Brand Loyalty

[Darth Osano]

POINT NADIR
THE OFFICE OF AVER BRAND

Maleagant liked to consider himself an independent Sithling. He liked to. It did not mean it was true by any stretch of the imagination. The fact of the matter was that there would always be someone who had something he could not access and he would have to spend a great deal of timer bartering with them. In this case, Maleagant needed access to a cache of Impervium for the purposes of constructing war droids. Terrifying stuff, really. Few people had caches of Impervium and fewer still were willing to part with them. One of the names that had been fished out of his information networks was Aver Brand, the unnecessarily happy-go-lucky crime... Something. Queen? Countess? Her exact role on Point Nadir was ambiguous.

She had informants of her own, as he remembered how she talked openly about researching him before he even arrived for their first meeting. That was around the time the Guavian Death Gang's leadership had been abruptly murdered and a splinter faction led by a Givin named Pollux departed for the Pentastar Alignment. Good times. Happy times. Simpler times.

Now that faction was all grown up and essentially running the circus of organized crime in the Pentastar Sectors. There were a lot of dead people, broken bones, and blackmail letters behind that feat. But despite the success the Helix Syndicate enjoyed, had never been another request from Point Nadir. [member="Aver Brand"] had gone quiet. Which was fine, Maleagant supposed, since he was busy dismantling his opponents and squeezing every last credit he could out of everyone he could. She must not have needed him again. But now he needed her. Maleagant entered her place of business alone, but a duo of Specialists and an annoyed looking Morgukai warrior were waiting outside for him.

Wandering around Point Nadir without an escort was ill-advised.

An unsightly being was manning the front desk, probably hopped up on some drug. Might have been a Zeltron, it was hard to tell. "I'm here to see Aver Brand."

 

[Aver Brand]

The clerk gave him the stink eye as he checked the log. With a croak that might’ve been Galactic Basic, once, he nodded to [member="Maleagant"]. Then the man (he was indeed a zeltron) reached out and opened the thick blast doors leading to the office.

Well, ‘office’.

There was another room behind the door, so narrow that it could just fit three humanoids abreast. Two of them were already there, decked out in heavy black armor with absolutely no identifying insignia. The left one gave a curt dip of the head to the questionably independent Sithling, then smashed a button in the wall to close the first doors.

After three very long and very uncomfortable seconds, the second blast doors slid open with an ominous hiss.

The office, such as it was, occupied a minuscule amount of space with an efficient non-presence. Like the guards, it lacked anything that would imply the occupant was actually a person, and not a heartless machine. The walls and floor were bare duracrete, the desk sitting in the middle was bare durasteel. A monitor sat upon it, looking as bewildered amongst the spartan decor as a Jedi Grand master who’d just walked in on his most promising Padawan watching scandalous Holovids.

The sole item of luxury in the whole room was a wide leather chair that positively oozed credits.

Presently it was occupied by a stern, sharp-featured woman whose face would look right at home on an advert for chemical weapons, or, alternately, spice rehab.

Then she smiled.

“A Mr. Maleagant?”

There wasn’t a seat to offer, but she seemed the sort that wouldn’t even if there was. The faint click behind him were the doors closing. The slightly less faint click were the boots of a guard that joined them in the office, ramrod straight beside the door.

“How can I help you?”

 

[Darth Osano]

That wasn't [member="Aver Brand"]. There was nowhere for Maleagant to sit in this room, which was fine by him. He felt awkward sitting down and it was a rather vulnerable position to be in. At least now if this strange woman decided to launch herself across the desk and gnaw his face off, he wouldn't have to get up to move out of the way first. The guard that had joined them would be its own problem. Not that he imagined it would come to that. This was all going to be very... Friendly. Hopefully. Maleagant shifted his weight from one foot to the other, moving his hands and clasping them behind his back.

His lightsaber was clipped to his belt, but that was on his right side. The guard wouldn't have to worry about any funny business. Maleagant's hands were still plainly visible to him. This was just how he stood when he had to negotiate standing. "Yes..." Maleagant cautiously confirmed his identity to the strange woman. He had been expecting Miss Brand in this office, after all. "And you are?"

If this was some lieutenant, that would be fine. Aver Brand had a tendency to prattle on sometimes. As long as he left here with enough impervium shipments to jump-start production, Maleagant didn't care whose name was signed at the bottom of the contract. He just preferred to know who he was speaking to, after all.

 

[Aver Brand]

“Who am I? Surely you’re jo—” the black-haired woman in the chair stopped mid sentence, her eyes darting behind [member="Maleagant"]’s back.

The guard let her hand drop back to her side, sidestepping the petitioner with a nonchalance that had no business clinging to a mere hireling. The woman in the chair, on the other hand, hurried to vacate it as soon as the sentry moved, standing off to the side with a datapad in her hand.

“So. The name’s new,” Aver spoke as she folded herself into the cushioned seat. The leather creaked under her weight. “What happened to Pollux?”

“And what’s with the…” she gestured at the red streaks on his face, “tattoos? This the new fashion with you Helix folks or something?”

 

[Darth Osano]

Maleagant was eager to hear who exactly this incredulous woman was, but apparently it didn't matter. The guard suddenly showed more authority. Now there was a voice he recognized. Was this what [member="Aver Brand"] usually did? Hang around outside her own office while some third-tier flunky handled business? A peculiar approach. Maleagant did not see the benefit. If the person warranted his presence, he tended to make it known. If they didn't, they got the flunky and only the flunk. Maleagant's mouth tightened as he forced a smile, clearly trying to appear amused. "Pollux has taken personal leave." He answered coolly. "I am his replacement."

It was all very strange how Pollux, the catalyst for the destruction and exile of his branch of the Guavian Death Gang, vanished almost as soon as his new operation started picking up steam. Even more curious was how the shadowy persona of Maleagant seemed to take over seamlessly the same roles Pollux once held. None of Pollux's chief lieutenants appeared to have opposed the change. The transition of power was so smooth, it looked as though there wasn't one. Clearly it had been a coup in the making all along.

There was no other explanation.

"Facial tattoos are expected among my people." Maleagant continued, his "people" clearly being the Rattataki he appeared to be. Were there any more silly questions?

 

[Aver Brand]

“Cute.”

Aver had settled in her chair like a cat. That is, not the fluffy, collared, white household cat whose only relation to the grand predators of sharp mountains and vast steppes are a handful of stubborn genes; no, rather like a Ralltiir tiger lurking in the high grass, licking its chops at the sight of vulnerable prey, tail swaying in preparation to lunge.

Or, the seat was simply so sumptuous that it seemed feline by virtue of sheer luxury.

“You want impervium, then. Must be pretty desperate to beg your way into this office, so… what are you prepared to pay?”

[member="Maleagant"]

 

[Darth Osano]

"I try." Probably the most truthful thing Maleagant had said in the past couple of weeks. He tended to hold his cards close. It was just one of those things you did when you had a habit of spying on the cards of others all the goddamn time. If [member="Aver Brand"] was looking for vulnerable prey, she was staring at the wrong Shi'ido. They also seemed to share different definitions of what begging entailed. Fortunately, Maleagant did not have the temperament or the standing to try and correct her.

Also he did not want to die.

At any rate, Maleagant continued. "You supply the Impervium, I supply the intelligence. Anything you need, any time."

This wasn't the amateur hour rumor mill Pollux had used to deal with or that Aver Brand still operated out of. There were only a few degrees of separation between the capabilities of the infamous SpyNet and the Helix Syndicate. Each passing day, that gap became just a little smaller. But even as it was now, the Syndicate had more eyes and ears scattered around than Aver could ever hope to acquire on her own.

 

[Aver Brand]

“I’m not much for vague,” she said, propping her elbows on the bare desk as she leaned forward. “Can you offer me any valuable, actionable information, [member="Maleagant"]? Presently?”

She had plenty of good intelligence already, spread out across multiple organizations and individuals. Previous experience taught her never to rely on any singular source. The cost of cross-examining intel was negligible compared to the astronomical price she could pay if she ever put her money on the wrong number.

Being owed favors was all fine and well, but collecting could be such a hassle when the debtor was a couple million light years away, holed up in their hidden fortress. Much easier, though, when a representative of the syndicate was alone with her in a sealed room.

It was an excellent negotiating position.

 

[Darth Osano]

"We examined several partners of Nadir's. Free of charge." Free of charge was an often-repeated phrase by Maleagant. Perhaps it shouldn't have been. It was especially frequent when he needed something from one person or another in an expedited manner. A good way to incentivize people, he found, was to give them something for free. There were a good portion of people who required violence and coercion instead of more polite incentives. To be honest, he wasn't sure which category [member="Aver Brand"] would inevitably fall into. Maleagant was in no position to pursue the "violence and coercion" approach against Brand and her people.

So free stuff won out by default.

The Shi'ido produced a small data chip. "The Kanjiklub branch you deal with is ripping you off."

Maleagant moved just close enough to place the data chip on the desk and slide it towards Aver. He did not move back to his original distance. Included on the chip would be a number of files lifted directly from the Kanjiklub's electronically stored logbooks. It was radically different than what they were reporting to Nadir. There were also a few intercepted, deciphered communications included. The most important were specific orders for Kanjiklub's eggheads to fudge the numbers when it came to anything passing through Nadir. One of the lieutenants dispensing those orders had used particularly colorful language in describing Brand and several other major figures involved in Nadir, suggesting that they should probably be replaced one way or another.

"I can have more dossiers drawn up on anyone or anything you need." Maleagant said. "All I need is the Impervium."

 

[Aver Brand]

Aver liked to look at life and its patterns in the frame of a single, massive game of Sabacc. This worked well for several reasons: she was good at Sabacc; cheating was fair game; people had tells.

Because she’d been playing both kinds of Sabacc practically her whole life, Aver had exterminated her own tells with a vicious devotion only found in the truly self-disciplined. Once, she would’ve hummed when [member="Maleagant"] offered her the data chip.

Now she merely eyed the piece of tech on the table, inscrutable behind the blank slab of her faceplate.

“Hardly free of charge, though, is it? You want the impervium,” she spoke at length, picking up the chip with an armored hand. “This… is simply called ‘coming prepared’.” When she rose from her chair, it wasn’t a gradual process; one moment Aver Brand was seated, the next she was towering over the man. She handed the stick to the other woman, who quickly stuck it into her datapad. Several frowns and scrolls later, the human gave a curt nod to the mercenary, her mouth curled as if she'd eaten something particularly foul.

“Very well, Mr. Helix Syndicate. If we’re already cleaning house…” she tapped something off on her wrist, “let’s clean the whole thing. Draw up those dossiers on every external organization that has a trade agreement with Nadir.”

Always good to kill two birds with one stone if you were already getting out your gun. One, she’d examine – and double-check – the damning evidence, then take out the trash. Two, she’d see just how much Helix knew or didn’t know about their operation and its extent.

“Now… in the spirit of mutual cooperation, I’ll give you half the impervium up front. You get the rest when I get the files.”

 

[Darth Osano]

"Understood." Maleagant said, deciding not to correct her about the issue of the information being free of charge.

Not vocally, anyway.

But, really. If she wanted to, she could have told him to get out. Then she would still have the information and wouldn't have had to pay for it. That meant it was free of charge. Maleagant was too pleased with her response to point that out to her, though he probably would not have anyway. Nitpicking the speech conventions of others was best left to pedants and the socially intolerable. Maleagant was neither, unless there was money or dead Zambranos involved in him being so.

There was one last question before he could depart. "Will you be giving us a list of these organizations?"

Maleagant could find out one way or another, but if [member="Aver Brand"] was serious about vetting her trade partners for the benefit of her host organization, she would probably make the Helix Syndicate's job easier. Unless it would amuse her more to do something unnecessarily zany- like withhold that kind of vital intelligence. In which case, anything was possible

 

[Aver Brand]

For once, the man didn’t have a witty comeback at the tip of his tongue. It was quite refreshing for all of two seconds – then Aver realized he wasn’t going anywhere.

Her brow creased behind the black faceplate as she slowly set a datapad back down. With a soft thud, the casing hit the metal table, posing her question in lieu of a lifted eyebrow. And as if on cue, [member="Maleagant"] answered.

“No.”

She tipped her head towards the door just as it hissed open behind him, revealing a stock-still pair of guards.

“The impervium is waiting for you in your docking bay. Cheers, Helix. Enjoy your new toys.”

 

[Darth Osano]

Wonderful. It was to be a challenge, then. Maleagant didn't mind, because this was the sort of work that now got handed off to the people below him. His intelligence staff would generate the necessary information or risk losing their holiday bonuses. Maybe suffer a pay cut. That was usually sufficient motivation where they were concerned. Thanks to their positions, they were all more than aware of how easy it would be for Maleagant to strip them of everything they owned and blackmail them into the void, making their lives so miserable that they would consider it a blessing when they were black-bagged and thrown into the debtor mines of Mygeeto.

Respectfully, Maleagant inclined his head. "As you wish."

The Sithling departed, returning to his shuttle. Within the next few weeks a comprehensive dossier detailing the exact movements of every organization she knew to have made arrangements with the leadership of Brand's Nadir outfit. And several more organizations that were not readily known to her. The Helix Syndicate liked to be thorough with these things. As expected, several of the official and unofficial organizations were being less than honest about keeping their side of the bargain. The evidence was almost universally damning. Conversations had been recorded, transmissions intercepted, holomail cracked. For added amusement there was also an unnervingly detailed document that contained the daily schedule for the ringleaders of the offending parties. Where they could be found, hour by hour, for the next week.

What [member="Aver Brand"] and Nadir elected to do with this information was of no immediate concern to the Helix Syndicate. What was their concern was the remaining Impervium, which was gladly accepted once it was made available to them. What a truly miraculous time to be alive, when passing ruffians may barter goods for services. Very rare goods for very clandestine services. Such is life, and so marks the end of this chapter.