The Kenobi Saga Book One:The Clone Wars

13. Investigation

The school nurse was kneeling over Solitaire, packing his wounds with bacta soaked bandages when he awoke. He struggled against her, waking with adrenaline surging through his veins.

"Sir, sir," the nurse tried to soothe, doing her best to restrain him. She looked over her shoulder at the teachers who were watching, motioning for them to come help her. Two of the teachers grabbed Solitaire's legs,vforcing them still.

"Let me up!" Solitaire demanded. He stopped his fight, forcing himself still, "I'm alright, let me up."

The nurse nodded to the men and they released the soldier's limbs.

Solitaire forced himself to his knees, "Where's Lore-Val?"

All of the adults stayed silent, none wanting to be the one to give him the news.

"Is she hurt?" He looked around, his head spinning as he did so, "She's not here. Where is she?"

"Sir, you're badly injured. It's best you call someone in to handle-"

Solitaire nearly growled, "Did they take her?"

"Yes."

He cursed, reaching around his belt, desperately trying to find his com.

.   .   .

Lore-Val woke in what she assumed was a dirty motel room. She was laying on the room's lone double bed.

"Su cuy'gar (Hello)," one of the Mandalorians sitting at a table playing cards called to her.

She moved to sit up, and found her hands were bound in front of her, "What do you want with me?"

"Don't worry about that," he answered, looking back at his cards.

"My guard will come looking for me."

The other Mandalorian snorted, "The clone? He won't be doing anything, Malthe made sure of that."

Lore-Val swallowed the knot in her throat at that piece of information. She pushed down the worry she felt at the image of Solitaire hurt, maybe even dying, in the school hallway. She hoped these men were just trying to scare her, so until she heard otherwise from her father or Cody she would assume Solitaire was alright.

Lore-Val curled in on herself in the silence that followed. She blamed the gas and the sedative for making her mind feel so foggy. She really wanted to properly sleep it off, but knew she needed to stay awake and as alert as possible.

The room's door opened as Malthe walked in. Lore-Val snapped her head up at the sound and began screaming for help, hoping to be heard by someone outside. One of the Mandalorians from the table jumped on the bed and clamped a hand over her mouth, "Ne'johaa! (Shut up)," he hissed, his breath hot on her ear.

She squirmed against his grip. The door hissed closed and the Mandalorian soldier let her up. He reached out, landing a loud slap on her cheek. Lore-Val bit her lip, stopping herself from crying out.

"Save your energy Aul," Devi said airily, "You saw this place, no one is going to care about some kid shouting."

Aul glared at her and snapped, "Keep quiet," while walking back to where his two accomplices were.

"What happened Malthe?"

"Well Devi, where would you like me to start? With the fact that we're stuck just a few klicks from the Jedi Temple? Or that we're gonna have to keep the princess here quiet and alive longer than we planned."

"No ride. Great," Aul groaned, sitting back down.

Lore-Val frowned at the words. Were they planning to kill her? No. Why keep her alive for any length of time if they just planned to kill her?

"Why did you take me?" Lore-Val asked, making all three men look at her, "Don't I get a monolog of your plan like in the holos?"

"What part of shut up aren't you understanding?"Aul asked

Lore-Val shrugged, "I'm not screaming, I think that's the best you'll get from me."

Malthe snorted out a laugh, "There's the famous Kenobi wit," before turning to Devi, "Want to go get some food? We'll be stuck here overnight at the least."

Devi nodded, "Aul, what do you want?"

The man shrugged, "Grab a menu from the bar would you?"

Devi shot him a thumbs up, over his shoulder as he walked out the door.

This time, rather than scream, Lore-Val leaned to see out the door, she saw a crowded room. It was full of different species and pounding music. It must be the bar Aul had mentioned. She sat criss-crossed on the bed, hoping that Anakin or Ahsoka could hear her silent cries for help.

.   .   .

"Any word from Coruscant?"

"No sir. But we are out of range for most communication."

Obi-Wan nodded, "Well, no news is good news right?"

"Yes sir."

.   .   .

Anakin stormed into the school and was pointed towards the security office by the first shaking administrator he came across. Ahsoka and Rex hurried to keep up, with the rest of Torrent company following behind. They got inside and found Solitaire sitting alone, trying to reboot the computers.

"Solitaire do you need medical attention?" Anakin asked, not actually looking at the man as he took a seat at one of the monitors.

"I'm fine."

Rex frowned, "Solitaire, your nose is broken."

"It's been broken before. I'm fine."

Anakin frowned, looking up, "Solitaire catch us up, then Kix is going to look you over."

"All do respect sir, the nurse checked on me. I'm fine."

"I don't think so," Anakin answered, in a tone that left no room for argument.

Ahsoka shook her head, echoing Anakin's sentiment.

Solitaire sighed,  "All of the staff and students are in the cafeteria waiting to be interviewed sir. And I hoped I could get the cameras running so I could look back at footage from before they were disconnected."

"Ok, Snips you, Tup, Coric and R2 stay here and work on the computers. See if you can get the cameras online," R2D2 whistled, and rolled off to find a port he could connect to, "Kix, take a look at Solitaire, if he's cleared you can both come join me and the rest of the troops in the cafeteria."

Kix nodded, nearly dragging Solitaire off to the nurse's office. Ahsoka took Solitaire's empty seat and got to work.

Anakin turned to Rex, "We need to interview the teachers and kids to see if they noticed anything strange before the attack."

When Rex and the boys walked off Anakin took a deep breath, taking a second to search the force. He didn't sense any danger currently in the building, but he wasn't ready to rule out an inside man. With a final sigh, Anakin walked to the cafeteria, ready to break a few rules if it meant finding Obi-Wan's daughter.