Aaron's apartment is spartan with a gentle orange glow cast across the window blinds creating the shadow of black bars over the whole room. When the apartment doors part company, a phosphorus light fills the room with a spotlight on the floor shaped by the opening.
Valory dips her head into the light, which casts an aura of shadowed lines behind her. There is a wall immediately to her right. She bobs her head to the left, scanning the room, and skulks on inside. She leaps from one place in the apartment to the next with immense curiosity. She leaves no drawer unopened, the few that there are. And she scrutinizes the wall for secret places.
Aaron is next in the apartment and the others follow behind.
He commences closing the drawers that Valory has opened.
Tulia is not abrupt, but her right hand rises to rest just above her hip; anticipating the need for her laser pistol. She has locked eyes in the far left corner of the room. In a chair next to the one and only set of closed blinds is the soft burning glow at the end of a cigar.
Only now Valory draws close enough to notice him.
She is face to face with the stranger.
VALORY: Hi! Aaron didn't mention a roommate.
Aaron stands next to the darkened window
and opens the blinds.
AARON: I don't have one.
VALORY: Oh.
He puffs a little smoke in the space of her retreat.
And she backs away with suitable concern.
RUNE: Don't you know those things will kill you?
VALORY: I wasn't thinking about taking it up.
RUNE: I wasn't talking about the cigar.
You don't happen to have an extra
one on you? Do you, friend?
Nicodemus removes his cigar and
studies Rune with contempt.
He takes his cigared hand and points.
NICODEMUS: You're fired.
AARON: Everyone, allow me to
introduce our latest business partner.
NICODEMUS: How did you trigger-happy
idiots manage to stay alive this long?
ROSS: Some of us just can't help ourselves.
NICODEUMS: I mean, it had to be him shooting
off his mouth at the vault that gave you away.
TULIA: Actually, that was a rare
occasion of radio silence on his part.
NICODEMUS: Well imagine that.
TULIA: Did you have business with us or not?
Aaron said something about another job.
NICODEMUS: That's hardly a generous tone
coming from you after I taxied everyone down here.
TULIA: What's the job, Nick?
The chair creeks, relieved of his weight.
He rises and by rough approximation is a
match in height for Esben. He takes one
step and leans down to Tulia.
He studies her.
NICODEMUS: You spent time
around Prestmoors.
TULIA: Quite a bit, yeah.
NICODEMUS: Then I can only assume
that you know better and are
trying to sour the deal.
He extinguishes the cigar in a glass behind him.
NICODEMUS: I've clearly wasted my time here.
TULIA: We didn't get paid for the last job.
Someone's been gunning for us.
We'd still like to hear about who that is.
Why should we take another job from you?
NICODEMUS: Didn't he explain it to you?
You didn't get paid because you didn't
complete the job. It's not my concern
that you ran into competition.
I only knew about you.
SWEETS: What's to stop it
from happening again?
NICODEMUS: Mr. Vincent's no one you
send a hit squad after. But he also thinks
no else can get away from Janriel.
And I'm betting he's right.
So we get in and out.
VALORY: I'm sure security
will be a breeze.
NICODEMUS: And then we go way out.
We blow passed that blockade and
beyond the reach of anyone
working out of Janriel.
RUNE: A ship?
AARON: According to our mystery client,
this might be the only long-range
vessel that avoided confiscation.
We take it. Everybody gets a new life.
NICODEMUS: On top of that, you get paid for doing it.
TULIA: If he has the ship, why hasn't he left already?
NICODEMUS: It's a big empire to leave behind.
But make no mistake, he'll leave us all stranded
here when things get bad enough.
Too many transients got caught up
with no place to go when the blockade formed.
ROSS: I think I like it.
RUNE: Yeah. I'm in.
Esben sighs a pleasurable growl.
Tulia shivers at Clemence's smile.
TULIA: What's the plan?
NICODEMUS: I introduce you all as new hires.
I'll play up that street fight you had with that
mechanical competition of yours. I don't see
your bounties here. Just as well you got rid
of them. Less to explain. We bypass security,
nock a few heads, and are home free.
TULIA: (skeptical) Doesn't sound
too different from the last plan.
ROSS: Is there any way that
you could get him to move it?
NICODEMUS: What would I need you for?
The Shadow's Heart is locked down tight.
Aaron's interest is heightened.
NICODEMUS: It's newly acquired. And he's
paranoid about word getting out about it
or even risk it being seen. And Mr. Vincent
won't let anybody tell him any differently.
VALORY: Hey, what's this?
Valory holds up a dress uniform she
removed from a foot locker on
the other side of the room.
It is a dyed ruddy leather.
AARON: Put that back.
VALORY: But what is it?
Rune takes a shoulder of the uniform.
RUNE: It's an imperial era dress uniform.
They were all supposed to be destroyed.
TULIA: You're a loyalist?
AARON: It's not what it looks like.
NICODEMUS: This is exactly the break we needed.
Now our friend here can go in as a turncoat.
His dissatisfaction with the Republic regime
coupled with his claim to have old contacts
who informed him about a raid about to take
place on Mr. Vincent will be a sure way in.
VALORY: You hate the Republic?
RUNE: Of course he does.
They made him change careers.
ESBEN: Stranding him
here with the rest of us.
RUNE: Yeah. No wonder
he agreed to work with this guy.
AARON: Now hold on a minute.
Just for the record, I do not hate
the Republic. I served and did
my duty and now that's over.
But I won't sell out the uniform.
NICODEMUS: You servicemen always avowed
high ideals as the face of the Empire, but even you
got your hands dirty alongside us from time to time.
Prestmoors will always be remembered as the real
backbone of the Empire.
AARON: The Prestmoor's methods are
precisely why the Empire fell. I'm nothing
like you. I don't miss the old days. And I
never turned my back on the Republic.
I'm right here trying to make a difference.
NICODEMUS: And look how your
precious Republic has rewarded you.
You live in squalor.
AARON: Maybe you're the
reason for the blockade.
NICODEMUS: I never swore loyalty to any Republic.
We would have conquered all of the Empire's enemies
for the asking. But we were kept in reserve. For our
so-called methods. You extend the suffering of the
weak among Janriel. You ease the occupation of the
blockade and thereby enable it. Without you,
a leader would rise up to rebel against the
regime even among these cowards.
AARON: You, I suppose?
NICODEMUS: The senators have bowed
to appease the masses. I do not need the rabble.
I only want to stop suffering because of them.
AARON: You were at the head of every conquest
the Empire ever led.
NICODEMUS: Precisely. This stalemate would be finished.
All opposition would be crushed and Janriel would be
free under our protection.
AARON: The Republic fosters peace.
NICODEMUS: The Republic fosters ingratitude.
It is too weak to control its own people. This last
desperate show of force is to stave off invasion.
I suppose you never considered that before.
None of us will want to be here when that
invasion begins. Come to think of it,
maybe I will.
TULIA: Look, the Empire's dead and gone
and no one here has a special loyalty for
the Republic. And if I'm going to be
honest I don't hear any other ideas
about how to get out. So we go
with his plan. We do this right.
Everyone can go their own
ways once we're beyond
the reach of the Republic.
AARON: I don't wear the uniform.
I can provide credible evidence
of the raid. And I sought you out.
NICODEMUS: Deal.
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