CH-18

Both Shaak Ti's and Aayla Secura's holo-transmission took on a garbled look as they looked at the recording they were sent. There was a brief lull in the discussion while they were reviewing it. The other Masters were looking either thoughtful or concerned, though none were voicing their thoughts. The only exception was Obi-Wan who looked like he was getting more information from his datapad.

The two masters rejoined the conversation almost simultaneously, their green holograms fading back into visibility at the same time.

"What else do we know about this… Bounty Hunter?" Stass Allie asked promptly, without waiting for anyone else to speak up. The dark skinned Jedi Master with the violet eyes looked around the room, not bothering to hide her disdain for the profession. The violet eyes would have been a distinctive feature if not for the traditional white Tholothian headdress adorning the woman's head, worn as a nod to her people and heritage.

"Nothing much," Master Obi-Wan spoke up. "I contacted the bounty hunter station nearest to that walkway. The bounty was turned in minutes prior to when we received that communication, which adds to the theory they were not on the ship that transmitted the message to us."

"The reward was transferred through standard protocols in the bounty hunter guild, where they took their cut and then transferred the money to a small time account which appears to have little to no activity as this was the first time any money has ever been deposited to it. It likely will be drained from another system and then never be used again. It'll be a dead-end unless we can link a ship to the man." He said with a faint air of resignation.

"We also have no legal recourse at the moment to try and seize the money. We're dangerously close to overstepping our remit with the bounty hunter guild merely by tracing the funds as far as we have." added Obi-Wan before it could be suggested.

Several masters shifted and there were nods all around. Relations with the guild were always tense at best and downright volatile at worst. The leadership of the guild was extremely wary and suspicious of the Jedi.

"What was the crime of the man they turned into the bounty hunter's office?" asked Luminara Unduli calmly "Perhaps that can give us some insight if he has a pattern concerning the bounties he targets."

Obi-Wan winced slightly. "Murder, destruction of property, and… desecration of a religious item of some importance to the Gamorreans." His tone all but begged anyone listening not to press their questions further on that topic.

"Forget the bounty that was turned in. What do we know about the bounty hunter himself? Anything?" an annoyed Mace Windu interjected.

Yoda sighed and looked at the two Jedi Master's who had confronted Harry, it was Master Mundi who spoke up. "Not much, beyond the fact that he didn't seem to like us very much."

"What about anything physical? Anything that might help identify him?" Mace asked with a little irritation in his voice.

Yoda shook his head. "Male and human, with dark hair."

"I remember he had very vivid green eyes." Master Tre'jin said suddenly as he thought about his encounter with Harry. He was wondering why he wasn't able to get an accurate description of the man, but for some reason the features just seemed fuzzy in his head.

Obi-Wan finally spoke up, as he still had the information he had gained from the Bounty Hunter's office in his hand, as well as what the temple slicer corp had managed to acquire. "The Bounty Hunter's Guild provided us the standard response to an official inquiry about a bounty hunter, including name and basic information. Once we had a name, our slicers were able to dig and get a little bit more information."

Obi-Wan's speech grew more slow as he obviously read through information provided to him. "The name of the bounty hunter was listed as, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. It has several other aliases listed, 'Snivellus 'The Grease Stain' Snape', 'the-Boy-who-Lived', 'Lord Lemon Drop', 'Chief Mugwump', 'Muggle McMudblood', Agodden Bed and... 'Foat Gucker'."

Obi-wan trailed off at the last two names as he realized what he was saying. He gave a slight uncomfortable cough as he looked around and said unnecessarily. "All the names are highly likely to be fake."

Aayla's snort and then suppressed laughter could be heard, along with a few others visibly seen to cover their mouths, while others narrowed their eyes in irritation.

Obi-Wan continued reluctantly. "It does have biographical data listed… The man's planet of origin was… the planet 'Dirt', which is the 3rd planet around the star… 'Foot Bottom.' His listed response to 'current age' is 'be more specific, mentally, physically or existentially'?" Obi-Wan shook his head wondering if any of this was going to be of any use to them.

He continued reading, "Gender: 'If you mean sex, yes please'." Obi-Wan made a disgusted sound. "How uncivilized."

"And they accepted such an application?" asked Windu incredulously.

Obi-wan could merely shrug his shoulders, "He pays his dues and has a sponsor. That's all the guild really asks for."

He scrolled through the rest of the information in front of him before he gave a great sigh accompanied by a roll of his eyes, "This is all useless. There's nothing of value in his profile."

"We spoke with several people nearby, including a bar, where it seemed the individual was having a drink, several people identified Ahsoka Tano and said the man's name was "Harry." Master Mundi added to be of some help.

"Are we sure that name isn't just a set up for another joke?" muttered one of the Masters loudly.

"Well," said Aayla, after she'd managed to control a bit of her own laughter, it was harder than she would have admitted. "If we, as a group, are worried about our public perception then, by all means, release that information to the public."

She started to speak in a faux serious voice, "The Jedi Order is seeking a highly dangerous individual who goes by the monikers 'Foat Gucker', 'Lord Lemon Drop', 'A god in bed' and most recently, 'Harry.' I shudder to think of how many jokes people would make from those."

Shaak Ti muttered softly. "That would at least put to rest rumors that the Jedi Order has no sense of humor."

"So what course of action should we take regarding this individual and former Padawan Tano if she is travelling with him?" asked Mace when he saw that no one knew how to respond to the corner the Order had been backed into, and wanted to get the meeting back on track.

"Someone needs to track this individual down," Master Mundi spoke up immediately. "He was a Force user, albeit one who used abilities unfamiliar to us. He cannot be allowed to just... roam free with one of our padawans."

"We cannot allow him to turn someone like Padawan Tano to the Darkside. She possess crucial information about the Republic war effort which could be disastrous if it fell into enemy hands." His tone was somewhat urgent though his pose remained stiff in his seat as he looked around.

"Dark Side?" asked an almost unbelieving Aayla Secura. "Did all of you see the same holovid I did?"

"The only thing I've heard the man could do was somehow go invisible using the Force in a new manner, and cover people around him with the same ability, plus use a version of a flash bang, which is hardly something new for our Order." She said somewhat scornfully.

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