“I’m sure some of them have,” she told him with admirable restraint. “At some point in their lives, at least.”

“It certainly doesn’t sound like it,” Cardones said frankly. “You and I have both been there before, Ma’am, and somehow I don’t think either of us believes that anyone this side of the Devil himself is going to do much ‘shaping’ of Gustav XI’s foreign policy.”

“I’ll concede that the Emperor tends to exercise very direct control of the Empire’s policy. For that matter, my own opinion is that he probably knows exactly what it is he has in mind. Unfortunately, he’s always been a bit on the unpredictable side.”

Cardones looked as if he wanted to interrupt, and she shook her head quickly.

“All right, not just unpredictable. Stubborn and obstinate to the point of bloody-mindedness, too. But those other qualities just make him even more unpredictable. I think he tends towards pragmatism, and it’s obvious that there’s nothing wrong with his IQ, but once he convinces himself to do something, no one’s going to be able to talk him out of it, however hard they try. So figuring out what he ought to be doing is frequently worse than useless, because it can leave you making perfectly logical assumptions that bear absolutely no relationship to what he’s actually going to do. All of which means that Imperial policies have also been unpredictable from time to time, given his control of them. And, no, Rafe, I don’t think the Foreign Office analysts have it right this time. They’re not particularly interested in hearing my opinion of their opinions, however. You might say that the current Government and I aren’t exactly on the same page of the playbook.”

Cardones turned a snort of laughter into a particularly unconvincing coughing fit, and this time Honor went ahead and smiled, although she personally didn’t find the situation especially amusing.

“The point is, Rafe,” she went on more briskly, “you have a right to know that we’re sailing straight into a minefield here. Our intelligence is less than complete and, frankly, the motives of the people analyzing it are suspect, in my opinion. The Government has a very strong vested interest in keeping the lid on in Silesia, and I’m very much afraid that that means Foreign Secretary Descroix is pushing her people, if only by example, into making what I consider to be grossly over optimistic assumptions. I hope I’m wrong, but I think the Andies are about ready at last to push outright territorial demands on Silesia. That’s what I think their shows of force and beefed up presence throughout the Confederacy are all about, and the fact that ONI is beginning to suggest that there may have been a few ‘unspecified upgrades’ in the IAN’s weapons technology doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“This doesn’t sound like fun, Ma’am.” Cardones’ earlier amusement had vanished. He didn’t seem frightened—just focused and very thoughtful, his eyes dark with professional concern. “Have we been given any new policy directives?”