The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Nine

Chapter Forty-Six: Break My Bones

LUX BONTERI

Lux and Kaya Ti walked side by side as Dane Adji and one of his attendants led them into IronFist HQ. They were both content to let their own thoughts occupy them and tune Dane out as he prattled on an attendant about things that had to get done while he was in the meeting with the other board members.

As they stepped into a sleek silver turbolift and began the short ride up to conference room, Lux reached out with the Force to try to touch his mind to Ahsoka's. He had just remembered that he had a few last things he wanted to tell her for the inspection of the mining facilities.

But, strangely enough, just as he felt he was about to reach her, the connection just... broke off. He could get close enough to feel her presence, but not close enough to talk to her.

As jarring as it was, there was a perfectly valid reason why this was happening. It's just my limited ability in the Force. Ahsoka would be able to establish a link with me no problem – hell, she's even done it from half a galaxy away before! – but I can't. It's as simple as that.

The turbolift slowed to a halt, and as the group disembarked, Dane sent the attendant away and turned back towards his two guests. "Miss Areeko, was it?" he said. "Well, I have to get the approval of the board to let you sit in on the meeting. The others aren't here yet, so if you could just wait here until they do arrive..."

Kaya nodded coolly, crossing her arms as she looked around the comfortable waiting room with windows that looked out onto one of the cavernous rooms that made up the refinery. "Sure, whatever," she said.

Lux smiled at her, but as he turned to leave, Kaya grabbed his arm. "I don't trust him," she hissed. "Something feels... wrong. Familiar, but not in a good way."

He shook his head gently. "That can't be true. I've known Dane for years – if he was a turncoat, we would have smoked him out years ago. Trust me."

She pursed her lips. "Just... Watch your back."

"Sure thing..."

As Lux walked into the next room, his eyes were immediately drawn towards the large window, which, mirroring the one in the waiting room, overlooked one of the work areas. Dane stood in front of it, his arms crossed behind his back, and it could have just been Lux's imagination, but the man seemed to be standing a little taller than he usually did.

"This truly is a remarkable little business, Mister Bonteri," Dane said, his low chuckle filling what had been a long silence. "Certainly very useful to your employers, whoever they are. But I still don't understand why you've always been so keen on keeping sales of Imperial hands."

"We're a small enough enterprise not to be really all that noticed by the Empire, and I'd like to keep it that way," Lux told him. "The Imps would come in with all the legal stuff as soon as we started up on the public market. We're bending rules as it is – if they dig too deep they could find out about the... secondary projects."

"You mean the lightsaber crystals?"

Lux's eyes narrowed fractionally. He'd never heard Dane call them by anything other than 'kyber crystals' before... In fact, he had been quite certain the man didn't know the main reason the New Jedi Order used them, aside from the fact that they made excellent power sources.

"Yes," he replied after a moment.

Dane went over to take a look at the console on the table behind them. "Well, I'm pretty sure the decision to go public would free up some of the the bills in our inbox."

"We'll just have to see when the rest of the board gets here," Lux said, looking out at the machines as they worked refining the raw iron ore into a purer form. "Speaking of, is there any news from them? They're already more than a few minutes late."