and negotiate Pritchart's damned treaty because we won't need to string the talks out any further. And if we manage
'There's a lot of 'if's' in that,' the Prime Minister observed.
'Of course there are. We're in a hell of a mess right now. There's no point pretending we're not. From where I sit, this gives us our best chance of getting out of it. So either we take it, or else we go ahead and resign the game. And when you come right down to it, whether we show Marisa the complete note now—and risk her withdrawal from the Coalition—or hold off on it until Pritchart sends us another, even nastier one a few months from now, the consequences are pretty much the same, aren't they? We win, or we lose . . . and I'm not all that interested in losing. So let's go for the whole nine meters.'
Chapter Thirty Nine
'It's good to see you, Arnold,' Eloise Pritchart lied as a member of the Presidential Security Detachment escorted Secretary of State Giancola into her office.
'Thank you, Madame President. It's always good to see you, too,' Giancola replied equally smoothly for the benefit of the bodyguard. Not that anyone Kevin Usher had handpicked to protect the President of the Republic was going to be fooled by the surface exchange of pleasantries. Still, there were appearances to maintain.
The Secretary of State seated himself in the same chair Thomas Theisman preferred for his visits to Pritchart's office, and the PSD man withdrew.
'Would you care for some refreshments?' Pritchart inquired.
'No, thank you.' Giancola grimaced. 'I'm going straight from here to a dinner for the Ambassador from Erewhon. I'm afraid that means I'm going to have to tuck into that disgusting pickled fish dish they're all so proud of and pretend I like it. I'd just as soon not put anything down there that might surprise me by coming back up.'
Pritchart laughed, and somewhat to her own surprise, her amusement was genuine. It was a real pity she couldn't trust Giancola as far as she could spit. Much as she disliked the man, and distrusted him, she wasn't unaware of the charm and magnetism he could exude whenever it suited his purposes.
'Well, in that case, I suppose we should get down to business,' she said after a moment, and there was no more temptation to humor in her voice.
'Yes, I suppose we should,' he agreed, and cocked his head at her. 'May I assume you've already read my report?'
'I have.' Pritchart frowned. 'And I can't say I much cared for it, either.'
'I don't much care for my conclusions myself,' he told her, only partly truthfully.
'From the tone of Descroix's note, it sounds as if their position's actually hardening.' Pritchart regarded him intently. 'Is that your conclusion, as well?'
'It is,' he replied. 'Of course,' he added in a voice which carried just a hint of satisfaction, 'I may be a bit predisposed in that direction, given my earlier analysis of the Manties' foreign policy priorities.'
'It's always good to be aware of the way expectations can sometimes lead us astray,' Pritchart observed pleasantly.
Their eyes locked for just a moment. The challenge hovered there in the air between them, and the office seemed to hum with tension. But the moment was brief. Neither of them maintained any illusions about their relationship, but neither was quite ready for an open declaration of war, either.
'In the meantime,' Pritchart resumed, 'I'd have to agree that Descroix's note comes very close to rejecting our most recent proposals out of hand.'
'Yes, it does,' he agreed in a carefully neutral tone. In fact, the Manticoran Foreign Secretary's note had been the next best thing to perfect, from his perspective. The formal diplomatic language had been suitably opaque, but it was obvious Descroix was using it as a way to officially agree to 'consider' Pritchart's initiatives while actually telling the Republic they were dead on arrival. Giancola could have kissed the woman when her note was couriered to the capital.
'Actually,' he continued, 'I'm inclined to believe that the Manties don't really appreciate the fundamental shift in the balance of military power which has occurred since negotiations began.'
He'd been careful, Pritchart noted, not to suggest that announcing that shift earlier might have inspired the High Ridge Government with a more accurate appreciation of the military realities. On the other hand, his failure to mention the possibility aloud was simply a more effective way of making the same statement.
'I really don't want this to turn into a matter of who has the bigger gun, Arnold,' she said coolly.
'Neither do I,' he said with apparent sincerity. 'Unfortunately, in the end, effective diplomacy depends on a favorable balance of military strength more often than we'd like to admit.' He shrugged. 'It's an imperfect universe, Madame President.'
'Admitted. I'd just prefer not to make it any less perfect that it already is.'
'I've never advocated pushing things to the brink of an actual resumption of hostilities,' he told her. 'But star nations can stumble into wars neither of them want if they misread one another's strength and determination. And at the moment, the Manties seem to be busy underestimating both of those qualities where we're concerned.'
'I don't believe our last note to them could have been much clearer in that regard,' Pritchart observed, that edge of chill still frosting her voice.
'Not if they're actually bothering to listen to anything we say in the first place,' Giancola replied.
And there, Pritchart was forced to admit, he might well have a point. She didn't like how hard it was for her to make that admission, because she knew why it was. Her personal antipathy towards Giancola was making it increasingly difficult for her to listen to anything he said without automatically rejecting it. It was one thing to maintain a healthy sense of suspicion where someone who obviously had his own agenda was concerned. It was quite another to allow that suspicion to begin dictating an auto-response rejection of anything he ever said. Unfortunately, it was much easier for her to recognize that danger than it was to find a way around it.
In this instance, it was just a bit easier for her to concede that he might be correct, however. Previous experience with the Star Kingdom's diplomacy—as practiced by the current Government, at least—provided a more than sufficient counterirritant.
Her most recent set of proposals had been more than reasonable. She still hadn't actually offered formal recognition of the Star Kingdom's annexation of Trevor's Star. The Republic's permanent renunciation of all claims to San Martin was simply too valuable a bargaining chip to give up until she got at least something in return. And although she'd dropped her previous offer of a plebiscite in that system, her suggestion that she might accept the same sort of arrangement the Star Kingdom already enjoyed with the Andermani Empire in Gregor for the Trevor's Star Junction terminus had constituted a significant hint that she was at least open to the possibility of an eventual, formal recognition of the system's annexation. Moreover, she'd also conceded that legitimate Manticoran security concerns might well require at least some additional territorial adjustments, particularly in the area immediately around Trevor's Star. And she'd offered to cede the former Havenite naval bases in the systems of Samson, Owens, and Barnett outright, as permanent RMN bases to deepen the Manticoran Alliance's defensive frontier.
Of course, she admitted, the Star Kingdom was already in possession of all of those systems . . . not to mention all of the other systems currently in dispute, including the Tequila System, less than fifty-five light-years from the capital system itself. And Tequila was one of the systems she was
The Manticoran Alliance actually controlled a total of twenty-seven star systems which were technically claimed by the Republic of Haven. Six of those twenty-seven were effectively uninhabited; most of them had boasted naval bases, which explained the Alliance's original interest in them, but possessed no habitable planets to attract civilian development. Another three had been sufficiently recent acquisitions of the People's Republic to leave the local inhabitants with an extreme dislike, even hatred, for anything coming out of the Haven System, regardless of any reforms which might have occurred there. Those three had already expressed their firm intention to seek annexation on the pattern of Trevor's Star, and Pritchart was prepared to let them go. The readopted Constitution gave them the right to do that, and even if they hadn't, she would have been perfectly willing to use
