Muunraker/Chapter 5

Muunraker

Chapter 5 When Training Kicks In

While the Ugnaught gave Jace Bont and Europa Kapanen a quick tour of the estate, the undercover MI5 agents were making mental notes. They were planning to snoop around the mansion after dark in search of clues and anything that ties Drax to the heavy weapons.

After the tour, they were taken to the guest rooms on the upper floors of the mansion. As soon as Ingan left them alone, they quickly began combing the rooms for listening devices. None were found.

Bont began planning his investigation.

"You see how Drax paused when I mentioned the weapons?" Bont said. "He knows about it. He's probably orchestrating the whole thing himself. The Ugnaught gave us the tour, so I've got a pretty good idea of the layout of the place. I'll start with the offices in the west wing of the mansion. There's bound to be something there."

"But," Europa started, "what about the vornskrs? They'll no doubt sniff you out."

Bont walked up to her and put his arms around her. "Don't worry about me, darling. It'll take more than a little vornskr to stop me."

Europa could feel the effects of his pheromones. She immediately kissed him.

"You stay here and lock the doors," Bont ordered. "I'll be back soon. Wait up for me." He gave her a wink.

- - - - - - - - - -

Dressed all in black, Bont snuck his way through the mansion. He kept his eyes and ears peeled for any signs of the vornskrs. His blaster was at the ready.

The office doors slid open and he crept in, the door sliding closed behind him. The only thing in the room was a chair and a computer console. That was it. Having hunted down criminals during his time with CorSec, he knew that they usually had some kind of hidden safe or something along those lines. He just had to find it. There had to be something hidden in here. Sliding his hands along the walls, he searched for a hidden panel or something that could possibly hide a-- His fingers hit a lip in the panels. It was popped up just enough that he felt it. Now, to open it.

He couldn't pull the panel out, so he tried pushing it. Sure enough, putting pressure on the top corners of the panel popped it out. The panel slid upward revealing a safe with a keypad lock. Perfect. Bont reached into his pants pocket and pulled out the fingerprint scanner he acquired at Q'u Branch. He turned it on and held the device over the keypad. The image of the keypad immediately appeared on the little screen of the fingerprint scanner. Within seconds, the fingerprints appeared on the buttons of the keypad in the screen image. But Bont wasn't interested in the actual fingerprints. He knew they belonged to Drax. What he was after was the placement of the fingerprints. That would reveal the key sequence required to open the safe.

Four of the buttons had prominent fingerprints. So he just had to figure out the combination of those four numbers. After a few minutes of playing the "process of elimination", Bont was lucky enough to hit the right combination. The safe opened up and all that was inside was a datacard.

Bont grabbed the datacard and headed over to the computer console. He slid the datacard into it's slot in the computer and images popped up on the holo-screen.

Bont smiled. "Bingo," he whispered to himself.

- - - - - - - - - -

Europa stood on the balcony of her guest room looking out over the dark surface of Dantooine. A cool breeze picked up slightly. She felt a quick chill run up her bare thighs as the short, lacy nightgown fluttered.

She heard the room door slide open on the opposite side of the guest room. Jace had returned sooner than expected. She smiled. Her thighs wouldn't be chilled for long. Still gazing out at the night sky, she said, "I thought you'd be gone longer than that. But I'm glad you're--" As she turned to look at him, she noticed it wasn't Bont at all. It was the diminutive Ugnaught. "What in...?!"

Ingan charged at her with a vibroknife. Europa's training suddenly kicked in.

As Ingan ran out on to the balcony, Europa quickly dodged the slash of the blade then gave him a swift kick to the gut. When Ingan doubled over, Europa swiped at his arm, flinging the vibroknife over the side of the balcony. Ingan began to stand up again, but Europa gave him another shot to the gut, this time with her knee. She then grabbed the collar of his tunic and threw him toward the railing on the balcony. Ingan slammed against it, flipped over the edge of the railing. Europa leaned over and saw his body laying on the ground five stories below.

The Ugnaught was motionless.

- - - - - - - - - -

Back in the darkened office, Bont was finally able to find some useful information. The datacard contained shipping routes and schedules for the weapons. They all converged on Kalee, a planet not too far from his current location. Bont paused for a moment. Why Kalee? There was currently a war going on there. Some called it the Yam'rii crisis, others simply referred to it as the Huk War. Why would Drax get involved in the war? Why send them weapons? And which side was he assisting? There were still a lot of unanswered questions, but at least he was able to narrow down the search. He continued digging through the datacard information...until the lights in the room clicked on.

His eyes jumped up to the doorway to see the twin Zeltron girls staring at him.

"Ah, hello ladies," Bont said, turning on the pheromones. He stepped out from behind the desk. "I, uh, don't believe I caught your names earlier."

"Alberta," one of them said.

"Victoria," the other added.

"Such pretty names," Bont responded. Looking back and forth between the two young women, he added jokingly, "But I have to say, I wasn't quite prepared for a threesome." Bont hesitated when he saw the girls draw vibroknives.

Alberta rushed toward him, slashing the blade in his direction. The blade was in her right hand, so Bont reached out with his left hand and grabbed her right wrist. He tugged her arm downward, squeezing her wrist so she would loosen her grip on the knife. But before Alberta could drop it, she threw a left hook into his jaw.

Still having a tight grip on her wrist, Bont quickly dropped and rolled to his left, twisting Alberta's arm forcing her to flip over and hit the floor. Before Bont could even get to his feet again, Victoria charged at him. He jerked his head to the side to dodge the attack. He felt the breeze as the vibroknife whipped past his left ear. But the blade was close enough that it cut the fabric on his shoulder, luckily missing the skin underneath.

Bont stood up and wrapped his arm around hers. He then threw a punch into her bare midriff. Catching the other Zeltron standing up in the corner of his eye gave him an idea. With Victoria doubled over from the punch, Alberta tried to stab Bont. But Bont spun around, pulling Victoria with him. Using Victoria as a quick make-shift shield, Alberta's knife slid right into Victoria's chest. Alberta gasped when she realized what had happened.

Bont used that split-second to grab Alberta's shoulders and twist her around toward him. With her back to him, Bont threw his arms around her neck and put her in a sleeper hold, blocking the blood flow through major arteries. Within seconds, she was out cold.

Bont released the dead weight and let her body fall to the floor. He straightened his black shirt and walked back over to the computer. Taking a moment, he sent a simple message to MI5 Headquarters on Coruscant, complete with an encryption code developed specifically by Q'u Branch. The message read: "Weapons being shipped to Kalee. Meet me there. Bont."

He pulled the datacard out and headed for the door. Stopping for a moment, he glanced back at the two bodies on the floor, one with a knife in it's chest. He hated killing women, but he had to do his job.

Before walking through the doorway, he jokingly said to the two female bodies, "Was it good for you?"

- - - - - - - - - -

Minutes later, Bont entered the guest room again, only to feel the barrel of a blaster shoved into the back of his head.

"Don't move," a female voice said. "Oh! Jace, it's you!"

The blaster was removed and Bont turned around to be hugged by Europa.

"I wasn't sure who was coming for me next," she said. "The little Ugnaught attacked me."

"Where is he now?" Bont asked.

Europa pointed toward the door on the opposite side of the room. "I threw him over the balcony." It was then that she noticed the slit on Bont's shirt. "What happened to you?"

"I, too, was attacked," he responded. "That makes three dead bodies. Drax is on to us. Or, if he's not, he will be soon. We have to get out of here, now."

Together, the two of them bolted through the mansion and out toward the landing platform to reach the Sky Skimmer. As they ran across the grassy area between the mansion and the ship, they could hear vicious barking.

Bont's blood ran cold.

The vornskrs.

"Go!" Bont yelled to Europa as he began to sprint. But his feet skidded to a stop in the dirt when three armed men emerged from the Sky Skimmer. Europa collided with him, almost knocking him down. Bont spun around to shield Europa from the attacking vornskrs.

There was a sharp whistle and the vornskrs halted. They sat on the grass only a few feet from them, staring, watching. Bont's heart was pounding. He thought that was the end.

Big spotlights came to life and shined down on the two MI5 operatives. Both Bont and Europa had to shield their eyes. Drax casually approached them, hands clasped behind him. He patted one of the vornskrs on the top of it's head as he walked passed the animals.

He outstretched his hand. "Give me the datacard you stole."

Bont, slowly reaching into his pocket, pulled out the datacard and handed it over to Drax with a scowl on his face.

Taking the datacard, Drax said, "Mr. Bont, I don't know what organization you are working for, but you will be sorry they sent you here." As he turned and began walking away, more armed men entered the spotlights. "Take them away," Drax ordered.

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