Private Bait and Switch

[Thayne Tameron]

​

Boz Pity
Aboleth Arcology

All this time, Darren Vaxx was right under his nose.

Thayne had tracked the slimy wastrel all across the Outer Rim, from one dust ball to another, only for him to finally turn up on Boz Pity. Of all the places, it was the heart of his employer, the Eclipse Consortium's, criminal network. The assassin would have taken it personally, but he knew that Vaxx had no idea he was being followed. Tracked. Stalked. Like a wolf, Thayne had carefully sniffed him out, and Vaxx was none the wiser. Tonight, he would get what he'd wanted for so long... answers.

Vaxx had a big head, and before Thayne cracked it open, he hoped to pull every last drop of intel out of it.

The assassin looked through his electro binocs again, scanning the man's apartment window for any signs of change. The hour was late, but the lights were still on. He'd expected Vaxx to have fallen asleep by now, but perhaps a guilty conscience like his made it hard to drift away. Thayne had been waiting for hours now, betting on Vaxx to step out onto the tiny balcony for a breath of fresh air. That's when the tranquilizer dart would fly from Thayne's rifle, dropping him in an instant and leaving him for pickup. But the killer was losing patience.

With a sigh, he stowed the binocs and began disassembling his gun.

"Sometimes," he said aloud to himself, "you've got to get up close and personal."

He resigned from his vantage point and made way for the elevators, riding one down to the 30th floor of the cloudcutter. The skybridge that connected the adjacent apartment complexes was soulless, making Thayne's walk over all the quicker. Getting into Vaxx's building and catching another lift was even easier. The place was a ghost town, and while at first Thayne welcomed the lack of intrusion, he was beginning to sweat a bit. Jobs are never this easy, even on the home turf. Something was off, he could sense it. But he wasn't leaving without Vaxx's guts spilled onto a data drive.

The elevator let out a soft 'ding' that pierced the otherwise silent corridors of the 34th floor. With briefcase in hand, Thayne walked as calmly as he could manage toward the apartment. He stopped to read a holo-plaque: 34110. He reached for the maglock and felt an immediate chill when the door slid open unopposed.

"Feth..." the assassin said under his breath, easing into the common room.

Personal affects were strewn about the room, clear signs of a struggle. Had he missed this somehow? Or did someone simply beat him to the punch, before he staked out across the street? Thayne scanned the room, drawing his blaster pistol when he saw the spatters of fresh blood on the kitchen table. He stepped deeper into the apartment, but didn't make it far before he saw the hunched body of Darren Vaxx leaning against the nightstand in the adjacent bedroom. Blood had puddled into the expensive carpet beneath his corpse, which had certainly been made within the hour.

He took a single step forward, then froze in place. The Force screamed out that he was not alone, and he gripped his blaster in anticipation of the ambush that was sure to come.

---

- Ariadne -​

---

 

[Ariadne]

There was another. Ariadne watched them. It was just a sliver of a reflection. But it moved. They had become tired of waiting. Was it possible that they were another assassin sent to kill this man. Sure. A lot of people seemed to be anti-Vaxx. Whatever the man had done to earn ire from so many corners of the underworld, it was probably justified.

The one possibility that was not permitted to occur was that Darren Vaxx talk. Her masters had a vested interest in his secrets dying with him. With the would be assassin moving, Ariadne knew it was time she did so too.

Internally, servos did the work, but from anyone unfortunate enough to have been a witness to her jump, they might have thought her a Jedi. Her leap from one building to the other was beyond the limits of normal human ability. When she landed, her new darker catsuit pinched around her knees. There was no discomfort, just a slight restriction to her movement. She would make modifications later.

Below was Vaxx’s balcony. She dropped, landing just to the side of one of the windows to the apartment. Her head tilted slightly, picking up the slight sound of shuffling from within the room. She had made just enough noise to deserve his attention.

The tips of her fingers gripped the barest of lips on the frame sliding door. She pushed in towards the door for extra grip, and then towards herself to pull at the locking mechanism. The bolt inside the lock was a Parex7-90, recalled on many worlds for a weakness brought about from sheering pressure. Micro-fractures in the bolt were already audible to the assassin’s audio processors. She waited. The shadow turned away from the door, and she pulled upwards. The lock snapped in two.

Before Vaxx could turn back towards the door, he had a hand at his throat. Before he could groan, the back of his head was impacting the corner of his desk. Before he hit the floor, he was already dead.

Someone was coming.

She stepped back on to the balcony and closed the door as quietly as haste would permit.

Someone was in the room.

“Feth…”

They wouldn’t just leave. Ariadne reached across to her right, and slid the door slightly open.

”Walk away. Live another day,” she said, clearly and entirely absent from any hint of emotion.

| Thayne Tameron |​

 

[Thayne Tameron]

​

Boz Pity
Aboleth Arcology

Thayne stayed still when he heard the voice. The only move he made was to tighten his grip on his blaster. He used the sudden impasse to rationalize the new reality he faced. Darren Vaxx was dead, and only a few feet away was his killer. She'd stolen his chance at learning the secrets his target had carried with him halfway across the galaxy. He could kill her, Thayne thought, but perhaps learning more about who else wanted a piece of Vaxx could be a prize of its own.

The chilling silence held the apartment hostage as both predators awaited the other's next move. Thayne was the one to make it.

"You killed my mark," he said plainly. He tried to mask the anger he felt. So much time, so much effort... gone.

"And now I'm standing here, empty handed. Why are you giving me a choice?"

---

- Ariadne -​

---

 

[Ariadne]

Silence.

Moments passed.

A pause pregnant with violence.

In the pause, Ariadne had calculated her options multiple times over. Going through the one in the room would clearly be the most fun, but she could not see his armaments. It was a foolish endeavour to attack a foe of whom you had no knowledge. Instead, she vaulted quietly over the handrail and over the edge of the balcony.

She fell.

One floor.

Two floors.

At the third, both hands grappled at the metal railing. It wrenched free, peeling away from the waist high wall of the balcony three floors below. The sound of metal bending was impossible to disguise. Her position had been compromised. Just as she had feared was possible.

The metal groaned as Ariadne climbed up onto the balcony, and it gave wave just as she straddled the wall. With both hands she was able to lift the heavy railing back onto the balcony with her, and placed it by her feet. A glance behind her confirmed her appraisal from moments earlier…an empty apartment. Not even any furniture.

Grappling with the door, she pulled at it. The door could have easily been ripped off the wall, but subtlety was key if she was to accomplish any degree of disappearing act.

Thayne Tameron

| Thayne Tameron |​

 

[Thayne Tameron]

Bait and Switch
Aboleth Arcology, Boz Pity

---

Thayne stood dumbfounded for a moment when the sharp clang of metal-on-metal snapped him back. In an instant, he pushed into the bedchamber and moved past Vaxx’s lifeless corpse to the open balcony. The irony was bitter. He had to chase his target’s killer through an open door that could have made for the easiest shot at Vaxx if the bastard had left it open.

“Feth,” Thayne grumbled as he peered over the railing. Three levels down was where the metal barrier had snapped under her weight. It if weren’t for the augments, he’d have missed it being left slightly ajar.

The stairs would take too long, he’d lose her trying to clear three flights. He’d have to follow her lead to catch up. Only problem with that is that Thayne loathed heights. “Feth.”

Thayne took a deep breath, leveled the toe of his boots on the edge of the balcony, then stepped off. The cold rush of air and rain droplets barely had time to chill his skin before his hands clamped hard on the broken railing, snatching it further away from its fastening. His left hand slipped, leaving him dangling with all his weight on one arm. Thayne groaned a throaty “rraagh!” as he caught himself and struggled to throw his free hand up to the ledge. When his fingers found purchase on the slippery duracrete, he wasted little time hoisting himself up and onto the floor.

He spent only a moment there, catching his breath on hand-and-knee before rising and moving to chase her again.

“Hey!” Thayne shouted. He bolted through the empty apartment.

“Get back here! Stop!”

---

- Ariadne -​

 

[Ariadne]

Her perch was precarious. A fine balancing act required as she heard her pursuer follow her path. Her feet shifted carefully on the thin ledge outside and around the corner from the balcony.

His voice was her trigger. Ariadne pulled herself around , and vaulted back over the opposite side of the balcony onto which the two assassin's had fallen. Instead of entering the apartment after opening the door, Ariadne and taken a quick detour around the corner of the empty apartments exterior. Her shuffling feet though would no likely alert her would-be pursuer as to the change in their predator-prey relationship.

She moved quickly, inhumanly fast, throwing the full weight of her shoulder into his back. The unfortunate awkwardness of the the attack saw her tumble into a three-point stance of preparedness.

"I told you to walk away."

Thayne Tameron

 

[Thayne Tameron]

Bait and Switch
Aboleth Arcology, Boz Pity

---

The shoulder bash from behind knocked the wind out of Thayne. It sent him forward almost to the ground, but he stumbled to the doorframe ahead and grasped it for balance. Then a cold voice spoke to him.

"I told you to walk away."

“You killed my lead,” Thayne hissed. His words were like venom.

“You took the biggest break I’ve found yet right from under me, and you expect me to walk away with nothing?!” He was getting louder now. Thayne didn’t care about stealth or discretion anymore. The security forces could show up and take them both now for all he cared.

The assassin turned slowly to face Ariadne now. He didn’t want to provoke an execution by snapping his eyes to her. She felt unnaturally cold in the space of the apartment as if she were some kind of phantom. Thayne’s Force senses were rudimentary from years of placidity, but he could still feel that something was off about her. He played out dozens of outcomes of fighting her but he wasn’t confident in any of them. For once, he chose words.

“You have no idea what Vaxx was worth, do you?” Thayne asked. His face was emotionless but his eyes were like a rolling sea. He hated that he got teary when his anger was boiling but there was no hiding it now.

“Do you know what this has cost me?”

---

- Ariadne -​

 

[Ariadne]

Questions. Interesting. Ariadne found the human need to question everything to be fascinating. The irony of questioning why they did so was not at all lost on her. Her head tilted briefly to the side in a moment of contemplation regarding her own humanity. It dissipated quickly.

Seeing as he had not walked away, and claimed that her target had been the only thing of value, he must have had a very low appreciation for his own life. But before she could answer that question with a question of her own, he had hit her with two more questions. The answer to both was the same.

”I do not care,” she said. If it had sounded malicious, or bored even, it would have sounded less sinister than the entirely monotone with which she spoke. Ne’er an inflection to be found.

Her acceleration was inhuman, and the grip she took of his shirt was sure. She lifted him off his feet with ease, and prepared to twist and then slam his back against the ground.

| Thayne Tameron |​

 

[Thayne Tameron]

Bait and Switch
Aboleth Arcology, Boz Pity

---

If the assassin’s voice was cold, her hand suddenly forming around his throat was like an icy blade. She moved faster than Thayne could register and in the blink of an eye, he was at her mercy, hoisted from his feet and suspended like a sacrificial lamb. He clutched at her fingers in a desperate bid to free himself but it was no use. In just as fluid a motion as she lifted him, she slammed him onto the floor. The sudden impact winded him, possibly even fracturing a rib or two judging by the sudden sharp pain when he gasped for air.

“Why-?” Thayne choked. “Why not- kill me-?”

He’d have killed her, had their roles been reversed. Competition was bad for business, and if he’d been the one to bag Vaxx and get the drop on a competitor, he’d honestly have killed her, too. But then again, her presence would have raised the same questions that it did now: who hired her to kill Darren Vaxx? His lungs burned to push out the words.

“Who do- you work for-?” he struggled ask. His eyes were locked on her, fingers itching to reach for his holdout pistol but hands unwilling to challenge her in such a vulnerable position.

---

- Ariadne -​

 

[Ariadne]

Her knee came to rest on his hand, pushing it into the floor. Free hand took hold of his other, while the hand on his throat maintained the pressure. She pressed a finger with some degree of gentleness on one of the thumping veins in his neck. He was strained. Not surprising. As she squeezed his throat, she kept track of his pulse insuring that death was prevented and only unconsciousness was achieved.

Head tilting again in response to her questions, Ariadne wondered if now were the opportune time to work on a display of humanity. Yes, now seemed like a good time. A smile, practiced and precise, softened her features. Her eyes lost their distant stare, and brown furrowed with wrinkles that only now appeared.

"You will walk away from this. Just as you were told to do. Hush now. You are just going to sleep for a few moments. When you wake, this will all seem as a dream," she said in a soft, whispered tone.

His pulse slowed. His eyes began to glaze over. Ariadne lent down and kissed his forehead.

"Shhhh. Just go to sleep."

His body relaxed, and she released her grip and stood to her feet. The smile faded, and she walked back to the balcony without even a glance backwards.

Yes. That was much better than last time.

| Thayne Tameron |​

 

[Thayne Tameron]

Bait and Switch
Aboleth Arcology, Boz Pity

---

Thayne wanted to fight back but there was chilling resolve in his eyes when she pinned him to the floor. Her hand was once again coiled around his throat, but this time it was to snuff him out. Thayne blinked, eyes locked on hers. He believed she was going to kill him, but as much as a part of him wanted to die - to end this unvirtuous cycle of stalking and killing that had consumed him for years - he refused to show her the relief he felt.

A finger pressed into the thumping artery in his neck, making his body panic. His heart beat furiously against his chest while he struggled to breathe through cracked ribs and the cage of fingers trapping his throat. Thayne watched through fading clarity as she almost seemed to soften, her cold edge blurring along with his vision. He couldn’t tell if she felt sorry for ending his life or if this was her sick idea of faux comfort in his final moments.

"You will walk away from this. Just as you were told to do. Hush now. You are just going to sleep for a few moments. When you wake, this will all seem as a dream."

Thayne was beyond words by now, but he could hear her. The sounds of Boz Pity were eerily absent. All he could hear now was the rapid pounding of blood in his ears and her voice, just before his world slipped into blackness. He felt weightless in the empty space between life and death, unburdened by guilt or shame or fear. He felt a strange comfort in the void. But it wouldn’t last. The good things never do.

His eyes opened to see the plain ceiling above him. The bare bones of the vacant apartment greeted his strange consciousness with bitter indifference. How long had he been out for? Where was-?

“H-hey-!” Thayne croaked, wincing as the words strained from his bruised windpipe. He tried to move but pain radiated through his chest and neck. It hurt to swallow, to breathe, to lay there knowing he was back at square one.

It is taught by the Jedi and Sith alike that crying is a weakness. That idiosyncrasy was tempered out of Thayne by a ruthless teacher when he was a Padawan. Forbear your emotions. Hide them. But he felt them all now. Tears of anger rolled down the sides of his face. He had failed by every measure of the word. Again. But as fate would have it, this isn’t the end. The assassin spared his life. Thayne didn’t know why. All he knew was that it was a second chance to complete his mission.

But that mission would have to wait.

He needed to know more about this woman. He needed answers. He needed to kill her.

---

- Ariadne -​