Entry Forty-Four – Days after Geonosis, Two Hundred Sixty-Six
Apparently one way to solve the problem of not having any money is to use someone else's. Earlier today the Breakbar Cooperative, an association of demolitions, disposal, and mitigation contractors with a strong presence in the underworld generally and the Bucket specifically, offered to donate one million sapient hours of effort and all associated materials costs to the Republic in the service of clearing brownfield sites for new construction. Officially, it was proclaimed as an act of patriotic generosity to thank their many workers for prolonged overtime efforts.
Echuta. You'd think they would have bothered with a slightly more convincing fiction. Even I know that cooperative is for all practical purposes as wholly owned subsidiary of Black Sun and racks up huge extortive profits through complex control of the only authorized blast masters for certain types of demolitions work. This is blackmail of such blatancy that it's starting to become a joke on the streets. Clearly someone pulled up some secret of incredible value to hold over a high-placed member and has backers of their own sufficiently powerful that they do not fear being snuffed out by the vengeful fury of the Falleen. I don't think there are any long-term residents of the Bucket willing to take that particular risk, not even someone like Isoxya, but I do know several Jedi with the confidence to make such a play. Master Plo Koon could do it, or Master Voss, but this sort of maneuver is not the Jedi approach. A rival syndicate might have the pluck to pull something like this, but they'd never just donate the proceeds. The only remaining possibility is a government agent.
In no doubt unrelated news the project representative sent me a message today asking how swiftly I could produce the list of candidate populations he'd asked for. Officially he works for the Census Bureau, an utterly implausible position given no proper census has been taken this far down in over a century. This Logas – a frustratingly common name – must work for the Chancellor somehow.
While I personally have no real objections to taking money from Black Sun for use in practically any other purpose, anyone whose first move is to blackmail one of the galaxy's most powerful crime syndicates is terrifically reckless. Strange, it seems I have acquired some of the suspicion common to the neighborhood, for I find I cannot look upon this sudden clandestine interest on the part of the Chancellor as a wholly positive development. What has triggered this?
I put this question to Morne and he speculated that the redevelopment was just a conveniently available place to dump some money, and that the real purpose was to humiliate Black Sun and make a statement to the syndicates that war is no excuse to run wild. He even suggested the move might be a deliberate provocation. I cannot fault that deductive instinct.
He also passed along word from Lia – their dance toward pairing up is sand dune slow – that the actual activity almost certainly involved a truly impressive feat of slicing. It makes one wonder at the true capabilities of this clandestine agent. All I know for certain is that he has concealed cybernetic implants. Strange how my exposure to YH-life would sharpen my Force sensitivity to detect heavy metals within living systems. Other than that he is an unknown quantity. His official government profile is an amusingly anodyne fiction that is not capable of convincing even an amateur like me that it is real.
I will give him his list, but hopefully I can stay far away from this man.