The Knight, Death, and the Devil

Chapter 32: Keep Your Friends Close

Vathamma stalked the corridors of Imperial Intelligence, searching for her apprentice. No one had seen hide nor hair of him since he had left the vault, and hours had passed with no indication of where she had gone. Eventually she came to the central command room, circling about a holographic display while she awaited word from one of her agents. At last the man she had assigned to the task showed his face. A dusky-skinned Zabrak, with hair combed neatly back between the horns dotting his scalp.

"Well?" Vathamma said, turning to him.

The agent swallowed and fingered the datapad in his grip. "We picked up his trail with the building's security footage."

She motioned forward with her fingers until he handed her the datapad, then began scanning through the pieced-together footage. Torin walked out of the vault with Cipher Nine, then immediately left the Ministry with an intensely anxious expression plastered across his face. The footage shifted to the exterior of the building, where he stopped on the streetside for a moment before darting across and nearly being run over by a car. From there, the footage ended.

"He never left the alley he ran into, my Lady—and there are no cameras within view of it."

She frowned and looked up at him. "Did you search the alley?"

"Thoroughly, my Lady."

"And did you find him?"

"No."

She shoved the datapad into the man's hands. "Then obviously he did leave. Run facial recognition on whoever left that alley after he entered."

The agent gathered two other analysts and did so while Vathamma watched. As it turned out, automated recognition was not even necessary.

"Pause, pause!" Vathamma yelled. Frozen on the screen in front of her were two identical Togruta, pushing a man-sized box atop a trolley at breakneck speed. "Where is my assistant now?" she said to the agent.

He moved to another terminal and looked up the access records for Nomi, then slowly turned to Vathamma. "She left the city three hours ago... aboard a shuttle that departed Kaas starport."

Vathamma's eyes bugged out and she stumbled towards a holotable, then leaned on it and drew strained breaths. "Kidnapped," she wheezed. "Not again."

The agent eyed her nervously. "Are you alright, my Lady."

She squeezed the edge of the desk with her fingers and hung her head. "I'm thinking!" she shot back. After a few moments she looked up at him. "Get me Cipher Nine."

The Zabrak swallowed nervously, not looking forward to delivering further bad news to the fuming Sith. "He's on Manaan."

Vathamma shot up from the desk. "Manaan?" she shouted, cowing the agent. She stormed off to her office and slammed the door shut, then sat down at her terminal and placed a video call to Cipher Nine. The agent's holographic visage appeared above her desk a moment later.

"Darth Crucia," he said in greeting.

"Would you care to explain what you're doing on a planet whose neutrality is enforced by treaty?"

"Chasing down leads, my Lady—as is my mandate. I believe I've uncovered—"

"Ah-ah." She waved her hand dismissively. "I don't care. I want you back on Dromund Kaas immediately. My apprentice has been kidnapped, and I need you to pick up the trail."

"That will take time. I am... rather occupied here, for the time being."

She jammed a finger down on her desk. "Am I supposed to make do with these... simpletons they sent me straight from the academy?"