Damn Dirty Thieves!

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

"Sounds boring," the detective smirked, eyes twinkling at Ein. Flashing her badge, they were allowed into the freezer room. A thin layer of ice coated the walls. Riz rubbed her hands together and offered Ein a crowbar to crack open one of his supply crates.

"Check and make sure everything is there." Slipping on some gloves, she began wandering around the boxes, slowly. Keen-orbs swept the area, looking for any further clues. The boys already got prints so they didn't have to worry about contaminating the scene.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

Ein peeked into the first box.

It was filled with the parts he was expecting, half a generator and some other assortments. A frown pulled at his lips for a moment but he closed the lid a few seconds later and moved onto the next crate. Again he found everything in place, then he moved to the third.

"Wait." He said quietly.

A curse left his lips.

"There's a piece missing here." He told her as he half turned. "A crystal, about as big as my middle finger."

It was a tuning crystal, similar to what the Jedi used in their lightsabers but specially made for the generator. "Thing is useless without it."

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

"So now you're telling me what's in that stuff?" A quirk of a dark-brow and hands on hips as she looked the CFO over from across the room. "Alright, taking it down."

She scrolled through her comm.

"Checking to see if there was a shipment going out today. We might find a smuggler's ship at the port. We have some leads from that wookie, remember there were three accomplices. Anything else missing?"

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

"No." He stated simply a frown pulling at his lips.

This was wrong, there was something else here that didn't seem right. He slowly closed the crate. The crystal was shiny, yes, but it wasn't a coruscagem or anything of the sort. The thing held no value besides being a part of the project.

"There was no reason for them to take it." Ein said with a scowl. "Not unless they knew."

The CFO looked at Riz. "There's parts of this that are far more valuable."

Most of the wiring was made of platinum and several of the circuit boards were almost pure Aurodium.

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

She rubbed at her chin. "Hmmm," lips pursed in thought. A normal robbery would've taken everything valuable. This seemed more like a set up. An inside job. She was still operating partly in the dark due to some trade secret nonsense. Ein wouldn't budge and she wasn't about to waste her breath.

"Do the crystals have a unique signature? Like, maybe if they were all together as a bundle?"

Might be something they could track. Certain radiation emitted something unique enough it could be picked up. If they could track the crystals, might lead them to the mastermind behind this. And she would t be surprised if it lead back to Ein's office.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

"It's just one." He stated with a frown.

The idea wasn't really a bad one, the crystal did in fact have a unique signature. The problem was that it wasn't a power device, not by itself. The crystal acted more as a focus than anything else, something that power would stream through and then be directed into something else.

The technology was based off of lightsabers after all.

"We can't track it unless someone is routing power through it though." He said quietly. "If they did...it'd take quite a bit of energy."

He frowned for a moment. "Though...in theory they could also make it explode."

Which would be...well bad.

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

Just the one crystal?

That wasn't good.

"Well, if someone wanted to make a statement with an explosion and damage the company and maybe your rep, I'd start with blowing up something with the Vanir name. You got any big ships in port or something else?"

Could also be the building, which gave her the nerves. Fingers fished the comm out of her pocket.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

Ein slowly shook his head. "No ships."

Vanir had never built shipyards here on Coruscant, nor did it keep any of its defense forces here. There had never been a need. That meant the only ships Vanir had in orbit were transports vessels. There were a few large ones, though Ein couldn't think of them off the top of his head.

He shrugged.

"No ships...I don't think." He shook his head. "A few transports, none of them over a kilometer."

Vanir only sent a few bulk-craft.

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

"Hmm," index finger tapped lightly against her plump lower-lip. "We need to go back to your office. Now. I'll comm in some hound-sniffers. Got another crystal we can let the pups get a scent of?"

Shoulders were tense.

Whoever it was, knew they were onto them. That usually meant they'd do something rash and act. She didn't like the idea of the perp having something so explosive. Rubbed her the wrong way. Even if the crystal wasn't at Vanir headquarters on Coruscant, they'd at least rule it out.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

"No." It was the truth.

The Crystal had been specially made for this project, it was expensive, and more importantly it was a prototype. Only one had been made because this entire system was in it's infancy. There was no telling if any of it would actually go into full production, and thus there hadn't been a reason to build more than one.

Not until now anyway. "It was a prototype."

Ein explained.

"This is the only one of it's kind." He was speaking of the generator in general now. "But, if even the smallest hint of power enters the crystal we'll be able to track it for at least thirty minutes, the energy will resonate."

That was something. "If they're going to use it as a bomb they'd have to test it first."

See if it even conducted the energy.

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

Arms crossed and she shot the CFO a stern look.

"One unique crystal. Nothing else like it. It's explosive if used in that way. There's a chance we can track it but it'll be a short window."

She strode over to Ein and handed him her comm. "Can you input the parameters to track it if it goes live here? And since I'm on a 'need to know' basis for what exactly this stuff is - anything else you can tell me so we can solve this case? Anything else I need to know?"

Was she miffed at the CFO for leaving out important information? Yes. Absolutely yes.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

"I told you it's an energy project." He stated simply. "The Crystal is a focusing point for energy."

There really wasn't anything more to it.

The details were something that even he didn't really know because it was all incredibly complex and scientific. He had schematics of course, but they wouldn't really be all that much help to the investigation. The crystal was now the important part. "The Crystal itself isn't explosive, it can just be used as one."

He thought for a moment.

"It's kind of like a circuit." That was a good explanation. "If you overload it...it'll pop."

Most modern devices had safeguards of course, but the crystal alone didn't have those safeguards. "If they wanted to use it as a bomb they'd essentially overload the crystal, pumping energy into it and giving no way for that energy to escape."

Which would leave a trace.

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

"We'll monitor for any spikes in energy around the city. I'll have the boys run sweeps of outgoing ships. Just in case."

Comm slipped back in her pocket.

"Other than that, we're in a waiting game Mister Al'Kuhn. I've got to report back to the station."

It was already getting dark outside. Well, as dark as a city world could get with all those artificial lights. And she was famished.

"Better for you to go back to the office. Or home."

She handed him her card.

"Here's my direct line. You can comm me if you see or hear anything."

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

He frowned for a moment.

She was right of course, there was not much more that could be accomplished out here on the streets. The crystal had been taken, and besides that there was really no other way to track whomever had done this. He frowned for a moment.

The Crystal hadn't exactly been something Vanir had advertised, just the opposite in fact. They'd kept most of the project completely hidden, and although the Crystal was crucial to operation of the generator it especially wasn't really all that unique. He frowned for a moment more and then slowly nodded to Riz. "Alright."

He plucked the card from her.

"I'll head back." To do his own investigation.

Someone from within the company had done this, he was sure of it now.

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

As if she could read his thoughts. And well, she was a karking good detective. Reading people was her job. Hand shot out and lightly gripped his wrist.

"Remember, Ein. Don't do anything stupid. I promise I'll solve this case. I don't wanna wake up tomorrow and turn on the holonews to see you on there with a slug through your back."

Fingers slowly released from his arm.

"Got it?"

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

"I'll be fine." He assured her.

Whomever had taken the crystal most certainly didn't have the backing of Vanir itself. The company was huge, yes, but the division head of Coruscant would never allow such a thing. There was no corruption at Vanir, at least not at the top...mostly because it was impossible.

The whole thing was run by a droid.

"I'm just going to look at some documents." The statement was true enough. "That's it."

Internal records on who had accessed the schematics for the energy core.

Should be easy to get.

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

Narrowed-orbs looked him up and down for a sec. Then she shrugged. "You got my number. Use it if you need to." Popping a stick of minty-gum in her mouth, she began chewing the stuff as she wrapped up with the station boys.

"Make sure everything gets documented as evidence and then returned."

The detective turned back to Ein.

"Let's get you back to the office," with a quirk of her head, she motioned for the CFO to follow her back to her speeder. She'd drop him off and then head to a takeout place. Probably pull another all-nighter looking through the employee files.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

Ein nodded.

There would be no argument from him. Vanir had plenty of records for him to search through, not to mention camera footage and half a dozen other security measures that had been put into place just to prevent this sort of thing.

Briefly he wondered if he shouldn't tell Riz about it, but there was a difficulty with that. Involving her with an internal investigation in Vanir would be difficult...so in the end the young CFO decided it would be wiser to find a suspect first and then present it to the detective later. That way there would be no question of what he was doing with the company.

It would keep the higher ups happy anyway.

"Maybe when we're all done." Ein said as he got into the speeder. "You'll let me take you to Dinner."

He smiled.

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

Dinner?

She nearly bit the inside of her cheek as she pulled them out into traffic. Honey-brown orbs flashed to her passenger to make sure he wasn't joking. Definitely not. His smile seemed sincere.

"Let's solve the case first and then talk more about that."

A happy medium. Riz was a professional which meant she liked to keep business and personal stuff separate. Right now? Ein was a client. Period. Would she go out with him? Seemed like just a harmless dinner, so probably yes. In fact, she bet he took a bunch of his clients out all the time just to be polite and build his network. But right now? Her mind didn't even go there. They had a lot of work to do.

Speeder whirred to a stop in front of his office. The nightlife of the city was starting to get underway. Definitely the planet that never slept.

"Here we are. Turning in her seat, index finger pointed out at him. Remember, no funny-hero business." She'd set herself up not too far away. Probably at Joe's Noodle Shack down the street. They had a good midnight special.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

"Fine fine." Ein said with a slight smile.

Part of his business was reading people. He sat on the opposite side of the table from Crime Lords, smugglers, business men, Kings, and Queens. Reading them was as important as sitting in an interrogation room with someone. He could tell that for a brief moment at the very least, Riz was tempted.

That was enough for him.

He didn't press the issue though, mostly because he knew doing so would likely just lead to the exact opposite effect that he wanted. So he just remained quiet, a small smile touched his lips, but he carefully didn't look at her, not avoiding her gaze but simply making sure not to stare at any point in time. Instead he looked out the window, watching as Coruscant rolled on by them. When they neared Vanir's building he glanced up, and slowly settled back in the seat.

The CFO glanced at Riz. "None."

He smiled.

"I'll call you, Detective." Ein said as he stepped out of the speeder. "Have a good night."