Upon entering the main area of the illegal gambling den, Jasmine, Ezra, and Kaiden were assaulted by a thick smell of mixing fumes.

As was common with a place like this, drugs were being thrown into the mix of betting on more extreme forms of entertainment that were not allowed under alliance law.

It took all of Jasmine's willpower not to scrunch up her face in disgust. The assault to nearly all of her senses in this place was nauseating to say the least.

"Let's split up and search for Huijari. And if he's not here, try and find someone that knows where he is. Oh, and do not bet on the more egregious games even in the name of trying to blend in." Jasmine said, glancing over at a giant cage where a four-meter-long predatory beast with six legs, was fighting a gargantuan armored bug of some kind.

She was appalled by the scene, but there was little she could do about it right now. They had their own job to do, and cracking down on a place like this was something that needed to be handled by the Alliance Police.

Having spotted a bar set up on the western side of the room, Jasmine headed over there first.

Inebriated people tended to have looser lips, and getting a drink was the most appealing activity she could find here.

The moment she sat down at the bar, a robotic waiter came up and asked for her order.

She decided to get something a bit on the stronger side, since she could feel a few people watching her.

However, when she was asked for payment, it was not in Krenin.

For a place like this that did not want to leave any traceable records, using the main currency of the Dramid Alliance was out of the question.

The truncations would be easy to follow, and it would not be long before the suspicious influx of money caught the attention of the Alliance Police.

Instead, valuable goods that had been purchased beforehand were exchanged for tokens that could only be used within the establishment.

This was a similar model to how pirates operated, though Jasmine did not want to think about that right now.

To get herself some funds that she could use in the place, she handed over a new, high-end terminal to the robot waiter.

Once it had assessed the value of the device, it spit out a card that was loaded with tokens that could be used to buy items and for betting.

"I don't think that I've seen you around here before."

A greasy looking man with slicked back orange hair came over a sat down next to Jasmine.

She could see that he was pretty drunk by how flush his face was, but that was not what garnered most of her attention.

Instead, it was his cybernetic arms and legs. He had clearly been augmented.

Judging by the quality that was on the lower end but appeared to have been done properly, Jasmine figured that he was likely a mercenary as well.

"That would because this is my first time here. My team and I just finished a job that brought us to this system, and we we're looking to have a bit of fun and heard about this place from a friend."

With her drink having arrived midsentence, Jasmine grabbed it once she had finished talking and took a large gulp of it.

Thanks to her bionic enhancements, she could now hold alcohol a lot better than before. This meant she was able to drink quite a bit without getting drunk. Something that might be considered a positive or a negative depending on the person.

Right now, Jasmine was grateful for her ability to drink a lot without being too affected by it. This allowed her to give the appearance that she really was letting loose, rather than actually trying to uncover some leads in her investigation.

"Well, since it's your first time here, how about I help show you around? I'm sure that you'll find that there's quite a lot of excitement to be had here."

Jasmine could just what sort of excitement that this guy was looking for from the lecherous look in his eyes. He had practically been staring at her from the moment that she sat down.

Still, Jasmine had chosen more exposed clothing than she typically wore in part to look like she belonged, and to try and lure in someone just like this man.

"I can have the type of fun you're looking for whenever I want. That's not why I'm here. Though, perhaps my mood will change later once I've had my fill of this place." Jasmine responded.

Just the implication that he might get what he wanted from her was enough for Jasmine to have the man that had approached her on the hook.

Now he was going to happily be her guide and source of information.

"Now, show me around to some of the games they have here." Jasmine said. "Ah, but nothing too brutal. I get enough of that with my work, and don't care for it in my entertainment."

With that, Jasmine took her drink and followed the man around the illegal gambling den.

As she pretended to be engrossed in the games he brought her to and listened to the boastful stories he told about his own mercenary careers, Jasmine slipped in questions about the establishment and Huijari.

Apparently, the man in charge of the place would show up occasionally, but not on any set schedule. He was not here currently, and the guy escorting Jasmine had no idea when he would show up next.

From what he knew, Huijari was typically somewhere in the building during the gabling den's operating hours. Likely in an office where he dealt with both his legitimate and illegitimate businesses.

However, she did learn that Huijari would often come by to greet and ingratiate himself with people that were throwing around a lot of money while gambling. Naturally those types typically brought him a lot of wealth, and he had no problem with flattering them to no end if it got them to come back regularly.

After receiving this bit of information, Jasmine pulled out her terminal. Pretending that she had just received a message.

"Looks like one of my team members used up everything they brought with them already and is asking me for a loan. I'll be back in a bit. Once I've dealt with this." Jasmine said, flashing the man she had been siphoning information from a smile.

She still planned on using him some more later, so she made sure to retain his interest. No matter how disgusted acting this way made her feel.

Purposefully, she headed over towards Kaiden as she sent a message to Ezra to meet up with them. There were things she wanted to tell them both, and she was hoping that they might have dug up some intel themselves.

"I see. So, we can lure our target out if we start blowing money like fools. I suppose that's what well have to do then." Ezra said, resisting the urge to frown.

He had not found out anything else pertinent that Jasmine had not as well, but Kaiden had picked up something by using his keen hearing and asking a few leading questions to some of the other people in the gambling den.

"Turns out that someone fitting the description of Huijair's old protégé comes around here every four to six months. From what the people here have seen, he never partakes in any of the games or uses any of the facilities. He always just heads into the next area which is supposedly where Huijair's office is located. At least so far as anyone I've listened in on knows."

This was certainly an intriguing bit of intel.

Knowing that Huijari still had a relationship with his former protégé and the current Under Secretary of the Department of Education meant that he might be involved in corruption that they were investigating.

Of course, this could all just be a big misunderstanding. Perhaps Huijari was still close with his old protégé and the two were merely getting together as friends.

Still, this was where the proverbial smoke trail had led them, and as of right now, Jasmine had not found any other promising leads to follow. They would pursue this line of investigation to its end. Wherever that brought them.

"Okay, we bought some expensive electronics to exchange here, so just go ahead and use them all. We need to gamble like we don't have any limits and that we don't really care about winning. Even if you lose big, don't stop. And if you do happen to some how win at anything, just bet it all on the next round. Hopefully this will spark Huijari's interest, and he'll come out here. If that doesn't work, we'll go with plan B." Jasmine said. Her gaze momentarily drawn towards the set of doors that led towards where Huijair's office supposedly was.

If they could not get him to come out of his own will, then the plan was to get to him forcefully.

Naturally, this came with some risks though.

Huijari might not currently be in the building, and their rash actions would lead to him learning about them. And even if he was present, there was a chance he could run away before they could get to him.

With their plans set, the three of them broke off from each other again. Going to where they could exchange their goods for more token cards to bet with.