The silenced shot sent a wave of vibration up Cassian's arm. He resisted against it, holding his arm steady until he lowered it to his side slowly. Cassian set the senator down gently onto the ground to make sure not to make any unwanted noise. He put his blaster back in its hidden holster, but didn't tear his eyes away from the body. He took in deep, silent breaths; his shaking hands retreated behind his back. A sick wave of nausea overcame him, until he swallowed down the pain. Killing storm troopers was easy. Not being able to see the face behind the mask made it easy.
This? Doing this made his stomach churn. He saw her face. The look of shock. The way her mouth contorted after death. The senator had three beautiful children. Conceited children, but nonetheless, delightful. A doting husband. A grandchild on the way. Now, look what he's done. Killed her for the sake of the mission.
An unsung silence drifted around the room. The senator's blood soaked into the carpet, a heavy stench of iron and copper wafted into the air. It was hard to move at first. Slight shock and nervousness jolted through Talia's system. She retracted her hand from her mouth. Working with another spy turned out to be...more eventful than she thought. He did the job his way. Ultimately, the dangerous way. She gulped heavily. "Tha-that's okay. Change of plan. We can pin this on the other two senators. We can say she knew too much and disagreed with her cohorts."
Cassian remained silent and unmoving. The gears in his head helped crank out some ideas. He forced his lips to move after he cleared his throat. He spoke slowly, as if he were in a daze, "The cleanliness in her office will make sense. Shows a sign of knowing her shooter, and welcomed them in. There was no need for a struggle."
It was so easy for him to kill, but he at least feels something afterwards. I wonder if I'm safe while working with him. Talia slipped the letter into the desk and shut it. She moved to Cassian, who refrained from jumping. His nerves stood on end, but he had to play it cool. He swallowed hard and let her pass him. She stopped for a moment, turning back to him with an expression of concern plastered on her face. "Are you going to be okay?"
Eventually. Cassian nodded reassuringly. Maybe years into his retirement. Maybe when he was finally able to sleep peacefully. Having insomnia never helped, and neither did the nightmares that came when he succumbed to sleep. All those memories were nearly burned into the back of his eyelids.
No one walked down the hall outside the room. A few storm troopers made their rounds down the adjacent hall, not paying attention at all as they passed by. Talia led the way outside of the office. Cassian followed, grabbing his camera bug on the way out. She felt the urge to ask for his name, but refrained from doing so. She knew protocol. Know as little as possible about the other rebels. She huffed and continued on, falling into step with Cassian.
Push it away. This mission is more important. Cassian overcame the heavy feeling that engulfed him. His body seemed lighter, and there was a pep in his step. Averting his mind to the mission was all the help he needed to focus. His dark eyes darted from one side of the hall to the other. The place started to fill back up with workers, but the senators weren't in sight. Please don't come back early...
Praying was for people who believed something would answer them, help them out of their current situation in any means necessary. Andor wasn't the praying type. He didn't see the point in it. He's asked for peace. For some happiness. For some down time. For a lead that would end the Emperor's reign.
Nothing ever came.
In his mind, the Force never aided him (if there was a such thing), so why would any other 'high being'? Jedi, Sith, the Force, deities, all of it must've been false. All he had was hope.
Talia smiled at one of the workers that passed by. The woman returned the gesture happily. Appearing so serious created suspicion. Maybe if someone started asking around about them, they wouldn't suspect her of anything. Talia's insides squirmed. She was only getting more antsy by the moment. Once someone found the senator's body, that was it. The building would shut down, and they'd be forced to wait until an investigation finished. Knowing the Empire, that could take a while. She took in a deep breath and glanced at Cassian.
He seemed perfectly fine. No worry or anguish splayed across his face. Talia wondered how he could throw his emotions away. Sure, she had her own decent poker face, but that was different. She didn't just kill someone.
Cassian made a few motions with his hands. Talia attempted to grasp what he said, if he said anything at all. For all she knew, it could have been a mechanical action to keep his focus. One eyebrow shot up in curiosity; she shook her head slightly to indicate she didn't understand. Cassian's lips formed a tight line. He forgot not all rebel spies knew sign language, and counting that there were over thousands of different types, it was nearly impossible to find someone with that knowledge. He simply mouthed the words, We need to hurry.
An intelligence officer in a jet black uniform stopped the pair before they could round the corner. Talia's heart sank; Cassian refrained from tensing up. The officer quirked an eyebrow before speaking in his eloquent accent, "Is there something urgent you two are attending to?"
Cassian exhaled quietly. His mind processed different scenarios in an instant. Most ended in failure. Others ended in a gory escape. Few ended in peaceful success. He started to sign with his hands, but the officer responded with a puzzled expression.
The officer's newfound scrutinizing look focused in on Talia. A part of her wanted to duck her head. Another part of her wanted to slap the sly smirk that played on his lips. The officer thought he caught them red handed, but it was never this easy to apprehend a spy. She kept her poker face locked into her expression. "My coworker and I stayed late to help out. We're going to lunch now."
"You understand him?" The officer nodded towards Cassian.
Talia shook her head. "He's going to teach me during our breaks. All he can do is mouth words to me." She glanced at her partner in crime with a small smile. "I'll admit, it's easy to misinterpret, but I will get it right soon enough."
The officer glanced between the two of them. Cassian nodded after pretending to read Talia's lips. After a few moments, the officer stepped aside to let them pass. "Enjoy your lunch."
"Thank you, sir." Talia nodded. She walked on, and Cassian followed suit.
When they were out of earshot, Cassian acknowledged lowly, "You're quick on your feet. I'll give you that."
Talia lifted one corner of her lips. "A compliment? I'm shocked." Cassian grunted in response, and left her to her thoughts until they reached the office. She was a little envious of his sign language knowledge. If she was fluent, she could use it to get away from tight situations. Interpreters wouldn't be able to know which version she was using, allowing her to get away scot free.
Echoes of marching bounced off the walls, but not one Imperial stepped foot in the hall. Some others scurried around in the back of the hall, but eventually ducked into a room with urgent matters or in an attempt to avoid confrontations. Cassian set his hand on the second senator's door, carefully placing the camera bug in the crevice of the name plaque. Talia opened the door with ease and stepped inside the nearly empty office. A sitting area was set up in the corner, along with a few filing cabinets for important documents and proposals. The desk sat in the middle of the room, accompanied by two guest chairs in front of it. The carpet and walls shown a bright white against the lighting. The simplicity of the setup and lack of color vaguely reminded Cassian of a city on Kamino.
"Do you know how to forge handwriting?" Cassian questioned as he handed her the second series of letters.
If only. That would help immensely, especially with where she worked. "Not my area of expertise. Why?" Talia took the letters and checked through a few of the file cabinet's drawers for a hiding spot.
"We need a new letter to explain what happened with...well, you know." Cassian watched two troopers march down the hall, guns lazily held in their hands. They laughed and joked about something that had happened during lunch. He replied, a tinge of authority in his voice, "I'll write it then. You have to watch the hall."
This man seemed experienced enough, but doubt still set in. He fit the profile of a trigger happy new recruit, which caused some trust issues. He could turn on her in an instant if it came down to it. Then again, there was a way he carried himself, with dignity and a sense of clarity, that made him more of a rebel veteran who knew how to get shit done.
Nothing could get the image of his sullen expression after the kill out of Talia's mind. This spy had been through so much, the guilt, the pressure, all of it weighed on him, but he didn't let himself show it most of the time. He unintentionally revealed enough for Talia to trust him and his plan. She nodded and slipped the letters behind a few files in the back. She thumbed through a few miscellaneous papers, and paused for a second in sheer curiosity. Mission to Onderon? Raid near DS 5? Why are the senators communicating about these missions? Talia didn't notice she spoke those words out loud, rather than in her mind.
Cassian's attention flickered to her, and he urgently moved towards the cabinet to take a closer look at the information. He knew those missions like the back of his hand. They were too recent to forget. "That must be their evidence against our senators. They must have found a rebel tie or a message between the missions. Both missions were an Imperial victory, and an incredible loss to the Alliance. On Onderon, a reconnaissance group was sent out, and only a sole survivor came back. The Raid near DS 5 ended up with the targeted supplies destroyed, including all Z-95 Headhunters and B-Wings." He paused to think, different thoughts clouding his mind. "There must be a leak somewhere...or the Empire is better at getting information than we thought."
Either scenario proved immense danger to the Alliance, or at least, what was formed of it. As of now, the Rebellion only consisted of spies, and some technicians and maintenance workers back at Senator Mothma's main base on Dantooine. None of them would last if this leak got a hold of important information. The Rebellion would be over before it even began.
A grimace spread across Talia's face as she shut the drawer. She hardly knew anything about what else happened in the Alliance, but this new information made a knot form in the pit of her stomach. The Rebellion was all she had. If that were to go down, then there was nothing in the galaxy she found hope in. Nowhere she belonged. The Empire would reign, without fighting against another Rebellion. The galaxy would be too afraid to start another one.
Before Cassian could turn around, he noticed Talia's expression. He glanced down at the camera feed, noticing the hall empty. He put the object in his pocket and looked her in the eye. "I will find the leak," Cassian assured Talia in a soothing voice.
Putting her mind at ease turned out to be easier than she thought. Cassian's accent rang in her ears with words of reassurance. She nodded, her lips forming a tight line. They stepped out into the hall and headed to the last extremely clean office.
Once inside, Cassian handed Talia the camera monitor. She leaned against the wall and glued her brown eyes to the screen. Cassian walked in front of the desk and searched for a piece of paper, or a sheet of any kind. He pulled one out and grabbed a pen. Thoughts fluttered through his mind as he tried to remember how the senator's handwriting looked like. His eyes closed in concentration.
Curved letters. That's how the senator wrote. Not fancy, as in cursive letters, but curved letters. It was very particular, but didn't prohibit Cassian from doing his job. He frantically wrote a few sentences, then paused. He let a few drops of ink fall onto the paper before he continued. I finally confronted her about it. Nemai, She was going to give us up to the Emperor! I... He wrote a few words and scratched them out, as if the senator was in a hurry while writing. Call off the plan. It's too dangerous.
The letters were done. Mission success.
Cassian opened the desk and pushed the letters all the way in the back. A sense of calmness washed over him. No more anxiety. No more working. His job was done. All he needed to do was leave undiscovered.
If only life were that simple.
Someone's coming. A lump caught in Talia's throat. This was it. The second horrible encounter for the day. As if their luck couldn't get any worse. "The senator is coming." She rushed over to Cassian, handing him the screen; her heart beat faster and her lungs took in less oxygen. Talia tried to keep calm. There was a way out of this. There had to be.
Cassian frantically searched around the room for a hiding spot of some kind. The room was too open, nothing but tables and couches. No closet. No bathroom. If they jumped out the window, who knows how long the fall was. They were trapped like deer caught in headlights. "There's nowhere to hide."
This has to work. It's the only non-violent way. Talia moved the papers on the desk aside and hopped on. She unbuttoned her tunic jacket so quickly that she almost ripped off the buttons. She ruffled her hair to make it appear a little messy and tugged Cassian closer. His dark eyes widened and averted to the door. "What the hell are you doing?" He whispered in a surprised manner.
She reached up to mess up Cassian's hair. He resisted until she pulled him back with a bit of force. She took his hands and placed them on her hips. "Just go with it. This doesn't blow our cover." Out of all of the scenarios running through Talia's head, this was the only one that almost worked. They were in the capital of the galaxy. If they got caught in the middle of an espionage act, they would immediately be brought in front of the Emperor. That would not end well. Talia tangled one hand in his hair and leaned forward to get close to his ear. She whispered, "Act natural. Relax your muscles. Pretend I just told you something really enjoyable."
Cassian faked the best sly smirk he could and lowered his head a bit. He closed his brown eyes as he ran his hands up her shirt a bit. Cassian was quick on his feet, but this? This was insane! This was the perfect example of why he worked alone. No need to come up with an excuse. Just pure, graphic escape. Then again, it eased his mind knowing he didn't have to kill anybody else that day.
The senator opened the door, his eyes focused on a new proposal in his hand. He smiled, but it quickly dispersed as he saw the scene before him. A shocked expression settled on his face, yet he also became slightly flustered. "G-get out of my office before I report you to the general!"
Almost there. Talia hopped off the desk, buttoning up her tunic in the process. She hung her head, as if she was ashamed of herself. A fake blush crept across her cheeks, spreading some color into her complexion. "I'm sorry, sir." She left the room, Cassian hot on her heels.
The urgency to escape filled Cassian with more energy, causing him to be more alert than before. He kept his eyes forward, hands swaying at his sides. His heart rate sped up; he wanted to look around, make sure they weren't being followed, but that could tip off other Imperials as something shady. He counted to himself until they were out of the building and into the courtyard.
Cassian pulled Talia aside to an unpopulated area and whispered, "Why didn't you kill him? He could report us, and then our faces are plastered on wanted ads across the galaxy."
Talia wanted to laugh in his face, but refrained from doing so. Not everything involves death, stoopa. This guy was foolish. If only she could curse at him out loud in Huttese...That would only anger him more. "We did things my way. You know...the clean way."
"Clean isn't always the safest."
Talia rolled her eyes. Safety is something spies didn't have the luxury of having. "Why are we standing here talking, when we should be getting the hell out of here?"
"You don't understand! This mission is far bigger than both of us, and you've jeopardized it!" Cassian whispered with ferocity.
Talia couldn't contain herself and snapped at him quietly, "I understand perfectly! Would you rather be tortured and killed by the Emperor himself?" She composed herself and took a deep breath. She stared at him dead in the eye. "We aren't dead. The mission was a success. I call that a win-win," Talia shrugged off his anger and walked passed him.
Cassian grabbed her by the arm, holding her in place. He growled lowly, "I should report you to the senators."
Talia grit her teeth and turned her head to make sure he heard her. "Go ahead. They aren't going to do anything about it." She yanked her arm out of his tight grip and shot a glare his way. She wasn't intimidated by his threat. The most the senators would do was slap her on the wrist, and let her be on her way. Spies were needed in the field, not locked up in their rooms for something so ridiculous.
Cassian watched her walk away. He turned to depart in the other direction towards his ship, hands clenched in fists, and ground his teeth together for a few moments. Hope crossed his mind. Hope for the future. Hope that the plan actually worked. Hope that both of them had saved the rebel senators from future execution.
Cassian relaxed his tense shoulders. His hands slowly straightened out; his jaw locked in place, lips in a tight line. There was no reason to be angry. Not now.
At least I don't have to work with her again.