Private Firestarter

[Colette]

Kahlil Noble

Was that look meant to make her stand down and do as she was told? To run back to Valery and just pretend that she wasn't part of this somehow and let the 'capable ones' figure this one out after all the work that she had helped with?

"That's total bantha spilling, Kahlil." She grunted and pointed a finger at the master. "You know her, and you know that she has already seen the fire, and that she is already assembling a team to investigate and apprehend whoever did this."

The young one paced closer to the vehicle.

"You are just scared that something will happen to me." She said and marched on over towards the speeder. "But this is my home too, and now a fire is threatening it."

No arguing. Except from her part. From her part there was a lot of arguing to be had. Colette got in the seat and Kahlil could do very little to stop her.

"I will not let your fear stand between me and doing the right thing. So let's go, let's get this guy, and let's stop wasting time."

 

[Kahlil Noble]

<Your Padawan is frustratingly you.>

It was a quick metal message to Valery Noble . Colette was right. Even if Valery hadn't seen the fire herself, she would've felt him. Seen it from his eyes. He very much was trying to keep the Padawan out of the line of fire of a Sith.

"It's not fear, Padawan. That is the symbol of the Sith. If this guy is indeed a Sith, you will not interfere. You will leave. An outburst like this against a Sith is how you get killed." As he spoke he moved back to the driver seat of the speeder. Kicked it on before pulling the controls to get them moving.

"When you create a spectacle like this, all eyes follow it usually. Think you can search that datapad enough to find a potential target they wanted the Jedi to be busy looking elsewhere?"

Colette

 

[Colette]

Kahlil Noble

He stepped down, good. Colette picked the pad up and began to brush through the folders within. From beyond the hiss of the winds she could hear the crackle of fire, and that was after she pretended to hear and/or care what Kahlil had said about leaving if the one responsible was indeed a Sith.

"It's an attempt at scaring us." Colette said as she struggled with the pad, mostly out of inexperience with technology. "Tribes at war pulled this trick all the time with more superstitious clans. Burn totems, make them panic, and strike when they are stricken with horror. It's despicable."

A message popped up on the screen of the pad. Colette squinted as she swiped to open it.

"Enjoy the view?" Colette read it out aloud. Her brows furrowed and she wrote a message back. "No, not particularly much."

It took a few moments longer before the perpetrators wrote back.

Once more Colette read it aloud.

"Get used to it."

Then, a picture.

"The billboard?" Colette grumbled as from the distance, an explosion lit up the skies and the billboard began to plummet towards the ground. "The billboard."

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"It's not an attempt to scare us."

Kahlil glanced briefly to where the billboard set ablaze, his expression tightening further. Someone was playing games for sure, but why? Were they actually Sith? No. None of the higher up of the Sith would allow this. A rogue element, perhaps, a statement to catch the attention of the Jedi and force them back into war against the Sith. Or just a distraction. part of him figured that's what it was.

"Can you search for banks? Vaults, the like. I feel this is little more than a deception."

Colette

 

[Colette]

Kahlil Noble

“A lot of effort for mere deception.” Colette muttered as she stumbled her way through the menus and sidebars of the device in her hands. “But…” Her head tilted, like a dog trying to understand something. Her hands pinched the screen again but this time she was careful not to rotate it again. Naturally, that meant she did, but with a new grip she zoomed in on the heart of the whole thing. The centerpiece if you would call it that. “This building is the only one not covered in flammable papers.”

She zoomed in as far on it as she could. Everything got blurry for a moment before it cleared up.

“A repository for safe-deposit boxes?” She seemed confused, but it had the word deposit in it so it was probably a bank or something. “It would be a lot of attention brought to this place over something as simple as a stealing from a bank…”

As they began to turn in the direction of the vault of deposit boxes, Colette couldn’t help but speak up again.

“I hope you’re right about this, or we’ll probably waste our shot at finding whoever did this.”

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"That's a good point."

That was a lot of effort, especially with another building covered in the flammable paper. He clicked his tongue before pulling on the controls. Changing their direction entirely.

"Give word to the authorities that the vaults going to be hit. This is certainly a distraction, but the one sending the message has their own reasons. And you seem far more interested in finding the arsonist. So.. If you were the one sending a message like this, where would you be?"

Colette

 

[Colette]

Kahlil Noble

Colette looked around the cityscape as they approached.

“Somewhere people wouldn’t be able to tell I did it.” She said and squinted. “Yet close enough to be able to keep an eye out.”

Close enough to see the place I was robbing, far away enough for plausible deniability, and from a spot where the Jedi temple was visible. A place where if the Jedi headed straight for it she would have had the chance to disappear into the crowds and try again at some other date.

The message was sent to the authorities, and after that Colette went back to looking again. First in one direction and then the next, except…

“Don’t look, but my bet is on the big pearly white structure. Perfect sight to the front entrance of the place, but also the entrance to the temple.” She pointed towards a building on the wrong side of the bank. “Heading straight for the building will let him get away before we even get close to the building..”