Kadance

9e

Once their things are put away and Candlen has the electronics setup they sit down and finalize the plans for the reception. Tommy directs the planning session. Once things are set they go back to their toys.

Tommy goes over to Candlen and they work on pulling more info on Kadance's uncle. "I can't believe this guy. He's a complete idiot. The financials are almost too easy to find. Look at this," he gestures to the information in front of him. Rackem goes over to Candlen and looks over the info.

Shaking his head he tells Tommy, "I can't believe it. There's enough here to convict him of fraud, embezzling, and half a dozen other things."
Tommy is surprised, "You mean he doesn't keep this encrypted?"

Candlen snorts and Rackem answers to him, "Yeah, but it's an encryption code that's been outdated for years now. Our second year trainees could crack it. Actually it was the code I had to break to pass my exam."

Candlen calls out, "Guys you gotta see this." Candlen says excitedly Tommy and Rackem hurry over to Candlen's station. They see Dunworthy, Kadence's uncle, and his scumbag assistant walk into the room.

"Any sound?" Tommy asks.

Tommy fully expects that the answer will be in the affirmative. Candlen just smiles like a self satisfied cat. "Not with the security camera but I hacked into his other electronic devices around the room." He enters a command and the sound comes on in the middle of a sentence. "She'll be there tomorrow. The information I've obtained says she's received a special invitation to the reception. One she cannot refuse. Have our special security take her out as she leaves. I don't want any more screw ups or near misses. How'd she get out of that last trap?" Dunworthy demands. "That damn girl has more lives than a cat."

"You sure about the sister?" Dunworthy growls.

"Yes, sir. I was able to get a positive match on some DNA profiles and they match. Your other niece was killed ten years ago by shifters on a colony planet." Janden the sleaze assistant responds.

Dunworthy grunts, "Good, one less to deal with. You sure she never married or had issue?" Dunworthy demands.

"I checked all civil registries noting both marriages and births. There are no entries for her for either. So she died childless and alone." Dunworthy chuckles as he claps Janden on the back. The two leave the room.

Tommy chuckles. "He only checked out the civil registries. He doesn't know she was inducted into the Warrior society. Boys, this could be a lot more fun than I anticipated. It sounds like his source could only give him incomplete information about Kadance as well. Like he doesn't know that she's been inducted. Well boys looks like tonight is going to be a fun night after all. Good work. I'm going to relieve Jayse now. You all should get prepared for tonight as well."

Borden had joined Jayse and Kadance and all three were out practicing. Well Jayse was instructing Kadance and Borden was practicing. Tommy noticed his gift to Kadance was stuck up to the hilt in the target. He smiles, she learns quick. He notices that they are currently working on firing with her left hand.

Tommy waits for a break then nods over to the target and then points to the knife, "You throw that or thrust?" He knew the answer of course from the angle of the knife but wants to let her have a chance to glory.

Kadance shakes her arms out as she answers him with a smile, "I threw it. Then Jayse started me shooting as a lefty." She grimaces as she looks back at the target range. She shrugs as she replies, "At least I'm hitting the target now." Tommy also looks at the target and hides a smile. Her shots are sporadic and random, most wouldn't be lethal shots, painful but not lethal.

"Show me how you're holding your gun." Tommy says and nods, a standard hold for those that are right handed learning to shoot left handed.

Tommy suspects that she isn't really right handed. He hasn't been paying close attention but he seems to recall her doing things a lot like he does and he's ambidextrous. So he asks her, "Are you a righty or are you ambidextrous?"

"I never really thought about it, but since I work equally well with both hands in almost everything," she looks pointedly at the target to show the exception, "I guess I'm ambidextrous." She's a little confused and still scowling at the target. She doesn't expect to ever need to kill anyone, but it still perturbs her that she can't do better than hit randomly on the target.

Tommy nods, that would explain it. "Jayse and Borden and I suspect most people are righties. But like you I'm ambidextrous. I've found that holding the gun that way throws my aim off just a bit." He shrugs as Kadance turns to him in surprise. "I don't know why."

He takes a gun in his prosthetic hand and shows her a slightly different hold from what Jayse had shown her. The difference wasn't great but the results were amazing.

He hands the gun back to her and has her hold it the way he did. Immediately she started being more accurate and in a short time she was hitting the bulls eye almost every time.

Tommy pulls Jayse and Borden to the side to give them an update on what they have and what her uncle has planned. Tommy tells him his plans about leaving that night to do a little snooping. Jayse nods his approval and heads off to get some shut eye.

Borden calls the others out for melee practice. Kadance stops to watch the melee practices and is fascinated by it, but she can tell that they aren't as fast as Jayse.

Borden and Tommy are doing their practice and have been going at it for some time. Tommy is experimenting using his prosthetic arm in a way he'd never dream of using his real arm and he's happy with the result. It makes not having his real arm a little easier to deal with.

Soon after Tommy calls a halt and sends the others in to clean up and fix some food. He keeps Kadance back so that he can talk to her.

Once the others are out of hearing Tommy says softly, "I have to go out tonight." Before she can say anything he forestalls her, "It has to do with your security. Jayse knows about it and approves. I promise I won't do anything that is extra dangerous. I'm playing it straight tonight, okay? Everyone will be on shift tonight so they are all getting some sleep after they eat.

"Trust me on this it's necessary okay? I promise I'll be back safe and sound by your side tomorrow My Lady Faire." Kadance isn't happy, but when it comes to security Jayse is in charge and if he thinks Tommy should do this than she has to go along with it, but that doesn't mean she's happy about it. She nods reluctantly.

Tommy knows that it was very hard for Kadance to concede that much. She has her head averted from him so he guesses that she's trying to hide her feelings from him. But he doesn't allow her to hide from him. He gently raises her head and waits for her to look at him, "By tomorrow night, your biggest nightmare in your life will be over with. But you have to trust us on that."

Kadance throws her arms around Tommy and pulls him into a hug. He's startled but pleased. It takes him a second to get over his startlement then hugs her back. She initiates the kiss this time. Tommy lets her take the lead. Although he's enjoying it, he's not going to push it. She's still confused and when he leaves he doesn't want her hurt even more.

He breaks the kiss before it goes further than he can tolerate. They are both breathing heavily. Tommy leans his head against hers as he tries to get his breath back. "Kadance, I..." he can't finish his sentence. This is growing intolerable for him.

He controls himself with difficulty forces up a smile, it's a small one, but it is a smile. "You should get some food. When I come in I'll lock the door and engage the perimeter guard. I'll be in after I work out some more. Make sure you put more of Jayse's smelly stuff on after you shower or you'll be hurting a lot during our big surprise for you."

Kadance is a little surprised. She initiated contact but he didn't take her up on her invite. She's confused and not a little surprised. She may be naive when it comes to men and even a little clueless, but even she could tell that he wanted to take her up on her invite.

Hurt and more than a little lost Kadance goes in. The thought of eating makes her nauseas so she just goes and showers. After taking an extra long shower she slathers on the smelly mess that Jayse gifted her with and goes to her room.

She can tell from the noise level that most if not all the men had done the same. Still she's not surprised to find Jayse waiting for her in her room. She knows that he couldn't have had much sleep, yet he looks fresher than she feels, even after her shower.