“If Harrington were the sort to back down, she would have done it already. Besides, I’ve been peeking at Jim Webster’s reports on a fairly regular basis. She couldn’t be doing the job she is or raising this much general hell if she were stupid or hadn’t thought the whole operation through ahead of time. That means she must have known what sort of reaction she was going to face before she decided to go ahead and step on the land mine.”

“Land mine’s a pretty good word,” William agreed with sudden, complete seriousness, “and if she had backed down, it might have blown up more than just her career.”

Alexander said nothing, but his eyes asked the question, and his brother shrugged.

“Before he went out, Hauptman hit every button he could reach back home in Landing. He didn’t make much headway with the Duke, but he certainly bent Janacek’s ear. And he called in his markers with Countess New Kiev and Sheridan Wallace’s ‘New Men,’ too. I think we’ve underestimated the contributions he’s been making to certain parties’ coffers, including the New Men, but he definitely has his hooks even deeper into the Liberals than we’d thought. New Kiev can’t give a centimeter—officially—without breaking with the Government and losing her post as Minister for Medusan Affairs. She’s not about to do that, but it’s pretty obvious she and Wallace were primed to come down on the Navy’s entire handling of Basilisk Station. If Harrington had crumbled at this point, they would’ve been able to claim the Navy, in her person, had bungled and made the Kingdom a galactic laughing stock by first creating interstellar incidents with our neighbors and then proving its irresolution by backing away from its duties under pressure.”

Alexander snorted contemptuously, and his brother gave a grim, wintry smile. “Of course it would all have been gobbledygook. They’ve never complained about the situation on Basilisk Station before, and jumping on Harrington for going back to the status quo ante at the same time they criticize her for changing the status quo in the first place would be as stupid as it would be illogical. On the other hand, the Liberals have never been noted for the logic with which they approach Basilisk, have they? And if they talked fast enough and loud enough, they could probably engender enough confusion—especially among the uncommitted peers and MPs who’d probably see any retreat on Harrington’s part as a slap in the face to the Kingdom’s prestige—to at least get a motion to repeal the annexation onto the table.”

“A lot of good that would do them,” Alexander growled.

“Depends on how they did it, Hamish,” William warned soberly. “And on who they got to help them do it. For instance, it looks like High Ridge was ready to support at least their initial moves.”

“High Ridge was throwing in with New Kiev and Wallace? That’s a switch,” Alexander observed.

“And not one that bodes well for the Conservative Association’s continued support for the Duke,” William agreed. “I suppose that was Janacek and North Hollow more than anyone else. Harrington’s making that ass Young—and, by implication, Janacek himself—look worse every day. But the point is that all the Opposition parties have been riding their rank and file pretty hard to prep them for some big move once Hauptman bullied Harrington into backing down, and Wallace was going to play hatchet man. He even went as far as to put down his name and ‘the state of affairs on Basilisk Station’ on the list of next month’s Official Questions.”