An Appointment with Atrapes

[Eliessa Corta]

The Judge remained quiet for some time, measuring the Inquisitor for a few moments and absorbing all he'd said.

At length she spoke, returning the paper back to the briefcase with care. "I cant say the postion you've taken is surprising Lord Inquisitor, though, I do admit to a certain disappointment. The ascendence of a new Empress had brought with it a great hope by many of us for change -- yet, it is apparent that those who serve Miranda Tarkin in the highest realms, those such as yourself, are determined to hold onto the old tyrannical and elitist archetypes, unwilling to accept that serving the Empire does not equate to unlimited and uncensured acts of bullying to realise your goals."

She stood in preparation to leave.

"The Judiciary Department is not interested in your findings, Lord Atrapes. I would advise you, though, to move quickly with your investigation - the likelihood of these Moffs living long enough to stand trial is as thin as the pretext on which you prosecute them."

She stepped aside from her chair and the furnishing moved back to its originating station.

"Thank you for your time" she said, "You can expect to be hearing from me again."

[Rossos Atrapes]

"Perhaps, Judge Corta."

Atrapes's enigmatic remark was the last thing he said while they were in the room. He found his eyes drawn to Adelaide again, the woman moving to follow behind the Judge. There was a niggling feeling about her in the back of his mind; like he was missing something important, but he said nothing and waited until they left the room, the door hissing shut behind them.

His eyes did not move until the door blocked them from view. His finger moved to the button he had been waiting to push since his fingers had trailed along the doorway, and tapped it lightly.

"Yes, Inquisitor?"

The holographic representation of the Inquisitorial Agent coordinating the security in the Citadel foyer bowed.

"Judge Corta and her assistant are leaving. Search them and allow them to leave afterward. Pay special attention to finding listening devices."

"It shall be done, Inquisitor."

[Adelaide Kasperian-Kazaar]

Adelaide stepped from the turbolift to exit into the far end of the Citadel foyer, her sense of dread easing with every footfall she took towards the gleaming glass exit doors now finally within sight.

Corta hadn't said a word since she'd handed Del back the briefcase and they'd left Inquisitor Atrapes office, but had retained a fixed expression making her look rather austere. Adelaide could not tell what the Judge had thought of the meeting and the apparent lack of any real result gained from it. She assumed, quite correctly, that Corta would keep the opinion on that subject to herself - or atleast not share it until they were clear of the Inquisitoriate proper.

Almost out...Adelaide cheered inwardly, her pace increasing unconsciously, so that when her progress was cut off abruptly by an intercepting security officer, she was quite unprepared and expelled a startled yip.

"Oh!...What...?"

The officer had plucked the briefcase from her hand and was steering her determinedly to the left toward a door marked "Private."

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" demanded the Judge who, likewise, was being maneuvered into the side room.

Adelaide looked around her, fearful, and Eliessa gave her the slightest of head-shakes, directing her to not resist, but to let things play. Del complied, but her whole body felt juiced - the fight or flight instinct kicking in and it took everything she had not to try to run. Those glass exit doors had been so close!

[Eliessa Corta]

"Please stand over here" directed the officer, who looked to Corta to be, what? Twelve? "Just a standard check, Ma'am. Please, just in front of the screen. Ma'am...in front of the screen. Here...Ma'am. Thankyou."

Eliessa gave him a withering look as she realised just what they were doing and recalcitrantly obliged, stepping in line beside an obedient Adelaide who was already in place and twisting her fingers nervously. A standard check...bollocks. Atrapes was afraid they were wired and his beligerence had been recorded. He wouldn't much fancy being the poster-boy for injustice in the evening edition of GNN, she supposed.

The second officer stood behind a chest-high pulpit-shaped consol and flicked a few switches which initiated an electronic scan, filling the room with a low fizzing hum. This was a very effective security tool, an innovation from the minds of Russard Industries. It would scan thoroughly all objects in front of the screen (ie: The Judge, Adelaide and the briefcase, which had been set on the floor beside them) for any surveillence devices. It was extremely sensitive and so far had not been known to ever miss.

In this instance, there wasn't anything for it to find and though the 'twelve-year-old' instructed the scan to be repeated twice more, it remained that way. The Judiciary Department was clean.

"You done?" Corta inquired laconically, not moving despite the fact that Adelaide was barely restraining herself from bolting from the room.

[Rossos Atrapes]

The Security Officer looked down at the machine's technician, who nodded.

"Completely clean, sir," the tech said. The Agent turned to the two.

"Indeed, Madame Judge. You are free to go."

If only they knew how rarely that was said in the Citadel at all. Perhaps they might have had an inkling of it, but nevertheless, the two made their way out of the 'glass' doors of the Citadel, and further along the pathway from it.

It took a moment to realise that they weren't walking alone.

"Continue walking as if this wasn't unexpected," Atrapes's voice murmured lowly from his steady gait beside them. "The holocameras are watching, remember."

[Eliessa Corta]

Eliessa was used to dealing with the unanticipated, the unexpected. She had lived long enough to know that she should never be surprised at anything anyone ever does. It is the humanoid nature to be unpredictable. However, the arrival of Atrapes at her side caused her to almost do a double-take - only his warning made her forstall a second confused glance at him.

She kept her face forward as they walked the short distance to where her transport waited.

"What are you playing at, Inquisitor? If this is your idea of cat and mouse and cheese, you can knock it off right now"

Her tone was sharp, more from being thrown off balance than from any real sense of rebuke.

Beside her, Adelaide's face had grown ashen. The girl was not up much for this kind of stress, Corta noted. Perhaps it had been to soon to throw her into the mix of Judiciary life. Oh well, too late now she supposed.

[Rossos Atrapes]

The Inquisitor didn't reply, but they continued to walk until they entered the transport, Atrapes in tow. Atrapes sat, and if one looked hard enough, it seemed like he shimmered a bit in the light of the failing day. Not as if the light shimmered off of him, but more like watching a hologram turn off smoothly; his person seemed to blink and an intangible something was removed from his person in the space of a nanosecond. It happened quickly enough that nearly anyone would consider it a trick of the light.

"I would think that you were very aware of the intrigues that go on in structures and institutions like the Inquisitoriate, your honour. Much cannot be said there for fear of what may come of it," the Inquisitor said as the transport lifted off, and sped back through to the busier areas of the City.

He didn't give either of them time to reply. "There is not much time for me dawdle here playing word games, Madame Judge. I am not suspected of anything within the Citadel; of any politicking or intrigue. Thus, I am safe for the moment, but if any should hear of this conversation, it would not be only myself that would face the consequences."

With that clear warning as to the nature of this conversation, the Inquisitor reached to his side and pulled out a datapad froma previously unnoticed pouch on his belt. "I still cannot give you the full list of the Moffs that you proffered to me in the turbolift. Not even I am cleared for such information. But I can give you what I have compiled on a number of them, both arrested and still free: their acquaintances and contacts, both public and private. Legal and criminal."

The Inquisitor tilted the datapad so the Judge could see the writing on the screen: names, ages and places, all organized according to certain Moffs, each labelled Subject 1, Subject 2, and so on; there were no names of Moffs on the screen. Further study on the names would most certainly allow them to find that while most of the Moffs in the list were not yet arrested, they were announced on the infamous list of treasoners by the Inquisitor at the behest of Grand Inquisitor Karl Valten.

However, he did not offer her the datapad, but once he was sure she knew what it was he was holding, he secured it back in the pouch, and waited for the smart woman to figure out that he was not offering this for nothing.

[Eliessa Corta]

Eliessa, for the second time that afternoon, watched Atrapes in silence trying to make up her mind about him. She didn't trust him, not by a long shot, and this vague offer of shared intelligence raised more misgivings than it did allay them. However, the Inquisitor and his datapad were not to be dismissed lightly. She steepled her fingers.

"What is it you want, exactly, Lord Inquisitor?"

[Rossos Atrapes]

Atrapes smiled lightly, though beneath that smile in the glint of his teeth were daggers and vials of poison.

"The Grand Inquisitor is finding himself very busy trying to shore up the support which has pushed the Empress into power; while at the same time also trying to root out our enemies. The Inquisitoriate has been largely inactive out in the Galaxy for some time due to this." The Inquisitor said this all with a slight air of bitterness and disdain.

"I believe you are aware of the destruction in the residence of one Kimiiki Crei some time ago? I have been investigating that and other incidents in Imperial City itself, and I am not pleased. But until the Grand Inquisitor allows it, I am unable to do anything about this information."

Pressing a button on his left bracer, a small compartment opened. He pulled out a small data-chip. "On this data-chip are names, resources, locations, and activities that normally would have been destroyed without thought had the Inquisitoriate been fulfilling its duties. The Judiciary I am sure can do much with this. Do with it what you will, but I want some assurance that at the very least Imperial City will no longer be so restless and that criminals such as Crei, and those who destroyed him are not so free to move around."

[Adelaide Kasperian-Kazaar]

Adelaide busied herself with opening a side compartment in the armrest of the transport and withdrew a bottle of water, pouring herself a glass. She refused to make eye contact with Atrapes and looked instead through the tinted glass windows at the cityscape just beyond.

[Eliessa Corta]

Corta didn't even glance at the data-chip, but kept a stern gaze locked on the Inquisitor.

"You insult me by suggesting that the Judiciary is doing otherwise" she stated bluntly. "I couldn't care less about what your Inquisitoriate is, or isnt, accomplishing while its leaders are busy manipulating politics and violating citizens' rights." She warmed to her diatribe, "And if one scum-lord like Kimiiki Crei happens to get what's coming to him by the likely hand of some other scum-lord, then I wont be loosing any sleep over it - and neither should the Inquisitoriate."

She paused here, her eyes narrowing, "Unless the Albino was a friend of yours, Lord Atrapes. Is that why you are so concerned? The Nightmares perhaps missing out now on some financial kickbacks...?" The accusation came like a slap to the Inquisitor and Eliessa saw it. So she went for the throat.

"Put your chip back in your pocket and keep your dirty little secrets. I wouldn't waste my time trying to filter through what is truth and what might be mere fantasy by some imaginative junior operative of yours hoping to get noticed. What I want from you, Inquisitor, is simply your co-operation - given from your personal sense of duty, or obligation, or even-forfend-conscience. Give me the information I asked you for and give it willingly, and it may just mean something. But I tell you right now, I wont be reeled in by your baits and lures when I can do my own sleuthing just as efficiently and without bias."

[Rossos Atrapes]

"Well," the Inquisitor said with sigh, "I suppose that is a no, just I had said no to you before."

If he had been angered by her wild accusations, he showed no hint of it. "You should be afraid, your honour, if a crime lord did kill Kimiiki Crei. If that person could kill Crei, what is to stop them from killing you? Or another official of the Empire? Execution of justice belongs not to those, but to the Empire, and they who are given the authority to enact it. To allow otherwise is to invite a breaking down of Imperial order and eventual anarchy."

His face was now impassive, but he did put the chip away. "Do not throw accusations at me or the Inquisitoriate, Judge Corta, that you have no evidence for. What you seek is not my cooperation. What you seek is the subordination of the Inquisitoriate to the Judiciary; you seek power, your honour, whether for the Law or yourself, it matters not. And for all the Judiciary is trying to do, it is still unable to get much done... efficiently, is it not?"

Atrapes didn't smile, but there was an air of smug satisfaction to him as he said the last. "The Judiciary may be investigating these events themselves, but they, and you, are making little to no headway as evidenced by crime lords and their ilk still rife in Imperial City itself, and will be unable to do so nearly as fast as Imperial Intelligence and the Inquisitoriate can. I offer a way to streamline the entire process; while the Inquisitoriate cleans up the political house, which it will do anyway, the Judiciary can do the same with the civilian. Choose your battles wisely, your honour. I do not doubt your virtue in this task you have set yourself, but it will do little good and only fragment the resources of the Judiciary. Set yourself to this task of making enemies of many Inquisitors after we have stabilised and shored up support behind the Empress."

[Eliessa Corta]

"Thats very generous of you, really it is Inquisitor. But I think you best look to your own issues of whats being done, and whats not. I've received reports that some of the Moffs on my list have already been misplaced by you people. Hardly excites me to place my trust in your methods - no matter their speed."

The "reports" Corta had received had been vague, at best, but Atrapes needn't know that. It was enough to place some threads of doubt in his own inviolability - Corta could only have received that information through someone within the Imperial forces involved in the incident itself. Her connections were more intrusive and proximal than he may have first considered.

"If I have made an enemy of you, I am sorry for it - for that wasn't my intent. I would have appreciated your help, but it comes with stipulations that I will not concede to. I am doing my duty as I see it needs to be done and this makes the Inquisitoriate defensive. You and I both know why that is, I think."

Corta signalled to her driver to slow. "I think we have accomplished all we can today. Is there some where we can drop you, Lord Atrapes?"

Eliessa was a determined woman. She was a driven woman. Rossos could recognize the traits in her as easily as they were recognizable in himself. The battle lines were being drawn and Corta was not blind to where on the field the pair of them each stood. Atrapes held the orderliness of the Empire and the sanctity of his Empress' office paramount to all things. Corta held the people within the Empire itself in the highest considertion. The two ideals should compliment and support each other. It was a crime that it simply was not so. It was this simple juxtaposition that would set Corta and Atrapes, and their respective Offices, against one another in the months to come.

"Perhaps you wish to return to the Citadel?" she offered politely.

[Rossos Atrapes]

Atrapes shook his head in the negative to her politeness. Inside, his mind was racing. Several transports had been lost; though as always Atrapes never considered the situation merely from what had happened or what he had seen, but the implications of that as well.

The Inquisitoriate, he had eventually decided, was more than torn between Tarkin's Loyalists, and her Detractors. Someone else was pulling strings in the Inquisitoriate's shadowed halls, and Atrapes was slowly searching whoever they were out. But that... that was not information that Corta should, or would ever, know. Despite the internal divisions, the Inquisitor was not worried for the Inquisitoriate's fate at the hands of Judge Corta. She'd find little damning evidence, though perhaps some circumstantial; the Inquisitoriate was skilled at hiding its actions from the view of even the Empire it served. But first, to set some hounds upon those having to do with the transport of the Moffs. Corta's sources would be found in a standard week at the most. Leaks within the Inquisitoriate's missions and actions would not be suffered, unless they were planned for.

"Here will be fine," he said, casting a quick look out the window. The speeder slowed and stopped, and Atrapes opened the door. He began to step out of the transport, but held himself back.

"Do not overestimate yourself, madame Judge," he said. "The Empire does not readily create people such as you, and so I urge caution. You are treading into territory that you have no clue about, and setting yourself against something that you have no comprehension of."

With those last words, he stepped out of the transport, and made his way through the crowd. Despite his distinctive uniform and cape, he quickly disappeared in the mass of humanity.

[Eliessa Corta]

The transport pulled away from the curb and soon intergrated smoothly into the forward-flow of Imperial City traffic.

Corta leaned back against the padded comfort of the vehicle's seats and removed her glasses, twirling them slowly by the frame's arm with her fingers.

"Well, that was fun" Adelaide remarked tartly beside her. The girl was visibly relieved to be free of the Inquisitor's very unsettling company.
Corta "hmm'd" a response and nibbled the end of her glasses thoughtfully.

After a moment, she settled her hands in her lap and closed her eyes to unwind a little before they arrived back at the Judiciary. It was a small trick she'd leaned years ago and found the deliberate relaxation of 10 minutes could recharge her for the rest of the day and long on into the evening. The visit with Atrapes had been taxing, despite what her resolute calm may indicate. She'd better make the nap 15-20 minutes.

Adelaide turned to look back out the window, but Corta spoke turning her back again, "When we get back to the Judiciary Building, open a confidential file on Inquisitor Atrapes." Eliessa pushed her shoes off, one foot blessedly freeing the other. "He is now officially a Person of Interest."