Ask The Wayward Navigator

[Jonathen Baize]

"Sure." he said with a shrug, answering both questions with a single word. He had nothing better to do; he might as well make himself useful.

He waited until she returned, taking the cup from her when she offered it. "Thank you." he said with a nod before taking a sip. The coffee wasn't great, but as far as military coffee, it was pretty good.

He started pouring through files. It was hard to keep his mind from wondering; combing through data clearly not his strength. "A Haro Brenan owns the bar," he replied sometime later, finally finding the information. "Looks like he spent some time in an Imperial Prison camp before." he said, trailing off. "Being released by request of the ISB....This was a only a couple of months before he bought the bar." he said a second later. It didn't give any further information. "You think he is an informant?" he asked, turning his chair to face Merian.

@Volene

 

[Merian Sere]

“Hmm. Possible,” she admitted, but her tone showed she was far from convinced. “But we’re flying right into his territory and we’re completely blind save for what we dig up ourselves and whatever half-truths Morales reluctantly coughed up. If he’s an informant, either he’s a terrible one or someone at the ISB is sleeping on the job.”

There were other explanations, of course. Maybe this Brenan was bait for a bigger bluefish. Or maybe the Peacekeepers had genuinely caught an innocent man, though knowing the ISB, they’d have left him to rot before ever admitting a mistake officially.

“I don’t suppose we can find any association between him and a Frankie? No, silly question. ‘Frankie’ is obviously an alias if he’s real at all,” Merian spat. “What about pending accusations? Any new indictment in the years since his release?”

She took a sip of caf. Terrible. She’d let it go cold.

“Actually, how do you figure he got the money to buy the bar in the first place? He’d just gotten out of prison camp. Hardly a place to accrue savings, and real estate on city worlds costs a fortune. Meanwhile, our gang has been known to fund ill-advised financial decisions to get people in their debt. Maybe something there,” Merian thought aloud.

“Imagine. They cover Haro Brenan’s purchase of the bar. Immediately it starts hemorrhaging credits because the man has never run a business in his life; there’s a reason he couldn’t get a legitimate loan. So the Blue Novas pay him a visit. Scare him a little, cut a deal. A good one, he thinks: they’ll let him keep the bar, which is all he’s ever dreamed of. In exchange, they get a place to meet that can’t be tied to them and an owner that’ll turn a blind eye to their criminal activity. All speculation, of course.”

@Raydo