It wasn’t the best possible moment he could have picked, either, he reflected wryly. He’d retained Count Tilly as the flagship of Task Force 12.2 of the People’s Navy, and Giscard’s entire Twelfth Fleet had just departed the Secour System. In almost precisely twenty-four T-days, the various task forces would arrive simultaneously at their objectives and Operation Icarus would be on. Under the circumstances, this was scarcely a propitious moment to risk fracturing TF 12.2’s command team. Then again, he’d been making a habit of doing things at less than optimum moments for quite some time now, and despite his apparent rehabilitation, he was hard pressed to think of a way he could dig his current hole much deeper. Besides, he was confident that Cordelia Ransom had disgusted Honeker just as much as she had disgusted Tourville himself.

The question, the citizen vice admiral thought, is whether or not his disgust with her is going to carry over to the rest of the Committee now that she’s gone? It could be very… useful to me if it does. Maybe. Especially if Giscard and I are going to end up labeled as two of “McQueen’s Men” whether we want to or not!

“Those of us in the vanguard of the People seem to spend a great deal of time looking over our shoulders to see who’s following us,” Honeker said after several silent seconds. Which, Tourville thought, could be taken several ways. The people’s commissioner let him stew for a couple of more seconds, then produced a wintry smile. “Given the fact that some of those people tend to react just a little unreasonably where failure is concerned, my interest in the outcome of our assignment is more than simply academic, however. And, frankly, the thought of heading this deep into Manty space makes me nervous. Very nervous.”

“Oh, well, if that’s all that’s worrying you, put your mind at ease, Citizen Commissioner,” Tourville said with a broad grin, trying to hide his vast relief. “Unreasonably” wasn’t a word people’s commissioners were supposed to use—or not, at least, in connection with their political superiors—when speaking to the officers on whom they rode herd. Honeker’s use of it constituted a major advance in the cautious dance they’d been dancing since Honor Harrington’s capture, and hearing it made such things as the possibility of being blown to bits by the Manties seem almost minor.

“I’m sure I appreciate your display of confidence, Citizen Admiral,” Honeker said dryly. “If it’s all the same to you, however, I think I’d prefer something a little more detailed than ’put your mind at ease’ when we’re headed over two light-centuries into Alliance-held space to hit one of the Manties’ allies’ home systems with only thirty-six capital ships! If you’ll pardon my saying so, this sounds entirely too much like what happened to Citizen Admiral Thurston at Yeltsin’s Star, and I’d really rather not reprise his role there. As I recall, there were very few survivors from the first performance.”