Rook's Attention

By Armand Banooni


 OOC: this takes place before the meeting at the household

 Rook lounged casually in a dark corner of the cantina.  He looked
 nothing  like his normal self if there was such a thing as 'normal'
 for him.  For a  number of days now he had been watching the
 comings and goings of the  cantina's inhabitants.  He refused to
 relinquish his ties and contacts among  the mercenaries.  They were
 too useful to him as a source of info and  personnel when he needed
 them.  It had been awhile since he had been able to  spend some
 time in the cantina with the added responsibilities of the
 household.  Though he griped about it to Darana, she had regarded
 him with  that level stare she had when she refused to be swayed on
 an issue.  He knew  it was next to hopeless to change her mind but
 still he had to try.  She let  him argue himself out and asked him
 calmly "are you quite finished?"  Rook  had admitted he was and
 allowed her to continue with the new list of  responsibilities he
 would be handling.  Even as she numbered them he had to  smile at
 the way he indulged him now and again.  It was a far cry from when
 he had first hired on as a mercenary with a temporary contract with
 her.  She  had seen his potential even then.  A thing that his
 father... He trailed off  on that line of thinking.  It didn't
 matter what his father thought.  He  would show him some day and
 make him sorry.
 He snapped out of his reverie with no outward sign and scanned the
 cantina  once again.  It was a quiet day here and since nothing
 seemed to be going on  here, he should get back to the household
 and catch up on some work.  No use  letting it pile up.  As he was
 leaving the cantina he noticed some of the  'patrons' eyeing him,
 sizing him up.  He smiled.  Let them try something, he  hadn't had
 some decent exercise in awhile.  The bartender smiled at him.
    "Leaving so soon Sean?"   Rook or Sean as he called himself at
 the moment,  paused to take a last sip of the snifter of Brandy he
 had been nursing.  He  flashed the bartender, a pretty woman, a
 winning smile.
    "Yeah, I think so.  I'm off to cause some^Å."  He gasped as he
 was hit with  a searing pain in his brain akin to an awl trying to
 puncture its way out  from the inside out.  He stumbled a few paces
 as he fought to control it.   See an opening, one of the barflies
 reached a hand out to try and relieve him  of his purse or blaster.
  It took seconds for Rook to realize and act.  Still  holding his
 brandy in his right hand, his left flashed out to grab the other
 man's prying hand.  Grabbing him by the wrist, he twisted it
 sharply hearing  first a loud crack followed by a howl.  He
 continued to hold the man's hand  while he sniveled and tossed back
 the last of his brandy.  Rook stared into  the man's pain filled
 eyes with his own ice cold blue ones.  He finally  realeased the
 man's arm letting him collapse to the floor.  He looked back  that
 the bar tender who watched the whole scene silently and replaced
 the  smile on his face.  Finishing his statement as if nothing had
 happened  "trouble" he said and slammed his glass on the bar.
 He had felt pain like this once before.  Darana was  in trouble
 there was no  doubt about it, and it was up to he and the rest of
 the household to help her.


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