Something old, something new, something stolen, something blue

[Tmoxin Temi]

To date Tmoxin Temi’s breakup with the Red Ravens had been fairly amicable – like two lovers parting to be “just friends.” But soon it would enter the phase of late-night, drunken holocalls and showing up to places uninvited, knowing the other would be there.

The motivation to wreak havoc on her ex-boss, Cryax Bane was purely financial as were most of her enterprises. Military pay with the Imperial Inquisition left much to be desired even at a Commander rank. She longed for a fuller credit account to bankroll her next ship, company, venture or friendship. And sometimes that involved all four which could get quite expensive. But power games also appealed to the Hapan Commander and here she was about to lay out a hand of Pure Sabacc.

Luckily Tmoxin still had her private account on Nar Shaddaa and when she last checked, none of her assets were frozen. Preemptively she had hired a team of lawyers and financial analysts because she was about to set some wheels in motion and when they rolled, her law firm would be on call to tie everything up in fat, red tape with a bow tied around the middle.

With her new Imperial connections, the Hapan Commander hid out in the TIE Fighter Construction Facility above the smuggler’s moon. She flirted her way into some luxury officer quarters for the night and sat with a holo display of the contract she had signed with Gaillard Corporation some time ago on the Raven’s behalf. The Chiss crime lord was more content with cultivating his script kids than monitoring his financial arrangements so the contract lay in some random database, along with the hundreds of other contracts the Ravens had.

On her datapad she carefully changed the language of the contract and sent it to the firm of Rumor, Wolf & Funk, Nar Shaddaa’s Premiere Legal Associates. They sent it back assuring her it would hold up in a court… somewhere on Nar Shaddaa … if a court was to be found anywhere on the planet.

The language granted [member="Aleksandyr Gaillard"] 20% of the profits of Red Raven holding company which held together the crime syndicate’s nebulous network of subsidiaries, spice-smuggling rings, arms shipments and illegal operations ad nauseum. This was increased from the orginal 14% which Cryax Bane had signed off on. Tmoxin then placed a call to the Ravens finance department and had the location of where the funds were to be sent changed to a private account which Gaillard had access to. What Alek didn’t know is that Tmoxin had access to it also. He would get his 17% as promised and Temi would skim another 3% off of the top. It was like a seven layer cake of embezzlement. She vowed not to steal from Alek. She may need his trust further down the line.

She knew from experience it might take a few days for her handiwork to be uncovered but when it did she would parry any blow from Bane with maddening and endless legal injunctions from Rumor, Wolf & Funk.

[member="Cryax Bane"]

 

[Cryax Bane]

A few days later….

It was Frab, Cryax Bane’s long-suffering Bothan personal assistant who had discovered the accounting anomaly. It wasn’t as if Bane himself was bad at math. On the contrary, he had a keen mind for numbers and analytics. These days the Chiss was simply not interested in doing any work that he could pay others to do for him.

The Red Ravens gang lord and his assistant were working in the executive suite on the top floor of the new Bane Innovation building on Nar Shaddaa, where Cryax now lived, his “man cave,” as Patricia called it. Bane was pouring over some freighter manifests he had sliced, and Frab was running numbers, when all of a sudden, the Bothan’s voice rang out, his tone edged with concern.

“Sir! I think you should come take a look at this.”

The Chiss' glowing red eyes scanned the Holotext containing the altered financial transactions. Gaillard was getting way more than he had originally agreed to. His mind flashed back to Tmoxin and Aleksandr on Makeb, and the way they made googly eyes at each other in the caves. As Frab silently predicted, the Cheuhn curse soon followed. “Btuzahi hah! That Hapan trollop.”

Cryax could have contacted Patricia or Chiasa, or delegated the job to an underling, but this felt more like a personal betrayal. He would deal with the Hapan himself. The Chiss angrily ordered his team of Bane Innovation slicers to start pouring through Tmoxin’s now abandoned Cryptnet account looking for evidence. There had to be a bread crumb somewhere that linked her to the embezzlement.

Through gritted teeth, he next Holocalled one of his best infochants, the Promenade Princess, Octavia Dominia. “Find Tmoxin Temi’s whereabouts for me. I’ve got some very important business to discuss with her.”

And by “discuss,” Cryax meant shoot her in the face.

[member="Tmoxin Temi"]

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Tmoxin grew tired of orbiting around Nar Shaddaa on the near-empty construction facility. She longed to be down there on the planet's surface getting ready for a night on the town. So against her better judgement she changed into a slinky black dress with high red heels and took a shuttle to the Promenade. So far the bump in profits was already visible - she could see the credits slowly trickling into Gaillard's shadow account.

As she walked up the streets of the Promenade, she knew that the law firm of Rumor, Wolf & Funk wasn't too far from her location. She thought she would pay a visit to Max Rumor, head council and to warn him of the slicing, harassment, sabotage or even assassination that the Chiss kingpin may throw at her and her lawyer when he caught wind of the brazen embezzlement.

[member="Cryax Bane"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Max Rumor sat in his office and was absentmindedly doing a HoloCrossword puzzle. Tmoxin Temi had sent him a message and was on her way to see him for a meeting about the counterfeit contract which she held in her manicured hands. The Hapan woman was one of his newest clients and well, she had a whole lot of problems. The embezzlement scheme against her former employer was rife with holes, errors and loopholes. But loopholes were good, he thought. Those could be exploited. Loopholes were things that Max studied with a religious zeal. Loopholes were entrances which allowed his clients to slither through the legal system undetected and thoroughly protected from the strong arm of the law.

Before she arrived, he thought he would prepare in the most business-like way for their meeting. He drew out a jar of giggledust from one of his filing cabinets and he dipped a claw into it and placed it into one feline nostril. He snorted it passionately, wiping his snout with the back of his hand when he was done.

His secretary buzzed in suddenly causing him to jump. "Ms Temi is here to see you."

He smiled to himself showing all pearly white fangs. "Well, show her in please."

[member="Cryax Bane"] [member="Tmoxin Temi"]

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

On the Nar Shaddaa streets, Tmoxin couldn't help but feel like she was being followed. Her long legs stepped assuredly down the street but inside she was a jumble of nerves. Nearly a week had gone by and the shadow account she had set up with [member="Aleksandyr Gaillard"] was slowly piling up the credits. If he had savvy financial analysts at the helm of his company, they would be able to see that Tmoxin was skimming that miniscule percentage off the top. That is, of course if the department which monitored the Gaillard Corporation accounts payable and accrued expenses was paying close attention.

If not, well she was making a tidy little profit on top of Gaillard's. But it still didn't help her with the fact that someone was trailing her. Had her actions caused actual alarm or was she being paranoid?
She entered the lobby of Rumor, Wolf & Funk and boarded the turbolift, pressing the button to Max Rumor's office. No one followed her in thankfully. I'm not too keen on dying in an elevator tonight, the Hapan Commander thought. She needed to make sure that she had a sound legal strategy once their scheme was unearthed. Every nerve in her body was singing with anxiety. But like Tmoxin did in times of trouble, she ran to those who could provide the type of advice she was looking for.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

[member="Aleksandyr Gaillard"]

After Tmoxin and Max settled into his office and Rumor offered her a glass of wine, the Hapan Commander said, "Thank you for meeting me on such short notice."
It was difficult to take the giant pink cat seriously but her credits and livelihood lay in his paws so she had to spare a modicum of trust.

"Can we look at the shadow account from here? I can give you the credentials to get in," she added. Max Rumor furrowed his brow and pulled up the financial reports of the siphoning that was going on.

"You're doing pretty well, Ms. Temi and I think I can protect you from the fallout. But as your lawyer I need to advise you to get out now. This cannot progress," he said sagely. As sagely as a Cathair in a crisp white suit could. "What would you do in my position, Mr. Rumor?"

"I would take the money and run."

Tmoxin thought about this proposition and just why she would double cross Aleksandyr Gaillard. After all he had been such a good listener and for one night, such a competent lover. More than competent... but well she couldn't think about her emotions right now.

Max interrupted her thoughts: "Gaillard's weakness was that he let you set up this account, Tmoxin. And all of the terms that went along with it. Unless he wants to serve you with an injunction..." he said the word injunction as if it was a tasty morsel to be savored on the tongue. "The credits are all yours. Even his."

"20% of the Ravens profits for a week is pretty tempting, Mr. Rumor," Tmoxin said aloud surprised at how much she wanted to pocket those profits after all. Greed was perhaps a more motivating factor than lust in the grand scheme of things. Or was it? Tmoxin was at a crossroads - either continue to funnel money from Cryax Bane or scoop up the profits that were technically Gaillard's. But keep them for herself.

"Why Mr. Rumor, I think we need to take the money and run." Max Rumor made a call and quickly, efficiently and with the best Nar Shaddaa lawyers, Aleksandyr Gaillard's shadow account was drained by Tmoxin in one fell swoop. She then closed down the account and the embezzlement was over no sooner than it had started.


[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WCFUGCOLLU[/youtube]