Cad Bane - The Concept of Trust

Going undercover: Part II

They were stopped at the door, and requested for their invitations and IDs. Everything checked out as it should, and she exhaled in relief. Then they were guided into the line to wait for their security check. Now it was Bane's turn to show any hints of concern.

"You sure you got everything cleaned, lady?" He whispered in her ear when they were waiting for their turn.

"Trust me on that, and let's deal with that metal detector, or we don't have to worry about any records."

Bane pressed a transmitter in his pocket, signalling Aurra to drop the small maintenance mouse droid outside, a bit further away than where the air taxi had left them. There was a wonderful thing about the droids, especially maintenance droids; Nobody was interested in them, and nobody paid any heed to a MSE-6 droid scurrying inside, squiggling in the feet of arriving guests, and getting next to the metal detector post while casually cleaning the floor. Bane pushed the trigger of the control device in his hands, and MSE-6 started to give off smoke, like it was just malfunctioning, before the droid short-circuited with a high-pitched scream, simultaneously releasing an electric pulse that rendered the metal detector inoperable.

There was a momentary hassle, when the smoking remains of the malfunctioning droid were taken further away, and the security personnel tried to get the detector operational again without any success. The guests' protests became more articulated every minute, and she and Bane glanced at each other. Everything was going as planned. It didn't take long before some bigwig guests started bombarding Brellas personally through comlinks and holoprojections, complaining about how they were being stalled, how outrageous that was, sided with all too familiar "Don't they know who I am?" -claims... All that bullshit that people who thought they were important enough told others, and it worked like a charm. It was only some minutes later that the security was informed to forget the metal detector checks, and get the line moving. When she and Bane got to the check the security personnel had already given up even requesting the guests to show their purses, or trying to do any checks on them. She and Bane had heard a Muun senator yelling his lungs out to the security, and calling Brellas again, when they had asked if he could show his case. In any party where officials took care of the security they wouldn't have tried this, but this was a private one, and families like Brella were all too eager to keep their distinguished guests happy, even at the expense of the security. One after another before them passed the face scan, and they were next in line. She could see Bane slowing his step momentarily when his turn came, and the long-fingered hand nearing his fine leather satchel when being scanned. All green. Same for her, and then they were in the elevator, listening to the complaints of other guests for being so wrongfully delayed. Bane wrapped his hand around her waist, giving her a satisfied squeeze.

The Elevator stopped at the 4800th level, and everybody emerged into a luxurious residence that covered several floors of the building. There were hundreds of guests scattered around, sitting at the tables, dancing, discussing, or helping themselves from the lavish buffets. She could recognize many of them. That was the reason why she had chosen to be a journalist; For an intel gatherer it was easy to keep up with the news. She didn't need to worry about the discussions, and nobody would care when she was taking pictures, or asked around about anyone. Just business as usual. She looked at Bane who was probing the area. Yeah, making Bane an art dealer... She chuckled. That had been a bold move to push his buttons with that, and she had prepared to falsify another journalist identity for him, if he hadn't given a nod to this. And yeah, it was because of Bracca. The Duros had deserved to have the pleasure of spending some days learning the ropes about art all around the galaxy, and she had sniggered way too often, when Bane had cursed at her when wrapping his head around the subject. But there was a method in her madness. Bane, as the other Duros, was blessed with an eidetic memory. They both knew he could learn everything that was needed to make him credible. It was just the effort Bane had to push through to make that happen, and seeing the grumpy Duros doing that gave her quirky satisfaction. Sure, he's gonna make me pay for that too, but it was worth it...