"Where are your husband and your children? If you really want to help them –protect them–, you have to tell us where they are," Vas tried for the hundredth time.
"I don't know," Miss Roolek said, wringing her hands and looking around for anything that might help her. But there was nothing that would offer comfort in the bleak interrogation room.
"You are not under arrest –yet– but if you continue to be as uncooperative as right now, it won't be long before I have to start the official investigation."
"I don't know, they told me they took them off the planet."
"That's at least something. Far from good news but it's a start. Which planet could they have brought them to?"
"I don't know."
"Yes, I think you stated that often and clearly enough. They wouldn't have told you but maybe one of them slipped up and revealed something. Speculate. Did they mention a mining colony, a scrapyard, a space station or something? A name of a place or person? Anything that struck you as odd?"
"No, I already said so."
"Did they mention a time or any kind of coordinates or numbers?"
She hesitated and closed her eyes, trying to remember something.
"There was a number…"
Vas stayed silent and completely still so as not to disturb her and throw her off her train of thought.
"TC-3… something, I don't know."
"The TC-series are protocol droids. Are you sure it's not TK?"
"Yes, absolutely. TC."
"In what context did he mention it?"
"They said TC-something confirmed the arrival of some cargo. I don't exactly remember."
"That sounds like a protocol droid. Are you sure it was important?"
"Yes, they said, soon they would have everything together to kick the filth… to kick the Empire off the planet."
"They want to have enough firepower to harm a Star Destroyer. Where would they hide such a fleet?"
"TC-344. Now I remember. Yes, TC-344. That's what he said."
"Good, that's really helpful."
"It's not helpful at all," Vas said when he was in the adjacent room, looking in on their soon-to-be prisoner.
"Why not?" Zero asked in a fit of wordiness.
"TC-344 is just an abbreviation. Otherwise the company could just create a thousand droids of that series. No, his actual number is at least five digits longer but people are too lazy to remember eight digits. If two protocol droids with the same first three digits met, they could still change one's abbreviation to three other random numbers. They don't really matter. We can't even be sure the first digits of that particular droid are three, seven and two. We essentially know nothing."
"Have you checked the ISB database?"
"Yes, there is a laughably small number of crimes associated with protocol droids and most of these times, the protocol droids are the victims or witnesses. The only thing we know is that there might be a big fleet somewhere waiting for … something to strike at us. The Senator and his children are most likely off the planet and at least his children could be on the other side of the galaxy by now. This case is madness. I thought we had some luck for once and then this."
"Considering how hard this case is, I think you did pretty good."
"Thank you for the compliment," Vas snapped.
"No, honestly. This case was cursed from the start and you got close. The Senator might still be in the city, although this becomes less and less likely with the Stormtroopers continuing their door-to-door searches."
The door hissed open and a slightly out of breath Constable Dalle ran up to him, squeezing a datapad into his hand.
"I found him. I found him … maybe."
"Whom did you find?" Vas asked, looking the dishevelled man up and down. So much for representing the ISB with a proper uniform.
"The Senator!"
Vas' gaze jumped between the man and the datapad and eventually settled on the datapad and activated the displayed audio recording.
"The city is on lockdown. We have to ask you to turn back," an unfamiliar voice said. So one of the Army trooper groups guarding the outskirts of the city.
Please tell me they didn't.
"Please, can't you make an exception? I was picking up medicine in the city…"
The voice was unmistakable. It was the green Twi'lek having himself proclaimed as the new governor of the planet.
Not wanting to waste any more time, he skipped through the rest of the recording
"That is a very generous offer, my friend. We won't keep a father from his family, right?" another trooper said.
"Damn it!" Vas yelled and slammed the datapad onto the table. "I had him contained! He was still in the city and why did I lose him? Because a trooper wanted to get two thousand credits. We lost the Senator for two thousand credits."
He jumped up and kicked the chair away. "Two thousand."
The other two people in the room stayed completely silent, so he looked at the two. Zero's armour didn't offer anything, so he focussed on the Constable. He flinched without Vas doing anything.
"Good work, Constable. You have done a great service to the empire today."
He looked up in surprise.
"Did you think I would punish the messenger? No, now let's find our Senator," Vas said and opened the archive of the routine scans the Challenger did every few minutes. It was Imperial regulation in hostile territory, so no enemy could sneak up on you if they managed to avoid the passive sensors. With the Challenger in such a low orbit, the scans didn't reveal much about the space surrounding the planet itself. The rest of the task force which stayed in orbit around the space station covered that avenue in the meantime. However, the scans of the planet itself especially around the city were much more accurate. Not all of the scans were archived but there was a good chance –well, there was a chance– they would spot their traitor.
"What street was this patrol on and at what time was the perimeter breached?"
"Prhize Street, heading south. At … 13.09."
"The next archived scan is from 13.15," Vas said and opened the respective file on his datapad. It was massive, containing all kinds of unnecessary data.
"Scan for electronic signatures. The vehicle should be the only one in the vicinity of the city," Zero offered."The Scout bikes have an in-built shielding to make them harder to spot, for reconnaissance."
Vas limited the search area to twenty clicks around the exit of the street and sent off the request. His datapad showed him dozens of very small signatures that could be any kind of handheld device but they were too small by magnitudes to be a speeder.
"There," Dalle pointed at one of the readings.
Vas opened the visual scan of these coordinates and half obscured by a nearby tree, they saw a speeder with a closed top heading away from the city.
From the image, Vas estimated their trajectory and speed and sent another vaguer search off. Unfortunately, the next scan in the database was fifteen minutes later. A speeder of that size could easily traverse fifty clicks in that time and if they were really desperate, a lot more.
All of this rested on the hope that they didn't change directions to shake possible pursuers. If he had to widen this already broad window, it could take days. As he waited for the datapad to show any significant results, he said to Zero, "Recall all shuttles and bring the Gozanti escorts in from orbit. I want every ship filled to the brim with Stormtroopers and have the Gozantis pick up heavy walkers. And I want two TIE squadrons on standby."
"Understood," Zero said and stepped to the far side of the room to give out orders.
The computer was still running his analysis. It had found several promising signatures but on closer inspection, they were homesteads or other vehicles. He groaned when he realised that they could have easily switched vehicles in these fifteen minutes. He would have done so if he was in their shoes.
Then they struck gold and found a glimpse of the speeder again, seventy-nine clicks away from their previous position. They were really determined to get away.
They had not significantly diverted from their trajectory and with an estimated speed, he sent out another query. Nerve-racking minutes ensued as they checked one reading after the other but in the record fifteen minutes later the speeder was nowhere to be found.
"Either they diverted from their course or they reached their destination within these fifteen minutes. Let's hope for the second. Where does their trajectory lead them?"
"At this speed, they would have gone past a deserted mansion at … 13.42. Twelve minutes after we last saw them."
Vas opened a scan of the mansion, which showed it as not all but abandoned. It didn't have any electronic signature but the image showed at least two dozen people in the walled-off yard and although he didn't see the speeder itself, there were plenty of other vehicles.
"Do you think that's it, Sir?"
"I think we have to take the risk. Keep looking for alternatives but I have a good feeling about this. We have to have a bit of luck sometimes," Vas said as he ran to the door.
Before he left, he stopped once more and his gaze darkened, "Constable, I want you to make your first arrest. Find these traitorous Army troopers and take them in for … treason. Yes, let's say treason. First, fix your uniform, we want you to make a good impression."
The man's face reddened and he was about to say something but Vas held up his hand.
"Second, take a squad of Stormtroopers and arrest them. Make it as public as you can. When you announce their crimes, yell at the top of your lungs for the whole barracks –or city or wherever they are– to hear, then whip them through the streets or corridors and bring them back. Their battalion will be understrength by one squad from now on. Note in the official files why that is. Everyone should know the price for betraying the Empire."