Private Moonless Nights

[Val Pellian]

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
BACK OF THE VAN
Isobel Nakano

Spy life wasn't all about glamour, martini's and perfectly cut suits. Sometimes it was far more mundane or even boring than that. Sometimes HQ decided to put you on an operation to keep your other skills sharp too. Intelligence gathering, surveillance, whatever was needed by the Directorate at that point in time. Val knew better than to complain, if they knew it got a rise out of you, they'd be more inclined to do it again.

Besides, it wasn't that bad.

They had gotten some of that fancy Atrisian take-out, his partner-in-crime was always a riot to be around and there was still a chance of everything going south. In which case, Val would get his shot at action anyway.

"What do you think the odds are that we will actually catch them up to no good tonight?" Val asked over his shoulder as he tapped the screen. The static flicker didn't inspire a lot of confidence in him.

They should have replaced the gear years ago.

Or maybe this operation simply didn't require the most advanced tech available to the Heirate.

"Gods, that take out sounds heavenly, I can't wait to devour it." His stomach just about managed not to growl. Which was just right, because he didn't want to seem like an undignified slob in front of Nakano. She had already enough ammo in her belt to slap him around the ears with. Making it easy on her was exactly the last thing that Val wanted to do in this case.

"Maybe they will fuck up and I can pull my gun out... what do you think, we can probably take the whole crew on with just the two of us, no?"

Val grinned over his shoulder to Isobel.

 

[Isobel Nakano]

[A WEAPON TO YIELD]​

Isobel had retrieved the takeout.

It was common knowledge among those who were in the know that the best Atrisian restaurants in New Sterandel -- much like anywhere else -- were typically owned and operated by Atrisian immigrants who recognized kith and kin. If you showed an affinity for the food and culture, and doubly so if you spoke the language, they would take care of you. Thus was Isobel Nakano, proud daughter of an Atrisian father who spoke three different dialects fluently, loaded down with lots of extras and freebies when she returned to the van.

She climbed into the back. The van was older, true -- all the better to interface with the charmingly vintage gadgets -- but it had some creature comforts: to wit, a pair of captain's chairs that swiveled toward the center, each with a tray that telescoped from the armrest so that when they were pointed at each other, it was like sitting across a small table from one another. That was nice.

Unfortunately it wasn't in the cards. With just the two of them, they could not afford to have their eyes off the target. So she set the bag on the floor in front of the surveillance system near Val's foot and then carefully levered herself into the other seat. She dug into the bag, found two sweating bottles of Atrisian soda in ludicrous colors, placing the green one in Val's cupholder and the pink one in her own.

"Low," Isobel answered his first question. "This isn't like Dosuun. Or Yag'dhul," she added, and the word came out flatter than she had meant it to. "Thank the stars. Let's see -- fireglass noodles, that's you. Oh, look, they put a fork in for you. Bless." She handed over the carton with the fork and returned to the bag. "Moonrice with braised nuna for me. Smells like -- ooh. Cloudcaps, too. Chu does take care of us."

Isobel set the carton on the ledge in front of her and then pulled another carton out, this one a clamshell of some kind of biodegradable foam. When she opened it, she smiled broadly as from within arose the tantalizing aroma of fresh nerf-and-chive crescent dumplings and steamed cloud-buns. These, of course, were pristine white on the outside, with no clue as to the filling within. The surprise was part of the fun.

At the very bottom was a small cylinder of reinforced paper which, when opened, gave a beautiful smell of pickled something. In the dim light, she couldn't quite make it out, but she suspected it was starfruit and if they were very lucky, lotus stem. And of course, a small waxed paper bag of plum-sugar fortune wafers rounded it out.

Isobel had only ordered -- and paid for -- the two mains and the two drinks. Chu, whose father had run Nine Plums Kitchen in Little Atrisia in Avalonia and had started it up in Little Atrisia in New Sterandel before handing it off to his son, really did look after them. He had even come to recognize Val whose Atrisian was improving but still not quite there. Presumably because they came together once or twice a week.

She shook the chopsticks out of the sleeve they came in and snapped them in half. "We can definitely take them all on," she observed, her eyes lingering on the camera feed. "The mission isn't to take them all on. It's -- what was it? Catalogue movements and record those coming and going for identification and further surveillance." Isobel rubbed the chopsticks together to dislodge any leftover fibers and then plucked a crescent dumpling out of the container with all the elegance of a cat swiping a morsel from its human's plate.

"Boring. They're making sure we can still do the little things without exercising -- well, all the prerogatives that come with Cipher status." She cracked her soda, causing a spritz of something sweet and citrusy to permeate the are briefly. After a sip, she set it down again. "Makes me wonder whatever happened to Graham," Isobel said after a slight pause to chew and swallow and then think some more. She studiously avoided his eyes with her own, keeping them focused straight on the camera feeds. "Did you ever...?"

Val Pellian​

 

[Val Pellian]

"Low," Isobel answered his first question. "This isn't like Dosuun. Or Yag'dhul," she added, and the word came out flatter than she had meant it to.

He didn't say anything, but reached out, lacing his fingers into hers and giving a quiet squeeze.

Val knew.

It was his personal failure, after all. After the disintegration of the First Order, he had hunted him for weeks. Ripping through the man's capital and defenses once the FOSB's protection ran out. Somehow the man managed to elude him. Which in turn meant that Isobel Nakano had to live with the knowledge that that beast was still out there, somewhere.

But there was nothing that Val could say to make it right, besides offering his quiet support.

"The mission isn't to take them all on. It's -- what was it? Catalogue movements and record those coming and going for identification and further surveillance."

"Boring. They're making sure we can still do the little things without exercising -- well, all the prerogatives that come with Cipher status."

Val sighed and nodded there finally.

"Yeah, like we are initiates that need to prove themselves. How long have we been in this business?" It grated him that for some reason he still needed to prove himself despite all of that.

He had stayed with the FOSB even after Delilah had extended her shield over that man.

If that hadn't been a sign of his loyalty, Val wasn't sure what was.

His mouth watered at the smell of the food though. Again, it wasn't so bad. Being together with Isobel in a cramped environment with good food was nice, but it was the principal of the matter.

Head tilted slightly as Isobel asked after Graham.

Another sensitive point.

Val had never hid what he was, who he was, but somehow they had managed to make it work during that period of time.

"Tried to reach out a few times." Val murmured, thinking back to that chaotic period when the First Order was in freefall and nothing they had been building seemed sure any longer. "Vanished from the surface of the world." The large man shrugged there finally as he began to tear into his food with a mmm.

"Maybe one of her little schemes finally came back to her. It was a wonder how many plates she was spinning at the same time."

Isobel Nakano

 

[Isobel Nakano]

Isobel was of two minds about Delilah Graham.

The first -- justifiably outraged -- won out most days. The second was grudging respect. Until the whole business with Harlow, she had had no complaints with Graham. The older woman's dry wit and unsentimental approach to intelligence work suited Isobel just fine. Graham had always made sure field operatives had what they needed and that they had political cover. No hearings, no briefings, no fits, no fights, no feuds. Just the work and the paycheck.

She was good on comms, too. Isobel could still almost hear her: Excellent work, Agent Nightshade. Now head for the exit.

Those had been the days. The Heirate was a different beast, despite the shared First Order DNA. "It's just as likely the people are in there planning the Prime Minister's birthday party than they are doing procurement fraud against the Ministry of Defense," Isobel mused between mouthfuls of moonrice. "It's too... clean here, don't you think? I mean, even compared to Avalonia, which was pristine. Once it became a galactic capital it brought in all sorts of elements. But Aegis? Like a whistle."

She paused, jammed her chopsticks into her rice so that they stayed there, angled absurdly off to the side, and picked up her soda for a sip of her drink.

"There are worse problems to have," Isobel observed thoughtfully, reaching over to adjust a camera control knob before setting down the drink again. "But it will make these people soft." She gestured vaguely, as if to encapsulate They Who Were Not Present In The Van, for surely Val Pellian and Isobel Nakano could not be made soft, not by authentic Atrisian takeaway and not by a high standard of living on a peaceful, temperate world.

Val Pellian​

 

[Val Pellian]

Isobel Nakano

Val knew exactly what she was talking about.

Having been stationed on Yag'dhul for most of his intelligence career meant that Pellian was entirely comfortable in the grit and grime. Urban sprawl was his home. He had become somewhat of a stereotype by the time Lotus had met him. The smoke-eating, coffee swallowing hard ass that was making one morally questionable decision after the other in service of their nation.

Unlike some he had never forgotten his loyalty, no matter how much blood had stained his hands.

But he had been grit incarnated regardless. Somehow Isobel had managed to look past all that.

"Can't say I am a big fan of the current direction." Val said casually in between bites as he offered his drink to her, knowing that Isobel liked the particular blend he had ordered.

"Too much moral rough housing. Nations aren't build on pretty words, but hey. Long live the Queen. Fortan knows what she is doing." It did allow the Heirate to smoothly insert itself into the High Republic. If they had still been operating under the First Order banner and the FOSB had been in charge of their security apparatus?

Somehow Val doubted they'd have been as happily received.

"But all the rules and stipulations can be grating. Feels more like protecting our image than actually doing what we gotta do, you know?"

And yeah, the danger of softness invading their hierarchy was an ever-lasting threat.

Could the new higher-ups pull their weight in the same way that Graham had done for as long as she had? Val wasn't sure yet.

 

[Isobel Nakano]

Isobel took the drink he offered and took a sip.

She regarded him over the neck of the bottle before handing it back, and continued studying his profile after. Light, but he was handsome. But he was also wrong. Isobel didn't look past his grit; it would have been foolish to try. Val's ability to take action where others -- including Isobel herself, probably -- dithered was what made him an outstanding intelligence officer.

Plus it was handy to have him around when a centipede got into the flat.

"That sounds good in the abstract," she answered him, looking away from his face at last. "But I don't know that one necessarily requires the other. You can make hard choices, you can secure the homeland without it having to be bloody every single time." This was truly a far cry from the Isobel Nakano of the olden days, whose unofficial motto around the Bureau had been Sometimes You've Just Got To Kill A Guy, scrawled on a sticky note that she held over the cubicle partition when colleagues were in difficulty and needed some advice.

Actually most often than not it was when they were talking to IT on the comlink. But still. Classic Nakano.

"It's funny, isn't it?" She took another bite of her moonrice and chewed, swallowed, letting the thought sit. "You're the one who brought me in and here I am, more Heirate-coded than you. I never took Fortan as one who shied away from the use of force, or the deployment of a dirty trick or two. But not as a first choice, you know?" She took another bite, toyed with her chopsticks in a manner that would have earned a stern rebuke from her late Atrisian grandmother. "And image isn't nothing. Maybe it's tedious and self-important, and it's definitely managed by functionaries who wouldn't last ten minutes on Yag'dhul, but it isn't nothing. It's a tool, like anything else."

She reached for her chopsticks again, but did not immediately pick up more food. She turned them between her fingers, lining up the tapered ends until they sat perfectly even, some ritual to the memory of that same Atrisian grandmother, something that said, see, Gam-Gam, I can do it properly.

"They're not stupid. Fortan, Westaway. Any of them. They know the rules aren't there because they think we can make the galaxy nice. They exist because they know as well as anyone what people like us do when no one is allowed to ask questions." She let it sit between them for a breath. "And because, yes, the Republic would have had an anyeurism if we'd arrived with the same red and black banner talking about the necessity of -- hold on."

Isobel sat up straighter, reached for the controls with one hand, touching the camera focus knob. "Did you see that? That's the second time that speeder has driven past."

Val Pellian​

 

[Val Pellian]

Isobel Nakano

He wasn't completely surprised when Isobel came out in favor of the new approach.

Back in the day they had been more aligned on these matters.

Sometimes a person needed to die. Sometimes a person was in the way. Sometimes a person had to get hurt. These were logical pathways that they both had followed to their natural conclusions many a time. But after Isobel had left the service, she had been given more freedom to think for herself and do things her way.

Lotus had been brilliant for her.

It had been a pleasure watching her unfold.

But it had also meant that their approach to their work began to diverge too.

"I know." Val finally said with a nod as he picked his own food between chopsticks. He wasn't as capable at it as Isobel, probably because he hadn't been doing it since he was a child. But the noodle stands of Yag'dhul had had a regular guest in one Val Pellian. "But that isn't gonna stop me from complaining about the new lick of paint and how much red tape there is these days."

His tone had only humor in it however.

Good-natured grumbling so to speak.

He was about to continue but then Isobel alerted him to the speeder. Yeah, they had noted it down the first time it came around. "Definitely not a pizza delivery service circling around for the right apartment..." Val muttered as he tuned the integrated camera system of the van. Making sure to take snaps of its license and any other characteristics.

"Person on the bike is wearing a helmet. Also look at those leathers. It's pretty damn hot, even at this hour, for that sort of get-up. Don't you think?"

A grin started playing on his lips.

"Is it time to start asking pointy questions, you think?" Someone was getting eager.

 

[Isobel Nakano]

Isobel started a trace of the license plate number as Val studied the speeder.

"Peculiar," she concurred with him, watching the speeder bike on the cameras.

The question about asking questions gave her pause. "I don't think they'll stop just because we flag them down," she muttered. "But they are slowing down... let's see. What are you doing, friend?" She took another bite of her rice as they watched the speeder pull up near the gate into the warehouse. "Look, they've parked up. They're getting off."

Isobel craned her neck, as if doing so could expand the view of the cameras. When it did not, she huffed and set the carton down. "I'm going to pull the van up. Maybe we can block them in once they're out of sight."

She extricated herself from the rear seat and clambered across the equipment and whatnot in the rear of the van to settle into the driver's seat. She maneuvered the van so that it was double-parked. "Should we put a tracker on it?"

Val Pellian​

 

[Val Pellian]

Isobel Nakano

The tricky thing was that they had no idea what they were investigating to begin with.

They hadn't been given more than 'suspicious activity' and 'figure it out' as their case assignment. It truly felt like they were back in the early days of their spycraft career and being tested. Maybe Isobel was right, maybe this was just their way of re-earning their spurs and making sure they didn't take their 'bad FOSB' habits back here.

"I am less interested in where that speeder will go next and more interested in what's happening in that warehouse." Val said honestly as he bit his lip, watching the figure disappear inside once he got off of his speeder.

"How badly do you think the Director will reprimand us, if we sneak out?"

Back in the FOSB days he would already be inside. Cracking skulls or extracting information in some other fashion. But here, they needed to be more cautious about things.

It was making his palms itch.

 

[Isobel Nakano]

"No reason we can't do both, Crane," Isobel said with an impish grin.

She swung the van around, parking it in a legit space. No point trapping the speeder bike and draw attention. She turned the van off and ventured back into the back compartment. Her nimble fingers keyed open the equipment locker and she tossed him a compact blaster, taking its twin and sticking it into the back of the waistband of her trousers. She already had knives tucked away in her boots, in her jacket, and tucked into her hair, disguised as hairpins.

Isobel took a few more gadgets: lockpicking kit, keycard scramblers, and a handful of tracker dots.

"Candy shop is open back here," she told him. Isobel found her jacket, tugged it on, and loaded the pockets with the goodies. The way it hung, down past her hips, allowed for it to disguise the presence of her blaster. "Lock up when you're done and meet me outside."

Isobel levered the door open and stepped out into the moonless night. New Sterandel was going through a heatwave that was uncharacteristic for the usually temperate climate. The jacket was designed to adapt to things like that, so Isobel remained relatively comfortable. She took one of the tracker dots, activated its signature, and found an inconspicuous spot to stick it on the speeder bike, then sent a text to Noema Kintar to track it as a lead they would follow up later.

"Don't see why they'd complain," she answered Val as she returned to the doorway, leaning in to watch him. "We're not sneaking out. We're... surveilling. That's in the bleeding job description and it happens to be what they asked us to do. The only reason they'd complain is if you shot the place up for no reason." Her eyes lingered on his face a moment.

"Not... planning to do that, are you?"

@ name here​

 

[Val Pellian]

Isobel Nakano

"Ah... I knew there was a reason why I liked you, Lotus." Teasing her lightly as he watched her start to pick up her equipment. He caught his own blaster and pushed it into the ankle holster. Val enjoyed watching Isobel work. Taking more of the gear, accenting the knives already hiding on her persona, it was all... rather exciting.

He reminded himself to rent a fancy hotel for the weekend.

They deserved a vacation after being stuck in this cramped van.

"What hotel did you like on Atrisia again?" Absently as he took over from her and began to load up his own equipment. A knife or two, lockpick, knuckleduster, couple of other things.

Once done he locked up and stepped out.

Right in time to witness Isobel placing the tracker. "Atta girl..." Muttering as Val looked around, making sure they wouldn't be spotted while they were busy here.

He looked back when she asked that question.

It seemed her gaze had the same question in it.

Val smirked.

"Well, it's been a while since I caused a real mess, hasn't it been?"

 

[Isobel Nakano]

"On Atrisia?" Isobel asked him, and rolled her eyes back thoughtfully, trying to remember. "There was the Blue Orchid, I think, in the city? Depends. Why?"

She led the way toward the gatehouse where the speeder rider had gone, but then threw her arm out to stop his progress if he was following next to her. She gestured with her other hand to the small dome camera on on the overhang of the gatehouse. "Camera there." She pulled out her datapad and fired up the app, holding it up. At that range, the camera was equipped to detect electrical signals to determine if the camera was operational. It lit up red on the screen. "And it's powered. We'll have to find another way."

She looked around, then jerked her head back the way they came, where the sidewalk ran in front of the warehouse yard.

"Let's take a walk," Isobel said. "Maybe there's another way. Or a weak spot."

They fell into a companionable stroll. "It's been awhile," she conceded. "Since you made a mess. But you have that look in your eye."

Val Pellian​

 

[Val Pellian]

Isobel Nakano

"Well, I think we deserve a bit of a vacation after this, don't you? What better vacation than your favorite hotel on Atrisia." Teasing her a little bit.

Except for Val taking her on a vacation, that part was never a joke.

He watched the camera as Isobel tried to work her magic. Sadly this time around she wouldn't be able to hack them through. He was half of mind to pull his service pistol out and shoot it. But that would defeat the purpose of a quiet approach. Even if Val wanted to make a mess eventually, you didn't start causing a ruckus before you were properly inside.

Too much opportunity for your enemies to lay a trap or get away.

"Lead the way, ma'am." Kissing her cheek as they walked. Lacing his fingers into hers, to make it seem like they were simply a couple on a stroll. Which in reality they were, except that wasn't the capacity they were here for tonight.

"I just..."

Val licked his lips as he thought about it.

"Part of me misses the Order. Things were straightforward back then. We had a job to do and we did it. People didn't question me about the methods I used."

And Yag'dhul in particular had been a wild wild west. The things he had done there as a station chief? It would have gotten him court martialed several times over if he had tried to pull that here.

"No part of you misses the freedom we had back then?"

 

[Isobel Nakano]

Isobel cut her eyes sidelong to Val.

"You're feeling awfully nostalgic today," she observed as they made their way down the block. She kept her gaze moving, her eyes looking along the wall behind which lay the warehouse yard, always looking for a way in. At the very least, a gap in the barbed wire at the top of the fence could well provide a place for him to boost her up and over. "For the way things were. For the old First Order."

She cast her mind back to those days.

There was something that felt inevitable about the First Order then that made her brain feel itchy now, in hindsight, having seen the First Order collapse not once but twice. She still remembered the disbelief, the shattering sense of cognitive dissonance, watching the Ssi-Ruuk dropships fill the skies over Dosuun that fateful day. Knowing that there was no way for the defense fleet to stop them. Knowing with just as much conviction that Sieger Ren and Natasi Fortan and Cyrus Tregessar and Rolf Amsel could not fail.

That day had taught many home truths, truths that Isobel still felt in her bones. The first was that nothing lasted forever, no matter how good the propaganda. The second was not to underestimate Natasi Fortan. The woman had saved them all and died. Yet here she was, alive again.

"Any special reason? Are you feeling that you can't get the job done because the Heirate doesn't like you shooting first and asking questions only once the auditors have caught wind?"

Val Pellian​

 

[Val Pellian]

Isobel Nakano

"Caught me in a mood, I suppose." It was more than that though. At first he had been excited to join the latest brain child of Natasi Fortan, the Iron Lady, the one who had kept a nation together with sheer will and force. Granted, his complaining didn't stop the fact that he was still proud of the work that they were doing, but... it had a different quality to it all together.

They were no longer a grand superpower in the Galaxy that could make things move simply by pointing in a direction. They were smaller, more contained and far more cautious.

He understood it. That didn't mean he had to like it.

"No, we are getting the job done either way." That was not it, but it made sense Isobel's mind went to that. He had always prided himself on his success rate. On getting things done. "I just... had a way of doing things. You know that, you saw it first hand many times." The idiom 'teaching an old dog new tricks' was old and stale, but it felt apt here.

"Why does it matter if I grab someone by the throat, pin them against the wall and shoot their knee out? As long as we get answers, right?"

But that wasn't the way to do things anymore.

Yes, they could kill, but only if their lives were in danger. If they actively saw that they were being targeted for death. Otherwise they had to use other means to get the job done.

"Don't you miss being able to cut back and do some damage on people that deserve it?"

 

[Isobel Nakano]

Isobel frowned thoughtfully as they approached a corner.

Val's complaints were slightly off-putting, she had to admit to herself. It seemed like his frustration was in not being able to cleanly maim people in the way he once had. There were ways of achieving the same goals without blunt force violence. Perhaps it took more time, perhaps it took more effort, but that didn't mean there weren't benefits.

"I think -- " she began, but her voice trailed off before she could finish: you spent too long out on Yag'dhul. Her eyes had lit upon something promising. " -- I think we've found our way in."

The wall had a gap -- not by design. It looked like there had been a speeder accident that hadn't yet been repaired. A piece of sheet metal was laid against the wall, bridging the gap in the wall, but it was set at an angle such that they could get some leverage on it. "Help me," Isobel muttered, pushing the metal back so that she could slip through the gap, edging along the wall to the end of the sheet metal. She stuck her head out, looked around. "Clear," she told him, then stepped out from behind the sheet metal.

Isobel planted her feet and used all her strength to pull the metal back to allow space for Val to join her.

Val Pellian​

 

[Val Pellian]

Isobel Nakano

It didn't take a social genius to read the subtle telltale signs of someone you have known for decades.

Val grimaced there and quickly covered it up. Sometimes he forgot that even from the start, Isobel might have been willing to do the hard things, but she had never been one that reveled in it. She had done it because it had been necessary and nothing more. That was different from Val, who had thrived in that dog eat dog environment of Yag'dhul.

Gone native - his reviews had said more than a few times.

It was a wonder that as rough around the edges he was, Isobel had found herself drawn to him.

"I think -- " she began, but her voice trailed off before she could finish: you spent too long out on Yag'dhul. Her eyes had lit upon something promising. " -- I think we've found our way in."

He was bracing himself for a scathing assessment but it never came. Saved by environmental storytelling. Val blinked and then nodded, leaning in to pull the sheet back enough for Isobel to first poke her head in and then push through it. Once she was in, he followed, grateful of her own assistance until they were both on the inside.

"Careful, miss Nakano, you might start to take after me after all." Val murmured in her ear and kissed her cheek softly. The gentle kiss the only acknowledgement he'd make that he didn't want her ... scared of him.

The corridor was damp, shadowy, but the noises from deeper in the facility reached them even here.

"What do you think? Drug operation?" Val muttered as he followed the sounds, pulling his service pistol out just to be safe.