War Of Honor

'That doesn't get mentioned outside 'the family,' ' she cautioned, and Jaruwalski, Brigham, and Cardones all nodded in understanding.

'May I ask how long the Protector's Own will be staying?' Jaruwalski inquired after a moment, glancing back and forth between Honor and Yu.

'Until Steadholder Harrington tells us to go home,' Yu replied in an emphatic tone. Jaruwalski's expression showed her flicker of surprise at the strength of his response, and he shook his head. 'Sorry, Captain. It's just that my instructions from High Admiral Matthews and the Protector were a bit on the . . . firm side.'

'I appreciate that, Alfredo,' Honor said. 'At the same time, though, I don't see how I could justify hanging onto this much of the Protector's Own indefinitely.'

'You don't have to justify a thing, My Lady,' Yu told her. 'Part of our mission profile is to demonstrate our ability to maintain ourselves out of our own resources. That's why we brought along our own supply and service ships. At the moment, we've got everything we need to meet our logistical needs for a minimum of five T-months, and the High Admiral told me that he doesn't expect to see me back until we reach the bottom of the barrel.'

'That's very generous of him—' Honor began, only to have Yu interrupt, politely but firmly, before she could complete the sentence.

'He told me that was exactly what you'd say, My Lady. Not that I really needed telling. And he also told me to tell you that you are a vassal of Protector Benjamin, and that as a loyal and obedient vassal you'll take the forces that the Protector chooses to send you, and you'll use them to accomplish the mission which you and the Protector discussed before your departure from Grayson. That was just before he added the bit about 'suffering your liege's displeasure' if you were foolish enough to turn down the reinforcements which both of you know you need.'

'He's right, you know, Your Grace,' Brigham said quietly. Honor looked at her, and the chief of staff shrugged. 'I know you haven't specifically discussed this aspect of our assignment with any of us, but I think I've spent enough time in Grayson service to know what the Protector is thinking. As a Manticoran, I find it humiliating that we need someone else's support. As a Grayson, I can see exactly why the Protector is willing to provide that support. The last thing any of us need is for the situation in Silesia to blow up in all of our faces.'

'Whether the Government recognizes that or not,' Cardones agreed in an uncharacteristically grim tone.

'Well,' Honor said mildly after a moment, a bit taken back, despite her ability to taste their emotions, by her subordinates' emphatic, unanimous agreement with one another, 'I don't plan on sending Alfredo home tomorrow morning. For that matter, I don't really plan on sending him home at all until I'm certain the situation out here is under control. And to be completely honest, I expect that situation to work itself out, one way or another, within no more than another three or four T-months. Either the Andies will discover Alfredo's presence here and take it as conclusive proof that the Alliance means business and shelve any plans which might lead to a shooting incident, or else they'll go ahead and shoot anyway.'

'And which way to you expect them to jump, My Lady, if I may ask?' Yu asked quietly.

'I wish I could tell you that,' Honor replied.

* * *

'Now what do we do?'

Arnold Giancola looked up from the display of his memo pad as his brother asked the plaintive question. He hadn't heard Jason come in, and he grimaced as he realized his brother had just stepped in from the outer office . . . and that the door was standing wide open behind him.

'I think it might be a good idea if you came in and closed the door, first,' he suggested testily. 'I realize it's after hours, but I, for one, would just as soon not share our discussions with whoever happens along down the hallway.'

Jason flushed at the acid tone, but it was one with which he had an unfortunate degree of familiarity. Arnold had never been a particularly patient individual, and he'd become progressively less patient over the past two T-years or so. In this instance, however, Jason had to admit he had a point, and he hastily stepped forward to clear the powered door's sensors and allow it to close.

'Sorry,' he half-muttered, and Arnold sighed.

'No, Jase,' he said, shaking his head ruefully. 'I shouldn't have bitten your head off. I guess I'm even more irritated than I thought I was.'

'I wouldn't be surprised if you were,' Jason said, and produced an off-center smile. 'Seems like every time we turn around someone's giving one of us a fresh reason to be pissed off, doesn't it?'

'Sometimes,' Arnold agreed. He tipped back his chair and squeezed the bridge of his nose. It would have been nice if he could have squeezed the overwhelming sense of fatigue out of himself, but that wasn't going to happen.

Jason watched him for several seconds. Arnold had always been the leader. Partly that was because he was over ten T-years older than Jason was, but Jason was honest enough to admit that even if their ages had been reversed, Arnold would still have been the leader. He was smarter than Jason, for one thing, and Jason knew it. But more importantly, he possessed something that had been left out of Jason's personality. Jason wasn't entirely certain what that 'something' was, but he knew it gave Arnold a spark, a presence. Whatever it was, it lay at the heart of the almost frighteningly powerful magnetism Arnold could exert upon those around him when he chose.

Well, upon almost all of those around him. Eloise Pritchart and Thomas Theisman appeared remarkably resistant to what several of their congressional allies referred to as the 'Giancola Effect.' Which unhappy reflection brought Jason back to the purpose of his visit.

'What do we do now?' he repeated, and Arnold lowered his hand to look up at him.

'I'm not sure,' the Secretary of State admitted after a moment. 'I hate to admit it, but Pritchart and Theisman completely surprised me with that news conference. I guess they were more alert to where I was headed than I thought they were.'

'Are you sure? I mean, it could have been a genuine coincidence.'

'Sure it could,' Arnold said acidly. 'But if you think it was, I've got some bottomland I'd like to sell you. Just don't ask me what it's on the bottom of!'

'I didn't say I thought it was a coincidence,' Jason said with some dignity. 'I only said that it could have been, and it could have.'

'In the theoretical sense that anything could be a coincidence, you probably have a point, Jase,' Arnold replied a bit more patiently. Not a lot, but a bit. 'In this particular case, though, it had to be deliberate. They knew we'd been talking to people, and they must have suspected that we were just about ready to announce the existence of the new ships ourselves. So Pritchart had Theisman made the announcement instead as a way to take the wind out of our sails.'

'McGwire asked me about her speech,' Jason told him, and Arnold grunted. The mysterious speech all of the news services planned to carry live from Eloise Pritchart's presidential office the next evening was another source of his current unhappiness.

'He wanted to know what she intends to announce,' the younger Giancola continued, then shrugged. 'I had to tell him I don't really know. I don't think that was what he wanted to hear.'

'No, I doubt it was,' Arnold agreed. He swiveled his chair gently from side to side for two or three seconds, gazing at his brother contemplatively, then shrugged. 'I haven't seen a draft of her speech, but based on a few things she's said to me over the last week or so, I have a pretty shrewd notion of what she plans to say, and I can't say I'm exactly thrilled by it.'

'You think she's going to talk about the negotiations with the Manties, don't you?' Jason said.

'I think that's exactly what she's going to talk about,' Arnold acknowledged. 'And I think she's going to tell Congress—and the voters—that she intends to pursue an actual peace treaty with considerably more vigor. Which is why there's no way in Hell Theisman's news conference was a coincidence.'

'I was afraid that was what she was going to say,' Jason admitted. He sighed. 'She's taking your position away from you.'

'Tell me something I don't already know.' Arnold snorted. 'It has to be Pritchart, too. She's a much better political tactician than Theisman. Besides, Theisman was our best ally as far as timing the announcement of the new fleet elements was concerned. He was so obsessed with maintaining operational security that we could have counted on him to keep his mouth shut until we were completely ready to go public. No, it was Pritchart. She