[Republic Commando] - 02 by Triple Zero (Karen Traviss)

Author:Triple Zero (Karen Traviss) [Zero, Triple]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-03-10T13:36:40+00:00

13

Ten members of a criminal gang have been killed in what’s thought to be a gang feud in the lower levels. Sources close Coruscant Security Force suggest the crimelords’ battle broke out in a row over gun-running territories.

-HNE late bulletin

Forensics Unit morgue, CSF Divisional HQ, Quadrant A-89, 2345 hours, 380 days after Geonosis

There’s your lizard,” Obrim said, pulling back the sheet. “Paxaz Izhiq.”

Fi and Skirata looked at the elegant green-scaled face, or at least the half that was still intact. Blasterfire was cleaner than ballistic damage but it still did nothing for your looks.

“Not very attractive to the ladies now, is he?” said Fi.

The morgue was cool and quiet. Fi had never seen one before and he was both fascinated and disturbed, not because it was full of dead things but because he now wondered what would happen to his own body.

Left on a battlefield. Does it matter? Mandalorians don’t care about remains. We have our soul. My brothers can retrieve some of my armor; and that’ll he enough.

The pale green room with its polished durasteel doors also had an antiseptic smell that reminded him of Kamino. He wasn’t comfortable here.

“You okay?” Obrim said.

“Just interested.” Fi stared. “Yes, that’s him. You can match him with the images Sev grabbed, too. Is he important?”

“Not on our files, but Falleen don’t visit Coruscant to get nice jobs in the clerical service. Best guess is Black Sun or an offshoot.”

“So,” Skirata said. “Purely hypothetically, if we picked up a woman friend of his who had access to GAR weapons shipments . .”

“Purely hypothetically, because you don’t exist … imagine she’s diverting a few weapons for his business, but you snatch her and so he refuses to complete the deal because he thinks you’re the customer trying to intimidate him.” Fi listened, riveted. Obrim’s mental gymnastics were hard to follow. “But the real customer thinks the Falleen just made an excuse to run out on their agreement. So they come after you, thinking you’re his foot soldiers. And you waste them. So their buddies come back to settle a few scores with young Scale-Face’s colleagues.” Obrim took one final look at the Falleen’s face and covered it up again. “And if they were all waiting on a shipment of explosives anyway-the one you intercepted-then you have a very jumpy assortment of bad guys around town.”

“You’re going to have to spell out why this is good news,” Skirata said.

“Well, we’re minus some criminal scum, and we’ve found more we didn’t even know about. Plus we now have some good forensics. The SOCO team has been all over his apartment like a rash.”

“And?”

“Solid gold for the Organized Crime Unit.”

“Whoopee for them, but was he or was he not handling explosives?” Skirata was getting agitated, chewing that ruik root again. “I’m not interested in gangsters stealing Republic weapons for their own purposes. Is his gang supplying explosives to anyone?”

“Yes, we found traces everywhere. Your Jedi colleagues seem to be finding the disturbance in the Force useful-whatever that means.

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