Cloudy with a Chance of Espionage

[Kale]

"Oh, a place like Cumulus is as tight as an Imperial prison," Kale said, "but if I had to choose where I'd rather be caught, I'd pick the prison. Thieves like us have a way of disappearing into little windowless rooms and leaving with the evening garbage."

He poured them each another tumbler of heaven. "So, you still got something nice to wear?"

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

Rai'raa linked her arm through Kale's as they walked through the transparisteel doors of Cumulus, doors that were big enough to admit a rancor, had one been wandering about Cloud City and decided to try its luck at the slot machines. She was wearing soft suede boots over designer jeans, and a filmy white shirt that revealed her bra underneath. Processed corusca gems glittered in her ears, but even the man made gems were worth as much as a speeder bike.

They'd been a present from the madame she'd worked for on Zeltron - a going away gift. The halfbreed looked at her companion and smiled, her slightly purple lips curving pleasantly. "I hearrr that they have an excellent lunch buffet herrre."

[Kale]

Kale's best shirt hadn't survived his illicit romp with Saarrreeaa, but he'd found something that wouldn't look out of place against the glitz of the most opulent casino on Bespin. While Rai'raa was dressed to call attention to herself, Kale was dressed to blend - to be just another face in the crowd, or, if necessary, another shape in the shadows. Consequently, he was decked mostly in shades of charcoal, very obviously the accessory to Rai'raa's fashion.

"That's fine with me, I'm starving."

A receptionist showed them to an intimate table with a view of a lush indoor garden full of tropical flowers and palms. The gaming floor was just as handy as the nearby trestle tables steaming with local and exotic delicacies; clearly the management was happy to see its guests play their way through a lengthy and lavish meal.

Kale loaded up his plate with a little of everything - the reshee salad, roast nerf, Ithorian curry, slices of flatbread with namana jam, though he drew the line at the fried sajoi. Just a few years ago this sort of bounty would have been unthinkable to him, and he still had to suppress the irrational fear that someone bigger than him was going to muscle in and try to take his food away before he could finish it.

"So," he said, easing into his seat across from his exotic companion, "tell me about yourself, Rai'raa. Someone like you has to have a few stories to tell."

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

She delicately maneuvered a knife and fork over her rare steak, her legs crossed demurely under the table. "Oh, I don't know, grrrowing up on Zeltrrros was rrratherrr borrring." Rai'raa winked, chewing a bite of meat and savoring the juices. "I used to worrrk as a dancerrr in a nightclub, and my last job was in a brrrothel. I dealt with... clients who had verrry specific tastes."

She smiled, "I think the crrraziest thing I everrr saw was a Hutt literrrally bathing in alcohol and being attended to by seven differrrent girrrls." Another bite of steak, a little too done, but still tasty. "No, that wasn't the crrraziest thing I've everrr seen, but its prrretty high on the list."

[Kale]

Kale put that image out of his head as fast as possible. Few things could ruin a fantasy of scantily-if-at-all-clad girls as thoroughly as a Hutt. He washed those thoughts down with a swig of Fizzyglug.

"I'd have thought a girl like you wouldn't have to specialize," he said. "I mean... I haven't met many Cizerack, or Falleen, for that matter, but if you ask me, you got the best of both worlds."

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

"You'rrre sweet," Rai'raa said, and shook her head. "My specialty was morrre along the lines of -" A scream from the main floor caught her attention, but it was just someone hitting the jackpot on one of the slots. A small crowd gathered around the lucky life form.

She returned her gaze to Kale, and gave him a little shrug. "Maybe I'll show you sometime." She grinned a little darkly, and ate another bite of steak.

[Kale]

Kale slowly lifted one eyebrow. He recalled a little pearl of Coruscant street wisdom: Beware the green ones. Until now, he'd thought it meant Twi'leks.

"Maybe." He turned slowly to take in the perimeter of the place. At the far end of the gaming floor was a door meant to blend into the wood-paneled wall. There was a key card slot on one side and a uniformed guard on the other, a Togruta who seemed to be checking his watch every five minutes.

Kale gestured with his fork. "Do you think you could get him to let you into the back?"

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

"Of courrrse," she said, without even looking. When she turned her head to see what it was she was supposed to be taking into the back room, she smiled. "Now?"

He shrugged, stuffing another bite of food into his mouth, and she squared her shoulders, putting down her fork. "Watch and learrrn," Rai'raa joked, thankful to be working. It helped keep her mind off of Saa's betrayal.

Except for when she thought about how well it was keeping her mind off of it, of course.

Rai'raa got to her feet and sauntered through the dining space into the main gambling floor, meandering towards her target. She stopped and put a few credits into a slot machine, and lost them all. Her ears twitched unhappily at her luck, but she gamely continued on. Approaching the Togruta, she looked up at him with the sultriest look that she could muster.

"I love a man in uniforrrrm," she purred, exuding enough sex appeal and pheromones to make a Calanic monk break his vows and jump on her. Kale saw her speak a few more moments to the guard, and then she was being ushered into the back room.

[Kale]

Rai'raa and the Togruta strolled down the antiseptic white hallway, a jarring contrast from the lush decor of the casino's great hall. "I know a place where we can be alone for a while," the guard was saying in a hushed tone. "No cameras... a nice, flat table... where we usually go to work over naughty guests."

"Probably got insulated walls and some heavy restraints?" Kale added, having materialized behind both of them, seemingly from nowhere.

The Togruta jerked out of his pheromone-induced reverie. "What? Who the frell are you?"

Kale smiled and waved a hand in an almost careless gesture. "Just a friend. We're all friends here."

"Yeah, we're all friends here," the Togruta said, reacquiring a look of dreamlike euphoria. "Hey, baby, he can join in if you like."

Kale coughed and tried to ignore the burning in his ears.

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

"Mmm, that would be nice, wouldn't it," she agreed, noticing the reddish tint that was appearing on Kale's ears. Rai'raa stroked one of the guard's sensitive lekku as he led them into the room. She hopped up on the table, tail twitching seductively, and gestured the Togruta to one of the utilitarian chairs.

The lighting was horrible, probably making her look sickly. Since there was no way to make sure her pheromones only affected one person, she was sure Kale was probably going to be feeling the effects as well. As the guard sat, she slid off the table into his lap, straddling him and licking his face while she put her hands on his arms and fastened the restraints securely.

With a shove Rai'raa pushed herself back onto the table, and swiveled to look at Kale. "Want to try out a chairrr, yourrrself?" She winked.

[Kale]

Kale was standing a good way off - at least, as far as he could in the tight confines of the interrogation room, clamping a hand over his nose and mouth in a half-hearted effort to ward off the pheromones and keep his sanity. Part of him wanted to say "yes," and it was a dedicated effort to keep that part of him from taking control.

"Maybe some other time," he said, wishing he had a bucket of cold water handy. "I think he's comfortable enough."

Without waiting for a response, Kale hurried back out into the hallway and took several deep, Rai'raa-free breaths. This was going to take some getting used to.

"Okay, so... now that we're in the clear, we'd probably better figure out what it is we're trying to do." Kale caught her eyes as she slunk out after her. "Uh... why are you looking at me like that?"

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

Rai'raa pursed her lips at him, and raised a blonde eyebrow. "How did you get in the doorrr behind me? I could have sworrrn we werrre alone." She quietly closed the door behind her, and brandished another blank white keycard between two fingers, already deciding that he wouldn't tell her.

"Lets go have some fun."

[Kale]

"Trade secret," Kale replied, happy in the knowledge that he still held a few of the aces himself. "Now, hold that thought."

He looked up and down the corridor - not for guards, whom he could sense before he saw them anyway, but for cameras. A little surreptitious application of the Force had taken out the camera watching the door to the interrogation rooms, but someone was bound to notice if half the security grid went blank.

"Unless those wonderful pheromones work over a vidlink, there's no way we're staying off the grid. Hang on a moment."

He opened the door they'd just exited and disappeared inside. Moments later, he emerged again wrestling with an overlarge uniform jacket.

"Well, it's the thought that counts, anyway," he said. "I'm going to let you in on one of my secrets, Rai'raa. Present the mind with what it expects to see, and it's amazing what it'll fill in. Breaking in and stealing someone's valuables? That's risky. Getting them to show you in themselves? That's an art."

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

"And you'rrre an arrrtist?" She kissed him on the cheek, helping him into the jacket. "I neverrr have a prrroblem with people not seeing prrrecisely what I want them to see."

Rai'raa ran her hands over her shirt, smoothing it over her curves for emphasis. "Lead the way, I am a bit overrr my head herrre."

[Kal Olorin]

I'd escaped just in time, leaving my office to Sasseeri on the pretense that I needed to oversee the latest load of dirty credits that was coming in. Actually it had already been brought in, and was in process of being 'spent' in the casino by some other Black Sun employees. Of course, not all the money was laundered directly like that, but to be honest I didn't really want to think about business right then.

I stomped past a security guard and a green, long eared maid..? Maybe she was off duty. Walking through a set of security doors with a swipe of my keycard, and then through another door that was also locked and set with a blue female Twi'lek guard. She was curvy, and also no-nonsense, checking my ID badge while I swiped my card.

"Have a good day, Mr. Olorin," she said, returning to her assigned spot beside the door as I entered the counting room. Not the 'real' counting room, the illegitimate one that was full of dirty money.

Half full, anyway.

"Everything okay, Olorin?" A slim, electric blue-haired pink-skinned Zeltron looked up from where he was sitting, a smoking stim dangling from between two fingers. Ash dripped onto a stack of credits.

"Holy Jedi, Legs, you trying to burn up the merchandise?! Put that stim out!"

His eyebrows shot up, and he slowly stubbed out the stim on an ashtray. "Holy...Jedi?"

I shrugged. "Trying out some new phrases. What do you think?" I walked over and checked the numbers Legs had been running on a datapad. It was a game of virtual sabacc, instead. He chuckled at the look on my face and minimized the game, revealing the days tallies.

"I don't know, it sounds forced. Like 'Emperor's black bones!'" he orated, thrusting a fist to the air for emphasis. "So melodramatic."

"Eh, I kinda like it," I retorted. "I think I'll use it again."

"You would," Legs laughed. "Holy Jedi? Why not... Sweet Baby Sith!"

"Why not 'your momma?'" I groused, handing him back his data and taking a seat. Yeah, this was much better than hanging out with Sasseeri. Too bad I needed to go back up and watch the floor with her from the big shiny eye in the sky room before too long.

Better enjoy the quiet while it lasted. "Here, let me see that sabacc game."

Legs chuckled and handed over the pad again, and lit up a new stim. "Credits don't burn, boss. You know that, right?"

"Holy Jedi, are you going to try to tell me how to run my business again, Legs?"

[Kale]

Kale thought it best not to mention how far he was in over his head himself. He was running on instinct and testosterone at the moment, and he wasn't sure how much of his boldness was thanks to Falleen pheromones. Frell, she wouldn't even have needed the pheromones. All she needed was to stand there and look gorgeous, and people would walk off bridges for her.

The Coruscanti thief tried not to think too hard about what it was he was doing for her at the moment.

"If we run into anyone, I should be able to talk past them," he said. "If things are starting to turn sour... and you'll know if they're turning sour... Maybe just a little hit of the love perfume to make 'em all smiles again. You keep them off-balance, you keep them from questioning what's wrong with the situation. That lets you fill in the gaps."

As he spoke, he fished the ident card of Mr. Tosska Rotan out of its plastic sleeve and took a tiny sheet of flimsi from his pocket. The flimsi went onto the card, neatly covering the mugshot of the Togruta guard with Kale's own unassuming face. Then the card went back into its sleeve.

"The human who passed us a minute ago was someone important," Kale said. "I'd give good money to know what he's doing - ah! Jackpot."

The hallway hit a T-intersection with another hallway, and at the apex was a broad, wood-paneled door whose ostentation said "bigwig" and whose name placard said "Kal Olorin - Operations Manager."

Kale slipped Mr. Rotan's security card into the slot by the door, and the latch opened with a satisfying click, admitting the two interlopers inside.

[Sasseeri Reeouurra]

Sasseeri spoke as the door opened, looking down at the vidscreens that allowed Olorin to keep an eye on the action on the gambling floor. "Back alrrready? jI thought you'd mjiss me -"

She looked up and made eye contact with a human male security guard and a green skinned felinoid. She frowned. "jIf yourrr lookjing forrr Mjisterrr Olorrrjin, he just stepped out."

[Rai'raa Anjumi]

Rai'raa followed Kale into the office, and stood a little straighter as it turned out to be occupied by another being. What appeared to be another halfbreed Cizerack was sitting behind the desk, her long platinum blond hair slightly tousled as she looked up at them.

No alarms yet though, as Kale's uniform was coming in handy. Rai'raa tried to look inconsequential as the female's bright blue eyes looked them over. A secretary? The Cizerack stood up, the jacket of her white business suit nearly hiding a tiny camisole and exposing a great deal of well tanned cleavage.

[Kale]

Kale had no idea who the stripeless Cizerack was (or why the Bespin sky was suddenly raining long ears and tails - not that he minded), but the low-cut power suit together with how comfortable she looked sitting behind Mr. Olorin's desk told him she was someone of no small significance. He tipped his head respectfully toward her.

"Sorry to bother you, ma'am," he said. "Seems this little lady's lost some jewelry. A corusca bracelet, matches her pendant. She says she trusted it to one of our employees for safekeeping. I was just going to request authorization to check the customer safe."

Not bad for a hasty piece of fiction, Kale thought. It didn't matter too much to him that he was showing his face so brazenly. He had the sort of face people forgot about as soon as they looked away.

[Sasseeri Reeouurra]

"You brrrought herrr back herrre?" Sasseeri raised an eyebrow, and gave the female another long glance. "That's agajinst rrregulatjions."

She was already tired of this drama, however, and waved her hand, "Check the safes jif you must. She can stay herrre though, whjile you do." She smiled at what had to be another halfbreed Cizerack, though what blend she couldn't tell. "No need to make you trrrajipse all overrr the cajisno, dearrr."

She impatiently held out her hand for the guard's keycard. "jI'll authorrrjize you, shouldn't take but a mjinute." jIf jI rrrememberrr how to do thjis...