Nico's Gambit

Justicar Territory

Nico pulled Odette aside as they waited for a taxi. Corso seemed content to stew by himself.

"Now, girl, you know your old man doesn't like to pry into your private affairs. You're a big girl now, and you're more than capable of handling any man that comes your way. But I have to ask-"

"About Darmas?" Odette interrupted. "I'll spare you the play-by-play but yes I slept with him. But for some reason, that got my brain to look at something I hadn't been considering before."

"Explain," Nico said.

"Something's fishy about the whole deal," she said. "I'm not an idiot. I'm well aware he'd been trying to seduce me the minute we walked through the door. I can't say I'm sorry it worked. He's a good-looking man, and he knows what he's doing. The thing is, I know I'm not the normal caliber of woman he goes for. You remember all those twinkles that wandered around the place. I'm not them."

"Now don't get too hard on yourself," Nico said, patting her on the arm. "You're a beautiful young woman that has turned the head of many a man in your time."

"I know that. That's not the point. Darmas goes for classy types—brainless rich girls who stand around and watch him gamble all day."

"Good girl," Nico said, looking proud. "You are definitely in a different class than them. I didn't raise my girl to be stupid."

"Exactly. When this last bit of intelligence came through, I thought about all the times he's helped us. Information of the kind he was giving us would cost others millions of credits, except he's giving it away to us. None of this nonsense about distressed women and all that. What would he get out of it? What is he getting out of it? There has to be a benefit to him somwhere."

"Now that you mention it, it sounds kind of odd. Men like him don't throw around valueables out of the goodness of their hearts."

"Alarm bells really started going off when he stopped me before we left. He started talking crazy about how we complement each other. It was almost as if he's so confident in our ignorance that he's over-playing his hand by suggesting he might be in love with me. Like I said before, Darmas seems more pleased with himself than anything else."

"Interesting," Nico said, scratching the scruff on his chin. "Maybe this little jaunt into Justicar territory will give us some clues to what he's up to."

"Taxi's here," Corso yelled over to them.

"Let's see what we can find out," Nico said.

The taxi dropped the group off at the main checkpoint for Justicar Territory. Except yokel vigilantes was not the right phrase to describe the scene that was presented to them. An orderly queue of people was corralled in line in front of a heavy, metal gate that extended from one side of the entrance to another with a layer of thick electrical barbed wire and rows of surveillance cameras lining the upper walls and along the top of the massive gate. Justicars were making damn certain no one got in or out of their territory unnoticed. Odette swore.

"What's the plan, boss?" Corso asked.

"The plan?" she nearly laughed. "The plan is to get in line and hope for the best."

It was hard not to think this was one big setup. After the heebie bells had gone off with Darmas, it's really what it felt like. She walked forward to get in line, doing her best to act like she did this everyday. Her mind whirled with reason after reason they could justify being in this part of Coruscant. Nothing was coming.

All the perimeter guards stood at attention in their crisp gray uniforms. The hodge-podge of ages among the guards hinted at their vigalante status. Some were in their mid-teens. Others had long grey beards. Not one looked without purpose or that the Justicars were tolerant of anyone that didn't dress like them.