“As far as we can determine, she is not sleeping with General Drakon.”
Which gave Drakon a few points for common sense, Iceni thought, as well as possibly some credit for ethics. Technically, superiors in the Syndicate Worlds were required to avoid having subordinates as sex partners since it was far too easy to abuse power that way. But in reality it had long been common practice, and almost every other CEO turned blind eyes to the abuse because they didn’t want to give anyone reasons to check them for their own violations of the law. “One of the reasons I trusted Drakon enough to work with him was because he’s not sleeping with anyone who works for him. But Morgan is attractive enough in many ways to have been able to attach herself to some CEO more powerful than Drakon, especially after he got exiled here. She chose to come here with him. All my instincts tell me that Morgan intends playing a deeper game than simply sleeping her way to the top.”
“There is a widespread belief that a few of her rivals have vanished in the past,” Togo noted.
“Yes. Get into every file, check every source, find out what you can. I need to know what she might do.”
“And Colonel Malin?”
“Him, too.” Iceni paused in thought again. “My impression has been that Malin is careful, controlled, and wants to leave behind Syndicate ways of doing things. But if he tried to kill Colonel Morgan during that military action, it would have been a hasty, impulsive act, and one fully in keeping with Syndicate ways of doing business. See if you can find out who the real Malin is.”
After Togo had left, Iceni sat looking at some documents on her screen but not really reading them. Why didn’t Drakon tell me about the message Dun sent? I wonder what was in it? My source says Drakon’s workers haven’t been able to get anything out of Dun’s equipment. The failure to inform me about internal problems with his staff is another matter and more understandable. No CEO ever admits to that kind of thing going on even if there are dead executives littering all of the conference rooms and the survivors are busy trying to wash the blood off their hands. But I’ve always thought it was a sloppy way of doing business. Only the boss should be deciding who gets the axe.
That was a joke, wasn’t it? Sort of a pun. Too bad there’s no one else in this star system who would find it funny.
Another incoming message arrived, from Sub-CEO Akiri on C-448. “Madam C—excuse me, Madam President, there has been an unexpected development.” Akiri paused, plainly reveling in being the bearer of important news, while Iceni seethed at the small delay in actually hearing that news. “One of the Hunter-Killers with C-625 did not enter the hypernet gate with the other mobile forces. It remained, and we have just received a transmission from HuK-6336 saying that they have overcome the ISS agents and those loyal to the Syndicate Worlds and will be joining us. HuK-6336 reports substantial personnel casualties in overcoming the snakes and loyalists, but says all equipment is operational.”
“Good,” Iceni said. “What about the three HuKs loyal to me that were shadowing C-625?”
“They are still about a light-hour from the hypernet gate, awaiting further orders.”
“Tell them to proceed on their missions to the other star systems. I need to know what’s going on at Lono, Taroa, and Kahiki. Make sure the commanders of those HuKs know that anyone who recruits more warships for our star system can expect to receive suitable rewards.”
“Yes, Madam President.” Akiri looked a bit disappointed because he had no chance at those rewards, but there was no way she was going to let one of her heavy cruisers go wandering off. They were needed right here.
Well, that news wasn’t planet-shaking. A single HuK didn’t have much capability. But it was a small piece of good news, so she wouldn’t turn her nose up at it, and she desperately needed every warship she could get her hands on. I’ve put up a good front. I wonder if Drakon suspects how much I haven’t told him, especially about how worried I am with such a small flotilla to stave off any attempt at reconquest by the Syndicate Worlds government. They say the stars help those who help themselves, but the shipyards here can only produce warships up to the size of heavy cruisers, and that only one or two at a time if I order them to build nothing else. The government on Prime would have heard about the revolt here eventually, but C-625 will bring word to them much faster than I’d hoped. Thanks to Black Jack, Prime doesn’t have much, but it won’t take much to brush aside a flotilla built around four heavy cruisers. It will take my own HuKs a while to reach the jump points for the stars they’re visiting, and then a while for the jump transits. Time I don’t have to spare.
If we don’t find more warships soon, this may be a very short-lived revolution.
Chapter Seven
Three days without a disaster. That made it three good days.
Drakon sat going over the latest reports. The citizens were suitably enthusiastic about real elections for low-level local officials, and the propaganda about taking it all slow seemed to be working to keep all but the hotheads happy. The hotheads themselves were being monitored by the police, and if they got too warm, they would find themselves being cooled off the hard way.
He paused, watching a vid of snake families being lifted to the merchant ship that would haul them to Prime. Crowds of citizens watched the shuttles lift, cheering wildly. Having spilled the blood of the actual snakes, the people seemed satisfied with expulsion from the star system for the family members. As the shuttles closed on the merchant ship, the virtual windows in their passenger compartments would show a dozen heavy cruisers and numerous smaller warships approaching the planet or orbiting nearby. The majority of those warships were illusions, but hopefully the deception would fool the families, who would surely be interrogated when they reached Prime. Win/win. Iceni had a good idea there. I just wish we could be sure we have eliminated or found every snake in this star system.
I’m actually certain that we haven’t. There are more out there somewhere. If those four turned snakes I’m hiding try anything or contact anyone, I’ll know it the instant it happens, but I doubt that they were tied into anything like deep-cover programs. That’s not how the snakes worked. They kept as many secrets from their own lower-level workers as they did from the rest of us.
Everything seemed to be going well, but Iceni had been increasingly moody and irritable as the days went by. “Malin,” he called over the command circuit, “do we have anything new on what President Iceni is doing?”
“I learned a short time ago,” Malin offered, “that the commander of one of the heavy cruisers, someone named Akiri, has been transferred to an assignment on the surface of the planet. His new title will be Adviser to the President on mobile forces issues.”
“Adviser to the President, huh? Which entails what?”
“We have no specifics on the job, General,” Malin replied.
A job with no defined purpose? Ha. I’ve seen that maneuver before. Iceni wanted Akiri out of where he was but didn’t want to raise any fuss over it, so she “promoted” him to a meaningless job. “What do we know about Akiri?”
“An undistinguished record, no known mentor or sponsor. Command of that unit was the highest he would ever go.”
That fit. After a few months, when no one was any longer paying attention, Iceni would probably slide Akiri into some obscure job suitable to his limited talents. “Who took over command of the cruiser?” Drakon asked.