Three weeks later, Cassian returned to Yavin from his last undercover mission, which luckily had been shorter than others. He'd been infiltrated in a secret Imperial base on Miser and he'd posed as Joreth Sward, new assistant to Admiral Grendreef. The mission had exerted all of Cassian's self-control (as usual in all his missions as a mole) in order to hold back and not to murder the evil, sadistic bastard. That man enjoyed above all else mistreating his subordinates and thinking of elaborate ways of inflicting pain and destroying, mostly through his designs for new Imperial spaceships and weapons. Grendreef's value for the mission had lied on his designs for a much more advanced type of TIE fighter, the TIE Shadow. Cassian had taken advantage of the distraction created by the rebel squadron assigned to support him for that mission, and after he'd persuaded the asshole admiral to download the designs into a datachip to prevent them from falling into enemy hands, Cassian had stunned him with his blaster and carried the unconscious man's dead weight to the ship of one of his fellow rebels. Now Grendreef was in the clutches of the Rebellion, kept as a prisoner for as long as he would be useful.
Cassian was only too happy to have gotten rid of the scumbag, as he wasn't his problem any more. Now it was his superiors' turn to deal with the awful Imperial.
After debriefing and being given permission by General Draven to clear out, Cassian took one of his scalding post-mission water showers. It was definitely a hangup of his, as if the water were going to clean the grime of having rubbed elbows with such a wicked man. At least in this mission he hadn't had to go to bed with a mark, what was an immense relief. The following couple of nights, he slept a bit better than usual, and he didn't even remember having dreamed of that pair of green eyes which had been plaguing his sleeping hours for the past weeks.
He spent those days offering more details from the mission to Miser, as well as getting his equipment ready and working out in the base's gym. Exercise was a good means of blowing off steam and frustrations and keeping himself fit.
And of course, Kay had a lot of complaints about having been commanded to stay on base doing boring tasks while Cassian was out there monopolizing all the fun. Cassian didn't even bother to remind his droid for the umpteenth time that those undercover missions in which Kay was ruled out (because it would be odd and suspicious for a simple low rank Imperial officer or ordinary citizen to be joined at the hip with a supposedly KX security droid) were anything but fun.
The third day after his return from Miser, everything took a completely unexpected, shocking turn.
All started when Cassian was summoned to Draven's office. As every time he received word that a mission had come up, Cassian adopted the detached mental frame that was like a second skin to him. He got ready once again to impersonate one of his varied Imperial aliases, in case he had to go undercover. Or, if that wasn't the case, to embark on a rescue mission, or on an operation to attack or sabotage Imperial facilities to destroy arsenals and ships, or assassinate strategic targets (Cassian was an extremely well-aimed sniper)... Kay would cry foul and become an absolute pain in the ass in the former case (because he wouldn't be allowed to accompany Cassian), and would jump with tiresome joy in the latter ones (because he would be allowed). Either way, Kay never missed the chance to show ad nauseam his opinions and feelings on each matter, Cassian thought with a chuckle. His droid was nothing if not flamboyant and exuberant, as radically opposed to his plain and nondescript external appearance as a KX droid.
The moment he set foot in Draven's office, he sensed that something was out of the ordinary. For starters, Mon Mothma, one of the founders and Commander of the Rebellion, was present. That could only mean that, whatever had turned up, was much more important than the ordinary operations.
"Captain," both superiors said in greeting, and Cassian nodded to them in deference. Then Mothma took the floor. "It has come to our knowledge that an Imperial cargo pilot has deserted and is being kept as a prisoner by Saw Gerrera. That wouldn't be anything of significance, except for the fact that he's proclaimed that he was sent by an Imperial scientist with a message for Gerrera, but unluckily, we still ignore what that message is about." Mothma got silent and gave the floor to Draven.
"Your mission will consist in meeting one of your contacts from within Gerrera's Partisans and coaxing the content of the message out of him. We have to find out why a cargo pilot who's been loyal to the Empire up to now, would risk himself that way if he's heard anything about Gerrera's extremist methods, which are well known throughout the galaxy, and why that supposed scientist sent him to the Partisans, of all the cells antagonist to the Empire scattered through the galaxy. We have to verify those facts along with the truth in the supposed message. If it turns out that it's not a trap devised by the Empire to lure their enemies into an ambush and that said scientist is being genuine, then it's of the essence to know the reasons of his strange actions," Draven expounded. "You depart today. You can take that annoying droid with you if you prefer having some backup, but order him not to leave the ship unless there's no other way out. Speed, stealth and going unnoticed is crucial here, and that droid stands out like a beacon."
Cassian gave a firm nod. "Yes, General. Commander." And he turned around to leave the office. Kay isn't going to like that one bit.
He was already reaching for his comlink to get in touch with Tivik, his informant from the Partisans, and arrange a meeting wherever the elusive Partisan agreed to talk with him.