Between the Shadows

Chapter 4 - Digging Deeper

A trip to Kamino to give the younger cadets experience working with Jedi is something he's done on occasion before – like the time the trip was entirely ruined by Boba blowing up an entire cruiser to kill Windu. Asking to take such a trip isn't that unusual. Slipping away from the Kaminoans is a bit harder, though.

In the end, Anakin has to ask the cadets to cover for him. He gives them the impression it's a drill of sorts before he slips out of the room and takes off through the hallways, trying to be discreet.

His heart is pounding as he moves, trying to dodge any cameras that he sees on the way.

No one pays him much attention when they see him because he's a Jedi but that will only stay true until they realize someone's been tampering with their files. If they realize.

What he's doing is... illegal.

Well, technically if Kamino is plotting against the Republic it's not but there's still so many questions about this. He didn't want the investigation to go like this but he doesn't have much other choice. He can't wait for potential Senate permission, even if he'd feel more comfortable having permission from actual authority, like Palpatine or the Jedi Council.

Right now, it feels like he's doing this entirely behind their backs and it feels like it's entirely not his place. It's just... ugh.

Stop thinking.

This is for his boys and that's all that keeps driving him forward past all the questions.

No one's passing by in the hallway when he finally reaches one of their central data rooms. He glances furtively both ways, darting inside. Withdrawing the device to hack into and download all the information about their files, he plugs it in. He designed it so that it shouldn't send a signal but there is a chance they have firewalls that will catch it anyway so hopefully it won't take long.

Hopefully it will also find what he's looking for.

For now, all he can do is wait.

It's taking too long. Somone could walk in at any moment. He reaches out with the Force, trying to sense if anything's coming. No one is yet, but that could change any moment.

No alarms have gone off either but that doesn't mean someone wasn't notified about this. His gaze darts anxiously between the door and the device as he tries not to shift impatiently. Each second feels like it takes an eternity to pass but it's definitely been at least a couple minutes already.

It's – And then he does sense someone coming.

Force.

This is bad.

He can't get caught in here. That's not something he could just play off perfectly innocently. It could end very badly, potentially causing serious problems between Kamino and the Republic and by default the Jedi and the Senate since the Seante didn't approve of this investigation. That's not to mention how upset the Council would be at him for not telling them about this before.

But he just... doesn't trust them anymore. He didn't want to tell them, only for them to tell him that they want him to leave the matter alone or put someone else on the case.

There's no hiding places in here except...

There's a semi-circular shaped console in the center of the room. He could duck behind it on the far side but wouldn't hide him for long. But he has to do something fast. The Force presence is almost right outside the door now.

Anakin circles around the table, crouching out of sight, but he watches the device he installed, waiting for it to finally flash green indicating that it's finished.