The Limmie Daylights/Chapter 5

The Limmie Daylights

Chapter 5

They touched down amid the humid climate in Hanna City on Chandrila and made their way to the stadium. Just before the MI5 agents entered the stadium, a furry white creature scurried past. Jace Bont watched the little thing race by, it's long ears flopping as it hopped. "What...?"

"It's a Squall," Europa explained to him. "They run rampant on this planet. They're harmless."

Bont, Europa and Shasta continued in to the structure. The War Memorial Stadium was named for the Battle of Chandrila which took place nearly 1000 years earlier during the New Sith Wars. It was named in honor of those who lost their lives during the battle.

As they entered, they were greeted by a middle-aged Human woman and a rather rotund male Twi'lek. The woman, Anita McCam, was the owner of the Chiefs and the Twi'lek was the General Manager, Jo Mu Grath. After some brief introductions, they escorted the agents to the field to find the team practicing.

The team had quite a mix of species, big and small. Jace Bont noticed the smallest player, an Ewok. They were rare and not seen very often outside of...what planet was it? Endor? Most of the team was a normal humanoid size, except for the Wookiee and the Whiphid. He figured those might be the teams enforcers. "Who are the big guys?" he leaned over and asked Europa.

"The Wookiee is Ogeeogilthorrp and the Whiphid is K'Karlson."

"The enforcers?" Bont asked.

Looking up at him with a smile, Europa said, "You got it. You'll catch on to limmie soon." Turning back to look at the players, "He got the nick-name Killer K'Karlson because of his size and toughness. He'll clobber anyone on the field."

"Killer, huh?" Shasta commented. "Maybe we oughta start with him."

As they stood and watched, a gray-haired Human man approached them. "You guys must be MI5," he said with a gruff, scratchy voice. He stuck out a hand, shook each one in turn. "I'm Reggie Dun'lop, Head Coach of the Chiefs. I was told why you were coming here, and I'm happy to say that my players are willing to cooperate with your investigation."

- - - - - - - - - -

Back at Aldera Stadium on Alderaan, Pandolfo was heading down the corridor he saw in the edited video footage. It was painted with bright shades of white and had a high ceiling. Large windows lined the top portion of the corridor allowing the sunlight in.

Pandolfo stopped when he came to the security camera. It was mounted up over the windows above him. He looked up at it, looking directly into the lenses. He then turned to see the thin black shadow cast on the lower part of the opposite wall. It appeared the shadow was created by the frame in between the windows.

So Agnew was heading past this spot and further down the corridor.

Pandolfo continued but it was a dead-end. The only thing there was a computer control console of some kind. It looked to Pandolfo like it controlled the lighting out on the field. There was no way Agnew could have exited the corridor through another door. He had to have gone back through the view of the camera.

Suppose he was killed right here. That would explain why the video was edited.

Pandolfo knelt down and began examining the floor, looking for any signs of a struggle, or maybe even blood. He then made a closer examination of the walls and even the control panel. Nothing. Either the murderer cleaned up, or Agnew wasn't killed here. Since he wasn't finding anything, he decided to head back through the stadium toward the offices. When he reached the first office door he heard blaster fire.

Spinning on his heels, he caught a glimpse of someone racing around the corner toward the northern portion of the stadium. Pandolfo took off after him. As he reached that corner, blaster fire came his way. Pandolfo dropped and rolled, crashing through one of the office doors. He quickly got to his feet, drew his blaster and peeked around the corner.

The figure was gone.

"Damn it," Pandolfo said, racing after him again.

He soon came to the large entryway of the stadium and, across the way, saw the figure reaching the exit doors. Pandolfo aimed and fired. The blaster bolts missed the figure and instead hit the door frame. Well, Shasta was the marksman. He was only a hacker. As Pandolfo made his way to the door, he looked out at the city. The mysterious figure was gone, disappearing into the crowds.

Turning back into the building, he saw some of the staff members nearby ducking for cover. "It's okay," Pandolfo told them. "I'm MI5. Everything's under control."

Heading back to the offices, he returned to the place where he heard the first blaster bolt. There he found the staff standing over a dead Human, crying.

"Did you catch him?" someone asked.

Pandolfo shook his head. "He was too far ahead of me."

"Why does this keep happening?" someone else blurted out.

"I intend to find out," Pandolfo responded. He turned and put a hand on Blix Lago's shoulder. "I'm very sorry."

Pandolfo headed back to the security room. This mysterious figure would most definitely show up in the video footage. Looking it over, he found the video of himself chasing the figure through the stadium. He noticed the thick tendrils off the back of the figures head. A Nautolan maybe? He zoomed in on the footage and managed to find a decent shot of his face. No, not a Nautolan. It was a Feeorin.

Pandolfo figured he could run the face through MI5's databases and hopefully get a match. But why single out that particular staff member? There were plenty of other people he could have killed on his way into the stadium. Why target that one man?

Pandolfo proceeded to send an encrypted call to MI5 HQ on Coruscant.

- - - - - - - - - -

More dead leads.

Bont, Europa and Shasta had spoken with more people on Chandrila and, just like the interrogations on Alderaan, they were getting nowhere. The three of them stood together in one of the offices. "This is ridiculous," Shasta said. "We're not coming up with anything. We're MI5. We're better than this. What the hell is happening here?"

Europa said, "Obviously the players aren't involved in Agnew's murder at all. We should head back to HQ and start over, like you mentioned earlier."

Suddenly the door slid open. The three agents turned to see a Kiffar woman enter. She was wearing a formal coat and a skirt to match. She was around 30 years old, had the distinct yellowish markings on her face and filled out her formal wear rather nicely, Bont noticed.

"May we help you?" Shasta asked her, a little annoyed with her barging in.

"I'm Kara M'Lovi," the woman said. "I'm with the public relations department for the Federal League."

"Public relations?" Bont asked.

"Yes. I don't know if you've been watching the HoloNet in the last day or two, but news of an MI5 investigation in the week leading up to the championship game is wrecking havoc in the sports world."

"So they sent a liaison to keep tabs on us," Bont surmised.

"I will be joining you in your investigation," Kara continued, "but we will be keeping it under wraps."

"Lady, we're MI5. We're not good at keeping things under wraps," Shasta commented, referring to the destructive nature of MI5's missions.

Jace Bont's comlink suddenly beeped. It was Pandolfo. "What is it, my diminuitive friend?"

Pandolfo's voice came out of the little speaker. "We had an attack here at Aldera Stadium. A man was murdered by a Feeorin. He got away before I could stop him. But I ran the guy's likeness through MI5 databanks and found out he's named Bozak and he's a former limmie player who was permanently suspended from the Federal League for being too aggressive and violent."

Bont glanced over at his fellow operatives. "There's our lead." Turning back to the comlink, "Pandolfo, stay at Aldera Stadium. We'll meet you there."

Chapters: Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Epilogue