Coruscant
It didn't long for Arla, Dani, and Riphath to arrive at Letta Turmond's apartment to begin scoping out the area. They came prepared with directional microphones, long-range scanners, and other various odds and ends to make sure that no one would get into her apartment without anyone noticing.
The only problem was the waiting. It'd be at least a couple of hours before she got back so the team waited.
And waited...
And waited.......
"I hate this part of the job," Dani grumbled to herself.
---------
As Anakin entered the temporary holding room, his interviewee Letta looked at him with a mixture of anger and concern.
"You have no idea where Jackar is?"
"No," Anakin calmly replied.
"You are a
Jedi and you cannot find him?"
"I understand your frustration," Anakin said, trying to move the conversation to a different topic-
"
Don't. Just find Jackar."
"Letta," Anakin asked calmly. "Do you think Jackar could do something like this? Blow up the Temple?"
"Do you have any idea what someone has to go through to work in the Jedi Temple? Jackar dedicated his
life to serving the Jedi. It had been his dream. Not just anyone can walk into your
precious Temple," Letta snapped as she went into a full-on rant. "He passed all the entrance tests that were needed!"
"I have to ask," Anakin replied. "Everyone is a suspect in this matter."
"Jackar would never do anything like this. Please, find him."
Anakin went silent for a moment as he processed Letta's words. It seemed so cut-and-dry but...there was a voice in his head that sounded disturbingly like Ciaran telling him there was something he was missing, some detail about the situation that was eluding him.
"Was he talking to anyone unusual the day before the bombing? Maybe someone brought him something?" Anakin asked.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Letta said. "I told you he would
never do anything like this!"
"I know, and that's what worries me," Anakin replied. "There were a number of Jedi in that hangar at the time of the bombing-"
"Are you trying to gain sympathy from me!?"
"What I'm
trying to say is that they were caught off guard, otherwise an alarm would have been raised," Anakin calmly explained. "If there were that many Jedi in the hangar they would have been able to sense any hostility that close by."
"What does that mean?" Letta asked, now calming down slightly.
"It
means that your husband may have been duped into delivering the bomb by someone else," Anakin said, working through the logic as he was talking. "If he didn't know about any bomb he wouldn't have attracted any attention from the Jedi there." He looked into Letta's eyes. "Your husband could be hiding because
he's afraid he'll be wrongly accused of a crime he didn't commit. So I
need to know. Was there anything strange that happened on the day of the bombing? Anything at all?"
Letta went silent for a long moment. "No. Nothing I can think of."
Anakin looked closely at her before sighing. "Alright then. If I find anything I'll let you know as soon as I can." Not getting a reply from Letta, he stood up and walked out of the room, mulling over the idea that had more or less popped into his head suddenly.
If we go with the assumption that Jackar didn't know he had a bomb more details about this case make more sense. The lack of anyone raising an alarm despite multiple Jedi being in the hangar bay. The reason why someone like him - if Letta's testimony was accurate -
Anakin shook his head. Letta was clearly emotional about the whole situation and that threw her testimony into at least
some question. Still...he was now becoming increasingly certain that there was
something he was missing, but what was it?
Shaking his head, he made his way back over to the bombed hangar, only to find Darra limping towards him as fast as she could move. "Ani, good to see you, we have a problem."
"What is it?"
"Nanodroids," she replied as she handed over a dataslate with the relevant information. "Specifically a type that makes a very big explosion when they go off. There's been traces of them around the hangar bay."
Anakin mulled over the information before facing Darra again. "This is good to know, but I don't see how it's a problem."
"No, the problem is Jackar. He's not on any of the Temple's trackers."
Anakin looked at Darra confusedly. "Trackers?"
"R-right, you weren't here for that. The Temple had some security updates lately and one of the new additions was to have IDs that doubled as position trackers just to make sure that no one went where they weren't supposed to," Darra explained quickly. "I checked and the thing is Jackar had it on every day since the system was installed, but right after the bombing it went dead."
"As in...?"
"It's
gone. There's no sign of it anywhere." Darra looked around worriedly. "The Temple side exits have been locked down, the guards at the front have been notified, and we've got droids searching the Temple, but..."
"Something's not right."
"Yeah. This is..." Darra went silent for a long moment. "I'm getting a bad feeling like this is going to be like Korriban all over again. That something terrible is happening but I don't know
what-"
"Easy, Darra," Anakin said as he put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We're going to figure this out."
"I know, but..." Darra glanced around, making sure no one was around before getting closer to Anakin. "I've heard rumors that the Senate is trying to turn this into a military investigation," she said quietly.
"How is that a problem? Clones died in that explosion too, it makes sense that if we don't find anything they'd want to investigate themselves."
"I
know, and it makes sense but..." Darra went silent for a second. "I don't know. I just-"
She was interrupted by a signal from her comlink. Tapping it, her eyes widened. "They found him."
"Jackar?"
"Apparently..." Darra said as she tapped at her comlink before her jaw dropped. "Oh. My mistake," she said flatly. "They found
part of him."
---------
"Boss, the SSS are telling us that the Senate is planning on making the Temple bombing a military investigation if the Jedi take too long," Gulan told Ciaran.
"You wanna bet-"
"That Palpatine would use it to do one or all of the following: hide the evidence, accuse an innocent to cover for the actual bomber, and/or use the opportunity to discredit the Order? That's a sucker's bet Gulan," Ciaran replied. "Anything from Turmond's apartment?"
---------
"This mission
suuuuucks," Dani complained as she looked at the area surrounding Letta's apartment. "There's been
nothing going on. No one's showed up to try and break in or anything!"
"Were you expecting someone to just show up and shout 'I'm a terrorist, please arrest me!'?" Riphath replied over the comms.
"I'm no expert, but I get the feeling that most of the time nothing would happen."
"He's right." Arla replied.
"The bomber is competent enough to at least not leave behind any obvious signs of their attack. Sadly, we have to play the long game."
"I hate that you're both right," Dani griped. "I mean-" She stopped suddenly as she felt the slightest of tugs from the Force, suddenly searching the area around her before her eyes settled on a bald man with tattooed lines on his forehead.
"Plenar?"
"We might have a problem," she replied in a deadly serious tone. "Bald human male, tattoos on his forehead. I think I felt something from him."
"She's right," Riphath responded.
"I'm feeling something from him too, and I think he's starting to circle the apartment."
"He's not actively circling it," Arla said,
"but I can tell that he's definitely keeping an eye on it."
"I'll call this one in. Doesn't look like he noticed us so stay low and keep an eye on him."
----------
"Boss, I think we might have a problem."
"Go ahead Dani."
"We got a guy watching Turmond's apartment. Bald huaman male, three tattooed lines on his forehead. Not doing anything aggressive yet but he's definitely keeping an eye on it. The problem is that Rip and I are both sensing a stronger than normal Force presence from him."
"Has he noticed any of you?"
"Not yet."
"Good. Stay low, and do
not engage him unless he tries anything," Ciaran said before ending the call with Dani and establishing one with the Sentinels.
"What-"
"Someone's casing Turmond's apartment," Ciaran quickly said, repeating Dani's description of him. "You have any men matching that description in the area?"
"No we do not. We will-"
"
Not tell Anakin about this yet. If he hasn't noticed us yet we should keep the element of surprise, and we don't know enough about him to assume anything. He might be working for the real bomber."
"Of course. If you need assistance, we will be on standby."
"Right," Ciaran replied as she ended the call. She debated whether contacting Dooku and seeing if he knew who the man was would be worth it, but ultimately decided that trying to contact him now was likely a bad idea. If Palpatine was involved in this odds were he would be in close contact with his 'apprentice' for the time being...
----------
Anakin and Darra entered the room that Jackar, or at least part of him was in, with a worried Ahsoka facing the two of them. "Master, Darra, I've scanned Jackar's arm and it had nanodroids in his bloodstream," she explained quickly. "I don't think he planted a bomb-"
"He
was the bomb," Anakin said as it seemed like things began to click into place for him. "We need to check Jackars's home.
Now. Darra-"
"I know," she said. "I'll stay here, see if I can track down any more nanodroid bombs or anything. Good luck Ani."
----------
As Anakin and Ahsoka arrived at Letta's apartment, Arla, Riphath, and Dani noticed the tattooed man suddenly break away, doing his best to vanish into the crowds.
"Doesn't seem like he knew they were coming," Arla commented as Anakin and Ahsoka made their way to her apartment.
"So hopefully that means he doesn't have any connections in the Temple."
"'Hopefully?'" Riphath asked.
"There's never a 100% guarantee that information will be found by a mole," Dani said. "We can't assume this guy is working alone."
Unknowing of the conversation happening around them Anakin and Ahsoka arrived at the apartment door. Without a word, Anakin knocked on Letta's door. "Letta?" he shouted, waiting for a response but not hearing any. Sharing a brief look with a worried Ahsoka he used the Force to open the door, allowing them access to the dark apartment. Taking out a scanner Anakin quickly moved through the apartment, scanning every surface he could find to see if there were any nanodroids there.
"Master, you seem like you're certain Letta has something to do with this." Ahsoka noted.
"The facts point in her direction, Ahsoka," he said as the scanner lit up with signs of the nanodroids in the apartment's disposal. "Like how the nanodroids are in the disposal, and in Jackar's food by extension."
"W-what are you doing here?" said a voice from behind Anakin and Ahsoka as they both turned to face a clearly concerned Letta.
"We've learned Jackar
was involved in the bombing," Anakin declared before moving over to scan her.
"What are you-"
"You care to explain why there are volatile nanodroids in your disposal? Or how they got into Jackar's food?" Anakin asked with a noticeably accusatory tone.
"I-I don't understand...are you saying Jackar was fed these nanodroids?"
"Precisely," Anakin declared as he and Ahsoka stared her down. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to have to bring you in for more questioning."
"...I'll answer any question I can," she said nervously as Anakin and Ahsoka guided her out of the apartment. As they did, Anakin kept a close eye on Letta, noticing as they left she seemed to be sweeping the area around her before-
As she threw a nearby bystander into Ahsoka to throw her off balance and started to run away, Anakin quickly reached out with the Force, grabbing a struggling Letta in place and causing the nearby crowd to visibly scatter. "Now why would you go and try to run away from us, Letta?" he said coldly.
"Y-you're just trying to blame Jackar's death on me!" she said as she struggled against Anakin's Force grip.
"Funny...no one here ever said he was dead," Anakin coldly replied.
"And running proves you had something to do with the bomb," Ahsoka added.
"Not necessarily, Ahsoka," Anakin said with eerie calmness. "People will run for all kinds of reasons. It just so happens that she did it because she didn't want to get caught. Now then..." he glared at Letta
. "You're out of excuses, and all of the evidence we have points to you. All I need is for you to answer
one question: did you feed the nanodroids to Jackar?"
The sounds of the street around them seemed to go silent for a moment before Letta responded.
"I did."
"You set up your own
husband to die!?" Ahsoka said with a mixture of rage and disbelief.
"You're dealing with things you don't understand."
"What are you talking about?" Anakin asked, still maintaining his hold on Letta.
"It doesn't matter," Letta shot back defiantly as she looked between Anakin and Ahsoka. "You have your prize, don't you!? Isn't this what you wanted!?"
Anakin released his hold before moving to grab Letta's arms. "What we
want is justice for the people that died in that explosion you set your husband up for."
"You have the
gall to call yourselves
just!?" Letta shouted as Anakin grabbed a hold of her. "Even as you and the rest of the Jedi are causing so much death-"
She was suddenly cut off as Anakin's grip tightened. "You listen to me
very carefully," he said in an icily calm voice that noticeably unnerved Ahsoka. "Whatever you say or believe at this point doesn't matter. You killed innocent people who had nothing to do with the war,
including your own husband. I don't care
what you think about the Order and quite frankly you have no ground to stand on after what you did. Now
shut up and keep walking."
-----------
"Explosive nanodroids in his food," Ciaran said to her Sentinel contact. "You're serious."
"Is something the matter?"
"When I first got here I said I wanted to know what the protestors in front of the Temple had for lunch as a joke more than anything else.
I didn't realize it was actually important!" she shouted suddenly.
"Ahaha, fair enough. Joking aside..." the figure said as screens of data appeared in front of Ciaran.
"Karada has far more advanced medical and research facilities on hand than the Order does. We'd appreciate if you could look into the nanodroids to see how Turmond was able to acquire them."
"On it," Ciaran said as she ended the call to the Sentinel and called up Var Zheen. "I need you to look at your favorite thing Var Zheen; nanodroids. Sending you the data now."
"Understood. Give me just a moment and I can have some preliminary insights on them," he said as he stood in place, tilting his head as he presumably looked over the data.
"Intriguing..."
"What is it?"
"These droids aren't Karada make at all, nor have we had any reports of break-ins at the Verusch Labs. Meaning that Turmond got them on her own, and these droids would be both expensive and highly regulated given that they can be used as explosives in sufficient quantities."
Ciaran frowned. "No, she didn't get them on her own, there's just no way. The apartment she lived in was in a run-down neighborhood and our dossiers on her and Bowmani indicated they both didn't have much income."
"Implying that there is another party involved here that supplied her with the droids."
"Palpatine?"
"There is a 45.29 percent chance of that, but it is also possible that some other group wanted the bombing to occur. At any rate I can safely say that if nothing else we do not have to worry about being accused of supporting Turmond. With enough time and effort I should be able to give you a better idea of where these came from."
"Let me know as soon as you do. Out."
---------
As Anakin and Ahsoka returned to the Temple after dropping off Letta they saw Darra heading towards them. "Good news, no signs of any other nanodroids. Looks like Jackar-"
"Letta."
"Right, she seemed to be acting alone," Darra replied. "Looks like there weren't any Jedi involved."
"That's good to hear..." Anakin said, trailing off as he noticed a familiar figure pass by and glance in his direction. "If you'll excuse me I need to be somewhere," he said, moving to catch up with them.
"You did well, Skywalker. A confession and considerable evidence against Turmond should be more than enough to see her sentenced, whether it is by us or the Senate," the Sentinel said.
"Right...but there's more to it, isn't there?"
"Yes. There was someone watching her apartment before you arrived, and he was trained in the Force."
"Someone knew she was behind it before we did then..."
"Indeed. For the moment there has been no sign of him, though
our mutual friend is looking for him and analyzing the nanodroids used in the attack to see if there are any other leads. For now...relax. Let events take their course until we are ready to act."
---------
As Ciaran settled back into her seat an important thought occurred to her: what she was going to do about the funeral for the bombing victims.
Satine hadn't asked for her to show up nor had the Council (big surprise) but her being there might serve as a gesture of goodwill for the Council...maybe. If nothing else it would be good for appearances.
Though there was...one other problem. Darra.
Ciaran frowned as she thought of that. It'd been a couple of years since they last parted under
very bad circumstances. If she went, it was almost a guarantee that the two of them would at least see each other. Was it worth it to go? And if it was should she even acknowledge her one-time Jedi associate?
[] Go to the funeral. Even being there might be a good way to rebuild your bridges with the Council.
-[] Ignore Darra entirely. What happened between the Watchers and her was in the past, and at the end of the day she's just another Jedi.
-[] Acknowledge her presence but don't speak to her given the chance. Honestly pretending she doesn't exist would be rather childish.
-[] Say
something to her. All things considered her 'betrayal' was hardly personal...at least for you.
[] Don't go to the funeral. Looking at the facts you might cause more trouble than it would be worth.
AN: Once again more of Side Anakin this time, and not too much divergence here...right?
One thing's for sure, that's going to change next update. The 'prologue' ends here.
