Larry Niven Wiki
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Puppeteers use blackmail as a standard, accepted business practice. The following instances of blackmail or intent to blackmail are documented:

(a) An executive of General Products (GP) threatened Beowulf Shaeffer (Bey) with debtor's prison in 2641 to force him to perform a flyby survey of neutron star BVS-1.

(b) Shortly thereafter, Bey blackmailed the same GP executive with his supposition that the hidden Puppeteer homeworld had no moon.

(c) Dr. Richard Schultz-Mann hoped to form a blackmail contract in 2644 with the Puppeteers over the location of their hidden homeworld. This would have involved him voluntarily undergoing selective memory erasure.

References

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