"Zanzibar is?" White Haven�s eyebrows rose, and his brother nodded.
"Yep. It�s sort of a junior version of the Graysons� Blackbird Yard, another joint venture with the Hauptman Cartel. It�ll be limited to cruiser and maybe battlecruiser-range construction, at least for the first couple of years, but it�ll be top of the line, and the same thing for Alizon. And the Graysons themselves are just phenomenal. Maybe it�s because they�ve already had so many battles fought in their space, or maybe it�s simply because their standard of living was so much lower than ours was before the war started, but these people are digging deep, Hamish... and their civilian economy is still expanding like a house on fire at the same time. I suppose part of the difference is that their civilian sector is still so far short of market saturation, whereas ours�" He shrugged. "And it�s not helping a bit that we�re still unable to provide the kind of security for our merchant shipping in Silesia that we�d like. Our trade with the Confederation is down by almost twenty-eight percent."
"Are the Andermani picking up what we�ve lost?" White Haven asked.
"It looks more like it�s the Sollies," William said with another shrug. "We�re seeing more and more market penetration by them out this way... which may help explain why certain elements in the League are willing to export military technology to the Peeps."
"Wonderful." White Haven massaged his temples wearily, then looked back at Caparelli and dragged the conversation back to his original concern. "But the operative point for Eighth Fleet is that it looks like another couple of months before I�ll see my other battle squadrons, right?"
"Yes," Caparelli said. "We had to make a choice between you and keeping Trevor�s Star up to strength, and, frankly, what happened at Adler is still having repercussions. We�re managing to ride them out so far, but the sheer scope of our defeat there has everyone�and especially the smaller members of the Alliance�running more than a little scared. I�m doing my level best to gather back the ships we were forced to disperse in even more penny-packet pickets for political reasons, but Trevor�s Star is another matter. If I were the Peeps, that system�and the Junction terminus there�would be absolutely my number one targeting priority, and I have to assume they�re at least as smart as I am."
"Um." White Haven considered that, then nodded slowly. If he were Esther McQueen and he had the strength for it, he�d retake Trevor�s Star in a heartbeat. Of course, he wasn�t Esther McQueen, and so far as he knew, she didn�t have the strength to retake the system, but he understood why Caparelli was determined to make sure she didn�t get the chance. Not that understanding made the implications for his own command area any better.
"All right," he said finally. "I understand what�s happening, and I can see why we�re where we are on the priorities list. But I hope you and the rest of the Admiralty understand, Sir Thomas, when I say that I�m not trying to set up any sort of preexisting excuses for future failure by saying that I have very deep concerns over our ability to execute our original mission if those ships are delayed for as long as you�re suggesting is likely. At the rate they seem to be reinforcing Barnett, what should have given us a very comfortable margin of superiority is likely to provide little more than parity when we actually move. And everything I�ve seen out of Citizen Admiral Theisman suggests that giving him parity is not the way to go about winning a battle."
"I understand, My Lord." Caparelli sighed. "And all we can ask you to do is the best that you can do. I assure you that everyone at the Admiralty understands that, and no one regrets the delay in your buildup more than I do. I�ll see what I can do to expedite matters on my return."
"At least the construction rates are still climbing," William observed in the tone of someone looking hard for a silver lining. "And manning requirements should be dropping, if the reports the Exchequer�s been getting from BuShips and BuPers hold up."
"That�s true enough," Caparelli agreed, "and if Project Anzio�" He cut himself off, then grinned at White Haven. "Let�s just say that we�ve got the possibility for some real force multiplication, My Lord. If the bastards will only give me another four months or so, I think we�ll be ready to resume the offensive."
"Remember what Napoleon said about time," White Haven cautioned, and the First Space Lord nodded.
"Point taken, My Lord. But no one�s fought a war on this scale in at least three hundred T-years, and even then the distance scale was much lower. We�re sort of making up the rules for strategic deployments as we go, and so are the Peeps. For that matter, we know what our problems are, but let�s not make the mistake of assuming the bad guys don�t have problems of their own to offset ours."
"Fair enough," White Haven agreed. He tipped his chair back again and sipped wine, frowning as he digested what he�d just been told. His brother watched him for several seconds; then he cleared his throat, and White Haven looked up questioningly.
"You said you had two things you wanted to discuss with us," William reminded him. "Did we already cover the other one, as well?"
"Hm?" White Haven frowned, but then his expression cleared, and he shook his head. "No. No, we didn�t actually." He brought his chair back upright and set his wineglass back on the desk. "I wanted to get the official Government impression of the consequences of Ransom�s death."
"Ha! You and me both, brother mine," William replied sourly.
"I take it from your response that the whole thing smelled as fishy to you people back home as it did to me?"
"To put it mildly, yes." William glanced at Caparelli, then looked back at his brother. "ONI and Special Intelligence both agree that something about it wasn�t kosher, but of course they don�t agree on what that something was."
White Haven swallowed a snort of laughter at William�s expression. The Office of Naval Intelligence and its civilian counterpart had a history of disagreeing with one another, and the turf battles when their areas of expertise intersected could be spectacular.
"Would you care to elaborate on that?" he invited after a moment.
"Well," William leaned back and crossed his legs, "they both agree she must have been dead for some time before the announcement. That �killed by enemy action while touring the front on Committee business� is pure crap. We know exactly when and where we�ve knocked out Peep battlecruisers, and none of the dates we have match the one they�ve given. It�s a little more sophisticated than those �air car accidents� the Peeps� have always favored to explain away disappearances, especially when they�ve got some reason to want to obscure the exact time they disappeared someone, but it�s still a crock, and we know it. As for when she really died, as far as any of our analysts can determine, she hasn�t been seen in public in months, and with that as a starting point, we�ve taken a very close look at the more recent HD imagery of her, as well. At least some of it was faked�and faked very well, I might add�but the earliest example we�ve been able to positively identify is only a couple of T-months old. She may have been dead longer than that, but we can�t be positive."
"At least we know she was alive recently enough to murder Lady Harrington," Caparelli put in, and the raw, grating anger in his tone snapped White Haven�s eyes to him. The earl gazed at his superior for a handful of silent seconds, then nodded without any expression whatever and looked back to his brother.
"Should I take it that the disagreement between ONI and SIS is over the reason the Peeps delayed admitting her death?" he asked.
"You should," William agreed. "SIS thinks she was zapped as part of a personal power struggle between her and Saint-Just or, perhaps, her and the combination of Saint-Just and Pierre. Some of their more... creative analysts have actually raised the possibility that she was the senior inside member of the Leveler conspiracy and Saint-Just found out about it and had her popped. I personally find that a little hard to swallow, but it�s certainly not impossible, especially when you consider the sort of rhetoric she routinely pumped out. But if that was the case, or if it was simply a case of settling a personal rivalry, the Committee may have wanted to keep it quiet until the winners were confident that they�d IDed�and purged�any of her adherents.