By Alison and Shelonei
Hobbie looked at the first
block on the flimsy map he had printed out. "Well, the closest is about
thirty levels down, three blocks over...."
Wes was
half dug in his closet, trying to find some more weapons. "Who was it?"
"You mean, who were they," Hobbie looked, "Three people.
a Devaronian and two humans. All three sliced from shoulder to groin.
All three without their weapons drawn."
Wes
stood up and dropped a handful of weapons on his bed. He stripped off
his top and put on an impact safe vest, a arm vibroblade sheath, then a
tight short sleeves shirt.
"No weapons
anywhere?" he asked while putting the blade in it's sheath.
"On the bodies, yes - in the bodies hands, no. So
either he put them back, or they never drew them."
Putting
a holdout blaster against his back in his pants, he then shrugged into a
dual shoulder blaster holder. "Sometimes a person doesn't need weapons
to pose a threat..." he pointed out.
"That's true, but still..." Hobbie shook his head
and sat down on Wes' bed to watch him. "Do you really think you'll need
all of those?
I've been looking over these reports... more weapons
won't make a difference if he decides we need to be killed."
"I'm not
worried about Kyp. I'm worried about any angry mobs that we might run
into who will be looking for him as well."
He put
a blaster in each holster, put on a jacket, filling each pocket with a few
extra charges.
"Point," he nodded thoughtfully, "I hadn't considered
that. Toss me a holdout."
"What kind?"
Wes pulled out a case filled with different kinds of blasters from different
worlds.
Hobbie chuckled and shook his head, "Just toss me
one. I'm content with my blaster and one of your holdouts."
Wes dug
into the case and pulled out an old fashioned Raltir blaster. "Here, I
think it suits you."
Hobbie nodded as he accepted it, "Thanks."
"No problems.
Just don't shoot Kyp on sight. I'll deal with him." He zipped up his
jacket, then bent down and put another vibroblade in his boot, then grabbed
a shoulder rifle. "Ready?"
"Yeah." Hobbie stood, shoving the map in his pocket,
having studied it long enough to know the way to their first destination.
"Let's go."
"You're
the boss."
"Not on this endeavour. You're the one who wants
to clear him, not me. I'm only going to watch your back."
"Ok then,
lead the way?"
Hobbie nodded and led them from the apartment.
---------Ten minutes later-------
Hobbie stepped out from the turbolift onto the designated
level. "Three blocks north is where the bodies were found," he said quietly
to wes.
"What's
around it?"
"An apartment complex to one direction, a warehouse
to another. There's a bar nearby, and the bodies were found at the mouth
of an alleyway."
"Want to
check the alley or see if anyone in the bar saw anything?"
"I doubt there will be anything in the alleyway we'll
find, but we can look," Hobbie shrugged, "Then check the bar?"
"Ok."
Wes walked into the alley and pulled out his glowrod. He sweeped it back
and forth along the ground.
There were signs of the area having already been gone
over, along with signs of a scuffle. Flecks of blood sprinkled upon the
ground, a piece of torn cloth lay almost hidden by a trash recepticle.
Hobbie went over and pickd it up, "Kaoru silk," he
identified it by touch.
Wes knelt
down and ran his fingers along the ground where the scuffle was. "How many
people again? 3?"
"Yes. Three murdered, then the murderer which brings
the count to four. I don't know how many may have passed through here
since this morning, though."
"When there's
a scuffle, you get distinct sets of tracks... skid marks from shoe soles."
Wes pointed the glow rod to the ground by a wall.
"there
are five here... one of which is a pair of female heels."
He brought the cloth up and sniffed at it. There
was the smell of a dank alleyway, but some sort of perfume was beneath
that. He looked up, "Interesting...."
He brought the cloth over to Wes, "Smell this - what
perfume is that?"
"I don't
know EVER perfume in the galaxy, you know," Wes said, taking the cloth.
"Well, you'd be better at guessing than me," Hobbie
countered.
Wes sniffed
the cloth. "Lylaic and sea water. Must be some kind of Calamarian perfume."
Hobbie stepped back, "I hate to say this, but it almost
looks like your friend's playing at being the Dark Knight of Corellia,"
He frowned.
"Vigallentes
are just another term for rebels," Wes stated. "And we've all been rebels
at one point."
Hobbie looked away down the alley, saying nothing.
"Perhaps."
Wes looked
over the ground. "I'm getting the heel tracks here too." He pointed to
a doorway and the floor below it.
"You're the tracker," Hobbie said looking back. "You
take lead."
"What's
this doorway to, map boy?"
"Apartments."
"How big?
How many rooms?"
"here are several apartments past that door, wes.
But most are small, poor." He nodded to the door. "But then again, to
be living down here, they'd have to be."
Wes sighed.
"Well, unless you want to go door to door asking if anyone saw anything,
it's a moot point."
"Right.... so," he nodded to the alleyway's entrance,
"We go drinking."
"Don't
drink the local stuff." he warned as he walked with Hobbie to the bar.
He let out a halfhearted chuckle as they walked over,
and once there, went to the bar. After ordering a simple lum, he turned
around and allowed his eyes to wander over the patrons.
Wes held
a beer bottle and smiled. "I'm going to find out some stuff." He said
with a wink and walked over to where a group of girls were talking.
Hobbie just shook his head ruefully as he kept watch
over the patrons... and wes, and listened in to the conversations floating
through the room.
Wes smiled
at a group of girls playing holo-pool. "Evening ladies."
The group, made up of several species, just smiled
back, "Evening handsome," One, a pretty Faleen girl winked.
"How are
you all doing this evening?"
"We're doing fine," a bothan girl answered, her fur
slightly ruffling. The others nodded, though there was a Mon Cal among
them who kept a bit in the shadows as soon as he'd approached.
"Would
you be offended if I bought you all a drink? Beautiful women such as yourselves
should not have to buy your own drinks in a bar full of young men." He
grinned.
The Faleen girl looped an arm through one of his,
and the Bothan girl through his other. "Of course not."
Hobbie, watching them, just shook his head. He noted
the young Mon cal, and raised an eyebrow as he also noted the colour of
the outfit she wore.
Wes motioned
with his hand to the bartender for a round, then sat down with them. "You
ladies live around here?"
The bothan girl waved a hand dismissively, "For now.
We're just waiting for our break," she winked.
"Break?"
He raised an eyebrow. "What kind of break?"
The Faleen girl got up and began moving sinuously
among the human girls, "Why, we're dancers.... The kind that do holo-theatre,"
she winked.
"Well, exceept for Kallee," the bothan nodded to the
shy looking Mon Cal, "She sings."
"Really."
Wes smiled. "I know a guy who used to be in showbiz. I could call him
and find out a few places, a few agents... if you're interested." He meant
this sincerly, and smiled at the shy Mon cal.
"Really?!" one human girl almost squealed. "Would
you?!"
"Oh, I love you already!" the other human girl giggled.
Kallee, the Mon Calamarian, smiled shyly back, then
looked down, a slight blush creeping upon her light blue skin.
"I warn
you right now, I can't promise anything... I can just ask around. I don't
want to get your hopes up too much."
"That's okay - but you have to know, you're the first
person who's even t hought to help us out in the past two years! We were
begining to lose hope - nobody wants to hire a bunch of no-names anymore."
That was the Bothan girl speaking again.
"Got to
start out somewhere, right? Name people were all no-names at one point.
Speaking of, what are your names?"
"I'm Shanarra," the Faleen smiled. "She's No'tani,"
the Bothan, "And those are Kristi
and Kami, they're sisters," The two human girls nodded
with grins. "And Kallee," the Mon cal looked up again and nodded. "So,
who are you?"
"I'm Wes,"
Wes said, not fearing the girls and felt comfortable enough to call himself
by his name. He took a sip from his beer, then smiled.
"You girls
have got to be brave... living down here, performing on stage. And now,
coming out by yourself with this murderer on the loose."
All the girls visably stiffned, the two human girls
moving to stand by the Mon Cal's side. "Yeah, well... What's it to you?"
the Falleen girl was suddenly wary.
