The speeder glided smoothly as Dex deftly maneuvered in and around the skyways of Coruscant until finally coming to a rest in hangar of the Green Glowstone Tavern.
"You two stick together, this place is kinda shady." Dex warned his two partners as he hopped out of the speeder, and strolled into the tavern.
"I will stay here. I need to write a subroutine to slice the central database that will look for and collate data on 'KV'", Nei stated as she continued working on her datapad.
Liora pulled out her datapad to check to see if she had received the autopsy pictures from her informant yet. The holo-images had appeared, the body of Pell was clearly identifiable, but the body of Aschansa had been so mutilated it took DNA testing simply to determine that it was in fact the body of a Gran.
Turning back Dex said, "Then you two should stay with the speeder. Here are the keys.. Oh! And if anyone drives up and offers you something, don't go near them."
"Yeah, yeah as if we don't know not to talk to strangers in a shady part of town," Liora said in a mocking tone.
As Dex walked up to the door of the Tavern, a female Herglic stopped him. "What's your business in here?" she asked.
"Oh, you know, I heard this place had the best soup in the sector, so I just simply had to try some of it and see if it was good enough to bring my mother here. She hasn't been feeling too good lately. See, she went swimming last week and caught pneumonia," Dex said sarcastically.
The large Herglic leaned in to Dex's face. "Sorry, bub, this joint ain't mom-friendly. Breeze off," she said as she motioned with her thumb down the alley.
"Now don't be that way. I've been here before, I just want to relax a little bit with a friend I'm meeting here," Dex assured the guard.
The guard relaxed a little, "Glad to see you have a little honesty in you. Don't let it get out, or you might be chiseled." Then, the guard stepped aside and ushered Dex into the tavern.
"Thankyou." Dex muttered as he walked in.
The inside of the tavern was thick with smoke, like gray veil had been lowered over the entire place. Dex stumbled a bit as he stepped down and headed for an open table. As he sat down, Dex searched the room nonchalantly for a familiar face. Of the few patrons who had noticed him, Dex could feel that there was at least one with a definite dislike for him.
"Moonrider," the familiar voice said from behind Dex. "Are you here to cause more trouble?"
"When have I ever caused trouble?" Dex said. As he turned to see who he was addressing, Dex continued, "I may even buy your next drink." Seeing that it was Wyla Chamra, the owner of the tavern, Dex smirked and said, "Or I suppose you don't drink your own cheap stuff, do you?"
"KELDA! Get this...man...out of my place at once! If you let him in again, you're fired!" yelled Wyla.
The large Herglic appeared in the door and moved towards Dex. "Sorry about, this, but gotta do as the boss says," whispered Kelda as she picked Dex up, flopped him over her large shoulder and moved back towards the door.
Mumbling to herself and punching on the datapad, Nei began writing her routine. "Let's see, I want to see if there is anyone connected to Aschansa that might be KV.... Check for a con nection to Pell as well... Mmm hmmm... Oh, I should look at when the gaps in Aschansa's records started….yes, and check for other gaps as well..." Nei's line of thought trailed off into her head as she became more focused on her task. To create the most intricate program, Nei attached her Omwati input device and continued by apparently singing her commands. With the last notes and keystrokes, she applied a forged profile and sent it off into the holonet assured that it would both do its duty and remain undetected.
It was only about half an hour later when it returned the information it had gathered. The SecForce had not been keeping an especially close eye on Aschansa or Pell. The normal information about the daily activities of someone of Pell's status was available, but nothing especially remarkable. There was an interesting note about Barret Athaka Pell's twin brother Deell Pell taken from an unofficial, highly secured database. Apparently, the word was that Deell was a bit too loose with the credits and had gotten in some pretty bad debt with Black Sun. Barret Pell's financial records showed regular withdrawals that were never accounted for in his finances that could be linked to Deell's debt, if the information could be trusted.
Aschansa had even less information because of the lesser celebrity status. There was an interesting note about Aschansa. A sizeable sum had been withdrawn from Aschansa's credit account recently, but it was a withdrawal and not a transfer. As far as the gaps in Aschansa's background were concerned, deep scanning of Coruscant Immigration Administration's tertiary archive data banks had resulted in a partial record of Aschansa's DNA.
Once Liora saw that Nei had completed her programming she shared all the Intel with her that she had received from her informant.
"Well, that is quite intriguing. I wonder if there was more damage on the driver's side or if perhaps the mutilation of Aschansa's body was intentional. We still need to investigate the cause of the crash. There has been a similar effort to mutilate his digital identity. I still do not know who KV might be, but someone withdrew a large some from Aschansa's credit account. Pell's account had regular withdrawals possibly to cover his twin brother's debt to the Black Sun," Nei informed Liora.
"I'm quite not sure if there was more damage on the driver's side, but I can check with my sources," Liora replied.
"Also inquire as to the cause of the crash. I will research Pell's brother." Nei began her routine research.
"Will do." Liora said as she opened her messenger on her datapad and sent her informant a message. Asking him if he could give her the cause of the crash and if the drivers side was damaged more than the other side.
At that moment, a Trandoshan and Devaronian walked up to the speeder.
"Would you be…" the Devaronian looked at his datapad… "one 'Nei Sobri'?" he asked.
"It is considered only polite to give your own identity before asking that of another." Nei replied with guarded cordiality.
"We don't hafe time for thisss," hissed the Trandoshan. "Thisss isss her. Let'sss jussst take her to the bosss."
"Who is your boss?" asked Nei.
The Devaronian ignored Nei's question and turned to the Trandoshan. "Calm down, Khrad, there is no reason to not remain civilized. I'm sure Miss Sobri would be more than happy to meet the boss, wouldn't you, Miss Sobri?"
"Who is your boss?" Nei repeated patiently.
"Now, now, Miss Nei, please don't force me to make a mess here in your...beautiful...speeder. The Boss likes to remain anonymous until such time as a mutual relationship has been established. He does invite you and your attractive companion to meet with him as soon as possible, and the Boss's invitations are not the kind that can be refused."
I'm sorry gentlemen but you have some miss information it seems." Liora finally spoke. She quickly jotted down the address of her speediest associate and handed it to the chatty one and said "Here is where you can get the correct info on this Nei person you are looking for."
The two just looked at each other, and then shook their heads.
"We are awaiting our partner. If you will give us the address at which your boss would like to meet, we will follow when our third partner returns," Nei added.
"Thisss isss ridiculousss, Odon," hissed Khrad as she pulled a very illegal looking blaster. "You two are coming with usss. You aren't coming later, and we aren't going sssomewhere elssse. You are coming with usss now."
Once outside the Green Glowstone, Kelda set Dex back down. "Now, I can't let you back in there. Hopefully your friend will catch up with you somewhere else."
"No worries, kitten, I forgot the scum actually came into work."
Kelda blushed a little, but remained quiet.
"I bet you see most of the people who come in here, have you seen this guy?" Dex asked producing a hologram of the man he had seen at the crash.
Kelda studied the hologram for a minute. "Yeah, I sometimes see him with a few Black Sun. I think he might be a bodyguard."
"I mean have you seen him today? He's my friend I was supposed to meet."
"I haven't seen him today. He's a tough customer, if my instincts are right. You should be careful around him."
"Thanks, but don't worry, I can handle myself. " Dex started to walk away, then turned around, "Oh, and one more question, do you happen to know where he's staying?"
"Nope, I never get involved in Black Sun business as long as it stays outside this place."
"Alright, well thankyou anyways, if you do see him could you let me know?" Dex said as he held out his nonbusiness datacard.
Kelda took the proffered business card and placed it in a pouch on her belt. "I'll let you know if I see him," she said.
Dex smiled and said, "Thanks, you seem like a good person, better than this place for sure." he then turned and went back to the speeder.
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