The two transports closed their hatches, leaving the woman and the Falleen on the platform, and lifted back into the skylane. It looked like any other delivery-except that it was a transfer of cargo, which was not usual, and the two waiting on the platform oozed bad guys from every pore and scale.
The two targets looked at their datapads just like warehouse staff checking a consignment. Then the Falleen turned and began walking up a pedestrian ramp to the retail level, and Vinna Jiss hung around.
“I’m naturally curious,” Sev said. “Fi, you up for a discreet trail of those two?”
Fi’s heart was pounding. Training and instinct took over. He was back on Kamino again, stalking an armed target in the simulated urban training terrain in Tipoca City. It was just the town that was simulated: the ammunition was real, deadly real. “Ready.”
“Bardan, back up behind that pillar, will you?”
“We can’t abandon this position until the next watch arrives, Sev. Let me call for backup. What if they’ve pinged us and it’s a decoy?”
“Okay, you let us out on foot, and call in Niner and Scorch to relieve you. Then you stand by via the comlink just in case.”
“That’s not standard operating procedure.”
“This isn’t standard operating terrain, either.” Sev almost said sir Fi heard the beginning of a hissed s. Delta’s self-appointed hard man poked his finger hard in his right ear as if he was afraid the bead-sized link would fall out. “There goes Jiss. Up the ramp, too. Come on, Fi. Move it.”
They slipped out of the taxi’s twin hatches and activated Fi’s holochart of the sector to check where the ramp led and where the exits were. They stared at the meshed blue and red lines on the holochart, courtesy of the fire department’s database. Fi hoped it was up to date.
“That takes them straight up to the retail plaza.”
Fi’s immediate thoughts were of civilians, obstructed arcs of fire, and his own limited senses being a poor substitute for his Katarn helmet’s gadgetry. But I’m more than my armor. Sergeant Kal said so.
He edged along the wall, staying out of sight. Can’t deploy tracking remotes, not here, not in public. “I might do a little shopping myself.”
“Just keep that dumb-grunt expression on your face, Mongrel Boy. It suits you.”
Sev took out his datapad and switched the screen to reflective mode, turning his back and holding the device a little out to his right. “She’s just going over the top of the ramp… yeah, she’s peeled off on the first level. She’s following Lounge Lizard so far. Come on. Let’s go around the bridge route and pick them up here.”
“You have as bad an attitude toward ethnic diversity as you have toward the regular army,” Fi said quietly, relaxing his shoulders with every intention of just being a soldier on leave in his dark red fatigues-with a blaster on his belt, like any sensible Coruscanti.
The next hour was unplanned, unexpected, but not untrained for
Fi hoped he’d make it through alive.
Coruscant Security Force Staff and Social Club, 1300 hours, private booth, senior officers’ bar
Kal Skirata had his peripheral vision and half an ear trained on the general murmur at the bar. He felt bad about applying caution to these men: they had much the same thankless task as his boys. But there was a possibility that the leak was within their ranks. He couldn’t let comradeship cloud his judgment.
He hoped Obrim wasn’t offended by the distortion field he’d set up. The little emitter sat discreetly on the table between the glasses like a rolled-up pellet of flimsi, ready to bounce any bugging signals.
“If it’s one of mine, I’ll personally put a round through him,” Obrim said.
Skirata didn’t doubt it. “You could put a fake lure in the system and see who goes for it.”
“But even if it’s one of us, then they’d still need data from the GAR to complete the loop. It’s one thing having the holocam images of military targets and movements. It’s another knowing where they’ll be to start with.”
“Okay, then. I have to put someone inside GAR logistics.” There was only one choice: Ordo. “If we find a link to your people, though, I have to cut you loose. I’m sorry.”
“I’m not exactly being kept in the loop on all this anyway, am I?”
“If I told you where my squads were operating, and they happened to get into a bit of trouble that attracted the attention of your people, you might have to call them off. Then everyone would know we had a strike team deployed.”
“I know. I’m just worried that your personnel will attract the attention of some of my overzealous colleagues, and one of us will be sending wreaths to next of kin.”