Annabeth Chase
After four hours of sleep, another steaming cup of caffeine, and a shower, the two women filed into the hangar and boarded one of the Senate Guard's Fortitude-class shuttles. It was an almost two-hour long trip that they almost spent exclusively sleeping. Annabeth slept like a rock and probably would have fallen from her seat if a crash harness hadn't kept her firmly pinned in place. She probably also snored quite a bit, but fortunately, she did not have to hear herself.
Only when the shuttle landed on the hangar floor with a loud clang as it settled on its landing struts in a hangar on the vast Republic Starbase.
"There already?" Silena asked, rousing from her slumber with a jerk.
"Okay, Agents!" the pilot's voice suddenly blared from the loudspeakers. "Welcome to FleetComm HQ. A welcoming party awaits you. I will stand by for your return trip."
They released their harnesses and rose on stiff legs. As they rose, the shuttle rear ramp lowered itself and they disembarked. Down on the cold hard deck they were awaited by a Naval Liaison officer who guided them through the vast orbital installation. First, through the docking ring, past a dozen or so Hammerhead corvettes moored docking clamps until they progressed into the base proper. They passed hundreds of personnel on the way as they made their way through the maze of corridors. They passed through security checkpoints and were finally obliged to hand over their sidearms. It wasn't something either of them appreciated being forced to do. But considering that they were arguing with two heavily armed Naval Infantrymen, Annabeth accepted that strongarming them simply wasn't going to work.
Finally, they were let into a large office with a wide desk and chairs in front of a large window that offered an admittedly spectacular view of Coruscant itself.
"The Admiral will be with you shortly," their bright eyes young officer announced and beckoned at the two empty chairs facing the desk.
"I hate it when they keep us waiting," Silena muttered.
Annabeth only shrugged, and breathed deeply, mentally preparing herself for a conversation with someone who probably thought he was smarter than they were. They usually did that and always looked surprised when the friendship bracelets came out. Though she doubted it would come to that today.
After making them wait for twenty minutes the doors opened and the Admiral himself in his white uniform entered the room.
"Agents, I apologize for the wait. Welcome to FleetComm HQ," he greeted them as he entered. He looked much like he did in his picture and in the flesh, his similarity to the man that had put her in the hospital was truly uncanny.
"Admiral," she replied curtly.
"What brings you to me?" he asked.
"We are here on a case," Annabeth began, quickly deciding to share as little as possible with him as humanly possible. She did not need the dude commanding every single battlegroup in the Coreworlds suddenly developing parental feelings and beginning to run interference against her aswell.
"I assumed you were," the Admiral announced the ghost of a smile danced across his lips. "What can I do for you?" she asked.
"Sir?" Silena asked, the sweetest of smiles appearing on her face, a card she often pulled on men, to be honest. "Do you happen to be familiar with an individual named Perseus Jackson?"
"I fear I do not?" he replied, looking surprised. "Should I?"
Annabeth pulled out her datapad and began to open a picture of their charge. Unfortunately, she was quite sure he was being honest.
"Well, he is directly related to you. In fact, we are quite sure he is your son," Annabeth followed up, handing the datapad over.
"You are certain about this?" he asked.
"Quite certain. We have excluded your brother Zeus, and he looks nothing like your other brother. Though he does look quite similar to you, don't you agree?" Annabeth asked, keeping her hard gray eyes fixed on the Admiral's green ones.
"Remarkable, I had no idea. Is this Perseus in trouble?" he asked.
"He is currently a person of interest to us," Annabeth admitted, seeing as a man like that was capable of putting one and one together. "Though I can not say more for the time being. I take it you did not know of his existence, prior to this."
Still looking wrong fitted, the Admiral shook his head. "I fear not."
"Well," Annabeth said. "We know he is roughly twenty-six years old, could you perhaps narrow down the list of potential suspects? If my timeline holds you would have been stationed on the Repulse at the time."
"It would help a lot if you could provide us with a potential mother," Silena added helpfully.
She could see the metaphorical gears turning in his head as he scratched his beard, clearly going through the list of women he had entertained during his wild years as a fancy young officer, despite already being married at that point.
"I,..." he began and closed his mouth again, staring at the picture.
"Well,... there was one. She was a student at the time at General Accedemy seventeen, shortly before her graduation. Of age of course, and I was separated from my wife at the time. Lovely young woman, very bright. Wanted to go to the University of Coruscant the following year," the Admiral recalled thoughtfully.
Well, Annabeth thought to herself. At least he remembered her in a rather respectful light.
"Does this lady have a name?" Annabeth continued innocently.
"I...," the Admiral hesitated, lost in memories. "Sally something,..Sally Jackson, I think."
Annabeth suppressed a triumphant grin. From here on, provided the information she had gotten was accurate, she had all the information she needed to track down this Sally Jackson.
She let Silena handle the rest of the interview, where she asked dozens of more questions, some not even related to the case. While not strictly necessary, you didn't exactly get to have a one-on-one chat with an Admiral of this man's Caliber every day so Annabeth could not blame her friend.
Finally, though they rose to their feet and Annabeth handed the admiral a card. "If you think of anything, let us know," she said sweetly, though quite sure her simple wasn't as potent as Silena's had been.
"Forgive me, but could I ask for a favor?" the Admiral inquired.
"Of course," Silena said before Annabeth could offer a more measured answer.
"If you find him,...well tell him he is welcome to reach out to me at any time. I did not know he existed," Poseidon said weekly.
Silena beamed. "I will tell him. Thank you for your time, Admiral."
"Reach out from prison," Annabeth muttered under her breath once the doors to the office were safely closed behind them.
Finding Sally Jackson turned out to be not quite as easy as Annabeth hoped. The school the Admiral had suggested had no student by that name. Already fearing that the name was the wrong one, Annabeth visited a dozen different schools, rummaging her way through the archives. After three days though, she got to bear the fruits of her labor.
In the school archive of General Accedemy number forty-two, she found the name Sally Jackson. While there were bound to be multiple Sally Jacksons on Coruscant, this one fit the age group, and roughly the area this party would have taken place in, so chances were not bad that this was the woman they were looking for.
"Got you!" Annabeth hissed grinning, earning herself dirty looks from the school administrators who clearly weren't fans of Republic Agents.
With an ID code, a copy of Sally Jackson's school records, plus the picture of an admittedly quite pretty brunette in her bag, Annabeth returned to the Senat Building where she proudly presented her findings.
"Very good!" Malcolm congratulated her, and both Luke and Silena looked pleased aswell.
"Any luck on our other two?" Annabeth barely dared to ask.
Luke shrugged. "So far, nothing," Luke admitted, not sounding too concerned by this. Then, sometimes it took weeks, even months, or years before an avenue of inquiry bore fruit.
"By the way, while you were digging through records our Senator woke up. He is still in the hospital and will stay there for a while, but one of us should head over there to have a word with him."
Annabeth bit her lip, exchanging a look with Silena who shrugged. She had really wanted to follow up on Sally Jackson.
"How about this," Silena suggested. "You talk to our friend, Mr Dare. While I find out of Sally Jackson still lives on Coruscant, and if yes where her current address is?"
"Unless you want to do this?"Annabeth offered Luke, who only laughed.
"Hell no, the less I have to do with politicians, the better. I report our progress to Hightower, you talk to the Senator," he decided.
"Can you arrange for Rachel Dare to meet me at the hospital? She wanted to talk with me about something," Annabeth quickly added, as she grabbed her speeder's keys.
"Of course," Luke agreed, grinning at her fondly.
As she left and headed back to the hospital, Annabeth realized it was already late in the afternoon, and she doubted she would have time to meet Sally Jackson that evening.
It went without saying that she was less than pleased to be back in a hospital.
Senator Dare had been transferred from the intensive care ward to a private medical sweet. The entire ward was packed with a security detail, Republic Security, and the Senate Guard. The two officers standing guard at the door were very familiar though.
"Officer's Frank, Levesque," he greeted them.
"Good to see you back on your feet, Ma'am. You had us worried there," Frank announced brightly as he checked her ID and performed biometric scans.
"Good to see you aswell," Annabeth replied.
"Here to talk to the Senator?" Hazel asked.
"Yes," Annabeth confirmed evenly.
"Watch out," Hazel warned. "He has a lawyer with him and is refusing to even talk to us. Her name is Dodds, looks like something that died a while ago. Even his daughter is frustrated and she's like a journalist or something."
"We will take that under advisement," Silena promised and they made their way through the hospital ward, talking to a few of the security officials on her way before finally slipping into the patient room.
Mr Dare, now awake and extubated, lay in his bed, talking with two of his aids while Rachel Elisabeth Dare sat in the corner. Everyone stared at her when she entered.
"Ah, Agent Chase," the Senator greeted her drily. The two aids ever scowled at her. Only Rachel winked. A final person was hovering in the corner, a woman that looked about as attractive as a Gungan.
"I will not take too much of your time, sir," Annabeth assured him.
"Well," he said, glancing over at his lawyer. "I am advised that I am not to talk to you."
"Sir," Annabeth said, trying very hard to stay polite. "You are not the one being investigated here. We are looking for the individual who is behind your positioning."
"In that case, you shouldn't have any questions to ask me, should you," Senator Dare retorted pointedly. "Especially after I heard you happened to just quote-unquote lose your prisoners."
"Dad," Rachel cut in. "Agent Chase is only trying to help."
"Stay out of this, Rachel!" he snapped.
Ms Dodds stepped forward. "My client has nothing to say to you, Agent. Unless you wish to bring him in, this conversation is over."
Annabeth left the room confused. Even if Senator Dare had been on the wrong side of the law, being this uncooperative served only to put himself on her radar.