Daring to Dream

Chapter Ten

Today Emerie decided she'd be with me in the library, and as we took our places, I saw Tech on the desk next to us, very busy in reading the newspapers.

"Did you see the news today?" I called to him, eager to discuss my newest gained knowledge with him.

"As a matter of fact, I am studying it right now," he said, voice slightly unfocused as if too busy reading the news. "Is there any particular headline you're referring to?"

"The jailbreak?"

"What?" Emerie's attention snapped from her novel ('Powerless' by Lauren Roberts, I gave it to her to read it). "Which one?"

"You remember like a week ago, a mass arrest occurred?"

"Uh-huh."

"At the same prison-"

"All the detainees were released," Tech steamrolled over me, not wanting anyone else to answer, "without any government order or official acquittal. What is even more surprising, is that the guard at the prison allowed the escape. In fact, some of the guards even helped them get away."

"So, did the Chancellor do something?" Emerie's eyebrows raised up.

"The Coruscant guard closest to that position immediately detained the guilty police there, but only five of the total prisoners were arrested again."

"Out of how many?" I asked.

"Three hundred sixty." He said it like it was only thirty six instead of 360.

"Why do you think the guard did this?" I scrubbed my cheek. "I think they might be bribed."

"But by whom? Because whoever did this, might be committing treason. Or if it is from the Separatists, they might be trying to weaken us. These criminals aren't your usual thieves." Emerie's face went grim.

"The Coruscant guard changes shifts every two weeks, right?"

Tech nodded. "They switched guard immediately the night before the mass arrest."

"Is there a chance the guards are impostors? The actual ones were kidnapped when they changed positions."

"That is a really good guess, I'm impressed." Coming from Tech, that was the highest compliment. "However, every guard's identity is checked, facially and genetically. The only possible way for this to happen is if those officers were cloned. But that makes way for more questions."

"Who did this, who got the samples and how, who got the names of the officers on guard, who did the switching so discreetly nobody noticed, and – wait a second, who reported the jailbreak?" I halted in my numbering of questions.

"General Goldeleaf." Emerie answered.

"Who the hell is this man?" I exploded. "I know he's the commanding officer of the Coruscant armies, but isn't it strange that instead of a Jedi, or a clone, a natural born man is leading them? And how did he get the news so quickly of a jailbreak, but did not even get wind of the switching? My guess is that he has a hand in this. I think he knew, but he let it go because he was the one who orchestrated the switch."

"Zoya, I agree with your way of thinking, but this is all hypothetical," Tech explained, elbows on the table, newspaper long forgotten. "It all depends on whether or not the soldiers were cloned. This has lesser probability than the fact they may be bribed. Humans have weaknesses, like wealth or family, or such, so our mystery player must have exploited them by threatening to punish them or planning on rewarding them. Which brings us back to the question: who is so desperate enough to topple a stable government?"