[TOR] The many safehouses of Kitkala Mapp

[Mixxi]

  Safehouse Leaf

Kit cursed herself for ever letting that flash operator Malat choose the pleasure pier as their meeting spot. Too much light, too many exits, too exposed, too many kids, and too many scorching balloons. She kept catching them in her peripheral vision, and her nerves were raw with the effort that prevented her from reflexively shooting them. She could face down Republic or Imperial customs officials without breaking a sweat, but a screaming kid whose balloon just got vaporized—that would be too much. She shuddered. Not to mention the mother.

They were the worst, she concluded--the mothers. She'd been scouting the location by lurking in the shadow of the "Whack-a-Sarlacc" game, and she'd witnessed the horror experienced by the poor girl who worked there, trying to balance keeping her job with defending herself from the aggressions of the mothers who were willing to do or say anything to get their little darling a plush sandworm.

But pity for the common folk had to wait. Kit's contact had appeared at the pier's railing. The Zabrak stood looking down into the bioluminescence of the water below him, his arms resting lazily on the barrier. Kit joined him and tucked a credit chit under his elbow as she bent her head over the edge. "What a lovely place!" she exclaimed through clenched teeth. 

The Zabrak smiled. "So glad you like it. I picked it out especially for you." The credit marker had disappeared, and Kit's aural implant detected a happy beep from within Malat's cloak as he scanned and verified the amount. He leaned toward her and she felt a weight slip into her pocket. "As promised. The contents of a very well-hidden and well-defended safe. The stones would look lovely on you, you know."

A quick scan of the pouch verified the contents, and Kit stepped back from the railing. "I don't think my client would agree." The Zabrak shrugged and turned back to the water as Kit turned to leave as quickly as she could without attracting attention. First, though, she had a stop to make.

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Three hours later Kitkala Mapp was far, far away from anything even remotely resembling a pleasure pier. The branches of trees rustled overhead and the warm glow of torches reflected off the polished surface of the table at which she sat. JV-S2 had stocked the port and brandy selection  of safehouse Leaf since she'd last been here, and she sipped one of his fine choices from a soap-bubble-thin balloon snifter. Now this was her kind of balloon.

The velvet pouch for which she had paid Malat so well lay on the table in front of her. Putting the snifter aside, she activated a communicator set into the table's surface and smiled as a familiar figure materialized.

"I have the package," she announced, pleased to see her contact nod in approval.

"Well done as usual. Pricey, but worth it." The figure seemed to lean forward. "Show me."

Kit opened the pouch and held it upside down over her outstretched hand. An intricate metal key dropped out, and she held it up. "Ancient. Are you sure it is the correct one?"

"Oh yes." The hologram viewed the key in silence. "Yes. Quite sure. With this, we can proceed to the next stage. What of the jewels that were with it?"

The girl at the pleasure pier should be leaving work about now, taking her work card out to scan it, and discovering a bit of luck in her pocket.

Kit grinned. "I freed a slave."