Whisper took one look at the strange man who stole A'tey's purse, as she screamed. He held back, shouting at the man, even going so far as to pretend to call the security force, while actually calling another of their operatives. More men in force would be the smartest thing they could do here.

He held A'tey's hand gently, as if trying to calm her down, and hoping that perhaps this motion would enable her to gain his trust. He had to appear charming, and yet innocuous enough to be forgotten as soon as the mission was over, or else he had failed.

“What the hell is he doing?” swore Sturm, watching as Whisper entered the robotic taxi cab.

Crafty stuttered, “Do you think…think he’s a traitor? He’s gonna tell her, isn’t he?”

Alex snorted. “Not unless he wants to die. Come on, do you think can hack into city’s traffic grid?”

Crafty shook his head. “Not in enough time to follow them.”

The robo-hack sprang forth into the air to assimilate into the massive, criss-crossing lines of repulsorlift traffic; two dark airspeeders rose up from the café’s parking garage to trail in the robo-hack’s wake. The robo-hack turned a corner sharply, and the two airspeeders mimicked the maneuver a minute later. Sturm lowered the binoculars and frowned.

“Do we have anyone in chase airspeeders?” questioned Sturm.

Crafty shook his head. “No-one has enough money to use those airspeeders. We’re the only ones, and that’s because of your connections, not the Alliances…”



In one of the dark airspeeders…

“There’s a guy with her now.”

“Who the hell is he?”

The alien shook his head. “He’s not of ours. Could be one of the Alliance’s.”

“Possibly, but she didn’t seem to know him.”

“Could be a ruse, or an agent of theirs that she didn’t know before hand. Maybe they exchanged some password so that she knew who he was.”

“Better alert the apartment surveillance team…”



Surveillance Team Beta Four

“Yeah Red, we see the robo-hack pulling up, better take your speeders offtrack. We don’t need her to be suspicious of tailing vehicles now too…Yes I want you guys out of there now. Shut up, Blue out.”

Blue stared out of the window at the slowing Robo-hack. The green and white checkered craft halted to a stop in front of the building’s entrance; merely standing still for a minute as the two beings paid their fare. Blue quietly swore as a skimmer briefly obstructed his view. Whisper and Oracle now entered his holo-recorder; no sooner had he done so when a man dashed in and snatched Oracle’s purse before fleeing down an alley. Blue swore and fumbled for his comlink.

“Yellow, there is a man with an odd hat fleeing down an alley, follow him. Red, Yellow might need some support.”

“Gotcha boss. We’re homing in on Yellow’s position.”

“Thanks guys.”

Blue swore again, “There’s a guy calling the cops. Be careful.”



Oracle’s fur rippled as Whisper grabbed her paw.

“Let go of me, I have a boyfriend I’ll have you know.”

The Bothan pulled her paw away from the man quicker than a podracer. Almost immediately, A’tey pulled out a comlink of her own. She abruptly paced away from the man towards her apartment. Through her agitation only made the conversation painfully obvious to anyone within ten meters of her.

“…for once could you be a frakkin good controller?! A guy has my purse, and the police are going to be all over here in minutes. My cover might be blown! I want an exit….where? Yeah, right. I’ll see you there.”



Sturm slowed the borrowed airspeeder to a halt in the building right before Oracle’s apartment complex. Rain splashed against the windows of the CSS speeder. Sturm turned to Crafty.

“Can you see anything?”

“Yeah, Oracle’s getting the hell out of there…she’s running…wait…there’s a speeder coming in that’s blocking my view…ah, I see that Whisper guy too; not sure what he's doing. Hey there’s some guy at our hotel wanting to see us,” informed Crafty, “at least according the hotel manager. Apparently some member of our team.”

“How the hell does he know where we’re staying?” demanded Sturm, “And why does he think we’d be there? We have a person to track and monitor, hello? Tell him to meet us here, 12208th Street, right in front of the Grand Saturnine Plaza, in the CSS speeder.”



“Yellow here, I have that guy, he went into a hotel. Permission to follow?”

Blue hesitated for a minute.

“Granted.”

In the game of espionage, a mere minute means everything. Yellow entered the hotel too late. Ryan had just gone up the stairs to try and meet Crafty when Yellow entered the lobby of the super hotel. Yellow glanced around furtively, trying to pick out her prey. But he was not there. The manager strode over to her.

“Excuse me miss, can I help you with something?”

"Ah...sorry sir."

Whisper pulled his hand away and acted appologetic. As she made a move for her hotel room and pulled out her communicator, he listened to the piece in his ear which transmitted from the bug that he'd placed just underneath her fur, light enough that it would be undetectable unless she just so happened to brush up against that exact spot which was almost impossible. He nodded as she turned to leave.

"I'll stay here and wait for the police to arrive. I appologize for touching you, I just wanted to make sure you were ok."

With that, he walked down the hallway, just out of sight, and turned on his communication device, alerting his team.


The Tracker is in place. She has no idea, and if you turn to comm channel three she's currently calling someone, about her cover being blown. Get a transcript to high command before we move in.

' 12208th Street, right in front of the Grand Saturnine Plaza, in the CSS speeder. Got it.' Ryan had picked up Ibrahim along the way and they both headed towards the plaza. Going through alleyways so as not to attract attention.

As they walked Ryan talked with Ibrahim a bit. Just casual conversation about their homeworlds. Nothing to attract attention. Korr checked the data pad that held the locations of all the agents. They were just up ahead.

He turned the corner and entered onto the plaza. If felt open, too open. Ryan's fingers strayed to the vibroknife hidden in his cloak. They stayed there. Hanging centimeters from it. At a single sign of danger the knife would be out and someone would have it sticking in their throat.

Ryan tried to appear casual. Checking out the girls walking by. Staring at the fountain in the middle of the plaza. He slowly made his way towards the speeder. Ibrahim was trailing him. Then they both turned and pretended to say something to one another. Seeming to come to a decision they walked over to the speeder and entered it. " Hey Stormy, Crafty. Whats up?"

(My apologies for the delay, gentlemen)

Crafty's enhanced communication gear beaped, causing both men in the CSS speeder to glance at its micro holo-projector. The Tracker is in place. She has no idea, and if you turn to comm channel three she's currently calling someone, about her cover being blown. Get a transcript to high command before we move in. Alexander turned to Crafty.

"You think you can handle that part?"

The young guy nodded, "Yeah, I think I can do that."

The raven-haired fledging whipped out a bulky datapad from his pack and onto his lap. His hands seemed to fly as he connected various wires from it to the speeder, the comm gear, and some portable computer system that he had just been toying with minutes earlier. How could anyone type so fast? Sturm blinked. I guess there's a good reason he's a hacker. But why am I just watching him? Got to be something I can do? Right? Well, I can't do everything, but still...

Sturm's forest green eyes scanned the horizon out of the speeder's tinted windows. Various hovercars and repulsor craft soared overhead or swooped down to buildings like birds of prey. Despite the rain, a mengarie of people and droids regularly milled about the plaza. It seemed like a normal, if dismal, day, until a police speeder with flashing lights soundlessly floated down onto the pavement. Frowning, Sturm glanced at his chrono. Three minutes. That's very good reaction time; must of have been scrambled right after the crime, or have been very close to us already. But if none of us called them, who did?

He didn't have much time to ponder the thought, as Crafty beamed with pure delight.

"All right, I've got a good luck on Oracle's comlink, and better yet, I'm using the city's municipal com-towers to record it wherever she goes. We don't even have to be anywhere near her to record the conversations, and it's fully automatic."

"Um...that's great kid," said Stormy.

"You know what's better?"

"What?"

"I know where her apartment is, and I've hacked into the complex's maintenance service records."

"Meaning?"

"We can get in there any time we want," smiled Crafty enthusiastically, "assuming that they don't just suddenly change the code on us."

A sharp rapt on the door startled the pair just as Hawk and Mando casually entered the speeder; bringing with them the droplets of water and that inescapable, gritty smell of a city world. Stormy involuntarily wrinkled his nose.

"Hey Stormy, Crafty. Whats up?"

"Hey guys, nice of you to join us," replied the former CSS man, "Crafty here just made a big break for us, and so did that Whisper guy. His name was Whisper, right?"

Crafty nodded, "Yeah, I think so. 'course with everyone so new, I'm not really to sure who's who."

Sturm shrugged, "Anyways, Crafty got us the codes to getting into Oracle's apartment...so I'm thinking that some of us can go in and investigate. Probably all of us here, actually."

"And Whisper," added Crafty, "if he wants to. I just transmitted a message to him describing my find."

Your find? Good grief; probably sent Whisper an entire case study...Sturm's eyes glanced out at the plaza. A pair of patrol officers had exited the police speeder. Oh great, now we have police running around and interviewing people about the purse-snatcher. We'll have to be somewhat subtle about this. Sturm cleared his throat.

"We'll probably have to be semi-subtle about getting in, with the coppers running around the place. And by semi, I mean flawlessly stealthy, and nothing unusual, unless it's away from the building."

Sturm set down his SMG in the car.

"Crafty, you should stay here and keep a lookout for us. You can monitor any channels in case we somehow make a mistake and give us a heads up."

The techie nodded, "I'm fine by that."

He's no good in a firefight anyways...probably thinks we'll end up getting mugged out there right now anyways...Sturm turned the guy next to Mando.

"You look like you have hawk-like vision; you should probably stay back here and act as a physical lookout while Crafty does the electronic. Plus, you're probably a better driver than Crafty."

"It's true," admitted the tech, "I don't even have a liscense."

"Shall we go then, Mando? We should probably find Whisper in that crowd and see what his plans are, and do that and enter the apartment without any extra attention..."

Whisper hung back around the corner for just a moment, He needed marching orders. If he stayed, he risked being compromised, if he left, he could blow the missions cover... He needed instructions.

Sturm, what the hell is going on! I didn't actually call them, and now they're here.. I told the lady that I would be calling them and hanging around till they got here cause I thought it would be part of our own team....What do i do here? If i stay, i could be compromised, if i leave, she might get suspicious.

Korr decided that it would be best to leave his SFOR in the shuttle. " Crafty, while your here I want you to take a look at this datapad. Its encrypted and I am no code breaker. See what you can do." Ryan nodded to Ibrahim as the man took the front seat. " Ibby, take care."

He exited the shuttle. " Well Stormy, I guess its just you and me now." Taking care that a vibro dagger was up his sleeve, Ryan proceeded towards a man in the crowd. Abruptly, Stormy's datapad beeped. what the hell is going on! I didn't actually call them, and now they're here.. I told the lady that I would be calling them and hanging around till they got here cause I thought it would be part of our own team....What do i do here? If i stay, i could be compromised, if i leave, she might get suspicious. Ryan read over the man's shoulder. Instead of waiting for Stormy to reply, Korr walked straight towards Whisper. As he passed the man he seized his arm and began to drag him along. " Shutup and come with us."

Whisper, Stormy, and Ryan headed into the apartment. Escaping the glances of the Police men futilely searching for the man in the strange hat. Korr sat down in the lounge of the hotel, waiting for Stormy and Whisper to join him.
Ryan put on the air of a youthful kid. Looking around in the casual air of a college student.

Whisper got his answer in short form, as Ryan came across, and grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away. He went with it, making it look like he shouldn't have been anywhere near the place to begin with.

As they closed the door behind them... his expression changed.

"What the hell happened back there?"

Surveillance Team Beta Four, situated across from the Apartment

Blue surveyed the situation in the plaza through his holo-recorder. The rain had put a slight dampener on his purely passive observation system, forcing him to have his R2 unit use more active sensors. Blue muttered into his comlink.

"There's a copper coming your way...put the gun away...in the other pocket...it's a little bulky."

"Gotcha chief...whew, that was a close one."

Blue rolled his eyes.

"Head to the apartment and meet up with Purple and co. Gray said he just saw someone access the maintenance records for her place; apparently someone's sending in a mechanic to fix the room's holo-projector according to the transcipt. It's operating under some timer, you have fifteen minutes to get there. Better be up there to welcome the mechanic."

"Yeah, you betcha. don't worry Boss, I'm all over this one."

Blue released the button on his comlink.

He sighed, "That's what I'm worried about."



Oracle’s one-bedroom apartment was about what Sturm expected for an under-funded Alliance hacker. Furnishings were sparse, but comfortable; most of it coming from discount retail chains from what Sturm could see. The one thing that wasn't was the large computer terminal built into a portable desk, along with its large tool set. Dozens of datacards neatly lined up in shelf next to the PC; all of them seemingly related to computer operations and mathematics. The kitchen was spotless to the point that it made Sturm suspicious; it was almost if it hadn't been ever used. The bedroom was equally unspoiled; complete with a queen-sized bed and a closet full of semi-formal wear suited to Oracle's cover as an independent data processing clerk. Only one thing seemed out of place: a large holo of Oracle with an unusually attractive man. Sturm stared at the person with concerned eyes. Looks like a significant other...but Oracle doesn't have one. He winced in pained remembrance of his own. But she hasn't had one since the last AIS internal assessment. Who the hell is he? But Sturm didn't have long to reason out Oracle's life.

"Maintenance! I hear your holo-projector needs fixing," shouted a voice from behind the door.

Impossible. Crafty put in an falsified maintenance request form so that he could electronically cover up letting us in. But that should have went offline the second we entered the door. Might have management alerted an actual mechanic? But hell, we can't explain ourselves in this direction... But it was for naught: the four men outside the apartment began to batter their way in.

Whisper took cover in the room directly to the left of the front door they were trying to access. Should they enter, he would ambush them as they came through. Silenced blaster drawn, he tensed just slightly and halted his breath so as not to be detected. These next few seconds would determine the pace of the event.