“I’d just point out to you that according to the fairy tale they’ve been spinning, it was Zilwicki and Victor Cachat who brought this Simões home from Mesa,” Abruzzi said, and rolled his eyes. “I’m sure all of us remember what a loose warhead Zilwicki was right here in Old Chicago when he claimed Manpower had kidnapped his daughter. I don’t think anyone’s going to call him a disinterested witness where anything to do with Mesa is involved! For that matter, if there’s one scrap of truth to Mesa’s version of Green Pines, Zilwicki would have every conceivable reason to come up with some far-fetched story about centuries-long conspiracies as a way to cover up his own guilt! And then there’s Cachat, who’s been spending the last couple of T-years getting further and further into bed with the Audubon Ballroom through his cronies in Verdant Vista, and who appears to have been with Zilwicki in Green Pines. Another sterling, utterly trustworthy character witness against Mesa! And, as the cherry on top, it’s the Manties’ treecats’ supposed ability to know when someone is lying that ‘proves’ Simões isn’t.

“The most charitable scenario I’ve been able to come up with is that Zilwicki and Cachat managed to sell this fabrication to Pritchart and her administration, at least tentatively. I think the most plausible explanation of why it took them so damned long to get back home was that they spent the intervening months holed up somewhere with Manty intelligence putting the aforesaid fabrication together and priming Simões as their ventriloquist’s dummy. Then they sailed off home to Nouveau Paris, made their ‘shocking revelation’ to Pritchart, and convinced her to share their information with Manticore. At which point—surprise, surprise!—the mind-reading treecats of Sphinx ‘confirmed’ Simões’ truthfulness.

“Frankly, the really interesting question is whether or not Pritchart really bought it in the first place. We’ve all been around for a while, Agatá. We know how the game’s played. It’s possible Pritchart actually believes this nonsense, and that her statements to that effect in the messages the Manties’ve sent us are absolutely genuine. But I’d say it’s considerably more likely she realizes full well that Zilwicki and Cachat have ‘sold’ her a crock of bullshit which justified her making Elizabeth the offer we’re going to claim Elizabeth made to her. In other words, she saw the opportunity to get out from under the war with Manticore in a way that would put her on Manticore’s side of the table at the peace conference that divvies up the Solarian League.”