"Well, that's the most listless you've been since I've known you," Palpatine complained. "I'm beginning to regret being honest with you, Sereine. You're sulking."

She stretched next to him after a brief interlude of lovemaking which, she had to admit, was a sudden low for them. "I don't want you to ever regret being honest with me." She laid her hand on his chest. "And I don't intend to sulk. I just feel how I feel."

She felt his hand in her hair. "I haven't made up my mind yet, about anything!" he said. She detected a subtle, frustrated whine.

She kissed his chest. "I know."

A long silence stretched between them.

At last Palpatine said, "There was some story you were telling me. Something about turning on a pebble."

She had to think for a minute.

"Oh, that. Bail Organa invited me to his office to talk to me about something that's brewing with the Jedi. He had a Jedi come to him about an incident in Alderaanian space. This Jedi happened upon a trafficker in Alderaanian space lanes and got a distress signal from that ship and stopped the ship. The Jedi took too long to respond and the trafficker threw forty victims out the airlock and got away."

Palpatine murmured his dismay in the dark.

She continued, "This Jedi master approaches Bail: Is there anything he can do about the trafficking in his space lane." She began to run her hand up and down her lover's chest as she talked. "But you know Alderaan has limited resources for that sort of thing, and—here's what I didn't know. Bail had already started discussing the entire problem of the Republic's lack of response to the slavery issue with two of my other clients before any of them ever spoke with me."

"Oh? Who?"

"Garm Bel Iblis and Mon Mothma."

"I'm sorry, who?"

"Junior Senator from Chandrila. She's new. Brand new. She's my pro bono I just finished."

"Excuse me, what? You overcharge me for my campaign and then you donate six months of our celibacy to another one?"

Sereine moved closer to pillow her head on his chest. "Well, it wasn't entirely pro bono. I just adjusted my fee down to what she could afford. With a stellar candidate like that, we need her here. I wanted to help her out."

"I resent that you overcharge me and then use that to subsidize an opponent."

Sereine lifted her head. "She's not your opponent, she's from Chandrila. And besides, I earned every bit of yours, dear, and what I do with it is my prerogative." She kissed his chest. "You're hazardous duty pay."

He laughed and snugged an arm around her waist. "And don't you forget it. So, what became of all this? What did they want you for?"

"So, Bail makes overtures to the Jedi Council and meets with Master Yoda. Who informs him the Jedi are spread too thin, there aren't enough of them to effectively police the slavery issue, and the Senate has no will to address it in any case. They need cooperation from member worlds. And Bail says, Well, I'm a Senator, I'm addressing it. And what was this issue that just happened in my home lanes? And Master Yoda is very vague and sort of puts Bail off."

Palpatine's warm hand stroked the small of her back. "Go on."

"So Bail, and I guess Garm and Mon Ane by extension, asks me what I think Chancellor Valorum might say to the idea of their asking him to intervene with the Council. And I'm saying, What's the big problem, of course he'll listen to you. Send him a message you're all signatory to, no problem. And he doesn't think to tell me the problem until I'm about to leave."

"Which is?"

"He finally thinks to mention to me that this Jedi, the original complaining Jedi master, is a former student of Master Yoda's."

"Padawan," Palpatine corrected into the dark.

"Whatever," said Sereine. "And I had to stop him right there and say, Whoa, wait a minute, there's your problem. Finis and Master Yoda are close personal friends. When I was on the Valorum campaign, Master Yoda came up and they had lunch together once a week."

She stopped. "And Yoda always used to stare at me. I see why you're uncomfortable around Jedi now. It was unnerving."

Palpatine laughed and stroked her back again. "Go on."

"I had to tell Bail, I don't think you're going to get anywhere with the Chancellor if you're bringing him an issue from a former student of Master Yoda's. This is going to look like a personal dispute to him, and he's going to feel reluctant to get involved. I told him, There's only one way you're going to get Finis involved in this. You're going to have to make him mad."

Palpatine slid his arms around her. One finger traced idle designs on her upper arm.

At last, he said, "Interesting. I wonder, would these three appreciate a fourth? I think I might like to get involved with this."

She stretched her own arm around his waist. "Well. That might be a bit difficult. I can't exactly explain to Bail Organa that I let you read his mail over breakfast, or that I discussed all this with you while we luxuriated in your bed, now, can I?"

"Hmm," said Palpatine. "I think I can come up with the perfect ingress. Give me about a week, my dear, and I'll have something to show you."

She raised her head. "Oh, really? Now I'm curious."

"I'm curious about something as well."

"You are?"

"Yes. Whether we can't do any better than we just managed tonight."

Sereine leaned forward and kissed him.

***

Yan Dooku felt disused and put out to pasture. With no Padawan and no assignments, what better time to make a trip to the Coruscant Corporation Commission and attempt to track down the owner of the old LiMerge power plant in the Works?

Actually, he had started two days ago looking up real estate records, which divulged the sale of the old power plant two years ago to a corporation named, appropriately, Mirage. Apparently it was a holding corporation just for this piece of real estate, because he could find no records of it anywhere else.

Then had come the frustration of trying to trace its owners. Mirage was owned by another corporation called Dominion, which was owned by a third, Sovereign. By the time Dooku had traced ownership through five more corporations named Boundless, Truculence, Ellipsis, Annular, and Enigma, he was beginning to think that someone either had significant control issues or a wry sense of humor.

Then he discovered the sixth corporate owner: Mirage. Annular, indeed.

Tracing the individuals named as president of these corporations grew even more opaque. Records were sealed, or, in one case, left blank.

At last, Dooku decided on a different tactic. Someone had to have paid the fees to have these corporations registered. Why not try to elucidate things that way?

Again, the same names popped up. The corporations were paying the registration fees for one another.

The seventeenth hour on the third day of this found Dooku sitting in front of a terminal at the CCC with his forehead in his hand. He was going to need to try to trace the bank accounts from which these registration payments came, and hope he got somewhere that way.

Fortunately, old Jedi masters did, on occasion, have contacts at the various banks.

Dooku took the first routing number at which he had a helpful contact, appeared there on the morning of the fourth day, and asked his acquaintance there to tell him who had that account.

It was another corporation, appropriately entitled, Vexation.

Come to the office after the sixteenth hour if you're able. I have something for you.

The fact that Palpatine had not preceded this note with their old signal intimated to Sereine that this was a business communication, not a personal one. She left the work of arranging furniture and moving equipment to Tomal, Arias, and Logane, and made her way to the Senate Office Building to arrive somewhat close to on time.

At this hour, some of his staff were already starting to filter out the wide double doors for home, since the work pace here had quieted after his reelection. He'd left the door to his personal office open for her, and she found him seated behind his enormous, polished creelwood desk. Unlike some of the more powerful delegations to the Senate, this suite of offices was all interior and did not have windows; Palpatine had installed a large bas-relief on the wall instead, along with some panoramic views of Theed. His offices here were as Naboo blue as his décor at his home was red; she walked into a soothing expanse of blue and white on a carpet so thick and luxurious it gave the whole delegation the same padded, whispered quiet as a library.

No one else was in the room or in earshot, so she folded her arms at the door and paused to simply study him. He was just entering middle age, soon to turn forty-four, and she thought he was aging so attractively. The blue in his frock coat brought out the blue in his eyes as he looked up at her.

She tilted her head and greeted him with a soft tone. "Hi."

His eyes snapped back to his desk. "Sereine," he said, all business. "Come and take a seat."

She sat in one of the padded chairs facing his desk, feeling a little bereft.

He reached across his desk, holding a bound document about half a centimeter thick, and passed it to her without looking at her. "Can you do anything with this?"

Sereine inspected the cover, riffled through it. It was titled, "Current Perspectives on Trafficking in the Core and Mid Rim" and appeared to detail illicit shipping routes, the reputed origins of trafficking victims, and a secret slave market run by the criminal organization Black Sun on Ord Mantell. She saw dates sprinkled throughout. Recent ones.

She looked up. "How did you get this?"

"My operative you find so intimidating. Sate Pestage. This is what he does for me." Palpatine finally looked up at her. "Useful, yes?"

Sereine flipped through the document some more. "All this is true?"

"If Pestage says it is, it generally is."

She restrained herself from stopping to read paragraphs here and there. "I can definitely do something with this. I can casually run into Bail and say something like, 'Oh, you might want to get in touch with Senator Palpatine. I believe he has access to some research that can help you with your trafficking issue.'"

"And that is exactly as I had hoped." Palpatine got up and strode around his desk to his door, releasing the open button and enclosing them in privacy. "When do you think you might be able to do this?"

She turned to push the word over her shoulder. "Tomorrow, most likely."

She felt him draw up behind her. "Ah," he said. "Thank you." Then she felt his hands on her shoulders. "And where have you been the past four days?"

"Setting up our new studio," she replied. "If they ever allow political ads at home, we've got you covered for the next election."

"Don't remind me," came his dry comment close to her head. The natural vibrato in his voice tickled her ears. "But I think you know that isn't what I mean."

She rested her head against him briefly. "I think we're beginning to argue a little too much. I'm giving it a break."

"Well, you could have told me," he said, and moved back to his desk chair.

Sereine stared down at her lap; she had to pause and think, here. "It seems …" she stopped, trying to feel her way through this without making him angrier. "That when we're honest lately, we're making each other angry. I know you don't mean to." She looked up at him. "And I don't mean to, either." He eyed her with equal parts patience and resentment. She finished, "I'm not really sure what to do about it."

"Hmm," he said. "I'm more familiar with the other scenario. Aren't I supposed to be the one holding a professional contract hostage to your availability, and not the other way round?" His brows knitted in a severe expression.

"But it feels as if …" She looked for words. "It feels as if you're taking half of yourself away from me, and all you want is …" She couldn't hold his look, and peered down at the document in her hands. "And yet, I'm doing this for you, and we're still partners as I do it. Until you decide you don't want me anymore. It's … bizarre."

He sat back with a loud sigh and looked away from her. "This is why," he said.

She placed the document back on his desk and gave him a minute. When he said no more, she prompted, "Why …?"

"Why I avoid attachments. Too complicated." His eyes rested briefly on her face and skipped away again.

She shook her head. "Me, too." She saw an exasperated look cross his face and had to smile briefly.

She tried to pin it down. "If all I have with you is play, and that's all you want … that's all I am."

"You were all right with that for two years!" He gave her an irritated shrug.

"But that wasn't all it was. I was part of your life. I was part of your work." And she realized the two were essentially the same thing. "If I'm not, I'm just something you use. And I don't want that."

Anger burned in his eyes. "You do not dictate the course of my career. I do."

And that was fair. She gave him one large nod, almost a bow, and lowered her eyes. "Absolutely right."

He got up and came around the desk then, took her arm, and pulled her up to stand beside him. "Then leave it, and come home with me. Right now."

Something in his word choice hit her. He hadn't said, come home. He had said, come home with me. His grip on her arm and the intensity in his eyes told her he wanted something. Something besides sex, although he himself probably wasn't aware of it and could never have named it.

Exactly the thing he wouldn't get if she came home with him instead of coming home. It was all very confusing, and she didn't know what to make of it. She looked up into darkness, half anger, half passion.

She reached up and stroked the side of his face, letting her fingers stray into his thick, wavy hair. "Sheev," she said, trying to put a soothing note into her voice. "I don't want to decide your next eight years for you. But …"

She groped, and then she found it. "But, if we don't work together, then I'm just a receptacle to you."

His eyes grew harder, and she dropped her hand. "It's not for me."

She pulled her arm from his grasp and stepped away, and indicated the document on his desk with her eyes. "But I will help you with that. I'll finish that." She turned and walked to the door and slipped out, leaving him with a furrow between his brows and a look of utter consternation on his face.

And just like that, she had untied herself from Senator Sheev Palpatine.