I leaned on the railing and gazed down from the second level of the musical theatre to watch the old man as he subtly scanned the crowd that had gathered inside the run-down place. The performing singers were still in training, so most of the seats were occupied by relatives who found it a great chance to gossip with others who were simply waiting for this rehearsal to be over.
We were supposed to leave port tonight, and I was pretty sure Gabriel had been keeping a close watch on the docking station to see if I might go out on ship-leave again. I had put on civilian clothes and pretended to go see some of the more common sights before slipping in here. It didn't surprise me to see that he had followed me inside.
He was standing in the shadows beside the door as he finished inspecting all of the oblivious people in front of him. A faint frown appeared as he started looking along the sides and back of the room. The small second level overhang in this small building wasn't apparent unless people looked above the main entrance.
He froze as his eyes met my relaxed ones. I gestured with my hand for him to come up before pointing to the stairs. He hesitated before reluctantly heading for the stairs. I remained leaning on the railing with a relaxed posture, pretending to be engrossed by the slightly off-key singers.
He also leaned against the railing in a similar fashion before commenting, "You knew I was following you. I thought you were a bit too relaxed in the marketplace after what happened the other day."
I nodded slightly in agreement. "I had you, a docking station guard, an undercover Officer from the Enforcement detachment, and my bodyguard all following me. It was easy to lose the guard in the marketplace. Took a bit more effort to misplace the Officer."
Gabriel scanned the room. "And your bodyguard?"
"I wouldn't be able to lose that guy regardless of how hard I tried."
He did not seem surprised, nor was he looking overly hard for Ronan. He spoke quietly, "How did you find out about my granddaughter?"
I tapped my ear with my index finger. "Starsong uncovered it and let me know. He also destroyed most of the evidence he found. A couple of your enemies were pretty sure they had missed someone, so Starsong stole some of their other documents and sent them to the Enforcement Detachment as a gift. You won't have to worry about those particular men again."
I had touched my ear because Starsong wanted to make this man think I had an earpiece so he wouldn't look for any other explanation. The Deviant Monitoring Group had been very certain I had used one when trading, so the fact that it was simply as high tech as my communication device was would be quite believable. We didn't want anyone to think any differently...
Gabriel watched the singers for a while before responding, "Then you also know who she is."
"Yes. I can also reassure you that she has more protection on the Starsong than she would anywhere else. You saw how well the Elite Destroyers fared, even when we let them have the first strike."
He closed his eyes before sighing sadly. "She is all I have left."
I turned my head to look at him and responded kindly, "I know. And Starsong has also said that you are welcome to visit her on board. No one can spy on you within his walls. Even now, in this place, no cameras or recorders will work. At the moment, my communication device is emitting a signal that prevents it."
He stilled at that thought. He had spent his life trying to watch over her while not going near her out of fear for her safety. The thought of finally meeting her face-to-face with no risk was probably one he had never had before. From the bit Starsong had told me, his granddaughter wanted to meet her last relative pretty badly.
I inspected my fingernails. "None would be surprised to see a supplier invited on board for a meeting. Even if someone did recognize a retired spymaster, it would not be far-fetched for them to assume that the Captain would have been interested in speaking with such a person considering the recent events."
He was thinking hard and had a faintly hopeful expression, although he was trying to examine the idea from all angles.
I continued blandly, "As far as we know, only a few in the Deviant group may still recall her existence, but they knew about her before we did. We deleted any clues we found, but even if someone had written them down on paper, the moment they start researching our crew members, they will catch Starsong's attention. He is perfectly capable of arranging a distraction before setting off the sprinkler systems to destroy any papers."
Gabriel responded in a low voice, "If someone tries to track her, let me know where they are and they will not live long."
I smirked slightly. "She is my crew member, and Starsong says that he gets the first crack at any such offender."
In an age of electronics and spaceships, Starsong had plenty of opportunities to thoroughly distract, imprison, or even arrange for a stalker to end up on an abandoned planet with a malfunctioning spacecraft.
He finally spoke, "A supplier?"
Apparently, the temptation of finally meeting his granddaughter was too much. I smiled. "Request a trade meeting with the Captain. I commonly attend negotiations involving spices, so no one will see such a request as out of place. If you attempt to contact the Communications Officer with a message addressed to Starsong, Starsong will intercept it and no one else will see it. He can also relay our schedule, although it is prone to change slightly with little notice."
His voice was slightly rough with suppressed emotion as he asked, "Is there any chance of meeting her before you leave port?"
"One moment." I tilted my head as I waited for Starsong to check with the granddaughter if she wanted to meet him, and if so, her preferred time.
Starsong eventually came back with an update. "I had to explain the need for secrecy, but she knew that there was someone out there who cared since small presents, money, and letters occasionally turned up. She is super excited and cannot wait to meet him. The Medical Bay is slow, so she can leave her post whenever he decides to come over."
I relayed the information. "From what I was just told, she is quite excited to meet you. We leave port this evening, but you can stop by at any point today and visit for as long as you want. I plan to return to the ship within an hour, so you can show up at any time after that to request the trade meeting."
His eyes were closed as he murmured, "Thank you."
He didn't say anything else as he stood there with his eyes closed. He looked like he could use some time alone, so I quietly started to walk away.
As I passed by him, I heard his hushed whisper, "You really do affect everyone around you..."
I glanced over my shoulder, but he hadn't moved, nor had he opened his eyes. I didn't respond as I started walking down the stairs, although to be honest, I wasn't exactly sure what I could say in response to such a comment.
I left the building and continued towards other tourist attractions in case my other two bumbling followers managed to locate me. I had my doubts about ever seeing the docking station guard again, but the Enforcement Officer likely had allies scanning the surveillance cameras in their attempts to help him find me.
"If it is a distraction you are after, Cynthia and Logan are admiring the famous weaving water displays ahead."
I smiled in anticipation. 'How hard will it be to sneak up behind them unnoticed?'
"It really depends on how hard they are kissing..."
If I didn't know these two as well as I did, I would have changed my mind. I had no desire to be a third wheel... The sight of a necklace made from miniature candy hearts in a merchant's stall only reinforced the emerging plan in my mind, and any thought of leaving them undisturbed was promptly put to flight. The merchant bartered quite spiritedly, but we settled on a price that didn't leave her feeling cheated.
"The merchant four stalls ahead has one book Cynthia has been trying to find for quite some time. You can wrap it up and leave it outside her door. If you address it to her from 'someone who is close to her heart', it could be quite entertaining, at least until they realize it was you."
I smirked and headed to the book merchant. There were sometimes downsides to being my friend... Especially if I was in a mischievous mood.