The Past
Ord Mirit
The wind swirled around Tir Esias's head, sending his straight locks into a state of disorder. A dusting of snow covered the ground, and his boots crunched lightly as he walked forward. It also forced him to pound more heavily than usual with his cane on the ground ahead of him. The distorted sounds and muffling effect of the snowflakes were disorienting, and reminded Tir why he usually didn't do hands on work. However, the information he was seeking very, very important. It was sensitive information detailing a possible fault line in the Galactic Coalition, a point of tension that could be used to crack the fragile coalition apart. The source insisted upon a face-to-face meeting. Sometimes, there were things you couldn't entrust to anyone else.
And so here he was: A blind man, waltzing around on an unfamiliar world, the snow making it difficult for him to get a sense of the world around him. He might have been unsettled if not for two important facts:
He wasn't really alone, and he wasn't truly blind.
Well, maybe in the literal sense he was, but with the power of the Force he could easily make up for that. Tir Esias opened his mind, allowing the Force to flow through him. The sudden boost of power more than made up for the dullness the cold had set upon his senses. Fifteen minutes later, he had reached the prearranged meeting point, a small abandoned building. Dilapidated, it was remote, and therefore suited the contact's need for secrecy. Tir Esias dropped his cane, the prearranged signal to alert the contact to his arrival.
Moments later, a small door on the side of the building popped open, and a hand bid Tir Esias forward. Tir never saw the gesture, but he heard the rusted hinges of the old door as it opened, and took it as his invitation to enter.
The meeting was very short. The contact was surprisingly relaxed, probably because he never gave out his name, and he knew that Tir Esias had no chance of visually identifying him. There was virtually no conversation that didn't relate to the business at hand, and it took only a few minutes for Tir Esias to trade the datapad (containing the account number and access information for a Sestrian Bank Account) for a similar datapad that purportedly contained the information. Tir Esias didn't bother to check it. The money was a pittance in the relative scheme of things (though it would easily make the contact independently wealthy) and if he was trying to stiff the Union, well Tir knew that he would soon regret that decision. A firm handshake ended the meeting.
Tir Esias walked out of the building, out into the freezing night air. His cane outstretched, he began the long ponderous march back to his shuttle. Not fifty feet from the house, he felt a sudden flicker in the force...
And then felt himself knocked off his feet. He heard the distinct sound of a blaster bolt striking a solid object. Tir Esias started to get up, then realized his cane had been lodged from his grip, and he had no idea where it was. Reaching out with the force, he envisioned his cane flying to his hands, a technique he had been practicing since his "lessons" with Vodo Baas. He heard a rustle, then was rewarded a moment later with the reassuringly hard feeling of the cane's handle in his hand.
"Don't worry, Mr. Esias, I've taken care of the situation."
Qive's voice was the same as it always was, and if he had not taken part in the incident, Tir would have never know that the Gen'Dai had just saved his life and presumably killed the assailant.
"I appreciate that Qive. Did you eliminate him?"
"Yes sir."
"Please bring the body along. I am interested in finding out who wants to kill me."
*****
Deep Space
SSD Midas
Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction.
For example, the idea that an assassin working for the super-secret intelligence agency of a government that had ceased to exist for a considerable amount of time would try to kill someone walking out of an abandoned building seemed like the beginning of the plot of an action holo-vid.
Mention that the person who was getting shot at was one of the most powerful members of another super-secret organization, who happened to be on the receiving end of an information deal that came from a member of the government which absorbed the remains of the intelligence agency's government after it collapsed during an intergalactic war, and you'd probably have half of the directors this side of Bonadon salivating.
Throw in the twist that the information not only mentioned the intelligence agency, but also named important figures at one time connected with both the agency's government and the government of the person who was giving out the info, and you have the makings of a high-budget flick destined to leave audiences with a spinning head and some lucky studio with a boatload of cash.
Too bad it had to happen in real life.
The assassin, to Tir Esias's surprise had turned out to be a member of the Black Hand (identified by a small tattoo of their distinctive insignia on his lower back and confirmed by a Union database of known assassins and their employers). The Union already knew that the secretive organization had not collapsed with the ORS at the end of the most recent galactic war, but had never been able to pin down any of their bases of operations. Little had been heard from the Black Hand for some time, though the information Tir Esias had just retrieved made a few mentions of them in reference, and other sources had speculated that the shadowy group was based in the Outer Rim, in territory recently claimed by the Galactic Coalition. Tir Esias believed that further analysis of the information he had just received would corroborate such claims, but for now he had more pressing concerns.
Like why did a Black Hand operative want him dead? Did the Black Hand know of the existence of the Union? Who was leading the Black Hand, and from where?
There were numerous answers to each of those questions, but finding the right ones would indubitably prove difficult.
The answer to the first question probably had to do with the information transfer that Tir Esias had been involved with. Though he had only skimmed the voluminous information stored in the datapad, he had already noticed several allusions to the Black Hand. It was possible that the group, who prized secrecy above all else, was trying to prevent others from knowing of their continued existence. After all, what better cover was there for an intelligence operation than the complete and total collapse of the government for which you operated? However, that was assuming that the Black Hand did not know of the Union's existence.
Which brought him to question two. The Black Hand had been one of the galaxies most feared and respected Black Ops outfit. Even Imperial Intelligence had a wary respect for them. It wasn't impossible then, to entertain the notion that they knew of the Union. If they did know, then Tir Esias could expand his list of answers to the first questions exponentially. Somehow, though, he couldn't believe that the Union's existence was known. The veil of secrecy surrounding it was immensely thick.
He decided that it would be best to consider it a possibility, but not assume it to be true. Work up contingencies for both scenarios.
Question three however, was by far the easiest, at least part of it was. Though he wasn't positive, Tir was willing to bet a hefty sum that he knew who was leading the Black Hand. The location of their base would be more difficult to uncover, but the resources the Union had at its disposal would speed things up considerably.
Using his com-link, he sent a message to one of the mercenaries who job it was to guard Tir's quarters on the
Midas. He needed to talk to Omega Thrax. And he needed the all the Union’s files on one man.
Xander Griff.
