TGoaW-135

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==Chapter 135 - The Glow of a Worm inside a Child's Eye==
No plan is foolproof...
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...and every secret organization has holes, every covert operation runs the risk of discovery, and if you have a criminal mob operating long enough somewhere. You will have dirty agents in law enforcement, the military, and the government who take the bribes to look away, or take orders from the bribes to facilitate.
It's merely human nature, the nature of large organizations, especially large organizations who've been at one another long enough to become generational crafts.
The corruption doesn't reach to the level of, say, the leadership of the Hasek family, but it does reach pretty deeply into a lot of their most trusted people.
People who have an interest (financial, usually, though Blackmail is also involved with quite a few of them) in keeping the 'game' afloat along the Davion periphery.
So far, they've been quite helpful in making sure that the new "Federal Coast Guard" branch of the Navy isn't too terribly effective at stopping piracy along the Periphery border. A few shared drops, and there are patsies for 'Commander Arthur Andrew' to 'catch'-low end operatives, 'shit' level bands...but nothing truly significant or impactful, because anything too effective creates... problems.
Unfortunately for these fine gentlemen, simply arranging an accident isn't in the cards-one does not merely arrange the murder of a Royal Scion if one mislikes MIIO's internal affairs uncovering one's side deals and/or the blackmail being held over one's head.
These folks have been relaxing, the last few weeks-his foreign diplomacy with the Taurians going poorly in public, a distraction from Bandit-hunting that was yielding nothing valuable enough to be concerned over.
The general attitude among the establishment in Filtvelt, Broken Wheel, and the other major world offices along the periphery front is that he'll get bored or he'll find a 'win' that he can return to New Avalon with-and get out of their hair.
For the actual Bandits and Pirates, this assessment is considered as good as confirmed-the Patrols of Federated Coast Guard Squadron 6 have been showing up less frequently according to informers in the region, and when they have shown up, it's been somewhat cursory. A check in here, an emergency response there, a pass-through with an "air and gravity break" somewhere else.
Not quite as vigorous as his first 11 months, but then, military units get bored, they get tired, they slack off...
well, most do anyway.
In truth, nobody takes 'Commander Arthur Andrew' Seriously because their sources inside the planetary governments, administrations, and AFFS aren't taking him seriously.
Phase Two completes in August of 3060. Arthur has the coordinates of every world in the Tortuga Dominions that has as many as a single Pirate unit operating from it. In addition, he has the location of the Tortuga Prime B-Station HPG, identifiers for the JumpShips that they're using, plots of every system, and surveillance satellites laid in every adjoining system that could be used as a recharging area for their JumpShips.
Nobody takes the tinker-toy navy seriously...
There is SOME concern that the Taurians may be gearing up to mount a punitive expedition, but they have done that before, and failed to reach the right target-their targets just move to another world in the Cluster once the target is confirmed by their spies in the TDF.
The better money is against one of the other Pirate strongholds in the region...
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