Chapter 29

Politics are more corrupt than the underworld. Despite my reputation and power, there was no end to the backstabbing and snide side deals, all in the name of progress. Thankfully I had my impotent Prime Minister to weather the storm. Deals would be done with him and if they were good for the whole I wouldn't need to stand in the way but if not then it didn't matter because the mister didn't have the power. The senate complained but there was little they could do. You see the contracts were signed by the minister and he had no say in how my Grove was run. If the senate pushed too hard and demanded I join and sign the contract then I would leave altogether. They could have a fake minster who could make deals and trade or they could have nothing. Better to have something, than nothing.

Still, I learned a lot when it came to the dirty side of politics. Something that I applied to the underworld to help it run better... or worse. One of those was red tape. Red tape was all over politics and the way it was used was to control each other through inaction.

There was such a thing in the underworld but it was similar. If someone had to be killed then that person might be protected, you would have to visit people get their permission and pay off the correct people. This helps to stop high-level criminals from being whacked by a low-level snot bag. There were repercussions when killing someone and the more power they had the more fierce the revenge.

Apart from kickbacks and high-level killing, there was little red tape. That was the beautiful thing about the underworld, you can get shit done, fast. The red tape I put into place was pay. When most criminals got a big score they didn't know what to do with it because there were many different ways to trace the credits back to illegal gains. This was where I came in.

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With my new programs, I set up a simple way to launder their credits and give criminals a way to spend their cash how they see fit without fear of losing everything. It would take a couple of days but they would get their loot and that was the end for them.

This was where the red tape came in. If someone paid an assassin credits to kill someone, they would have to wait for the cash to be cleared by my program. But as my program was cleaning the credits it was also checking where, when, and how. My program was checking to make sure that I and my interests were being protected from killers and their like while taking its time to clean the money.

You might think that only hardcore criminals would use this but it was the politicians who used it the most. Bribes, cutbacks, and gifts all found their way into the open hands of politicians. They were interconnected which gave me massive amounts of blackmail power.

There was no end to the stupid and egotistical in politics who thought that they could win against me. The power they had wasn't a fraction of what I could release but they couldn't understand what I could do to them. However, they fully understand loss and gain. A simple message calling out their nasty deeds would be enough. And so, while there was no end in sight with the stupid and greedy, there was a way to control them.

It was odd. I was a big part of the underworld but I had more control over the political world. It just goes to show that the Senate was more corrupt than the underworld. There was honor between thieves but there were no gentlemen in the world of politics.

I felt better. I'm sure that there isn't anyone I couldn't get to, anyone I couldn't bend to my will, anyone I couldn't bribe or trade. I think this may be the safest I've been. And it was all thanks to my spyware

I kept my eye on the powerful such as the Jedi, Hutts, Yaka, and anyone who had some kind of ability. However, no matter how much I expected it, nothing majorly bad happened. There were the usual political assassinations and the Jedi trying to muscle their way into my Eden ships or healing halls but nothing like the war.

It was the golden age but it could get better