Chapter 15

Cort hadn't slept a wink in the six hours that he'd been watching Anakin. Unlike Obi-Wan, he had not sat there and mulled over his actions. Instead, he had been working hard at a computer and through his commlink. He was constantly communicating with security forces, medical personnel, and anyone else who was involved with the crisis at hand. There had been some small outbreaks of violence in parts of the city, but those had turned out to be simply rowdy teenagers who were looking for attention. People were nervous, though. They were scared that the next big attack could come soon. Cort was worried about that, too, but he was more concerned with what would happen if the people of Alonia lost faith in him. He had no clue how he would handle the situation if another attack occurred and his people refused to listen to him.

The blue light glaring from the computer screen was making his tired eyes ache. He leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms out, yawning widely. The chair tipped back slightly and he leaned his head back, squinting through his eyes at the computer screen. His eyes were heavy with sleep and Cort suddenly didn't care anymore if he fell asleep while he was keeping watch over Anakin.

"Cort! CORT!" Obi-Wan came crashing through the door and shouting.

The prince suddenly jerked awake, his leaning chair crashing to the floor and taking him with it. He groaned in annoyance and sat up, rubbing the back of his head.

"Jeez, nice entrance Ben," he drawled sarcastically. "What the heck are you screaming about?"

Obi-Wan was too excited about R2-D2's recording to even tease Cort about being grumpy. He stepped out of the doorway to let the droid roll into the room.

"You have to see this, Cort. I think that we may have found our man!"

Cort's forehead creased in confusion, but he righted his chair and sat down. Obi-Wan motioned Artoo into the center of the room and told him to replay the recording.

Cort watched the scene playing out in the middle of the floor. It was shrunk down to a diameter of about two meters around, but he could recognize the smoking buildings. The memory clip had no sound, but it was easy to tell that the man standing by the speeder was very angry when people began coming out of the ruins. Cort's eyes narrowed as he thought carefully. He asked Artoo to replay it. When he watched it more closely, he was able to see that the rubble falling away from the building, causing the man to become so angry, was actually himself breaking his way outside. When the man in the holo clip jumped in his speeder and almost ran Artoo over, Cort told the droid to freeze that frame. They were left with a face glaring angrily at them.

"When did you find this?" Cort asked Obi-Wan.

"I just saw it a few minutes ago when I woke up. I think we should start looking for him."

"That's exactly what we're going to do. Artoo, come over here and plug into this computer. I need you to download that frame from your memory clip onto the computer."

The astromech rolled over and attached his data arm to the computer. Within a few seconds, the glaring face was staring back out at them again. Cort's fingers began flying over the keys as he entered the face into a search of all the records on Alonia.

"Now all we can do as wait," Cort said, careful not to lean back in his chair this time. "Hopefully this will turn up something soon. I need to have more information about this guy's identity than a picture of his face before I send it out to security."

Obi-Wan nodded his head in understanding. He walked over to Anakin to check on the boy. He was sleeping peacefully, but still had not stirred. Obi-Wan sat in the empty chair by the bed, but faced Cort and his computer instead of Anakin. He leaned over, his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hand as he stared at the face on the screen.

"You know," he said quietly, carefully trying to grab hold of something that was on the verge of remembrance. "I think I've seen him somewhere before. I'm sure I have."

"Where?"

"I don't know. Maybe . . .nah." He shook his head and gave an annoyed sigh. Trying to concentrate, Obi-Wan took a deep breath and closed his eyes. I should be able to remember a face like that. Especially with that kind of hair! I've never seen black and white hair like that before . . .

"That's it!" he said in quiet amazement. "I couldn't see his hair!"

"What do you mean? Did you place him?"

"Yes, I think I did. Remember when you took us in the garden the other day and I thought I heard something?"

"I remember that. You went and looked over the bush."

"Well, there were two ground workers. They both had caps on, but one of them turned and looked at me. That was him. I'm sure of it!"

Cort just sat there in a stunned silence. They snuck right in here, right into the palace. The guards didn't catch them. I didn't sense them. Even Obi-Wan didn't sense them. Who are we dealing with here?

Suddenly the computer pinged. Cort turned to look at the results and Obi-Wan came and stood over his shoulder. The results gave the name of Daruc Spion, but the rest of the data looked as if it had been manipulated. It was extremely clean, free of even the blemish of a traffic violation.

"Talk about your blatantly obvious," Obi-Wan muttered. "I don't think even Master Yoda has a record that clean. Or that empty. Looks like someone has hacked into your planetary records, Cort."

Cort gave an annoyed grunt in agreement. He was quite aware of the lapses in Alonia's security as they became more apparent by the minute, and he did not appreciate having another hole pointed out to him. He read over the data again, which didn't take long. This time, though, one object caught his eye.

"Look here," he said, pointing at the screen. "It says that he's worked with the sewer systems in Jidora."

"That could explain how he knew how to get through your security," Obi-Wan offered.

"I know, but that's not what I'm getting at. I heard rumors when I was little of secret passages in the palace. One of my teachers used to tease me and say that monsters lived down there. My father overheard him one time and told him not to be ridiculous. Father said that those stories were just left over from the ancient times. He believed that, too. Maybe the passages really do exist, though. If this Spion character did work the sewer system, then he could have stumbled upon them."

Obi-Wan stood up. "I think it's time we do some exploring, then. I'd still send out that information to security and see what they can do with it."

"Sure." Cort quickly keyed the information over to security and then grabbed his cape and lightsaber off the desk. "Let's go."

Obi-Wan took one last look at Anakin. He placed a hand on the boy's bandaged forehead, but still received no response. He felt he should stay and keep watch over him, but he knew it wasn't exactly wise to let Cort go off on his own either. "Artoo, I want you to keep an eye on him."

The droid beeped in obedience and rolled over to the bedside. Then the Jedi knight and Prince walked out the door to see if they could find Daruc Spion's means of entering the palace.