Ashes Of Victory

'I think Admiral Yu is probably right, Sir,' Brigadier Henri Benson-Dessouix put in. 'And I know Harry is.' As always, he sat beside his wife, and his arm went around her as he spoke. 'The people who tend to be the most conservative are the ones with the most to lose if the system changes, and if they're well enough off to worry about what you may lose, they're also well enough off to contribute to political campaigns. But there are limits to how much they're willing to cough up. I don't believe Mueller can maintain this level of spending indefinitely, and even if he can, the surge he's generating in the poll numbers is probably deceptive. As the elections get closer, I expect a lot of the Opposition's present apparent strength to fade in the stretch.'

Honor nodded, but she was hard put to hide a smile. The speech impediment from which Harriet and Henri had suffered on Hell had completely disappeared as the result of the medical treatment Fritz Montoya had started and the Harrington Neurological Clinic had completed. Both of them had been delighted to regain clarity of speech, but it had taken longer for Henri. He'd made up for it since by turning downright loquacious, which was a bit difficult for Honor's mental image of him to adjust to. He'd seldom spoken at all back on Hell, and she'd been away from Grayson while that was changing.

Which didn't invalidate a thing he'd just said.

'I think Henri is right, Benjamin,' she said now, 'and especially with the way the war is turning around. I don't think Mueller can be a very happy man right now. Just when the poll numbers show he's making ground in the Steaders, Operation Buttercup starts undercutting one of the Opposition's cental themes. He's going to find it awful hard to keep carrying on about `tying our incomparable Navy to the leading strings of incompetent foreign admiralties' now that Eighth Fleet's blown Barnett to dust bunnies.'

'What in the world makes you think that, Honor?' Benjamin demanded, only half humorously. 'As you just more or less said yourself, the man's already been able to refer to `our incomparable Navy' with an absolutely straight face, as if we'd built the tech base or trained enough officers to support that `incomparable' fleet solely out of our own resources. Which,' he added with a wry glance around the table, 'present company would seem to indicate wasn't quite the case.'

Since he was the only native-born Grayson, aside from LaFollet and Rice, on the terrace at that particular moment, Honor had to concede his point.

'But that kind of ignore-the-facts approach works best when you're talking to people who already agree with you and choose to wear the same sort of blinkers,' Rear Admiral Mercedes Brigham pointed out.

'Absolutely,' Caslet agreed. 'The people he actually needs to convince are going to be a lot more skeptical than his true-believers, Your Grace.'

'Please, Captain Caslet!' Benjamin said with another chuckle. 'Here on Grayson, we reserve that particular term for those idiots on Masada! Our own intolerant, bigoted, unthinking, doctrinaire reactionaries are properly referred to as `conservative thinkers.' '

'Sorry, Your Grace.' Caslet smiled. 'I suppose that's one of those fine cultural distinctions we outsiders have trouble picking up on.'

'Don't feel bad, Captain. It's one most of us who aren't intolerant reactionaries would love to get rid of.'

'Seriously, Sir, you may just have a chance for that,' Henri put in. 'It's clear from what happened at Barnett that Buttercup took the Peeps completely by surprise. And the new systems were more effective than I think anyone could have predicted. I certainly didn't expect them to prove that decisive, but then, the information most of us had on the systems was pretty limited before the offensive kicked off.'

'Speak for yourself, baudet,' Harriet told him. 'You Marine types had no need to know about Ghost Rider. For that matter, it's hard to think of a Marine having any real need to know about anything more complicated than a club, conservative dirt-pounders that you are. We naval officers, on the other hand, were thoroughly briefed on Ghost Rider, and we had a pretty fair background on the new LACs, as well.'

' `More complicated than a club,' is it?' Henri murmured, cocking his head at his tall, blond wife. 'Perhaps when we get home, my uncomplicated club and I will have something to say about your disrespectful attitude.'

'You think so, do you?' Harriet smiled sweetly. 'In that case, I think it would be wise of you to tell the Protector where you'd like to be buried before we leave, dear.'

'Leaving aside threats of domestic violence,' Yu said, 'I think Henri is right, Your Grace. I don't want to sound too optimistic — the last thing any of us need is to fall prey to overconfidence — but I genuinely believe the new LACs and missiles are going to win this war outright. And probably a lot sooner than anyone on either side would have believed possible. And if that happens, Mueller's going to look pretty damned stupid if he goes on insisting that joining the Alliance was a serious mistake for Grayson.'

'Perhaps,' Mayhew agreed. 'On the other hand, it's part of my job to worry about what happens after the war, assuming you're right and we win the thing. It's clear that the need to face a common foe and build up our own military capabilities in concert with the rest of the Alliance has been a factor in the willingness of at least some Graysons to go along with the reform programs. They may not have liked the domestic changes, but they weren't prepared to rock the boat in the middle of a war. So if the pressure of fighting the war comes off, what happens to their support?'

'You'll probably lose some of your majority in the Steaders, and I imagine Chancellor Prestwick will suffer the defection of at least a few of the Keys, as well,' Honor acknowledged. 'But I doubt very much that you'll lose enough to turn the clock back, or even to slow the rate of change very much. And I think there's more domestic support for the `special relationship' between Grayson and the Star Kingdom than Mueller realizes. Look how enthusiastically most Graysons seem to be responding to the announcement of the Queen's state visit!'

'Yes, that was encouraging, wasn't it?' Mayhew brightened. 'I think it was a wonderful idea on Elizabeth's part, and Henry is eager for the opportunity to sit down at the same table as Duke Cromarty. We got a tremendous amount accomplished when Lord Alexander was here three years ago, and Henry's staff is licking its chops at the prospect of a visit from the Prime Minister himself.'

'I'm glad,' Honor said. 'That's exactly what she had in mind, and the timing looks even better in light of Buttercup's initial successes. In fact, I think—'

'I think that's entirely enough shop talk,' another voice interrupted, and Honor turned with a smile as Allison Harrington stepped onto the terrace, followed by Miranda and Jennifer LaFollet. 'This is supposed to be a social occasion,' Allison went on severely. 'I had my doubts when you explained you intended to invite this lot,' she flipped a hand at the senior officers of the Protector's Own, 'but I thought, no, she's a responsible adult. She knows better than to sit out on the terrace all afternoon talking shop with her cronies while her other guests languish unnoticed and unappreciated.'

'You really shouldn't refer to the Protector as my `crony,' Mother. Just think what would happen if some spy from the Opposition overheard you.'

'Ha! Opposition spies would have to get past a whole horde of treecats, not to mention a battalion of security types. Not that it isn't just like you to come up with specious arguments in an effort to avoid my righteous wrath!'

'I'm not avoiding anything,' Honor said with dignity. 'I'm simply raising a completely valid point.'

'That's your story, and you're sticking to it, I suppose,' her mother said, then folded her arms. 'In the meantime, however, Mac sent us out to tell you Mistress Thorn is going to start wreaking havoc if her lunch is allowed to get cold. Worse, she says she won't make you any more fudge — or cookies — this week if you let it happen.'

'Well, goodness, Mother! Why didn't you say that to start with?' Honor rose and turned to her guests with a twinkle. 'On your feet, people! That's one ultimatum I have no intention of rejecting!'

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

'Mr. Baird.'