Last time: Lana flipped the training room upside while training.

Now: Op faces an old adversary.

Chapter 15- ISB

"You can just buy military starfighters?" Kait asked in a confused way.

"Yeah." Oppie said, nodding. "Not quite military grade, I guess, they have lower power cannons, shields and sensors, I think. But… Kyr and Viran were planning to upgrade them back up to spec."

"Is that legal?" She asked, looking at him with a piqued eyebrow.

"Uhh…" Oppie said, swallowing. "So this mole we're looking for here, any background on who it might be?" He asked.

"Smooth." Kait stated, looking at him wryly.

Oppie coughed. "It's not… not legal." He finally answered. "Plus Kyr is a former Colonel in the Alliance, so he would know."

"Oh, well in that case…" Kait said, rolling her eyes and looking back out at the city they were approaching. "I guess if we're done in time or can take a break you could take off to go help ferry them back." Kait finally answered his question.

"Depends, I guess, it'll be another couple of days. If we're still in the midst of this mole hunt then Sasha and Cien can ferry as well." He said with a shrug.

Kait smirked and looked over at him. "Don't worry Op, I won't be jealous of the X-Wing if you take off for a day to go fly it."

"So about that mole." Oppie said, trying to move along.

"Nothing really." Kait said. "I read the brief, it seems like there's a possible mole here feeding information to the Imperial Remnant. The last couple of months they have been staying ahead of Republic patrols and the sector chief for Republic Intelligence asked us to come in. We're apparently experts in such things now."

"Because of J'onz?" Oppie asked.

She looked over at him with a smirk, and then looked back ahead. "I was joking, a little. I don't know if we were specifically asked because of that."

"Oh." Oppie said, sounding a little disappointed.

She reached over and patted his arm in a comforting way. "It's okay Op, don't worry, we'll soon become a famous crime fighting couple."

He glanced over at her with a small blush before looking back at the approaching landing field, and she hid a chuckle. Thankfully there was a speeder already there waiting for them. Op got an odd feeling of deja vu, though the well dressed gentleman that was waiting at the speeder looked nothing like Kait. And probably wouldn't greet him with a passionate kiss.

He finished the shut down sequence for the ship and Kait was already out of her seat grabbing her travel bag before Op had a chance to. She keyed the ramp open and walked down as she put her dark glasses on under the glare of the binary stars.

"Marshal Messan?" The man asked, also behind dark glasses, "I'm Adjunct Shreiv."

"Nice to meet you." She said. She glanced behind her to see Op coming down the ramp and he did a bit of a double take as he saw Shreiv, but came down to join her side as he put on the glasses she had gotten him.

"I'm deputy marshal Xiv." Oppie introduced himself. "Have we met before?" He asked the man.

"No, I don't think so." The man said, shaking his head. "Adjunct Shreiv." He said, holding his hand out.

Oppie reached forward to shake his hand in return. "Weird question, but what did you do before the war?" He asked as he took the man's hand.

"The war?" He asked as he unenthusiastically shook Op's hand. "I did investigative work." He said evasively as he stepped away from them towards the speeder. "Should we get going?" He suggested.

"Sure. We just need to go get our other bags." He glanced at Kait.

"Yeah, sorry we like to pack our own instruments, ends up being a good bit of luggage." She covered smoothly as they both turned to head up towards the ship. "What's going on?" She asked quietly as they entered the ship to retrieve their nonexistent bags.

"I am very sure that guy was an ISB agent that chased us off of Tamdararerara. He nearly got us, I remember his face." Oppie stated tensely.

Kait glanced back at the open ramp, then back at him. "There are a lot of former Imperials working all over the place for the Republic." She pointed out.

"Yeah, but he didn't say it when I asked. And most of them weren't lifers like that guy." Oppie stated. "We can play it cool and try to ask him about it?"

"Yeah, let's just play it cool and see where it leads. What's the weather like on Tamdaraer… Tamderar... "

"We and all the locals just called it 'Tam.'" He replied with a slight smirk. "It was a dust bowl," He answered, seeing where she might be headed. "Very bright, it was a moon close to the primary of the system. It had a lot of purple dirt since there were a lot of manganese-iron oxides." He added.

"Okay." She said, turning to head down the ramp. "We'll come back for it later when we head to the hotel, we should go to the embassy and get briefed in." She said with a shrug to Shriev as she walked down the ramp. "Man it's bright here, almost like when I was on Tam." She said. "You ever been there?" She asked.

"No." Shreiv said cooly, though they could see a bit of tension in his stance after she asked. "If you'll join me in the speeder we do have a briefing set up for you back at the office."

"What kind of investigative work did you do?" Oppie asked, not moving towards the speeder.

Shriev looked at him sharply, hidden behind his own glasses. "I looked for missing persons." He stated.

"Like Jedi that didn't want to be found?" Oppie pressed.

Shriev had no response as he stared at Oppie.

"Like me?" Oppie asked archly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Shreiv said coldly as he crossed his arms.

"What agency or office did you work for?" Oppie asked directly.

Shriev looked between them, and his right hand exploded out from under his coat jacket, bringing a blaster pistol that had been in a shoulder holster out and aiming squarely for Oppie.

A shot rang out, and Oppie ignited his saber in a split second but he didn't deflect a shot. He looked down, and then back up saw and Shriev had a smoking hole in the center of his chest as he slumped to his knees.

"Guess we found our mole." Kait growled as she walked over and kicked the man's blaster away from him, still covering him with her blaster.

Oppie coughed and recovered his composure. "Yep."

"I'm going to go contact the embassy and see if they can send some cops out or some more security forces." Kait said, moving back a little as she took her comlink out.

"Okay, I'll make sure he doesn't run away." Oppie said, looking around to make sure there weren't any other threats.

"Ha ha." Kait said.

Several hours later in the early evening Kait and Oppie were sitting in a conference room that Shreiv had apparently set up for them, looking over a trail of evidence that seemed to indicate there was a mole in the higher ranks of the embassy. Certain factors seemed to point to that it was one of the members of the Republic Intelligence unit stationed here, and they would, of course, follow up on that. But Shreiv had been the personal adjunct to the Ambassador, and privy to all the same details as this officer was. And, had also been in a position to plant false data, trying to implicate this other officer as a scapegoat.

"Man, what a sleemo." Kait said as she took a sip of caf from her mug.

Oppie chuckled at that. "What, the false information?" He asked.

"Yeah, I have a soft spot for people that are being setup to take the blame for turncoats and spies." She observed darkly as she turned the page on her datapad and looked at more tenuous evidence that would point to the Intelligence officer. "Not saying this can't be real, but this trail is way too good. I'm already betting Shriev was the only mole here."

"Me too." Oppie agreed. "The Ambassador did seem rather surprised that his adjunct was former ISB." He remarked, looking at a log of communications calls.

Kait put the pad down on the table and rubbed her eyes. "Yeah, this is feeling like a waste of time. In a good way, I guess."

"Want to call it a night?" He suggested, at the end of their long day. "I asked the front desk, there's a place down the street that apparently has good Hosnian food."

"I'm game." Kait said with a smile, getting up and grabbing her light leather jacket. Oppie stood as well and stretched.

"What's the deal with your jacket?" She asked curiously as they went out the door.

"What, is it torn again?" He asked looking for where the leather might have worn through.

"No, it just looks… well broken in." She said. It was a nice jacket, or had been at some point, but it looked like it had been through hell and back. There were little closed over tears, cuts and punctures that were all over it once one saw it up close.

"Oh." He said. "It's seen me through a lot, it was the first thing I ever bought." He answered a little sheepishly.

"First thing?" She asked, "like, ever?"

"Yeah." Oppie replied as they walked through the bull pen of the security section of the embassy. "When we went on the run we went to a fairly cold planet. We each got jackets, I think Viran and Sasha still have theirs. I liked this one, though, helped me blend in. It was the first new thing I got after I discarded my Padawan robes."

"Oh." Kait said.

"It probably looks kind of ratty, I guess." He observed.

"No, it just looks like it's been through a lot." She assured him. "People try to make their jackets like they've experienced half the things that one has. It looks good, I was just curious."

"So where's our hotel?" He asked as they walked out the foyer of the embassy. He knew she had made the arrangements for it.

"I booked us a room up the street a little. Looks like a nice place." Kait said.

"A room?" He asked with a small smirk. "Not rooms?"

"Nope." She said with a grin. "Cheaper that way."

"It's all on the expense account." He noted.

"Yep." She agreed. "It's got two beds, even though I suppose we only need one." She said in a thoughtful tone.

"Nah, that's good. I think I kick in my sleep." He said with a nod.

She shook her head slightly and glared at him out of the corner of her eye.

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