Blood In The Water

Chapter 8: The Clone Spy

As soon as we arrived at Slick's barracks, Cody explained the situation. Slick began to protest, trying to send them off in a different direction as Slick himself was the true spy.

"No way. My guys are the best. No way they're capable of something like this." Slick defended.

"Something like what?" One of Slick's men asked as they approached us.

"You called them here?" Slick inquired, completely dumbfounded.

"Of course we did. We're getting to the bottom of this. Now." Cody informed him.

"This is not something that we will take lightly." I chimed in.

"Look, let me have a few minutes with them first. It's gonna hit them hard. They trust each other, and if one of our own betrayed us-" Slick began, but was cut off.

"I don't think that's necessary." Cody said, cutting him off. "Your men are tough, right? Take a seat, gentlemen. We have a turncoat in our midst, and we think it's one of you."

"Commander, would you like to begin the interrogation?" Cody offered.

I was taken back. "Me?"

"Yes, you're our commander." Rex pointed out.

I quickly nodded, fixing my composure. "Of course."

I then turned towards Jester. "Jester, did you see anything out of ordinary?"

Jester shrugged. "I don't know, I was doing the things I always do after a mission."

"Things like what?" Cody asked, urging him to continue.

"I'm sorry, sir. I'm just a little nervous. You're my C.O." Jester said, fiddling with his fingers before looking over at me. "And you're the commander..."

"The way I figure it, you tell the truth, you got nothing to be nervous about." Rex commented.

"Jester is telling the truth. He cleans his weapon after every mission. First thing, every time. He's kind of obsessed that way." Punch explained.

"Is that right?" Cody inquired as he raised an eyebrow. "You were cleaning your weapon?"

Jester nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Did you go on the computer while you were in here?" I questioned.

"No, ma'm. I didn't even power it up. You can check." Jester replied.

"Show me your weapon." Cody ordered. Once Jester handed him his weapon, Cody nodded. "Yep, freshly scrubbed."

"The rag's over there in the corner." Jester informed us.

"Good man." Cody said before turning towards Punch. "You. You were cleaning your weapon too?"

Punch shook his head. "No, I was hungry. I went back to the mess."

"Right away?" Rex asked.

Punch nodded. "Yeah."

Anyone with you?" I asked

"Sketch, ma'm. We got to the mess at the same time, got our grub, and sat together." Punch explained.

"Anyone else in the mess able to confirm what you two are saying?" Rex questioned.

"Lots of guys there. Ask any of them." Punch assured us.

"We will." Cody stated.

At that moment Slick tried to intervene. "Captain, give me a moment with them."

"No, it's okay, Sarge. I got nothing to hide." Gus spoke up, cutting Slick off. "I was in the infirmary. Got banged up pretty good by one of those clankers. A med droid was fixing me up. Doc's got all the records there if you want to check."