Togo tapped his reader. “There were some problems with the awakening of Morgan and the other surviving commando. While their period in survival sleep was roughly twenty years, that should not have been long enough to cause difficulties. I could find no details of what the problems were, just vague references. Some of those references led me to believe that there may have been some special mental conditioning of Morgan and the others before the mission.”
“Special mental conditioning?” That could mean many things, many of them very ugly.
“I do not know for certain, Madam President. Morgan’s psych evals after awakening rated her within acceptable limits, but erratically so. She was rejected for further duty with the commandos. Morgan was eventually released for duty in the regular ground forces. This happened just as the ground forces were facing a serious shortage of junior officers as a result of some failed major offensive operations that had resulted in an even higher-than-usual rate of casualties among junior officers. A large number of worker-level ground forces personnel were designated for immediate promotion to junior subexecutive, and one of those was Morgan.”
Iceni eyed Togo skeptically. “She was chosen for promotion to subexecutive rank despite her history and evaluations?”
“I could not determine why, Madam President. There is a medical evaluation declaring her fit for immediate promotion, but no explanation for it. Morgan herself could not have been in any position to bribe or influence anyone with authority to make that call, but there is no trace of any patron who would have intervened on her behalf and no room in her history for such a patron to have been acquired.”
“When you said that Colonel Morgan’s history was interesting, I didn’t expect it to be quite this interesting,” Iceni commented.
“Unfortunately for Sub-Executive Roh Morgan, no ground forces commander would accept her assignment to their command because of the oddities in her record and the less-than-standard psych evals. Finally, Drakon accepted her in his command on the grounds that she deserved a chance.”
Iceni raised an eyebrow at Togo. “Is that your assessment, or do you have firm evidence that was his reasoning?”
“Drakon’s acceptance message said, ‘This officer deserves a chance to succeed.’ His decision to give her that opportunity formed the foundation for Morgan’s intense loyalty to him, though my sources say she is also now very admiring of Drakon’s skills as a leader and a combat commander.”
That was indeed intriguing. “So Colonel Morgan is actually your age?”
“She was just short of eighteen when she volunteered for the suicide mission. Chronologically, she is now older than me, Madam President. Physically, because she did not age during survival sleep, she is twenty-seven years old. She has served with Drakon for eight years now.”
What would have motivated a girl not yet eighteen years old to volunteer for a suicide mission? Iceni sighed, wondering how many girls, and boys, of similar age had died during the century of war with the Alliance. “So Morgan was already working with Drakon when Malin arrived?”
“Yes. All accounts indicate that they disliked each other intensely from the moment they first met.”
“Hate at first sight?” Yet they had both stayed with Drakon. Was he that inspiring a leader? It didn’t seem like enough of an explanation. “How are Morgan’s psych evals now?”
“Close enough to standard deviation to be judged acceptable,” Togo said.
That wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of someone’s stability. “Interesting. That’s more than I knew, but it leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Keep an eye out for anything else you can learn. Those two are very close to General Drakon, and understanding the why of that will help me understand General Drakon. Do you have any questions about how to handle matters while I’m gone?”
Togo hesitated. “I ask that I be permitted to accompany you, Madam President. As we have recently seen, even mobile forces units are not immune to the threat of assassins, and if someone in the military wished you ill, having you struck down while outside this star system might be seen as a means to deflect attention from the guilty party.”
She gave him an intent look. “Do you have any intelligence that something like that is planned?”
“No.”
“I have no reason to believe that anything like that is under way.” Not quite true. Not true at all, actually. But her source close to Drakon was in a position to know if Drakon made use of an in-place asset to order such a strike against her. Even Togo didn’t know about that source, though, because it was simply too important to risk compromise.
“Madam President, I do not know what General Drakon has told you—”
“I am not fool enough to base my security on what I am told by those who could threaten it,” Iceni said. “Do you have solid information, or good intelligence, indicating an active threat from that direction?”
Togo paused, then shook his head. “No, Madam President.”
“It’s your job to watch for danger to me, and you do it well. Keep doing it while I’m gone. The best service you can render me is to stay here, monitor the actions of potential threats, and help keep things running smoothly until I return.”
“Yes, Madam President.”
Something else occurred to her then, along with a measure of surprise that Togo himself hadn’t already brought it up sometime ago. “What about the search of Sub-CEO Akiri’s room and belongings? What did you find?”
Togo shook his head. “Nothing inconsistent with what was known of him, Madam President.”
“No clues as to why he was the assassin’s first target? No indication of why CEO Kolani kept him in command despite her low opinion of him?”
“No, Madam President. There was nothing to offer any explanation of either. Perhaps there was no link between those things. CEO Kolani may have enjoyed bullying Sub-CEO Akiri, and he was designated a special adviser to you, which would explain the assassin’s interest.”
Plausible. Yet… But she had no time to focus on that now. “All right. That’s all.”
After Togo had left, Iceni took a few moments that she couldn’t spare to think about his report. Drakon gave Morgan a chance when no one else would. A young woman, little more than a girl, with considerable physical and mental trauma in her recent past. I wouldn’t have given her a chance. Who would take such a risk? But Drakon did. No wonder she’s so loyal to him. No wonder his soldiers are loyal to him. He seems to care about people despite all the CEO training that he went through.
I wish I could trust that man. I think if I could ever trust Artur Drakon, I might actually come to like him.
And then he might stick a knife in my back. I’m glad Togo will be keeping an eye on him.
Sub-CEO Marphissa seemed happy to see her, but then Iceni couldn’t remember the last time one of her subordinates had been foolish enough to look unhappy at her appearance. Yes, I do. It was that executive who was skimming funds. He looked very unhappy. Not as unhappy then as he did when he was punished by being given a uniform and sent off to help in the hopeless defense of that star system near Alliance territory. Where was that again? It doesn’t matter now. All the defenders died, the Syndicate Worlds recaptured the star system eventually, and in the end the Syndicate Worlds lost the war, so it meant nothing. Something worth dying for, Drakon said. Yes. We all need that.