‘You mean the report I’m supposed to be putting together for Jed Culver on the military threat from the Federation?’

‘Supposed to be, yes. Don’t worry – I’ve already written it for you. You won’t have to do any real work while you’re going through people’s garbage cans and reading their mail when they’re not looking.’

‘And is there a military threat?’ she asked. ‘A credible one?’

‘Depends what you mean by “threat”. Could Morales make life down here distinctly unpleasant? Of course he could. He already is. He doesn’t have the force projection capabilities to take and hold significant ground, but that hasn’t stopped him from making a damn nuisance of himself at the edges. It’s no coincidence that we get an upturn in banditry and insurgent activity down in Panama every time he sends his ambassador up to demand we turn over control of the Canal to the Federation. Most of the piracy in the Caribbean is almost certainly down to him. Plus, when he started stitching his little bandit kingdom together, Roberto didn’t make the mistake of trying to maintain all the capabilities he’d inherited – he just cherry-picked the best bits and concentrated on maintaining them.’

‘There’s a lot of talk in Vancouver about the São Paulo,’ Caitlin said, referring to the South American Federation’s aircraft carrier.

‘Talk’s all it is,’ Musso replied. ‘One deployment to the Gulf with two frigates is not enough to cause me to lose any sleep at night. He’s demobilised most of his obsolete combat aircraft, sticking with the F-16s he inherited. Bad news for Morales is that we’re sitting on most of the spare parts for that plane. He’s got a pretty large navy on paper, once you add up all the frigates, subs and Peru’s old big-gun cruiser, but most of those tubs spend their time in port, for want of funds to operate them. Much like ours do, I might add.’

‘So, he shouldn’t be taken too seriously?’

The big old Marine shrugged. ‘I know there’s some pro forma concern up in Seattle about his capability and intent. And down here, concern turns to howling paranoia, let me tell you. But for now, most of his attention is directed towards internal control. He’s built up his army, but it’s not an expeditionary force. Five, ten years from now, that might be different. But five years from now, hopefully, our own situation should be much improved too.’

He slowed right down as the rain reduced visibility to some hundred and fifty yards.

‘As long as Seattle and Fort Hood don’t decide to get into Civil War re-enactment in a big way,’ said Caitlin.