The White Twi'lek/Chapter 2

Later, after Lanco had gone when Ayan had left for the night, Jali and Xhen wandered down to the Five Brothers, a club near enough Jali’s office to be convenient and far enough to be in a different neighbourhood. Jali had been there several times, sometimes to establish contacts, once for surveillance, but mostly for the atmosphere.

This was his first chance to really get to know Xhen. To know if Xhen would be staying on more than a standard week.

It was still quite early in the evening, but the club had a good crowd when Jali and Xhen arrived. There were some in the central bar area, and others in the five adjoining rooms named after the planets in the Corellia system.

They took a table in the Talus Room—which of course connected with the Tralus Room next door. A band of Weequay performed a tinny percussion number near the door.

“Was it your intention to make me feel right at home?” Xhen asked, raising his voice so Jali could hear him.

Jali shrugged as he lit up, Xhen’s application did say that he was Corellian even though he had spent most of his life on Muscave, but that fact had only crossed his mind as they had entered the club. A mere coincidence.

“No, I just come here sometimes,” Jali admitted, wisps of smoke escaping from his mouth. “You know how there are places you go to and places you go to for a reason? This is place I just go to.” “I see,” Xhen agreed, but clearly he didn’t.

The moment of silence was broken by a waitress arriving at their table. She took their orders for drinks then left.

“So, Muscave,” Jali mused, drawing from the cigarette. “I thought with you being Corellian you would be more for CorSec, why the Capital?”

“It’s pretty much where I found something that suited me,” Xhen replied with a shrug. “You know how it is, sometimes.” He stared into space for a few moments as if he was deciding which version of the truth to relate. “I was attached to a bureaucrat’s security detail as an enforcer, until someone higher-up recommended me for another position.”

“The Techno-Union one?” Jali asked.

“Yeah,” Xhen said. “So it was better, for a while anyway. I was one of the guys in charge, at least until I found out a few things I shouldn’t have.” He shrugged again. “That’s when I figured I’d make myself scarce. I contacted my old boss and then came here, you know the rest.”

Their drinks arrived. Jali’s was a Janx Spirit, Xhen’s a thick white liquid that Jali couldn’t identify. Jali put a credit chip on the Zeltron’s tray as payment.

“That’s how it is, these days,” Jali agreed, setting his drink down. “One of my friends found out something he shouldn’t and got himself killed.”

“Was he an enforcer too?” Xhen asked, wiping white liquid from his lips.

“No, Security Force,” Jali told him.

“I think I heard about that, Antilles was his name, wasn’t it?” Xhen asked.

Jali nodded. “Yeah, Tollan Antilles.” He didn’t really want to discuss Tollan, not with Xhen anyway. Criminal organisations could be talked about later, when he was sure he could trust his new assistant.

But Xhen seemed keen to press the subject. “There’s been a few stories about his death, hasn’t there?”

“Yeah, there would be, wouldn’t there?” Jali replied, keen to change the subject.

Fortunately, the waitress reappeared. “Jali Dawler?”

Jali acknowledged her with a nod. “Who wants to know?”

“Could you come with me please, there’s something wrong with this credit chip,” she said.

“Something wrong?” Jali looked at her incredulously. “Have you tried scanning it again? There should be enough currency on there.”

She gave him a look that froze off any further protests. “I think I know what I’m doing,” she said in a low voice.

Xhen started to check his pockets. “I think I’ve got a few creds I can spare,” he said.

Jali waved him off. “I said that I’m buying when we came in, remember?” He reminded Xhen, stubbing out his cigarette. “It’s probably nothing.” With a sigh, Jali got to his feet. “I’ll be back in a minute.” He followed her into the main bar.



It was actually the scanning machine that was at fault, so the transaction took not time at all once the machine was working again. Before returning to the table, he took a detour to the refresher.

Xhen wasn't actually a bad sort. A bit cagey about himself, but who wasn’t these days?

If nothing else happens, Jali decided as he left the ‘fresher, he can stay on, but I still have to see him in action.

Back in the Talus room, Jali could see Xhen talking to a Bith. The Bith carried some sort of wind instrument and was gesturing to Xhen with it; it looked like some sort of argument. But before Jali could get to the table, a waitress led a large group of people past and when the crowd had cleared the Bith was gone.

“So, who was your friend?” Jali asked casually, another cigarette lit and resting between his fingers. Xhen looked at him. “Who?”

“The Bith with the blower,” Jali reminded him. “Who was he?”

“Him? Oh…” Xhen made an impatient gesture. “He just wanted to know if this was the Selonia Room, I told him it wasn’t.”

Jali frowned, inhaling on the cigarette. “Couldn’t he read the signs?” The rooms were labelled pretty clearly.

“Maybe he was just given wrong directions,” Xhen suggested, eager to drop the subject.

They talked about other things now, podracing on Malastare, the best way to have giju stew, air traffic pile-ups on Coruscant compared to the ones on Muscave…

The club started to fill up with people, several females made their way to Jali and Xhen’s table despite efforts to dissuade them. After a seemingly non-verbal agreement, Jali and Xhen decided to leave.

Jali reached for his drink, for some strange reason he hadn't touched it since he had got back from the refresher. But before he could get to it their table was bumped by the waitress as she passed it, knocking over the glass and spilling what was left of the green liquid.

She looked up apologetically at them. “Ooh, was that me?” she trilled. “I’m so sorry, I’ll get you another one on the house.”

“No need,” Jali said as he stood up, extinguishing his final cigarette in the laden ashtray. “We were just leaving.”