Probably buried underground, because something like that would be hard to hide above ground from a starships full sensor suite like the 19th arrived here with." Kait said. "I don't know what to picture though, but I can't imagine it's a pristine laboratory." She said.
"Well nothing really stood out to us as the 'secret cartel factory entrance' when we were up there," Viran said, putting air quotes around that.
"Of course they are not just going to label it," Sasha said, shooting a glance at him on that. "It's secret for a reason. But right now let's focus on this area and see if we can find this shack. Or potentially a path that leads to it." That gave her an idea. "Do we have a map of all the hiking trails here?" She asked, looking at Kait.
"Hiking trails?" Kait asked.
"Yes. If someone was going to build out in the middle of the woods, they would need to build it along a path or need a path to hike along with their supplies. Unless the shack was built first. Then there would be trails or paths that could lead to it," Sasha explained.
Kait stepped forward to the projector and started looking through the information overlays that were available. She added hiking trails as well as swoop bike trails to the display, adding another layer of data to the map that was in front of them. There was a spiderweb of them, trailing out from the north of the city, and a few larger trails that branched out and led to further trails that disappeared up north.
"Whoa…" Viran gaped as he looked at the trails.
"I didn't expect there would be so many trails," Sasha admitted, biting her lip. "This might be harder than I thought."
Viran stared at the map for a long moment before an idea came to mind. "When the 19th was here last time, did they do a scan of this area?" He asked.
Kait thought for a moment. "They did a lot of orbital scans of the area, I don't know how high a fidelity they were, though."
"It'll do," Viran said. "Give me a second. I'm going to pull them up and potentially overlay them with this map." He informed them as he typed at the console to control the holograms.
Viran worked feverishly as he sorted through scans, maps, and blueprints that were stored in the militia's hard drive. After several moments, he found the scans the 19th took and pulled them up. He looked up at the two maps and very delicately he overlaid the two until they were matching. After almost ten tense minutes, Viran slowly backed away from the console as he looked up at the two maps with a hint of pride in his face.
"Nicely done," Sasha complimented as she stood and looked at the two maps now combined into one.
"Thanks," Viran said, smirking. "And I think we have narrowed it down a little."
"Nice." Oppie said, looking at the map. "These trails aren't on the official maps." He said, looking at the differences.
"So if these are new trails, or trails that were kept off the official maps, then that would narrow this down a lot." Kait said.
"Okay let's note the differences now," Sasha suggested. "But how do we narrow it down further? There is still a decent number to work with here."
"True," Viran said, smiling. "But I have another idea."
"Oh?" Sasha asked, quirking an eyebrow at that.
"Since these forests are too dangerous to go trotting around in, looking for this guy. What if we took the Forerunner and did a scan of the areas around these particular paths?" Viran suggested. "It cuts down on the time it would take us to search by foot or truck. And it allows us to run not only a scan of the area, but also a scan for any living beings that aren't animals. What do you guys think?"
"That could work." Oppie said. "That could work really well." Oppie said in mounting agreement.
Viran beamed at that.
"I agree with Op. This could work," Sasha said, smiling. She placed a kiss on Viran's cheek. "Nicely done."
"Then when should we move out?" Viran asked. "I'm thinking the sooner the better."
"I've got no other plans this afternoon." Oppie said with a shrug. "If they start shooting missiles at us you think we'll be safe?" He asked Viran with a grimace.
Viran winced at that. Even the scar on his side twitched at that. "I don't know. But I know we will be ready for it this time," he said as confidently as he could. "Plus I'm not letting these jerks get their hands on my ship." He added with a growl.
"We can have the militia follow our location and if something does happen, then we have back up right there before the cartel can do anything," Sasha suggested in a reassuring tone.
"Yeah, that sounds good. Let Ceros know what we're doing and where, and if anything bad happens he can come pick us up within an hour or so?" Oppie said.
"That works for me," Viran agreed.
"Yeah," Sasha said in agreement.
Kait nodded. "Sounds like a plan." She said, "I can drive you to the landing field."
Oppie glanced at her, "didn't you want to come with us?" He asked, a little confused.
"You're part of this team too," Viran said. "You don't have to stay here if you don't want to."
"Come with us, please," Sasha said, giving her a smile.
Kait looked between the other three. "Okay, sure." She said, with a hint of surprise in her voice.
"Then it's decided," Viran said. "Let's tell Ceros and gear up. We don't have much time to waste.
Review!