The Shadow of Saganami

They would never have risked waiting until we might have dispersed the weapons to other locations.

But if not that, then what?

Drazen. It must have been Drazen's people. Yet how could it have been? They'd made dozens-scores-of careful, stealthy trips in and out of Camp Freedom since the Nemanja bombing without anyone ever noticing a thing. And Drazen had been even more cautious than usual. Less than a dozen individual flights-nondescript personal air cars and copters-buried in the background of an entire hemisphere's routine, civilian traffic. Their flight paths had been almost random. Even their arrival times had been staggered over a window more than six hours wide! There was no way they could have been spotted. No way their courses and arrivals could have been connected with one another.

The Manties, she thought. The goddamned, murdering Manties. They did it. Them and their sensors and their jackbooted Marines!

It was the only answer. Only the Manties had the technical capability to pluck a handful of innocent-looking flights out of the clutter of everyone else's air traffic. Only the same greedy, avaricious, grasping imperialists out to devour her planet. They were the only ones who could have spotted Drazen, and their mercenary so-called 'Marines' were the only troops in the star system who could have butchered everyone in Camp Freedom like so many helpless sheep hurled into a furnace.

Hot tears burned the backs of her eyes, but she refused to shed them. She wouldn't weep. She would not weep! Not even though the hired thugs of the interstellar appetite waiting to rape her world and the corrupt regime of local despots waiting to help them do it had murdered Drazen and his entire cell. Had burned them like so many logs in a fire and butchered over ninety other people-friends, colleagues, brothers and sisters of the armed struggle, some of whom she'd known for literally two-thirds of her entire life-with them.

She would not weep.

They may have destroyed Camp Freedom, she told herself fiercely, but they don't know about the other arms caches. They don't know the Movement still has modern weapons, still has dozens of times the firepower and capability we had at the beginning!

She told herself that, and resolutely refused to consider the fact that whatever the FAK might have, the government had the Star Kingdom of Manticore.

* * *

'So now what do we do?'

Vice President Vuk Rajkovic looked around the table at the members of 'his' Cabinet, although less than a quarter of them had been chosen by him.

'What do you mean, Mr. Vice President?' Mavro Kanjer asked.

'You know perfectly well what I mean, Mavro,' Rajkovic told the Secretary of Justice flatly. 'You were there when Van Dort told us what Aleksandra didn't tell us.' Several people shifted uneasily, and Rajkovic stabbed them with an angry glare. ' All of you know, by now. Don't pretend for one moment you don't! And if any of you want to try to, I'm officially informing you now that I have formal confirmation of Van Dort's statements from Baroness Medusa herself. President Tonkovic was informed six weeks ago that a hard deadline existed, and she still hasn't informed her own government of that fact.'

People looked away from him. Some looked down at the table, some at the walls, and some at each other. Then, finally, Vesna Grabovac looked up and met his gaze squarely.

'What do you think we should do, Mr. Vice President?' the Treasury Secretary asked.

'I think we should consider the fact that President Tonkovic was required by our Constitution to inform the rest of her government-and, especially, Parliament-of that communication from the Provisional Governor 'without delay.' I submit to you that six weeks-over a quarter of the total time remaining to the Constitutional Convention- constitutes a very significant delay.'

'Are you suggesting she be recalled to face Parliamentary questioning?' Alenka Mestrovic, the Education Secretary demanded.

'I think the possibility should be considered very strongly, yes,' Rajkovic said unflinchingly.

'We can hardly sustain a constitutional crisis at a moment when we've just learned Nordbrandt and her lunatics are in possession of modern, off-world weapons!' Kanjer protested.

'My God, Mavro!' It was Goran Majoli, Secretary of Commerce and one of Rajkovic's strongest allies in the Cabinet. 'We-or, rather, the Manticorans-just seized over a thousand tons of those 'modern weapons' and killed over a hundred of her murderers in the process! If we can't face the possibility of an open political debate about our own President's compliance with the Constitution now, then when do you suggest we will be able to?'

Kanjer glared at Majoli. Obviously, Rajkovic thought, Kanjer felt that 'never' would be a very good time to consider Aleksandra's conduct.

Voices started up all around the table, with a contentiousness not even the most broad-minded could have dignified with a term as civilized as 'debate.' Rajkovic let the wrangling stretch out for several minutes, then hammered on the wooden block with his gavel. The crisp, sharp sound brought the raised voices to an abrupt, slithering stop, and he glared at all of them.

'This is a meeting of the Cabinet, not a sandbox full of fighting children!' Even some of Tonkovic's most avid supporters had the grace to look embarrassed at that, and he swept his eyes over all of them.

'Obviously, we aren't going to reach consensus on this this afternoon,' he said flatly. 'It is, however, a matter we're going to have to settle, and soon. Whatever President Tonkovic may think, I cannot justify not passing that information on directly to Parliament now that it's been officially communicated to me by the Provisional Governor.'

The silence became deathly still as Tonkovic's partisans realized what he was saying, and he met their gazes levelly.

'I called this meeting, and asked the question that I did, primarily as a matter of courtesy. In my judgment, the destruction of so much of Nordbrandt's organization, and the capture and destruction of so many off-world weapons, should have a calming effect on public opinion. I believe there won't be a better time for me to grasp the nettle and bring this information to Parliament's attention without provoking widespread public outrage and protests. I'll do so in as noninflammatory a fashion as I possibly can, but all of you know as well as I do that, however public opinion reacts, Parliament won't take it well. And Parliament may, at its own discretion, summon any elected official-including the President-to answer before its members for the proper discharge of his or her duties.'

'And you'll just happen to suggest that they ought to do so in this case, eh?' Kanjer demanded with an ugly expression.

'I'll suggest nothing of the sort,' Rajkovic replied coldly. 'If that were what I wanted to suggest, however, it would be unnecessary, and you know it as well as I do.'

'I know you're planning on staging what amounts to a coup d'etat !' Kanjer retorted angrily.

'Oh, bullshit, Mavro!' Majoli snapped. 'You can't accuse Vuk of staging a coup when all he's doing is what the Constitution flatly requires him to do! Or do you suggest he should violate the Constitution in order to protect someone else who's already doing the same thing?'

Kanjer snarled at the Commerce Secretary, and Rajkovic hammered the gavel again. Kanjer and Majoli sat back from the table almost simultaneously, still glaring at one another, and the Vice President shook his head.

'I'll be dispatching an official report of the raid and its results to Spindle by tomorrow or the next day. Anyone who wishes to communicate with President Tonkovic is welcome to send his or her messages via the same courier. Frankly, I invite you to do so. Whether you believe this or not, Mavro, I'd far rather resolve this without a constitutional crisis. And I've been acting head of state long enough to have a very good idea of just how unpleasant it would be to have the job permanently, thank you!

'I have also, however, been summoned to appear before Parliament tomorrow afternoon. The exact reason Parliament wishes to see me hasn't been vouchsafed, but I suspect we can all deduce what it is they want to talk about. And when they ask me questions, Ladies and Gentlemen, I will answer them-fully,