Star Wars_ Coruscant Nights III_ Patterns of Force - Michael Reaves [11]
“Traitorous,” I-Five said simultaneously.
Den had to admit that I-Five’s characterization was closer to what he’d been thinking. How could someone behave that treacherously toward a supposed friend? Den hoped he’d never become so mercenary or so jaded that he failed to put the welfare of his friends or his world before his own short-term benefits.
Tuden Sal sighed. “I can’t deny it. But I did plan on getting the holocron to the Temple. I did.”
“The best of intentions, I’ve found,” said the droid, “are by themselves seldom enough to topple tyrants.”
There came a silence, which was verging on uncomfortable when Jax asked, “Then what happened?”
“I had my fingers in several pies at the time—not all of them legal. I sent I-Five to be reprogrammed, then returned to my business offices and discovered that a competitor had instigated a hostile takeover of my companies—every last one of them. I went from riches to rags virtually overnight. Quite simply, I didn’t get the holocron to the Jedi Council because I no longer had the means to do so. I was under siege. I had to go into hiding and liquidate most of my remaining holdings and property—including I-Five, whom I traded to a spice smuggler with his memories wiped.”
He paused to regard the droid with obvious respect. “Or so I had thought. I had spared no expense, ordered the most thorough quantum cleansing available. Apparently I-Five possesses subroutines and resources that are proof even to that.”
“It took me a very long time,” the droid said with harsh emphasis on the last three words, “but I was at last able to recover my full memory.”
The Sakiyan shook his head. “That should not have been possible. And yet, here you are. And here am I. Unlike you, I have never managed to claw my way back. Eventually, I gave up trying. Especially once I discovered that the takeover of my businesses was not, shall we say, an idea original to my competitor. I confronted him, some years down the line, and learned that he had been bank-rolled by then-Senator Palpatine himself. My ‘friend’ was essentially acting as a proxy, though I daresay he was allowed to keep a good deal of what he took.”
“Why?” Jax asked. “What did you have that the Emperor wanted?”
“I suspect I was simply an easy target,” Sal said, bitterness dripping from each word. “My financial circumstances made me vulnerable, and Palpatine, while by no means in desperate straits, like all politicians preferred to use someone else’s money to finance his governmental takeover.” He smiled a hard, painful smile. “You know what they say: ‘It’s not personal—’ ”
“ ‘—it’s just business,’ ” Den finished. Yes, they’d all heard those words before.
“And I have, I must admit, used, if not those very words, certainly the spirit behind them, more than once. But I was never stupid enough to cross the government.” He shrugged. “Perhaps it was that very hesitancy on my part that made me seem easy prey. Whatever the reason, the new regime ruined me. Worse than that, they blacklisted me and made it impossible for me to recover. Even Black Sun wouldn’t do business with me, which has implications I’m reluctant to think about.” He hesitated, then added, “It wasn’t just the businesses, though the gods of misfortune know how devastating that was. No, I also lost my family—my mate, my children.”
“Ah,” said I-Five. “Ironic, isn’t it, how fickle people can be. Even those you expect to be loyal.”
“It wasn’t fickleness,” Tuden Sal said with some asperity. “It was fear. I didn’t just lose my visibility, I lost the ability to dare visibility. There is still a bounty on my head, I’m sure of it, though I’ve never been able to confirm it. When someone attempted to kidnap my youngest child, I sent my family offworld. I had no choice.”
“And you’ve been living down here, lying low?” Jax shook his head. “I hope you weren’t hoping to hide out with us. I’ve got a price on my head, too. And like you, I don’t know why.”
“I’m through lying low,