After dismissing Adele and Ulan, Tang Xiao stood alone in his office, eyes closed in deep thought.
He had noticed that the Intelligence Department had begun making mistakes one after another lately. He needed to reflect carefully on this problem. First, they had lost track of Luke Skywalker, and now they had allowed Galactic Republic special forces to kidnap Willix Blythex.
Beyond those two major incidents, the Intelligence Department had also begun showing numerous lapses in other areas. Local intelligence had been stolen in some places, while unmonitored riots and similar incidents had become increasingly frequent.
Strictly speaking, all of these matters had objective causes. Take Luke Skywalker, for instance. They could not keep too close an eye on him to begin with, and he was located in an isolated estate on a hostile planet. Whether they infiltrated personnel or used drone reconnaissance, the risk of exposure was enormous.
More importantly, they absolutely could not disturb the unconscious Padmé Amidala or her attendants. She was pregnant, after all. They could not risk affecting the birth.
There were reasons behind Willix Blythex's kidnapping as well. Rendili Planet was currently in complete chaos. More than half of its six hundred billion residents had no jobs, and food depended entirely on rationing. It would be strange if nothing went wrong. Uprisings practically broke out every few days. Under such circumstances, the local police and garrison troops were already overwhelmed, much less capable of stopping Galactic Empire agents from infiltrating. It was simply impossible.
Thus, Rendili Planet's only option was to be loose within and tight without. People could make as much trouble as they liked on the planet, but Rendili StarDrive had more than a hundred Victory I-class and Victory II-class Star Destroyers stationed there. If they had the ability, they could try