Locke Sonjie slowly made his way along the side of a busy street in Kel Rasha. Despite the fact that it was nearly the middle of the day and Orian Major shown brightly in the sky, he had a heavy cloak held up over his head. It obscured all of his features, including his hands, hiding even whether he was human or alien.
He hoped. The citizens of Kel Rasha knew Locke Sonjie, and they were not fond of him. He had been Consul when their city had been attacked by the Organization, and again when Plagueis struck at the Orian System. Both times, he had failed to protect the city while he focused on other interests. He had been weak and inexperienced then. Now times had changed. He had learned to be strong.
At the same time, he knew he had to be hard. If that required sacrificing a city for the greater benefit, he would do it.
Still, it would pain Locke to do such with Kel Rasha. It was his home city of sorts in the Orian System. When he had first joined Clan Naga Sadow, this had been the domain of House Ludo Kressh. It had since fallen and been replaced with Shar Dakhan, and the Dakhani had assumed control of the Kresshian territory. Locke had joined Shar Dakhan, and become Aedile. He had helped rule the world from this very city, in an office long sense forgotten before the modern House leadership had decided to consolidate their operations in the Lion’s Tooth.
So it was that Locke had come to Kel Rasha. He had the time to divert resources to this campaign, and he would do his best to prevent criminals from harming the citizens here, even if they hated him. They were his people, as much as any were - even those back on his home planet of Bakura.
There was also the Traveler, who had appeared to oppose Maya in the election. This Traveler was a mystery, and could have been almost anyone. Locke suspected an Inquisitorious agent, or someone working for the Dominion or what was left of the Organization. If they succeeded, they would be in a position to cause chaos.
Sanguinius, his Proconsul, and Darius, his Rollmaster, had sided with the Traveler. No doubt, they viewed that person as a better choice than a woman who had once worked with Dlarit. To them, Dlarit probably represented a corrupt and chaotic past to Naga Sadow. Locke could forgive them. They would not recognize the modus operandi of the Organization. It would be exactly like them to insert a mysterious individual into local affairs and to give that person or alien the support needed to become important enough to wield power against Naga Sadow right under their noses. He also wouldn’t put it past them to be behind the criminal attacks - even if some of those targeted the Traveler.
Still, his Proconsul and Rollmaster were the opposition here. Open combat would be fruitless and costly. Instead, each individual worked for their side from the shadows, in a sort of cold war play on a local scale.
After some time crossing through the streets, Locke found the sign he was looking for (an X shape over the old Dlarit emblem, ironically), and turned down a seemingly random alleyway. There, he used a data card to unlock a small doorway in the side of a building. It led down underground. When he rounded a corner, Locke was in the operations center of ‘Team Maya’.
It was several rooms, but the main one held banks of computer terminals and records, as well as a large table with a holo-display at it’s center.
Locke found Lilith and Malik looking at one of the computers, the Neti looking over the human’s shoulder.
“Have you found anything?” Locke asked.
Lilith was the first to reply. “There were some bank accounts hidden in city records. Someone worked very hard to keep them away from curious eyes. Our criminal friends might be planning something big.”
Locke nodded. “I agree. I just…‘spoke’ to one of their mid level bosses, and I got the feeling that the chaos they have caused until now was only a setup for something bigger, but I don’t know what.”
“We might have to take a closer look at those accounts and the businesses attached to them,” Malik said. “What do you think, Lilith?”
