Secrets and Suspicion (Book 1)

Interrogation

"There he is!" Anakin heard Commander Fox say from the entrance of Dex's Diner. Anakin had gone to the diner before the troopers got there so that it looked like he was there the whole time. He had made perfect timing. All it took was speeding through a shortcut and beating them to it.

"General, we've been looking for you everywhere! Why didn't you come in earlier?"

"What? Obi-Wan called me and said I didn't have to come in."

"General Kenobi said to find you if you didn't come in soon after he left."

"Okay, what's going on? Take off your helmets!" Anakin shouted.

Everyone in the diner looked at him. "Go back to your dinners, this is Jedi business," he said to them. They all lowered their heads and went back to their dinners.

Fox and the five other clones took their helmets off and looked at Anakin.

"Good," Anakin said. "Uh... sorry for yelling. Let's talk about this back at the Temple."

They arrived at the Temple, and Anakin brought them into a room with a large holotable in the middle of it.

"So, you say Obi-Wan told you to come look for me if I didn't come? After he made the call to me? If that's really what happened, he would've contacted you and said to cancel the search..." Anakin's voice trailed off.

"Yes, General. That's exactly what happened."

Anakin leaned against the holotable, thinking. "Why would he have contacted me telling me to go home in the first place?" he asked himself. "Fox, troopers--you're dismissed. My apologies for all of the trouble, men."

"No problem, General." Fox bowed and left with the other troopers marching behind him.

The doors slid closed and Anakin pressed a button on his comlink. "Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan, are you there?"

A crackling noise came through the comlink. "Anakin!" Obi-Wan's muffled voice came through. "I'm here!" The comlink started to crackle and break up, badly. "Are-y-you at the-Jed-i-i-Temple?"

"Yes! Where are you?"

"W-wa-"

"What? I can't hear you! You're breaking up!"

"A-" Obi-Wan's signal went out.

"Obi-Wan! Obi-Wan, are you there?" Anakin pleaded. He groaned and paced the room. Where was Obi-Wan? Why was his signal so bad? And why did Obi-Wan contact Anakin this evening and tell him he could go home? All of these questions haunted Anakin. After pacing the room for 15 minutes straight, he finally walked to the holotable and clicked it on to find Obi-Wan's coordinates. No signal. You've got to be kidding me, Anakin thought. He tried calling Obi-Wan one more time, but there was still no signal. He couldn't believe it. He finally decided to go to his room and wait for Obi-Wan to call. In his room, there was an eerie silence. He sensed someone in there. He looked around cautiously and pulled it his lightsaber, igniting it. He also used it as a light to see in the dark room. All of the sudden, someone jumped out from the corner of the room.

"Ventress," Anakin said harshly through gritted teeth. "What do you want? And how did you get through security?"

"Skills, Skywalker. If you want to know why I'm here..." She leaned in. "Take me to the crystal lair."

"What? No!"

"Fine. Then give me your lightsaber."

Anakin scoffed. "Why would I do that?" He gripped the hilt of his lightsaber tighter.