“I do appreciate that consideration, Commander.”
Van stood. “I’m doing my best to get on the jumpline, and I’m the one who appreciates being able to tap your expertise.”
That got him a nod, and Van slipped from her office while matters remained on a pleasant and professional level.
True to her word, Gregory had an archive waiting for Van under his own codes by the time he’d returned to his office. He scanned the titles quickly, then concentrated on the large report—the one he hoped held what he was seeking. It took him all afternoon, and more than a few calculations, before he had a rough analysis set up and written out. He scanned the charts, figures, and explanations, then the conclusions he had drawn.
Over the past twenty years total investment from Argenti and Revenant sources has been virtually identical [less than 2% difference between the amounts from Argenti sources and Revenant sources]. The pattern of investment has been markedly different. With a few high-profile exceptions, the majority of capital from Revenant sources has flowed into three areas: information technology; media-related industries; and food and natural resources.
A survey of Scandyan communication and information systems reveals a 70% correlation with Revenant systems, both in component utilization and system configuration.
Van’s quick survey was based on what he’d been able to find, and upon his own past briefings on Revenant technology. He’d actually come up with a higher figure, but dropped the percentage because of the thinness of his sample.
Revenant investment has been even more concentrated in the public comm sector. In fact, Revenant ownership of the three major commercial Scandyan netsystems is at the maximum out-system ownership permitted under Scandyan law [33%].
Whether through plan or coincidence, this concentration of investment in media multilaterals is also matched by a high correlation of professional staff and managers with semantic markers suggesting Revenant origin [as many as 40% of key personnel could have Revenant affiliations of some type].
That was also a somewhat subjective conclusion, but Van wanted the point to hit hard.
Argenti investment is more diverse and what concentration there is falls in the areas of microtechnology, medical and bio-pharmacology, basic nanetic formulation.
As expected, given Scandyan law, neither Scandyan nor Argenti investors have positions in industries or multilaterals with significant military contracts. Argenti investment exists in publicly held companies below the foreign investment prohibition, but there is virtually no Revenant investment in such entities…
Did he want to spell out the obvious? Van decided against it, finished with an innocuous closing paragraph, and sent copies to the first, second, and third secretaries, requesting comments.
He leaned back in his chair. Given what Gregory and he had discovered, the inflammatory impartiality of media stories made perfect sense. That part was easy enough to see. What worried Van was the knowledge that, in a situation as complex as Scandya, he’d missed more than he’d discovered. He was also more than a little worried by the latitude he’d been given by the ambassador and the lack of input from Hannigan—and by the continued lack of detailed military information from either the Foreign Ministry or the RSF.
Chapter 21
Threeday and fourday passed, and Van spent his time responding to inquiries from various secretaries and the ambassador, and in trying to formulate a strategy for Taran military posture vis-à-vis Scandya that he could recommend. Van had received absolutely no comment on his analysis of the military-economic situation in the Scandyan system. He’d had no response from yet another call to Sub-marshal Brigham Taylor of the Revenant embassy, but he had received numerous requests for scattered bits of information from both Hannigan and the ambassador, ranging from the rank structure of the Scandyan SDF to the size of the largest class of Coalition warship. By fiveday afternoon, he had just received a detailed commentary over the net from Cordelia Gregory and was wondering if he would get any other comments. Then there was a knock on the door.
Van looked up, used his implant, and said, “You can come in, Emily.”
Emily Clifton slipped into the chair across the desk from Van. “It’s about your report.”
“What do you think?”
“I’m sorry. With all the arrangements for the past week, I was swamped. But I finally read your report.” She looked at him. “If I’m right about where you’re headed, it’s frightening.”
“Do you think I’m wrong?” he asked.
She frowned, and the expression made her face look more severe than usual. “I’d worry that it makes too much sense. People usually do what they feel like doing, and then rationalize what they’ve done afterward. They think they’re logical, but they’re not. You’re suggesting a logical pattern on the part of both the Argentis and the Revenants.”
It was Van’s turn to frown. “No. Just on the part of the Revenants. The Argentis seem to be following a long-held cultural pattern, almost instinctive. That’s the way they’ve approached most of their colonies and former colonies.”
“Do you think the Revenants are that logical—logical enough to plot this kind of takeover?”
“I don’t know. I do know that they have a superiority complex of some sort. Commander Cruachan didn’t have any problem meeting with their military attaché, but the same attaché won’t even return my calls. Their ambassador practically called me a lower-class citizen at our reception, and their junior officers avoid talking to me, almost to the point of rudeness. Colonel Marti suggested, indirectly, that the Argentis are mostly the wrong color for dealing with the Revenants. Commander Salucar also noted that the Revenants tend to minimize or deny access to women. I got a similar set of observations from the Coalition consulate.”
“With all that ideological prejudice, you think that the Revs can be logical?” Emily smiled.
“If they’re not being logical,” Van returned, “we’ve got a pattern that’s been in
