Ask One Last Job

[Vizim]

They had managed to get in on the crew, and things had gone relatively smoothly apart from the pair now being forced to show their faces and the catering outfit not really fitting him. And not being able to carry most of his weapons. But other than that, it was great.

They had managed to gain access, which was half the battle, and now they just needed access to his particular set of food.

We wouldn't be here otherwise, he responded to her question. His mind was still preoccupied by the guards she was describing, The guards really shouldn't be paying the pair too much attention, though. And if they managed to get the poison into the right food, no one would be the wiser. It would appear like natural causes.

And the payoff is large. Keep your head down and we'll be fine, he said, knowing that belaboring the past wasn't going to help the present. He didn't her not deathly nervous and prone to drawing attention.

Go figure out which droid is serving Maf Torza, he told her, figuring that was something easily within her power to do... he hoped.

@Wit

 

[Ashla Ti]

Ashla had been more or less sure that was the case, but she still felt a sense of relief when Vizim confirmed that whatever they were doing here would benefit the Empire, and in a significant way. He could very well be lying to her, but somehow she got the feeling that he wasn't. Her master in the Cadre had fooled them all for years, and it was only after discovering the truth had she realized that there had always been signs. Signs that they had willfully ignored, signs she now thought she could spot, signs she didn't see here. For not, that was enough.

With a figurative skip in her step, she nodded in response to Vizim's request and headed back in with one of the droids who was carrying jars full of some sort of blue liquid. Once inside she found some cutlery that was yet to be put out and walked out from the kitchen to explore the manor once more, looking for one of the butler droids she had seen earlier.

Spotting the droid directing the folding of napkins in the dining room, she walked up to him with a tablet in her hand, pretending to be reading from it. "I've got an allergy notice here for a Maf Torza, I need to coordinate with your server droids to make sure he doesn't get any of the roast porg." The droid turned to look at her, and replied after a moment. "I have no such record on file." She had been prepared for that, she thought these rich folks must prepare for their guests, but hopefully they were also paranoid. "Well I don't know what to tell you, I have it right here. Can we just get this done so that I can finish setting things up, unless you want a medical emergency?"

"No, we don't want that." The droid replied and fell silent for a moment, probably accessing more records. "BT-442 will cover Maf Torza and his entourage." Not waiting to give the droid any opportunity to ask more questions, she waved a hand in question and headed for the kitchen as she started punching in a message on her datapad to send the info to Vizim.

BT-442.

@Phoenix

 

[Vizim]

Vizim took a look at his comlink as the message came in, taking a quick skim around the room to see which droids were which. Couldn't they wear blatant numbers or something?

He had to get really close to the droids before he found BT-442, watching it for a few minutes before deciding which of the dishes was going to be given to Torza.

When the droid walked away again, Vizim emptied a small vial into the soup that he calculated would go to the target.

He slipped the vial back in his pocket and stood back and watched. When Ashla would arrive back, he continued to watch the droid, pretending to consult a list of ingredients.

That soup is our ticket, he said quietly. He watched as it was brought to the man, and placed in front of him. He began to eat, and Vizim simply watched. Within a few moments, the man clutched his chest and within two minutes the chest compressions had started. Vizim knew it wouldn't be enough.

I don't think the party's going to consider. When the caterers are out of here, we're home free, he said.

If Ashla glanced in the room, she would see the one performing the compressions was none other than a Zygerrian she would recognize, though this was far outside the scope of anything Vizim would know or care about.

@Wit

 

[Ashla Ti]

The kitchens were a mess, droids who were supposed to be rushing out to serve new courses were trapped in the kitchen as the dining room was consumed by the chaos of the dying man. Somehow Ashla managed to make her way through the sea of droids to peek out into the room, a slight smile on her face as she watched a Zygerrian's failed attempts to save Maf Torza. But as she watched a memory, long forgotten, rose from the depths of her mind. Running through a field, bright lights as something rushed past overhead, a ship landing. And emerging from it a man with a smile on his face.

As the Zygerrian looked up from the lifeless body of Maf Torza, Ashla got a clear look at his face, and the memory snapped into place, the smiling yet terrifying face from her memories a stark contrast to the shocked and confused face in front of her. She stood frozen in place as memories of what followed rushed back to her, of the day when her life changed forever.

She took a step forward, hands curling into fists, ready to take his life there and then, only a droid rushing past her with a large piece of cloth in its hand nudging her out of the trance she had slipped into. Breathing heavily, she remembered where she was, and stopped herself. She was already in the dining room, but with a dead man in the room no-one had noticed her. Looking around she spotted the butler droid she had spoken to earlier, a tablet set aside on the dining table next to him. A tablet with the guest list on it.

She moved quickly, and was back in the kitchen within minutes, the tablet now in her hand. She walked past Vizim, just barely holding herself together, and dropped onto a chair. "He's dead." That was all she said as she tried to calm herself, hoping that anyone stepping into the kitchen would just assume that she was having a panic attack after seeing a dead body.

@Phoenix

 

[Vizim]

Vizim watched as they tried to resuscitate the dead man, but it was too late. As the emergency individuals arrived to cart the body out, the droids started packing things up and Vizim's attention fell on Ashla.

She was a see of upheaval and trauma in the Force, and he frowned at her. The kriff's wrong with you? he asked, motioning with his head that they needed to leave.

Their job here was done, and the Sith would manage to secure the planet now. It was just a matter of getting out of here without causing further scene, but now that he was looking at her, he was almost worried about that. The last thing he needed was to have her have a meltdown when they were this near the end.

@Wit

 

[Ashla Ti]

Ashla got to her feet at Vizim's gesture, and started following him and the rest of the catering company out of the kitchen. Once they were outside, while the droids started loading into the speeder-van that had brought their supplies, Ashla switched on the datapad.

"You don't volunteer for the Cadre, you're taken. Sometimes by the Sith, sometimes by contractors." She tapped a few times on the datapad, and after finding what she was looking for, handed it over to Vizim. "In my case it was a Zygerrian, someone I didn't expect to ever see again, till I saw him trying to resuscitate your target in there." Vizim would find the datapad opened up to an entry on the guest list, a rather wealthy Zygerrian patron of a local bank. Apparently the slave trade had been booming.

"Can we leave," she asked a little later, her hands still shaking, "if we stay here for long I might run back in and choke him right here and now."

@Phoenix

 

[Vizim]

Vizim listened without saying anything, thinking about what she was saying about her origins and childhood. He'd heard rumors of the cadre before, but what exactly it was, he wasn't sure. It was all somewhere in the shadows, right where he typically belonged and lived.

Yes, we can go. And no, you're not going back in there, he said, looking down at the guest list. He wasn't sure what she would do about it, and he wasn't sure he cared, but he was sure that she wasn't going to botch this mission for it.

Emotions and passion have a place, but not if they rule you, he said. It was the truth behind real Sith power, but many failed to ever rise in power because they couldn't recognize that.

He didn't linger longer before climbing in a speeder and heading back toward the safe house. Their mission was done and now it was simply on to the next one.

@Wit //Exit

 

[Ashla Ti]

Ashla was listening yet not really listening as they walked, all she could think about was heading back and ripping that feline bastard's head right off. But no, that would be too easy, he deserved worse for what he had done to her and her siblings. All their suffering, all their, all their loss, she would make him suffer all of it.

She stopped for a moment, glancing back towards the building, vowing to herself that this was not over. She would not mess things up today, she had grown beyond that, but one day she would make him pay.

With that she followed Vizim into the speeder, and as they sped away, closed her eyes and let herself imagine all the excruciating ways in which she could put her training to use.

//Exit -- End Thread

@Phoenix