[right][h3]Rensler – Offices of Ku’lya, Kast & Vosadii[/h3][/right][hr]

Callum sat at his desk, Raya Navi in one of the two seats across from him. Between them, laid out on the glass surface, was her datapad. A small, holographically manifested Rodian, seated at a desk, hung in the air just above the device. He was in the middle of a fiery rant on state of the galaxy. 

[i]“I’m talking about Rendili StarDrive, I’m talking about Republic Fleet Systems, I’m talking Czerka Corporation, Hoersh-Kessel, SoroSuub,”[/i] he pronounced, counting them off on his long, presumably green fingers, [i]“they’re all working together, pouring money into the Senate, into their campaign accounts, into their bank accounts, into their friends’ bank accounts to make sure they get what they want. And what do they want, New Republic Nation? That’s right. They want to [/i]bring down Corellia[i]. They want to bring down the CEC, they want to bring down StarDrive . . .”[/i]

“Who is this?” Rensler asked. He'd asked the team to look into whatever leads they might dig up on lobbyists and interests with the money and a motive to buy a fifth of the Senate. This Rodian, who as far as Rensler could guess was some fringe media personality, was not what  he was expecting.  

“Neero Bext. He’s the netshow anchor for Holonet Free Coruscant, the leading broadcast on this Rim-wing media outlet called [i]The New Republic[/i],” Raya explained. “He’s a big name on the Holonet conspiracy forums.” 

[i]“. . . the deep state is telling us, they’re [/i]shouting[i] it in our faces, that they don’t [/i]care[i] about your freedoms! They don’t care about the free 
market . . .”[/i]

“And you think he’s on to something here?” Callum asked, eyes on the furiously gesticulating Rodian.

“He’s a bit, well, unhinged, I guess,” Raya said, looking down at the broadcast. “But he’s talking about the same kind of voting trends we’re looking at here. The idea of the seizure bill being some kind of subversive conspiracy isn't exactly a fresh idea. It seems like it gets talked about a lot in these circles, and this is the guy everyone talks about when they discuss it.”

[i]“. . . but the mainstream news,”[/i] Bext continued as they spoke, nearly spitting the word [i]mainstream[/i], [i]“tells us the deep state isn’t real. That these are crazy, fringe conspiracy theories and that people who question the system are out of line . . .”[/i]

“I guess this is the territory we’re in,” Callum said. He did not go to law school for this. Lobbying was a career field roughly adjacent to the practice of law to begin with. Delving into a crazy, fringe conspiracy, especially one that might be real, that wasn’t covered in the books. That wasn’t something you picked up professionally, either. “Where is his studio?” Studio. Could be this Bext character was filming this out of a cramped, one-bedroom apartment somewhere. 

“The address on their incorporation forms is a postal box down in the low 4000’s, Sector L-81.” That was only an hour’s trip from the Federal District’s upper levels. “They’re probably in the area, but,” she said with a shrug, “there’s no address. You want to talk to him?” she asked. This was a stretch as far as a lead went, and he could tell she knew it. She was probably surprised he was taking it seriously.

"Right now we have nothing. If he's in the area, we might as well," Callum said. He could hardly explain it himself, though. There was, literally, no reason to think this Neero Bext was grounded on any planet in the galaxy. All the same, again, conspiracies weren't his area of expertise. Maybe an expert would be helpful. 

"Right, of course," Raya agreed.   

“Let’s get that address through Coronet, then,” Callum said. “Give Jast a call and put him on it. And see if we can hire out one of his security contractors for the trip. This Bext doesn’t seem like the most stable person.”

“Do you want me to go down there?” Raya asked. If Callum had to estimate a guess, he’d say she wasn’t terribly excited at the prospect. 

“No, I will. I’ll take Ben, too,” Callum said. “Force knows that child isn’t doing anything worth his billing rate up here.”   

[i]“. . . I don’t have all the answers. I’m just saying when you look at Project Corona, when you look at the Strategic Intelligence Service, when you look at the military-industrial complex, when you look at the [/i]facts[i], you know, you just [/i]know [i]something is going on. It’s time to [/i]wake up[i], Coruscant!”[/i]