The invitation had been unusual enough to earn Shade's attention.
Admiral Burtch had never mentioned Captain Ronhar Tane or suggested that their conversation might result in her name traveling farther through Mahporeem's military establishment. Their meeting had concerned a considerably narrower proposition, one involving testing security through mock assassination attempts against personnel important enough that discovering weaknesses before a genuine assassin exploited them had obvious value. Apparently Burtch had taken something else away from their conversation. Some time afterward, an invitation had reached Shade requesting another meeting, this one concerning possible employment with the Imperial Remnant.
That was enough to bring her back to Corrox.
The coordinates were considerably more interesting than the invitation. Shade had checked them before making planetfall and again before leaving her ship, initially wondering whether someone had made a mistake. The portion of Corrox she entered hardly looked like somewhere a military organization would conduct recruitment. Half-completed structures stood beside buildings that appeared to have been abandoned before anyone had bothered finishing them, creating precisely the sort of neglected district most people passed through without ever finding a reason to stop. The building identified in her instructions distinguished itself by looking worse than most of its neighbors.
Shade stopped across the street from it.
Crimson eyes traveled slowly over the deteriorating exterior, lingering upon broken sections and unfinished construction without giving any outward indication of what she thought. There were two possibilities. Either the coordinates were wrong, or the appearance was intentional. Considering who had invited her and what little she had been told, Shade considered the second considerably more likely. A faint trace of amusement touched her expression before disappearing as she crossed the street.
She followed the instructions she'd been given rather than testing the location's security for weaknesses. She was here as a prospective employee, not an intruder, and there was little value in making her hosts regret providing the coordinates before anyone had even explained what they wanted from her. That didn't stop Shade from observing. Habits developed across decades did not disappear simply because she had been invited through the door. Entrances, exits, personnel, surveillance, response points, and the small procedural choices people made when admitting someone unfamiliar were quietly cataloged as she moved farther inside.
The contrast beneath the surface was almost enough to earn another smile.
Whatever Shade had expected to find underneath the ruin, the facility itself answered several questions while creating considerably more. The neglect above had been theater. Below it existed the sort of installation that required money, planning, and considerable effort to conceal. Her eyes passed over what she could see without openly staring at anything, taking in the equipment and construction while allowing whoever escorted her deeper into the facility to believe her attention remained primarily upon the route ahead. Someone had deliberately shown an outsider something they clearly preferred most of Corrox never knew existed.
Either Admiral Burtch's recommendation carried considerable weight, or the people waiting for her were very serious about whatever they intended to offer. Perhaps both.
Shade wasn't entirely certain what Burtch had told them about her. Judging from the invitation, it had been enough. She doubted the word
assassin had been omitted. There was little reason to hide that history anymore, and anyone considering employing her deserved to know precisely what sort of person they were inviting into a concealed military facility. The Veiled Sight had trained her to kill long before Republic Intelligence had taught her to apply many of the same talents toward a different purpose. Neither organization owned her now. Shade had spent enough of her life serving institutions to have become considerably more selective about the obligations she accepted. That didn't mean she objected to employment.
Varin had recently made her an offer of his own, but she had made one condition particularly clear before accepting it. Her life remained hers. She could leave when necessary, pursue her own affairs, and decide what other work she accepted. Varin had agreed. Whatever the Imperial Remnant wanted from her would therefore be judged upon its own merits rather than dismissed simply because someone else currently paid for some of her time.
By the time Shade reached the appointed meeting place, she had returned most of what she'd observed to the back of her mind. It would remain there if she needed it, but openly advertising how much attention she'd paid on the way inside would accomplish little. Her expression was composed when her crimson gaze settled upon the man she had been sent to meet. The information accompanying the invitation had given her his name and rank, sparing either of them the awkwardness of guessing identities.
"Captain Tane."
The greeting was accompanied by a slight inclination of her head, respectful without becoming unnecessarily formal. Shade allowed a brief silence before continuing.
"Admiral Burtch and I had an interesting conversation when we met." A faint suggestion of dry humor entered her voice. Being asked to repeatedly pretend to assassinate an admiral qualified as interesting by almost any reasonable standard.
"Apparently he thought enough of it to pass my name along."
Her gaze remained steadily upon Ronhar. There was no suspicion in her posture, but neither was there eagerness to please. They had invited her here because they wanted something from her. Shade had come because she was interested enough to discover what that something was.
"Your invitation mentioned the possibility of working for the Imperial Remnant, but very little about what that would actually involve." Her hands rested easily at her sides as she regarded him.
"I'm listening."
It was neither acceptance nor rejection. Shade had spent too much of her life accepting obligations before understanding the true cost of making either decision blindly. Captain Tane had gone to considerable trouble simply by arranging for her to enter a facility whose existence was clearly meant to remain hidden, and Admiral Burtch had apparently placed enough confidence in her abilities to open another door without her asking him to do so.
The least she could do was hear what waited on the other side.
Ronhar Tane
Shade
. From what the Mahporeem Intelligence had been able to dig up on her, she was a highly skilled and rather dangerous assassin, and her known employers included the likes of Sith Lords. Yet
Admiral Burtch
had seemingly trusted the woman enough to meet with her personally, and he had gone so far to recommend that the Imperial Remnant make serious efforts to recruit
