Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Public The Umbrella Effect

The thought of contacting The Lord of Hunger The Lord of Hunger had occurred to me several times. Each time, I dismissed it. It was ridiculous, really. I had been in the same room with him only recently at the auction. I had spoken to him before. He wasn't some distant figure whose identity existed only in corporate reports and rumors. If I wanted answers about N&Z, I could simply ask him.

That alone should have made the decision easier. Instead, the very thought of reaching out to him left me with a sense of unease that I couldn't quite explain. I had no evidence that he intended me harm. He hadn't threatened me persay. He hadn't attempted to take anything from me at the auction. In fact, our interaction there had been remarkably ordinary considering who he was and what I knew about the corporation he controlled.

And yet the idea of opening a private channel to him made something in me recoil. I didn't like that. I trusted evidence and patterns; things that I could observe and test. Fear without a true identifiable cause was much harder to work with.

I set the datapad down and rubbed the bridge of my nose. "Perhaps I'm simply being paranoid." That was entirely possible. But it was also possible that paranoia was exactly what one should experience when considering contacting the person at the top of a corporation one suspected of quietly manipulating governments across the Galaxy.

There was another complication. N&Z had wanted me before. Not for my expertise in the ordinary sense, but for the work I had done with synthetic Force sensitivity. I had spent years making certain that research could not become a commodity. I had made promises about it. I had gone to considerable lengths to keep it out of the hands of the very people who might use it without understanding what they were creating. Reaching out to the Lord of Hunger voluntarily would mean placing myself within his reach again.

Perhaps nothing would happen. Perhaps he would simply answer my questions. Perhaps I would discover that I had spent weeks worrying about a conspiracy that existed mostly inside my own head.

But there was another possibility. And that was that I would be giving N&Z exactly what it needed to put it's hands around me again. I wasn't willing to gamble my freedom on satisfying my curiosity.

Tertius C. Nargath Tertius C. Nargath was another possibility. He had once been my superior. He had hired me. He knew the corporation from the inside and would almost certainly know more about it's structure than I do now. But Tertius was also too close to the problem. And I had not spoken to him since our last encounter had left me with a particular variety of social embarrassment that I had no desire to repeat. I sighed. "Apparently I have a talent for making simple problems complicated."

There was another that I could contact. Balun Dashiell Balun Dashiell came to mind first. My former bodyguard and friend had known me well enough to understand when I was frightened even when I hadn't admitted it myself.

And then there was the simplest solution of all; don't start with either of them. Find people who had no reason to protect N&Z. People who could listen to what I had found without immediately accepting my conclusions. People who might have seen pieces of the same pattern from entirely different directions.

I opened a new posting for the holonet and began to write. I wasn't going to call it a conspiracy. Not yet. I would describe what I knew. The subsidiaries. The government contracts. The conflicts in which N&Z seemed to profit regardless of which side prevailed. The uncomfortable frequency with which the corporation appeared wherever influence, reconstruction, or military procurement was involved. Then I would ask the only question I could honestly defend. Was it coincidence? Or was there something underneath it?

My finger hovered over the transmit control. For one brief moment, I thought about opening a private channel to the Lord of Hunger instead. But the feeling of unease returned immediately. So I closed the thought away. "I'll deal with him later."

I then sent the posting. For now, I needed sympathetic ears, and not another cage.

Tags: OPEN

This is in addition to the LFG that I had put up earlier. Anyone tagged in this post are allowed to join in, or anyone else wanting to investigate either Liin's investigation or N&Z itself along side her. Any questions, just send me a message :)
 



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There was little within the corporate sphere to slip under the N&Z's attention. They didn't call themselves the biggest or the most powerful of corporations, others had far more military strength and economic weight, but the N&Z had a reach which was nearly unmatched. Ofcourse such a reach wasn't grown overnight, nor was it by any means achieved in a normal fashion. The name of the game was espionage, media control and ofcourse taking care of loose ends without remorse, without hesitation.

Alas, under Tertius Nargath's tutelage, the corporation might have flourished economically, but the reach of its shadows had diminished, its name no longer commanded fear as much as it used to, but things had changed. The consolidations in the outer rim, the successful push for Mahporeem to grow beyond its own planetary system, the renewed vigor in which warships left its shipyards and the strange hold the company began to acquire within the High Republic through various shell companies and equity firms was a sign that with Tertius out of the picture, the old roots of the corporation had returned, the enigma had strengthened and the secrecy had grown to become intertwined with its daily operations.

At the head of this all, where the Directors; enigmatic figures which seemed to have a dual role, with some being very visible and open, while others maintained a silence, covering themselves in the vast shadow the corporation had created. Her Her , Karl Von Strauss Karl Von Strauss , Ronhar Tane Ronhar Tane each a director, each with authority and power akin to a grand moff within the corporation's sphere of influence, each growing not only their own hold over the company, but also the company's own reach. At the top, there was the CEO, Amalia Visconti | Mira Rhory Amalia Visconti | Mira Rhory who whilst being the most visible and known face of the corporation, had a past as being one of the handlers of the corporation's secrets, the former assistant to the former chairman, who went missing when he returned to Sith held space and whose disappearance has sparked the distrust the corporation now openly held towards the Sith Empire.

Yet all of those names, all of those faces were nothing, they were but pawns in a game controlled by a single entity; The Lord of Hunger, who upon his return had taken himself a new name going along with his younger face, a name to hide his real ancestry and instead portray himself as the new chairman, appointed by the very same financial group he owned outright and which had taken control over the stakes once held by House Nargath from Eriadu.

AND he knew, he knew as of late, there were forces working against the company, some from within, some from outside, but he didn't mind. Not because the lack of their effort, but because only he knew the very depth of the corporation's secrets, for he had made the corporation rise from the void, he had it grown to the juggernaut it had been prior to the second hyperspace war and he would once again turn it into a company one did not dare to defy...
 
I closed the posting and sat back for a moment. The responses hadn't given me much that I could actually verify yet. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I hadn't expected strangers on the Holonet to hand me a neatly assembled conspiracy complete with evidence and a convenient explanation. If anything, that would have made me even more suspicious.

So I started looking elsewhere. If N&Z really had the reach that I had suspected, one that has grown considerably since I had left them; then there had to be people who had encountered them without being part of their corporate structure. People who had seen unusual contracts, suspicious shipments, governments suddenly changing direction, or N&Z appearing in places where it had no obvious reason to be. So independent operators seemed like a reasonable place to start. Pirates, smugglers, mercenaries. People who had made their living outside of the systems corporations preferred to control. I wasn't looking for someone who would simply agree with me. I needed someone who might have noticed something from an entirely different direction.

The search turned up a name that made me pause; Jacero Savi. He was a pirate and smuggler. That could be useful. I read through what I could find about him, following references and scattered mentions across the Holonet. There wasn't enough there for me to decide whether I trusted him. But there was enough to make me curious. And curiosity, at least, was something I knew how to work with. I could use someone like him. Not as an accomplice. Not yet. But as another set of eyes.

I opened a private communication channel and considered what to say. There was no reason to put my suspicions into a message that could potentially be intercepted. If I was going to discuss N&Z with him, I'd rather do it where I could see his reaction.

So I kept the invitation deliberately vague:

Jacero Savi,

I'd like to speak with you in person.

I have something I'd like to discuss that I don't think should be discussed over an open channel.

If you're willing, let me know when and where you'd be comfortable meeting.

Liin Terallo


I read it once before sending it. It was vague enough to be intriguing. That was intentional. I sent the message and then put the datapad aside. For all I knew, I'd just invited another complication into my life. Then again, I was beginning to suspect that finding people willing to help me dismantle N&Z was never going to be particularly uncomplicated.

Tags: Jacero Savi Jacero Savi The Lord of Hunger The Lord of Hunger
 

Jacero Savi

ɪ'ᴍ ꜰᴇᴇʟɪɴ' ᴍʏ ɪɴᴇʀᴛɪᴀ
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AUTH//PASS >> J.SAVI // RUN_LOG:0.011-A // ENC:ACTIVE // TRACE:NULL // ROUTE:MOBILE
RUN// ▶ ACTIVE
LOCATION: JACE'S APARTMENT, DENON // OBJECTIVE: MEET THE CONTACT
JACE SAVI
RUNNER // INFILTRATOR
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Jace was halfway through a late meal when the private message came through.

Standing in the narrow kitchen space of his apartment, he rested against the counter. His hair was still damp from the fresher and slicked back, and all he had on was a pair of baggy pants. Relaxation mode. He put the fork into his mouth and held it in place with his teeth as he glanced at the sender before picking up the datapad properly.

Liin Terallo.

He didn't know the name. The message didn't offer much else, either. She wanted to speak in person, didn't want to discuss the reason over an open channel, and had left the time and place up to him. Jace read it again while he finished what he was chewing. People contacted him for plenty of things they preferred not to put in writing. Usually they gave him a little more to work with first.

He pulled the fork from his mouth and set it back in the bowl, then picked up his drink, took a mouthful and considered where to meet.

Denon was easiest. He knew the city well enough that choosing somewhere suitable didn't take long, and there were plenty of places where two people could talk without anybody around them caring. One cantina in the lower city came to mind almost immediately. Busy most nights, decent drinks, and booths far enough from the bar that conversation didn't carry much beyond the table.

Jace set the glass down and opened a reply.

Liin,

Tomorrow, 1900 local. The Lantern, Lower Denon. Ask for the back booth.

Meet me there.

Jace

He gave the message another look, then sent it.

With another mouthful of food, Jace turned and crossed from the kitchen into the small lounge area. He had finished a run earlier that evening and figured he'd earned some rest. Work had been steady enough lately that he didn't need to spend the rest of the night looking for another contract.

Maybe he'd call Rorie for a night out.
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I read the message once. Then again.

Tomorrow. 1900. The Lantern. Lower Denon. Back booth.

It was simple enough, so I sent a brief acknowledgement.

Understood. I'll be there.

Liin.


Then I closed the channel.

Denon wasn't an unreasonable choice. In fact, it was probably a very good one. Which was precisely why I would need to be careful. N&Z had a presence there. I was almost certain of it. Perhaps more than one. I didn't know how deeply their interests extended into the city, and until I did; there was no reason to make myself conspicuous. Most importantly, I wasn't going to walk into a cantina and immediately tell a pirate that I suspected one of the largest corporations in the Galaxy was quietly manipulating governments. Not before I knew whether I could trust him.

The transport was booked under my civilian identity. Nothing about the trip needed to draw attention. No official credentials. No scientific equipment. No indication that I represented anyone or anything other than myself, which was of course; the truth of it all. Lying never came easy for me.

I dressed accordingly for this trip. No politician's attire. No corporate clothing. Not even my labcoat. Nothing that suggested that I was a scientist arriving for business. I was just an ordinary civilian. That was, in some ways, considerably easier.

By the following evening, I was on my way to Denon. I had spent most of the journey thinking about what I would and wouldn't say. I wouldn't mention N&Z. Not yet. I'd talk about unusual corporate activity. About things that I have noticed. About whether he'd encountered companies that seemed to appear everywhere, or contracts that didn't quite make sense. I'd let him tell me what he'd seen before I gave him any reason to shape his answers around my suspicions. If he knew nothing, I would lose very little. But if he knew something; Then I would have another piece of the puzzle.

When I arrived in the lower city, I made my way to The Lantern without lingering. The cantina was much as I'd expected. Busy enough that another face wouldn't attract much attention, but not so crowded that finding a particular person would be difficult. I stepped inside and looked around briefly. Then I approached the bar. "The back booth," I said simply. I gave no explanation, not even my name. I was just another civilian who had been given a place to meet someone. And for once, that was exactly how I wanted to look.

Tag: Jacero Savi Jacero Savi
 

Jacero Savi

ɪ'ᴍ ꜰᴇᴇʟɪɴ' ᴍʏ ɪɴᴇʀᴛɪᴀ
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AUTH//PASS >> J.SAVI // RUN_LOG:0.011-A // ENC:ACTIVE // TRACE:NULL // ROUTE:MOBILE
RUN// ▶ ACTIVE
LOCATION: JACE'S APARTMENT, DENON // OBJECTIVE: MEET THE CONTACT
JACE SAVI
RUNNER // INFILTRATOR
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Jace was already in the back booth when Liin arrived.

The Lantern hadn't changed much since the last time he'd been there. Music carried from somewhere behind the bar, enough to blur nearby conversations together. The booths along the rear wall sat beneath low amber lights, away from most of the traffic moving through the cantina.

His jacket lay beside him on the seat. Jace had one arm stretched along the back of the booth and a drink within reach, looking toward the entrance now and then while he waited.

A couple at the next table had been arguing quietly since before he sat down. Someone near the bar laughed hard enough to spill part of their drink. Jace checked the time once, in no particular hurry. If she didn't show, he'd just carry on with his night. He went back to his drink.

The in-house beer wasn't half bad.

A woman came through the entrance soon after and crossed to the bar. When she asked for the back booth, the bartender glanced toward the rear of the cantina and motioned in Jace's direction.

Jace took another mouthful of beer before setting the glass down and getting to his feet. He left his jacket where it was and crossed toward the bar, slipping around a pair of patrons moving the other way.

"Liin?"

He stopped near her with an easy smile.

"Jace." His thumb hooked back toward the booth. "I got us a spot back there."

Jace turned and walked back to his seat, sliding into the space and motioning for Liin to join him. He moved his beer to one side and leaned forward, giving her a quick once-over. He didn't know what he'd expected, really. She looked very... civilian.

"So..."
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I followed him towards the booth, though I didn't immediately sit down. Instead, I gave the room another brief glance. The music and conversation made it difficult to distinguish any particular voice from the rest, which was probably the point. Still, I had learned long ago that difficult to hear was not the same thing as private.

I slid into the booth opposite him and kept my voice low. "Thank you for meeting with me, Jace." I didn't order anything yet. My attention settled on him instead. "I'd like to ask you about where you've been." I paused, choosing my wording carefully. "Not what you were doing there. That's your business, and I'm not particularly interested in it." I gave him a faint, and almost apologetic smile. Some might be interested in one's level of aptitude at their job; but I was not. At least not yet. "I'm more interested in which parts of the Galaxy you've worked in. Hutt Space. Sith territory. Imperial space. Mandalorian territory. Places like that. Or if you've mostly operated around Denon and the surrounding systems."

I glanced briefly toward the other patrons before returning my attention to him. "I'm trying to determine whether something I've noticed is localized, or whether it extends considerably farther than I initially thought. So I'd rather hear what you've encountered before I tell you what I'm looking for. That way, I'm not putting words into your mouth." My expression remained rather neutral, although there was a quiet seriousness behind it. "So wherever you've been, and whatever you've noticed along the way; that's what I'd like to hear about."

Tag: Jacero Savi Jacero Savi
 

Jacero Savi

ɪ'ᴍ ꜰᴇᴇʟɪɴ' ᴍʏ ɪɴᴇʀᴛɪᴀ
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AUTH//PASS >> J.SAVI // RUN_LOG:0.011-A // ENC:ACTIVE // TRACE:NULL // ROUTE:MOBILE
RUN// ▶ ACTIVE
LOCATION: JACE'S APARTMENT, DENON // OBJECTIVE: MEET THE CONTACT
JACE SAVI
RUNNER // INFILTRATOR
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Liin's glance around the room before she sat didn't escape Jace. From where he'd chosen the booth, he could see most of the cantina without having to make a show of watching it. The entrance sat beyond her shoulder, the bar off to one side, and people crossing between the two kept giving him something to look at while she spoke. Nobody held his attention for long. A new arrival, somebody leaving, a couple shifting tables. He checked them and came back to Liin without interrupting her.

By the time she finished, one eyebrow had crept upward.

"Okay. That's fair." He considered it for a moment, then added, "You're trying not to lead me."

That part he understood. If she told him exactly what she expected to find, half the answer would end up shaped around it whether he meant to or not. Where he'd actually been was easier. Denon made up a lot of his work, but recent jobs had taken him through Bastion, Taspir III and Formac as well, and he remembered those places through the parts of them that had mattered at the time. Ports. Cargo access. Security. Warehouses. Which doors needed credentials and which ones opened because everybody assumed the person carrying a crate belonged there. He tended to remember routes through a place better than whatever somebody had decided belonged in the visitor guide.

"Denon, obviously. Bastion. Taspir III. Formac." He gave a small shrug. "I've done enough freight and courier work that I don't really think about it as a list unless somebody asks."

His eyes moved past Liin again as somebody entered the cantina. Jace watched long enough to see where they went, then returned his attention to the conversation. What he noticed while working was usually just as practical. Sometimes security cared more about faces than cargo. Sometimes a manifest barely mattered until the wrong company name appeared on it. He remembered loading areas where nobody questioned a uniform, ports where people watched every container that came off a ship, and the occasional piece of freight or corporate marking that seemed to turn up more often than coincidence probably deserved. At the time, most of it had only mattered because he needed to get in, get something moved, and get back out again.

"The problem is the 'whatever you've noticed' part." His mouth pulled into a grin. "I notice plenty. I just don't know which bit of it you actually need."

He rested one arm along the back of the booth, comfortable enough despite the subject. "If you want freight, ports, security, companies showing up where they shouldn't, I can probably give you something useful. If you want governments or military presence, I can tell you what was obvious enough for someone passing through to notice. I'm not going to pretend I know the politics of every system I've landed in, though. But if you want the most fashionable clothing brands or highest rated restaurants, I'm not your guy."

That was probably the useful line between them. Jace knew the parts of a place that affected the work because ignoring them could cost him credits, cargo, or a clean exit. Whether any of those details added up to whatever Liin was trying to trace was another question entirely.

"So keep the theory to yourself if you want." He glanced toward the front again, then back to her. "Just narrow the field a little. Otherwise we're going to be here all night while I tell you about customs desks, broken cargo lifts and which spaceports have terrible food."

Jace leaned back in the booth and offered a small shrug.
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I listened to him carefully, though the list of places made me reconsider my question slightly. Bastion, Taspir III, Formac, and Denon. That was considerably more travel than I had expected. Enough, at least, to make his observations useful even if he had never been looking for the same things that I was.

His distinction between politics and practical experience also made sense to me. Politics had never particularly interested me these daya. Governments changed. Alliances shifted. People still argued over borders and ideology. What mattered to me now was what remained underneath all of that. Infrastructure. Commerce. The things that people relied upon without necessarily thinking about who provided them.

"I don't need the politics," I said quietly. "That isn't what I'm interested in." I glanced briefly around the room before continuing. "What I'm wondering about is whether you've noticed particular companies or corporations appearing across those places. Not necessarily doing anything suspicious. Just being there." My fingers rested lightly against the edge of the table. "A company that seems to have contracts in one system, equipment in another, shipping arrangements somewhere else. Perhaps supplying governments, corporations, military organizations, or ordinary businesses. Something that seems to have a presence almost everywhere you go. It could be completely legitimate. That's precisely why I'm asking." My voice remained low. "I don't want your conclusions, Jace; just your observations."

I considered his earlier comment about cargo markings and manifests. "For example; names you've seen repeatedly, or logos on equipment, or corporate markings on freight, their seecurity systems, communications hardware. Anything that made you think, I've seen that somewhere else."

I gave him a small smile"And I promise I have no interest in hearing about broken cargo lifts. Unless, of course, the same company keeps breaking them."

Tag: Jacero Savi Jacero Savi
 

Jacero Savi

ɪ'ᴍ ꜰᴇᴇʟɪɴ' ᴍʏ ɪɴᴇʀᴛɪᴀ
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AUTH//PASS >> J.SAVI // RUN_LOG:0.011-A // ENC:ACTIVE // TRACE:NULL // ROUTE:MOBILE
RUN// ▶ ACTIVE
LOCATION: JACE'S APARTMENT, DENON // OBJECTIVE: MEET THE CONTACT
JACE SAVI
RUNNER // INFILTRATOR
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Liin had finally narrowed the question enough that Jace could do something with it.

"All right. That's easier."

He thought back through the places he'd just named, though the memories came more readily as jobs than planets. Where he'd landed. What he'd carried. Which names had been on the paperwork or attached to whatever facility he'd needed to get into.

"N&Z."

Jace let the name sit for a moment while he worked backward through why it was familiar.

"I've run across them around Bastion and Taspir III. Different circumstances, and I'm not telling you they're secretly running either place. Just that the name was there more than once."

There was another obvious one, though it came with an equally obvious explanation.

"ADA Corp too. Taspir III and Formac." His mouth pulled slightly to one side. "That one barely counts, though. I was moving their cargo from one to the other. Seeing the same company at both ends of its own shipment isn't exactly a pattern."

Denon was harder. Jace had spent most of his life surrounded by corporate names there. Freight moved through the planet in quantities large enough that seeing a logo twice could mean anything from a major contract to somebody buying the same brand of comm unit.

"Denon's going to be the messy one. I've seen too much corporate traffic there to trust myself just because a name feels familiar."

He looked across at Liin.

"But N&Z is one I'd remember seeing off-world."

Her comment about the lifts finally pulled a grin from him.

"And no, I didn't check who made the broken ones."
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I kept my expression neutral when he said the name. N&Z. It took a conscious effort for me not to let my reaction show. The fact that he'd noticed them in both Bastion and Taspir III was interesting enough. More interesting was what he said afterwards. He didn't believe that they were secretly running either place. That was reassuring. It wasn't proof of anything, of course. It simply meant that whatever I was looking for might not be quite as obvious as I had feared.

"I see." I let the silence sit for a moment while I considered what he'd told me. "Then perhaps I'd like to narrow the search in another direction." I leaned forward slightly, keeping my voice low. "Would you be interested in another job?" I watched him carefully. "I'd like you to visit a few other sectors. Nothing particularly dangerous, I hope, though I suppose that's a matter of perspective." A faint smile touched my expression. "I'd pay you for your time and expenses. What I'm interested in is whether those same corporations you've encountered elsewhere appear in places you haven't already mentioned. Not just N&Z, mind you. The others as well. I'd like to know whether there are commonalities between the companies operating across different regions of the Galaxy."

My fingers tapped lightly against the table. "And there's another thing I'd like to know." I glanced towards the entrance before looking back at him. "Are there any sectors you simply can't go?" I left the question deliberately open. "Because of borders, security, existing contracts, political restrictions; whatever the reason might be. If there are places that are effectively closed to someone like you, I'd rather know that before I start asking you to go there."

I leaned back again. "I don't need anything complicated. Just observations, names, markings, equipment, shipping, contracts. The same things that you've already been noticing without looking for them." My expression softened slightly. "You've already travelled farther than I expected. It seems a shame not to make use of that experience."

Tag: Jacero Savi Jacero Savi
 

Jacero Savi

ɪ'ᴍ ꜰᴇᴇʟɪɴ' ᴍʏ ɪɴᴇʀᴛɪᴀ
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AUTH//PASS >> J.SAVI // RUN_LOG:0.011-A // ENC:ACTIVE // TRACE:NULL // ROUTE:MOBILE
RUN// ▶ ACTIVE
LOCATION: JACE'S APARTMENT, DENON // OBJECTIVE: MEET THE CONTACT
JACE SAVI
RUNNER // INFILTRATOR
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"You're offering to pay me to travel around and notice things?" Jace grinned. "Yeah. I can probably manage that."

He thought about the places that had actually caused trouble. Usually it came down to paperwork, a name, a checkpoint, or somebody deciding permit protocols needed altering. None of that had ever added up to a whole sector he simply couldn't enter. That boded well for the offer, he supposed, since there wouldn't be any real limitation on wherever the contract sent him.

"I don't have anywhere I'd call completely off-limits. Some places are more trouble than others. Borders tighten, security gets interested, somebody decides independent traffic needs three extra permits that didn't exist last week. If you send me somewhere like that, it might take longer or cost more."

His mouth pulled to one side, thoughtful.

"And there are definitely places where using my own name would be a bad idea."

That was enough said about that.

"But if what you want is ports, freight, equipment, company names, contracts and whatever keeps showing up where it shouldn't, that's easy enough to keep an eye on."

Jace looked across at her.

"How wide are you thinking? A couple of sectors is one thing. Half the galaxy and I start charging for the food too." He raised his eyebrows. "And how quickly you expect this information turnaround to be. I have other contacts, other gigs to run, I don't think I can be locked down indefinitely over a long period of time crossing the galaxy... but, bursts of searching and reporting? Sure."
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"Months," I said after considering his question. "I'm not expecting this to be done quickly." I gave him a small smile at the comment about charging for food. "I certainly don't expect you to spend several months doing nothing but travelling for me, however. You have other work, as you've said. Take this on between jobs, or whenever you're already passing through somewhere that might be useful."

I glanced briefly toward the room before continuing. "As for how wide of a search....let's start reasonably. A handful of sectors that are different enough from one another to make the comparison worthwhile. If something interesting emerges, we can expand from there."

I paused, choosing my words carefully. "And I'm less interested in companies that are simply successful than ones that seem out of place." My fingers rested lightly against the table. "A corporation offering unusually favorable contracts. A company that seems capable of providing far more than it's stated resources should allow. One that appears in a system where you wouldn't expect to find it. Or a company that seems to have authority over something that it shouldn't." I let that settle for a moment. "Security, infrastructure, communications, freight, medical services, for example. Anything where a corporation appears to have more control over an area than it's official position would suggest."

I shook my head ever so slightly. "And don't assume that something is suspicious simply because it seems unusual. I want the observations, not the conclusions. Sometimes things really are too good to be true. Sometimes they're simply very good."

I leaned back slightly. "Send me what you find as you go. It doesn't need to be polished. Names, locations, what you saw, and why it struck you as unusual. I'll do the tedious part of comparing everything afterward. And if it takes a few months, that's perfectly fine. I'm not in a hurry. At least, not yet."

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