Don't Get Lost In Heaven

[Evoros]

She was usually a lot less quick to take on jobs like these--long term missions, missions with stakes considerably higher than usual. Oh, they were interesting enough and usually had rewards to balance the risk. But once there was enough at stake, decisions were about more than the size of her paycheck. Weighing the pros and cons and playing what's in it for me for all she was worth took some time.

Usually.

Evoros hadn't made up her mind by the time she agreed to a meeting. She didn't have all the details, after all. But she wouldn't need much convincing.

Frankly, she would've taken any job that meant an extended period of time away from Arkania. And, well, from the people on Arkania. Denial was her preferred method of resolving problems, and when that didn't work she turned to avoidance. Dancing around the lies she told was getting more dangerous than any spy work--and whatever else, espionage she wasn't afraid of.

She hadn't been to Coruscant in a good while. The planet was in less good shape than she remembered, but Yvonne Evoros wasn't too concerned with the sightseeing. She was concerned exclusively with finding the coordinates given to her--a restaurant in the lower levels. Nothing she hadn't seen before, not that she cared. Contacts had arranged far worse meeting places before.

The name she'd been given was Miss Telmuth, and the time she'd been given was 2030 galactic standard hours. She liked a punctual meeting, but this was a nice enough place to wait.

| [member="Irajah Ven"] |​

 

[Kuzo]

Yvonne Evoros.

Irajah had a holo, so she knew who she was looking for. With the help of [member="Jairus Starvald"], Irajah knew more about the woman than she had any intention of giving away.

The dark haired doctor sat at the far end of the bar, toying absently with a stirred in a low ball glass. Drink part finished, enough to make her lingering there more than reasonable. She was dressed in neat street clothes- long sweater, leggings, high boots. Long dark hair twisted up into a bun at the base of her neck. She watched, and waited, and when the other woman arrived?

Kept an eye from that distance for a moment. Studying. Everything she had expected so far.

Good.

Slender fingers wrapping around the glass, she slipped down off of the barstool and headed easily in that direction.

"Miss Evoros?" She inquired politely. "I'm Donna Telmuth. Thank you for agreeing to this meeting with me. Can I buy you a drink while we chat?"

[member="Evoros"]

 

[Evoros]

Eight thirty. Right on time.

She studied Donna Telmuth in the span of a heartbeat. Done briefly not to avoid detection (because really, who was she going to fool?) but because she didn't need longer. No visible weapons, which never meant an inability to fight and usually meant the opposite. Small, which meant...well, not a whole lot. But she made it a point not to leave out details.

"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Telmuth," Evoros replied, equally polite in kind. "I'll pass on the drink, thank you." She'd have taken the drink--or at least seemed to--under different circumstances, but there was little point in pretending she wasn't aiming to keep a clear head. Meeting about her more questionable dealings meant a certain freedom. It meant she could drop one act, the act that said I'm harmless, I'm up to nothing, don't suspect me.

They were past that by now. The dark haired woman would've been a fool not to be suspicious of Evoros from the moment they came into contact.

"Nice place you've picked out," she remarked casually, indicating for Telmuth to have a seat. "So. What can I do for you?"

She had some idea, of course. But there was so much that had to be left out of holocommunications. Questionable dealings also meant being wary of anything someone else could get their hands on. That was one act she never dropped.

| [member="Irajah Ven"] |​

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah noticed the appraisal, as brief as it was. She would have been surprised if the other woman hadn't done that brief sweep.

She knew what she was looking for, as well as what she'd see. Irajah was perfectly content, in fact, pleased, to rest on her appearance of 'harmless'. Dark hair framing a pale face, petite, wearing good quality but unfussy clothing. A smile that set naturally on her features. Her movements relaxed and easy but without the particular quality that one found in trained assassins or martial artists. Oh, Irajah could hold her own in a fight these days, but she moved like a confident civilian, rather than a weapon. She had other tricks up her sleeve. Friendly, professional, easy going. All things that were true of Irajah Ven, but also suited her to have at the surface just as much.

"Direct and to the point," she said, tone vaguely approving, as she slipped up onto the stool. Everything was just a little too tall for the woman, but she adapted. She was used to it.

"Before we start, I have something I would like to ask you," she continued, settling her own drink on the bar.

"What are your feelings on the Sith Empire and the man who rules it?"

Her shoulders, face, every line of her body was relaxed and casual. But there was a glint in those hazel eyes.

[member="Evoros"]

 

[Evoros]

The faint, polite curiosity on her face didn't betray how her mind raced at the question. Not because her feelings on the Empire were likely to affect the outcome--because its mention helped tell her just what scale this job was on.

And just how dangerous.

It wasn't nearly enough to make her apprehensive--nobody became a spy because they were easily scared--but it set off something in the back of her mind that she determinedly ignored for the time being.

Luckily, the question itself was easy. Her thoughts were that the Sith Empire was promising enough and that its leader was one of the relatively rare few who made Evoros look positively altruistic. Her feelings, well. She hadn't mixed those with business in a long time.

"I have no strong feelings on the Empire," Evoros answered evenly, "or the man ruling it." She'd noted the distinction without it making much difference to her. Focus didn't waver from the other woman, but there was no trace of unease.

| [member="Irajah Ven"] |​

 

[Kuzo]

That was the answer Irajah had been hoping for.

Oh, there was a place for someone with a rabid hatred of the Zambranos. A rabid animal to be loosed to tear and rend. That was not, however, what she hoped to gain here. Doctor Ven was taking a careful route. Building up her attack one small move at a time. Building a motion that, by the time it was known, would be too late to stop. She did not want to lever a single boulder down onto the ruler of that Empire.

She wanted to start an avalanche that when it was discovered would be far, far too late to stop.

A nod followed that answer, Irajah toying with her drink for a moment, mulling over the words.

"You know that I hoped to hire you for a long term, deep cover operation," she said finally. Her head tilted slightly, studying the other woman.

"In case that question has not made it abundantly obvious, I wish to have an agent within the Sith Empire."

She did not mention that she already had other agents. Some knowing. Some most decidedly not.

"I don't simply want someone who will be unobtrusive however, though I will pay for that if that is all you believe you can achieve." Her tone and gaze was even. "What I want is someone who will work for the Empire. Very, very hard in fact. Someone who will do everything they can to see the Empire grow and flourish."

Irajah smiled, spreading her hands wide in front of her.

"At least until the moment comes to turn the knife."

[member="Evoros"]