“Why do you say that?” she demanded.

“Because he’s gone out of his way to tell a few stories about incidents between us, love,” Giscard said with a slow smile. “Incidents which never happened—or not, at least, quite the way he describes them—and all of which emphasize the ‘tension’ between us.”

“You mean—?”

“I mean I think he’s covering for us,” Giscard told her. She gazed into his eyes for several seconds, chewing her lower lip with even white teeth, then sighed and twitched her shoulders in a shrug.

“I’m grateful to him if he is,” she said unhappily, “but I’d be even more grateful if he’d never guessed. And he’d better be careful about his stories, too. If he gets too creative and StateSec starts comparing his versions with those of some other informer…”

She let her voice trail off, and Giscard nodded again, this time soberly.

“You’re right, of course. But I don’t think he’ll let himself get carried away. And don’t forget—you and I are exhibiting a lot of ‘tension’ in our official relationship. What he’s doing is mostly a matter of… emphasizing that tension, and I suspect most of his embroidery is the sort that could be put down to someone exaggerating for effect. Or possibly an amateur angling for a job as an official informer.”

“Um.” Pritchart considered that, then sighed in resignation and leaned back against his shoulder. “Well,” she said in a determinedly brighter tone, “at least you came up with a brilliant way to get rid of Joubert, Javier!”

“I did, didn’t I?” Giscard said rather complacently. He had no doubt that StateSec would figure out that getting rid of Joubert was exactly what he’d done, but, then, he’d made it plain from the beginning that he’d accepted the chief of staff only under protest. And although Pritchart had argued strenuously against his decision to reassign Joubert to command PNS Shaldon, not even a commissioner as vigilant in the People’s service as she could argue that it had been a demotion. No one had expected Citizen Captain Herndon to drop dead of a heart attack en route to the target, but his exec had been far too inexperienced to command a dreadnought in action, whereas Citizen Captain Joubert had both the experience and the seniority for the spot. And so Citizen Admiral Giscard had regretfully deprived himself of his services by transferring him to Citizen Rear Admiral Darlington’s Task Group 12.4.2 and tapped Citizen Commander MacIntosh to fill both the chief of staff’s slot and the ops officer’s, and everyone—except, of course, for Citizen Commissioner Pritchart’s official persona—was delighted with the change.

He chuckled quietly at the thought, and Pritchart smiled, following the direction of his mind with her usual uncanny acuity. His arms tightened about her for a moment, and his mood darkened. At least I can say one thing for worrying about StateSec’s reaction if they find out they’ve got an unregenerate Aprilist watching over a rogue admiral, he thought. It puts the thought of such minor things as being killed in action into their proper, unimportant perspective!