Annabeth Chase

"So, now you two are working together?" Silena asked pointedly and she snipped away at Percy Jackson's hair with a set of scissors and comb as he sat at Annabeth's desk with a towel draped over his shoulders. "Then after that, it's probably destiny," she said jokingly, nodding at the large poster, taped to the main blackboard, presumably by the Stoll brothers. It was of course the picture of Jackson, carrying her limp body in his arms as if she were a child.

"No Ms Beauregard," Perseus replied, grinning. Judging by his body language, she thought, he was entirely at ease. "Ms. Chase is babysitting me."

Silena laughed that low throaty laugh of hers. "I see, and you can't talk about this special mission?"

Annabeth cleared her throat pointedly.

Her first steps into the world of clandestine operations were already very much not going as planned. They had barely reached the lobby by the time Thalia had been called off to handle some other arising issue, leaving her alone with the centerpiece subject of her previous investigation. By now she was quite certain that even in the eyes of the council, Perseus Jackson was a loose cannon. She had neither the rapport with Perseus nor could she hope to match him physically to even hope to reign him in. Now that Thalia wasn't around she had no hook to pull to keep the Jedi in line and on task with.

At least he had argued about changing into civilian attire. Normal pants, a short-sleeved shirt that showed off his muscular arms, and a leather jacket under which he could conceal a lightsaber.

"Can't blame me for trying," Silena replied smoothly and turned her attention back to the Jedi. "Remind me? Why am I doing this and not Tanaka? Isn't she like the on-call stylist around here?"

"Would you involve that cutthroat bitch in a pre-op?" Annabeth asked. "Like you know your half-sister better than I do."

"I don't really, you did her interview," Silena reminded her and finally set down the comb. "I've met her like five times before she started here. That being said, haven't really seen much more of her since."

"Why?" Perseus asked curiously. "If I had a sister I would certainly wish to get to know her better."

Annabeth and Silena exchanged a pointed glance, both having run across the Jedi's halfsister, father, and mother mere days ago. It was not something Annabeth had any intention of revealing to the Jedi any time soon.

"So," she told Annabeth. "What do you think? Don't cut men's hair too often."

Not that Annabeth knew jackshit about cutting hair, or styling, but it did look kind of good. The man-bun behind was trimmed down to a medium length. With his thick unruly dark hair open and trimmed, dressed in civilian attire, and a casual smile on his face, he seemed like a normal guy.

"Looks good, I guess," Annabeth said, privately thinking he was too conventionally attractive for this kind of job. People would notice, and remember him. Then, the same could objectively be said for herself and Silena.

"Well then kids, I am also to go catch some shuteye and two days off," Silena announced and rose to her feet. "It was nice finally getting to know, you know, without you running me over," she added and put away her cutting utensils.

"Thanks for staying longer," Annabeth said.

Already heading for the door she glanced back over her shoulder to give the Jedi a last appraising glance. "Always happy to help," she said with a smirk and left.

The operational part of her little assignment began with an unusual disregard for due process, paperwork, and briefings. They took the public transport system to the edge of one of Coruscant's vast manufacturing chemical plants, one that spanned many square kilometers and employed countless thousands. It was only one of many in the vast industrial zone, one of the thousands of other factories and plants, and spread out to the horizon. They disembarked the hovertrain onto a platform-packed train with the early shift, trying to get to work before dawn.

The Jedi looked back and forth once, taking in the vast towers of pipes, reaction chambers, and glittering lights in the darkness before very casually walking down. "So, what's the plan?" she asked. "Walk up to the front gate and you'll do some "In the name of the Republic!" thing?" She asked half-jokingly. Truthfully, she really had no clue but Jedi were notorious in her circles for being blunt force instruments.

"I would," Percy admitted. "But we were to keep a low profile... There we go!" he said and began heading down the steps.

With her arm still in its cast, she hurried after him feeling like an idiot. Low Cover... She thought to herself. They were getting looks, lots of them. Two people, far two physically attractive for the job they were assigned. Even worse, her arm was still mending and would be so for at least a few more days. As quickly as they could they broke from the crowd and headed into a dark always between two closed restaurants.

"So?" Percy announced quietly. "The Orkis two-two should arrive within the hour. Do you wish to stay here or come with me?"

Strictly speaking, her orders had been to observe, or how she understood it, represent her Government's interests in the matter. While she was hardly in the shape of any substantial fieldwork, she could do little to no observing from the sidelines, much less keep the Jedi on the short leash like her boss imagined it would. Again, she had no illusions about being able to stop the Jedi from doing anything, even on a good day, and today was not a good day.

"I'll tag along unless provided I can," she said, nodding at her arm but meaning unless he intended to do any superhuman Jedi stuff. When he hesitated she sighed deeply. "You have no plan... . You are going to just freeball this,...aren't you?"

"Well, yes," Perseus admitted. "I've never been here... . I don't even have blueprints, but I assume they will have a landing bay there large enough to hold that freighter. Probably, somewhere central."

Annabeth again pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand. "No, the docking cartel will be on the far side away next to the storage siloes. They will want to keep it away from the station here, and the main plant as far as possible in case they suffer a major." She pointed over at the complex, where in the far distance peaking out from behind the main planet, was a forest of truly giant storage siloes, lit up in the distance by floodlights.

"What is the threat assessment here?" she asked. "You know, security? Surveillance capabilities?"

Perseus only shrugged, as if not overly concerned by the notion of corporate security. Then, they were there to escort unhappy former employees and protesters of the property every now and then, and not stand down a Jedi Knight's determined efforts. "So?" she asked. "Will I be able to keep up with you on this one,..."

"We will have to manage, I imagine babysitting me is going to be a lot harder for you from afar," the Jedi replied mildly.

"Mr. Jackson," she said evenly. "I have exactly zero interest in babysitting you. In fact, if it went by me, I would be perfectly happy to never see you again once this business is concluded. The only way you still have a job is, that technically you don't have one."

Perseus cocked his head and studied her with what she took as mild amusement, though it wasn't easy to say in the darkness. "You think I am unemployed?" he asked.

"Do you get a regular, taxable income?" Annabeth asked. Now that she thought about it, she had never actually thought about how that part of the Order worked.

"Well no, I don't get paid," Perseus explained defensively, crossing his arms. "We get some credits when we need them though."

For a moment she was seriously tempted to find out how badly the Jedi Order's HR department needed an in-depth audit by the Department of Commerce but then decided she did not care enough either way.

"Good for you, so let's get going. How do you intend to get us in," she asked.

"That aqueduct," he said and pointed at three large diameters of pipes that fed the chemical plant with that most critical of resources."How do you intend to get up there?" she asked.

As it turned out, their little walk took longer than expected. They slipped off into a storm-water drain that separated their target plant, and the laboring one and made their way through the murky darkness every now and then they had to seek out cover from black and yellow striped service droids. While they were not armed, it was hardly worth some overenthusiastic security officer calling Republic Security on them. Even if they did not get in any trouble, it would make their jobs infinitely more complicated. After maybe an hour or so they finally reached the pipeline, where it traversed the storm drain. They stopped in front of one of the lattice beams that supported the weight of the twenty-foot expanse some fifty feet above them.

"Normally I'd suggest we climb up here," Perseus said and looked over at her doubtfully. "Normally," she agreed doubtfully, "That would be no problem." It would not be an easy climb, she then admitted to herself, and she was not an experienced climber. She would probably have an accident.

"No matter," the Jedi said, staring up at the aqueduct in a gauging manner. After a long moment, he turned his attention back to her and raised his hands. "Just hold still for a moment, Agent."

"Just what are you,..." she began and then had to bite back a scream when she was plucked off the ground and gently raised up into darkness by what felt like a giant, invisible hand, holding her with tender care.

Not quite trusting her voice, and her heart beating she was finally raised up out of the storm drain, and was finally set down on the metal walkway. Before she could catch her breath Perseus joined her in a single, graceful leap, and silently landed next o her. "Next time," she hissed as her heart rate slowly began to drop again, though privately hoping there would not be a next time, "you will ask for permission first."

"Will do," the Jedi promised and rose to his full, not inconsiderable height.

They took a lot longer than she would have guessed to actually get close. With the sheer scale of the industry around her, gauging distances was easier said than done so for the better part of fifteen minutes, they walked up the length of the pipeline. Every moment Annabeth expected to be discovered. Droids and speeders were flying back and forth between the plants great spires looming over them. Even from here, she could see workers climbing about the plants on countless catwalks, and the entire area was lit up with the flickering orange glows of the flare where the entirety of the facility's flammable by-products was being conveniently disposed of. They passed the plant's outer fence without problems and finally came to a stop in front of blank metal walls, where the pipelines were absorbed by the building's proper. Fortunately, though, a gird metal staircase, offering a second access point to the pipe, leading down to a balcony below, sparing them from having to cut through.