“I expect, mam, that Parliament would demand the Oriati turn the guilty parties over to us.”

“Mm-hmm. And do you think your ‘people,’ by which I mean Devi-naga, Mzilimake, Lonjaro, Segu, and all the principalities within, can agree to extradite a bunch of powerful people?”

“Well, ah, mam, if they don’t, I expect there’ll be—war.”

“You’re fucking right there will.” Maroyad stood up, looked about, seized on her clamshell ashtray, and hurled it into the floorboards at her feet. “Fuck! Fuck damn it! Fuck fuck fuck!”

Aminata had never seen an admiral express strong emotion before. It was a bit like watching your mother cry; or so she supposed. “Mam!” she said, a sort of general exclamation of subordinate dismay, why are you making me listen to you say fuck?

“Fuck.” Maroyad sat down suddenly. “Ah, fuck. I wish we could make him disappear. Maybe it’s not too late. But we have to know—”

“Mam?”

“Whatever you learn,” Maroyad panted, wiping her mouth on her sleeve, “you’re not to tell anyone but me. I don’t want it down in writing. I don’t want Abdumasi Abd to sign a confession unless I specifically order it. And listen, listen, I don’t care if a little fish swims up your latrine and starts a conversation with your asshole, you do not speak to anyone about this prisoner, understand?”

“Of course, mam.”

“Good. Do you want to know why?”

Aminata nodded cautiously.

“Because the moment anyone finds out we’ve got Abd,” Maroyad said, “everyone comes for him. He’s a coin to buy a war. The Judiciary will want him, and Parliament, and the Imperial fucking Throne—who knows what’s behind that silk straightjacket except a lot of slithering councilors who don’t like us? And to get Abd, they will purge anyone who tries to hold him. Do you see now?”

Aminata stared at the cigarette burn on her naked hand and thought, bloody fucking period shit, I am in way deeper than I realized. She knew that the Emperor meddled in the navy’s affairs, for It had installed the Empire Admiral Lindon Satamine as a check against the navy’s ambitious women admirals—

But to imagine that Emperor reaching down for her …

“I understand, mam. Should I … delay the interrogation? Bungle it?”

“No. Absolutely not. Abd needs to name our enemies for us.”

“Our enemies, mam?”

“Yes. The people who want this war. The Imperial agents who baited Abdumasi Abd’s attack with the Coyote rebellion. I think they wanted to draw the Oriati into a foolish move. Why, Lieutenant Commander, would the Throne want the Oriati to attack us?”

“So we’d have public support for a war, mam.”

“That’s right. And what happens when people get excited about a war?”