Curiosity killed the Kep (Cal\Necro)

He was close, so close. His investigations were leading him everyday to something concrete. Soon he would have solid evidence to take to the presses. Thinking of the presses though, he had recently been informed that his civilian counterpart - Shawn Morrey, was found dead in his office. It was apparently an accidental death from auto-erotic asphyxiation. CorSec was charged with protecting him and the embarrassment of the situation made them supress any and all information related to him. Kep didn't buy it for a second. Shawn was also investigating this criminal organization and he was also close to coming to a conclusion. Kep told him it was too dangerous and that Shawn should leave it alone. Shawn didn't listen and now he was dead, supposedly from killing himself. What was suspicious was that Shawn had no data on him, nor in his office. Apparently anything he had uncovered had gone missing.

This put Kep on edge. He figured that he was their natural next target. He couldn't die, not yet. He couldn't let himself die until he had finished his report. This was far too important to go unknown by the public. Many in CorSec told him he was chasing a fantasy organization that didn't exist, Kep knew better. The seemingly "random" criminal acts going on were too coordinated, too organized. It appeared that criminal activity in Corellia had begun to support itself rather than be a scene of incessant inter-group violence. Something, or someone had to be keeping the various criminal factions in line.

He decided he would go deep underground, deep undercover. He left everything behind him, and took to the underworld of Corellia. He abandoned his home, his office, everything. He couldn't afford to make himself so obvious of a target. If someone was after him, like he knew there was, they would have to find him.

Oh the boredom, it was painful. For hours Darvek lay there, head propped up on his hands, occasionally turning to look down the scope again in case his contract appeared. From sunrise to sundown he spent his time watching that office and that building. Spent ten minutes pacing, nothing, went to get some Ithorian take-out, nothing. It was beginning to seem like this man would never show up. Then it hit him, what if he really wasn't showing up? If he had gotten some sort of tipoff before, he might have gone into hiding. You mean I sat up here all morning? He thought, exasperatedly. "Quay be damned." He swore as he packed up his gun into it's case.'

If his target had gone into hiding, Darvek would be forced to search every location that his target was known to frequent. First stop was the man's apartment on the 200th floor of the 274x building. Kicking in the door didn't buy him anything but a sore foot, as there was no one there and no evidence of where he had gone. Darvek made himself a sandwich before he left, he felt he was owed that much. Narrowly avoiding two security officers who had been called due to noise disturbances, he made his way back to his rented car and on to his next destination.

With two of the three known locations on the dossier marked off, Darvek had to cross his fingers that the man he was looking for was in the last place, the South Sector slums. The slums felt a little bit like Nar Shadaa with the shifty characters and the poverty, but without the class that criminal cartels added to the feel. As he traversed the narrow alleyways it began to rain, making it harder to look for his target while at the same time making it harder for his target to possibly recognize him, if he knew who was after him that is.

He stopped in at a musty little bar so that he could wring himself out and get something to drink. His contractors had messed up before they had even hired him for the case. They should have dealt with the officer first, then went after the reporter, all they had done was give the signal for the officer to disappear. He sat down at the counter and ordered some spiced ale. Then, making sure nobody was too close to hear, and asked the bartender, "Do you know where I could find a man Kep Looma? Tall Mon Calamari guy? He may be going by the names Bro Koon, or Doln Ziil? Think about it while you're fetching my drink." This guy was making things difficult for Darvek, and when people make things difficult for Darvek he stops to take a little drinky.

The musty little bar was deceiving, it was a den of Corellia's underworld elite. Many of the patrons of the bar were bounty hunters, assassins, thugs, and others of some repute. Darvek was an outsider and garnered quite a bit of attention from the regulars of the establishment. Initially no one responded to his question but eventually a Sullustian man, very average looking by their standards came to the counter and sat next to Darvek. He ordered a rather weak drink then turned his head. "You want to know about Bro Koon? I might know him."

When the drink came the Sullustian drank a little and seemed to almost ignore Darvek for a few moments before returning his attention to him, "What's it to you?"

The implication here was quite clear, this man was seeking to be bribed for the information he could possibly have to share.

The conspicuous Weequay realized that he had seemingly garnered some attention when he walked in. He was an uncommon face in a place where people go for the common, and his arrival may have created an unwanted worry in the room. Even after he ordered his drink he could feel stares from the corners of the other patron's eyes, watching to see if he did anything suspicious. If it had been only one person staring at him, that might have been a lead of sorts, but everyone staring at him was just uncomfortable. He sat there, waiting for his drink, until he saw someone sit down in the stool next to him through his peripheral vision. Slowly he turned his attention away from his newly-arrived beverage, and over towards the Sullustian with whom he now shared the counter.


"You want to know about Bro Koon? I might know him." He looked around the room to make sure no one else was listening in on them, then he continued. "What's it to you?"

Darvek yawned and stretched, then he reached into an inside pocket of his leather jacket, and retrieved a credit chit. Slapping it down lightly on the counter in front of the other alien, he said, "Five hundred, plus another two-fifty if I catch the guy." He didn't even bother trying to haggle lower. He just wanted to get this job over with as fast as possible.

The Sullustian looked greedily at the credit chip and pocketed it quickly. Then he nodded and after looking around once again, the Sullustian said in a hushed whisper, "Bro Koon was actually just here. He left a few moments ago, out the back door." The Sullustian pointed at an almost indiscernible exit. Only someone with knowledge of the place or a keen eye would have been even able to tell that it was there. The Sullustian then got up and left. He had taken a big risk by dealing this information and he had no desire to seen Bro Koon nor this stranger ever again.

-----

Kep quietly made his way outside via an old smuggling exit used by the regulars of the establishment. His worst fears were confirmed. He was being hunted. Who was this man after him? Kep felt confident that this was a bounty hunter hired by the organization he was investigating. Those bastards wouldn't have him, not yet. They said that Kep was getting too attached to this case, too involved, but he wasn't. He was doing his job, he was doing what he knew to be right. They said that he was losing it and that he needed a break, but they were all wrong too. His mind was never clearer, more focused. Nothing would deter him from his destiny.

He moved quickly through the crowded back alley ways. He was careful to knock over every possible object in his path to make it more difficult to follow him. Kep's mind was racing, but he had to stay focused. He had to draw this assassin out and then capture him. It would be his best lead into the organization behind all of this. Yes, this was what he needed to do.