“No doubt you’re right,” Honor said dryly as he paused for effect, and he blushed, then laughed.

“Sorry, My Lady. It’s just that I was so surprised myself, that—” He shrugged. “What we found was a top secret list of Legislaturalist politicals, all of whom were considered to possess such important and sensitive information or to have sufficiently great potential for future usefulness that executing them was out of the question. So instead of being shot, they were declared officially dead and shipped out here under falsified names and prisoner manifests.”

“Ah?” Honor tipped back her chair and cocked her head at him.

“Ah, indeed, My Lady. Most of them were high-ranking InSec officials or permanent departmental undersecretaries under the Harris Government—people like that. But a couple of them were military… including Admiral Amos Parnell.”

“Parnell?” McKeon came out of his chair in astonishment, turning to face the Grayson officer, and Marchant nodded sharply.

“Yes, Sir.”

“But they shot him years ago—right after Third Yeltsin!” Honor protested.

“They said they shot him,” Marchant corrected her. “But he’s here according to the records, and I’ve sent a pinnace out to collect him. Ah,” he suddenly looked just a little nervous. “I, um, assumed that was what you’d want me to do, My Lady,” he added quickly.

“You assumed correctly,” Honor said slowly, and then sat for several seconds, considering Marchant’s astonishing news. Amos Parnell would never have become Chief of Naval Operations under the old regime if he hadn’t been a Legislaturalist, but he’d been extremely good at the job, however he’d gotten it. When she first accepted her Grayson commission, Honor had had a chance to read the classified reports of the Third Battle of Yeltsin, and she’d been deeply impressed by Parnell’s performance there. Lured into what was for all intents and purposes a deep-space ambush, then jumped by more than twice the firepower he’d expected to confront, all under the command of no less a tactician than Hamish Alexander, he’d still gotten half his fleet out intact. And like everyone else, she’d assumed he was dead for eight T-years now.

And if he isn’t, who knows where this could lead? she thought. He knows where all the bodies were buried under the Legislaturalists, and he’s got absolutely no reason to like the present regime! We learned a lot when Alfredo Yu came over to our side, but Parnell could tell us an awful lot more than that if he chose to. Most of it might be dated, but even if it’s only deep background…

She shook herself, surfacing from her thoughts as if from deep water, and glanced up at Marchant again.

“Good work, Solomon. And tell Harkness I said the same goes for him, if you would.”

“Of course, My Lady.”

“And you did the right thing to send the pinnace,” she confirmed again, then chuckled.

“What’s funny?” McKeon asked her.

“I was just thinking,” Honor replied, swinging her chair until she faced him once more.

“Thinking what?”