"You all right?" a voice asked softly from the shadows. Doriana jumped violently. "Who's there?" he hissed.

"Relax," Jafer Tories calmed him, stepping into view from a doorway, his lightsaber ready in his hand. "It's just me."

Doriana took a deep breath. "You nearly stopped my heart there," he said reproachfully. "In the future, kindly practice your Jedi skulking techniques on someone else."

"Sorry," Tories said with a faint smile. "But for a moment there I thought I was going to have to demonstrate more than just skulking. What happened over there?"

"What do you mean, what happened?" Doriana hedged, wondering uneasily just how much the Jedi had seen. "It was just a standard security patrol."

"Who looked at your ID and then let you go," Tories said pointedly.

"Since when do the Separatists give free passes to Palpatine's advisors?"

Doriana started breathing a little easier. So, the Jedi had been close enough to see the confrontation, but not to hear what was said. Good enough.

"No free passes for advisors, no," he told Tories, digging out his false ID

again. "But plenty for neutral observers. Kinman Drifkin, Aargau Medical Observer Corps, at your service."

"Cute," Tories said. He took the ID, peered at it, and handed it back.

"Holds up to baseline scrutiny, does it?"

"As you saw," Doriana reminded him, putting the datacard away again.

"Supreme Chancellor Palpatine can hardly afford to let his people get picked up by the enemy in the middle of a war zone. Speaking of which, what are you doing out here, anyway?"

"Funny; I was going to ask you the same question," Tories said, his voice suddenly going a little odd. "Lord Binalie said you'd gone into the city and asked me to see if you might be in trouble. So what are you doing?"

"Feeling mildly pleased with myself, and ready to get out of here,"