"I think," he said instead, "that we have the resources-properly used-to kill this fly with a slightly smaller sledgehammer, Colonel."
"Yes, sir!" The colonel's profound relief made Lantu smile.
"All right. I think we'll begin by informing Colonel Huark that camp security is his responsibility. Pull in your men and organize battalion-sized reaction forces, then work out a deployment grid that gives us optimum response time to all our own installations."
"Yes, sir." The colonel paused, manifestly struggling with himself, then took the plunge. "Uh, sir, while I agree whole-heartedly with your orders, I think I should point out that we're going to get hit hard, at least initially."
"Why?"
"The Wardens aren't-well, they aren't very good at security, sir, and the guerrillas really hate them. Especially the extermination squads."
"The what squads?" Lantu asked very quietly, and Fraymak swallowed.
"The extermination squads, sir. They're special units."
"So I gather. But what, exactly, do they do, Colonel?"
"They're in charge of reprisals, sir," Fraymak said uncomfortably.
"Reprisals." The single word came out with glacial coldness.
"Yes, sir. Counter-reprisals, really." Lantu crooked his fingers, inviting the colonel to continue. "The guerrillas make a point of hitting installations near the camps with the highest execution totals. They . . . don't leave much behind when they do. So Warden Colonel Huark and Father Shamar organized the extermination squads. Whenever we get hit, they pick out hostages or a village that hasn't been brought in for re-education yet and they, well, they exterminate them, sir."
Lantu closed his eyes, and his own words about supporting the Church were bitter on his tongue. How could something like that serve Holy Terra? He sat very still for a moment before he opened his eyes. "Well, Colonel Fraymak, you're under my orders, not Colonel Huark's, and we'll do this my way. Adjust your deployment to cover dependent and civilian housing, but the extermination squads are just going to have to look after themselves."
"Yes, sir." The colonel's gaze met his with grim satisfaction before he executed a snappy salute and withdrew.
Lantu watched the door close and shook his head. Extermination squads. Sweet Terra, no wonder this planet was a shambles!
Not until much later did he realize Fraymak hadn't used the word "infidel" once.
"First Admiral?"
Lantu looked up at his secretary's soft, sweet voice and smiled. Hanat was tall for a Theban woman, her head reaching almost chest-high on him, and he'd instantly recognized who really kept things moving around here. She was a curious blend of the efficient and the traditional, managing somehow to handle everything that crossed her desk without ever overstepping the bounds which would set an old-fashioned male's teeth on edge.
"Yes, Hanat?"
"You were due in the fleet chaplain's office ten minutes ago."
"What?" Lantu looked at his chronometer and grimaced. "Damn. Excuse me," he apologized automatically, and she laughed softly. "Fortunately, I've known him a long time-I doubt he'll have me shot just yet." He stood and took down his pistol belt, buckling it distastefully. He shouldn't have to walk around armed inside the HQ compound.
"Don't forget your meeting with Colonel Huark at fourteen-thirty, either," Hanat admonished.
"As if I could." Lantu didn't bother to conceal his opinion of the Warden. "Did you get those figures to the fleet chaplain?"
"Yes, sir," she said with revulsion. That was why he didn't hide his contempt for Huark from her. "You were right. They're twelve percent over Archbishop Tanuk's execution ceiling."
"Terra!" Lantu muttered. "Well, I'll read them when I get back. Copy the data to my computer while I'm out."
"Of course." She reached out to adjust his pistol belt's buckle. "There. Can't have my boss looking sloppy."
Lantu grinned at her and walked out of the office, humming.
"Sit down," Manak invited, and the admiral dropped into a chair. His pistol caught on its arm, and he muttered a curse as he wrestled with it.
"Language, my son. Language!" Manak's gentle mockery made Lantu feel better. The old chaplain had been monosyllabic and despondent for days after their conviction by the Synod. Even now there was little of the old sparkle in his eyes, and Lantu sometimes thought he sensed a disquieting brittleness about his inner strength. Lantu had been a baby when his parents died, and the fleet chaplain had raised him as his own son. Seeing him so cavalierly reduced was one more coal in the admiral's smoldering resentment.
"Sorry," he said, then sighed in relief as the pistol came unsnagged. "Holy Terra, I hate having to wear this thing."
"As do I." Manak frowned and looked around what had been Archbishop Tanuk's office. Its splendid luxury had yielded to the fleet chaplain's spartan hand, and Lantu found its present austerity far more comfortable.
"I've received word from the Synod," Manak continued. "They've decided-for the present, at least-to confirm me as acting archbishop." He snorted. "I imagine none of the regular bishops wanted the job."
"Wise of them." Lantu was careful to limit the bite in his tone.
"Unhappily true. But that means I set policy now, and that's what I wanted to see you about. Colonel Huark and Father Shamar have both protested your new deployment orders."
"I'm not surprised, Holiness, but if they want to stop these attacks instead of just responding to them, then-"
"Peace, my son. I know you too well to question your judgment . . . unlike some others." The fleet chaplain's face was momentarily bitter, but he shook the expression aside. "I've told them you have my full support. In return, I'm going to need yours, I think."
"Oh? In what way, Holiness?"
"I've read the report your charming secretary put together." Manak smiled slyly, and Lantu grinned-Manak had badgered him for years about his duty to take a wife as Holy Terra expected-but the churchman sobered quickly.
"You're right. The execution totals are far too high, even excluding reprisals. If your figures are as accurate as I expect, we've killed almost thirteen percent of the population. That is not the way to win converts."
Lantu nodded feelingly.
"What you may not realize," Manak went on, "is that our conversion rate-our claimed conversion rate, I should say-is under five percent. I find that truly appalling. Surely infidels should be willing to at least pretend conversion to escape death."
"They're stubborn people, Holiness," Lantu said mildly.
"Indeed they are, but this is still highly disturbing."
"I suspect, Holiness," Lantu said cautiously, "that the Inquisition has been . . . over zealous, let us say, in its use of punishment."
"Torture, you mean," Manak corrected bitterly, and Lantu relaxed. That sounded like the Manak he knew and respected. "One shouldn't speak ill of the dead, perhaps, especially not of martyrs in the cause of Holy Terra, but Tanuk never could tell right from left without an instruction book."
"I never knew the archbishop-"
"You missed very little, my son. His faith was strong, but he was ever intolerant. It's one thing to carry the jihad home against the infidels; it's quite another to slaughter them out of frustration, and that's precisely what the Inquisition is doing. If they prove impossible to reclaim, then we may have no option, but the Inquisition will win more converts with love than with hate. And whatever they may have become, they are still of the race of the Messenger. If only for the love we bear him, we must make a true effort to restore them to their Faith."