"And we know Wolfe has been put in command of a five-ship taskforce made up of destroyer-class hulls," Vadim finished. "This is hardly conclusive evidence, but I won't dismiss it out of hand. Our current tasking is too vital to the war effort to be pulled off the line over a rumor, but don't give up on it. Get me some hard evidence through your contacts that Wolfe is in that system, and I'll have more firm footing to turn the Implacable away from our current target."

"I'll begin at once, Admiral." The officer bowed and scurried away before Kohl could reply.

The admiral knew for certain the lieutenant was a double agent, embedded in his command by the Alliance Military Intelligence Bureau to monitor his activities. There were usually two operatives installed in every fleet unit. The first was a political liaison who was out in the open and reported directly back to the civilian oversight. The second was usually someone embedded within the chain of command who worked in intelligence. Their job was to ferret out the secrets being kept from the political officer to send back to the bureau.

The game was about obtaining, and maintaining, political leverage. It was a dishonorable, hopelessly corrupt system, but it had been around for centuries. The nations that spawned the Asianic Union and Warsaw Alliance enclaves back on Earth had operated like this and the pioneers that founded the new planets apparently saw no need to change it. One of the benefits, at least from Kohl's perspective, was that it made the government appear omniscient, which in turn made the citizenry easier to control. It eliminated so much of the counter-productive infighting you saw in enclaves like Britannia.

Kohl's taskforce had been ordered into Federation space as part of a composite mission to strike hard and fast at the heart of the enemy. While he applauded the decisive action, it also meant that he was being drawn out of position if Wolfe was lurking near the border region, likely looking for him as well. But, after the Odmena missteps, he'd found little firm ground to stand on to refuse his orders. Rather than fight it, he'd openly embraced the plan and asked that his taskforce be the tip of the spear. If he wouldn't be permitted to hunt for Wolfe, he'd make damn sure the man came to him.

"Sir?" Captain Russo asked. "That's quite the concerned look I see on your face." Kohl had not heard his second in command approaching.

"Have one of your more trusted analysts dig into the database and see what they can find about a Fed system named B-1171," he said.

"B-1171?" Russo repeated. "So, somewhere in Britannia, and with only a numerical designation, it's probably a black site for Starfleet or CIS. Certainly no civilian industry to speak of."

"My thoughts as well," Kohl said. "We've heard it's possible Wolfe might be there, maybe even defending it. If it's that important, we need to know what it is."