Chapter 3 part 8

THE SHOPKEEPERS

Manny made arrangements for all kinds of odd tools that Jaka asked for. Everytime he asked Jaka why such-and-such tool was needed, Jaka simply reminded him of the deal: no questions asked. This made Manny a wee bit suspicious, but then again, everything in Mos Espa these days was suspicious. What infuriated him most was Jaka's way of wiggling into Jojo's inner circle, winning favors from her. A jawa is suppose to be subserviant to the Hutts, not the other way around, right? Why does Jojo like him better than me? Haven't I been loyal to her, being her best servant? Yes, I'm her servant, but also her closeset companion, so why this jawa? What's he up to? For two days Manny watched - spied - on the jawa and his shop. The best he could figure was that Jaka was trying to repair a bad motivator on one of Jojo's droids. But that's not why Jaka needed all those tools for, and certainly not why he came here in the first place.

Jaka was totally aware of Manny's spying. This wasn't the first time he had been followed. Heck, most of the other jawas had spied on him at one time or another, just trying to figure out what was wrong with him. So, he went about his business setting up shop with two other droids, a big green ugly old unit called an R1-G4 (there were only about a dozen of these made before the slicker R2 units were developed) and a pit droid that had a bad habit of falling over itself. Jaka named these two Glug and Peety, with Glug pretending to have a "bad motivator". Jaka sometimes wondered if that was Glug's real problem, though, since he seemed to be a little slow in his movements and speech. Glug was found at the end of the alley behind the shop taking out garbage with apparently no one claiming him. Peety was part of the garbage Glug was taking out. He was the "gift" from Jojo that Manny kept talking about, without her knowing it. All it took was some fancy paperwork by a neighboring counterfitter, a young boy delivering the counterfit paperwork to Manny, and a gorgeous long-legged woman convincing Manny that it was all legit. All of the conspirators were paid for with Jaka's limited supply of Correllian wine.

On the fifth day Jaka had everything in order, including instructions to Glug and Peety. He had procurred a landspeeder from Jojo during his last banquet with her. He even presented her with a fancy necklace (a very big one at that) he had found in Glug's garbage (washed and repaired, of course). She almost fell over with extreme delight. No one, not even Manny had given her such a wonderful treasure. It seemed the way to Jojo's heart was some sparkly bling to make her feel beautiful. Jaka's job here was done. He had charmed his way into Jojo's life, now it was time to go.

Go, you have to go now?
Temporarily. I have a tent full of junk to pack up.
When will you be back?
A couple days. I promise. Do you want me to come over when I get back?
Yes, oh yes, my love. Please do.

Oh brother. Maybe I went overboard on this Prince Charming thing. Now she loves me. Well, that's fine, it'll keep her suspicions at bay. Now, what to do about Manny? He'll follow me for certain. Jaka's plan was all laid out in his mind. He hopped in the landspeeder and sped down the main city exit and off into the wide expanse of sand. AL was his first priority.