Honor climbed into the back seat of the luxurious, armored air limo and settled Nimitz in her lap, and Brigham followed her. LaFollet parked himself in the facing jump seat while Mattingly politely but firmly displaced the original driver and Hawke took the front passenger/EW operator’s seat. Mattingly spent a moment or two familiarizing himself with the pre-filed flight plan, then lifted the vehicle smoothly into the air and headed for Harrington City. The inevitable stingships settled into their escort positions, even for this relatively short flight, and Honor turned toward Brigham.

“I almost didn’t ask the High Admiral for your services, you know,” she said. “Both because I know how much Alfredo depends on you in the Protector’s Own, and because I hesitated to ask you to step down a grade, even temporarily.”

“Much as I hate to say anything which might undermine your perception of my indispensability, Your Grace, the Admiral can get along without me if he really needs to,” Brigham replied. “And given the fact that I never really expected to advance beyond lieutenant back when we first went out to Basilisk, commodore isn’t too shabby. Besides, I seem to recall a few times you’ve stepped back and forth between navies yourself.”

“I suppose you do,” Honor acknowledged. “But I really do want you to know how much I appreciate your willingness to do it this time.”

“Your Grace,” and Brigham said frankly, “I was honored you chose to ask for me again. And it’s not as if I’m the only person who’s going to be looking at a drop in grade,” she added in a darker tone.

“I know.” Honor nodded, and Nimitz’s ears flattened ever so slightly as he tasted her emotional response to Brigham’s obvious reference to Dame Alice Truman.

Like Hamish Alexander, but with even less excuse, Truman had found herself a victim of the Janacek purges. Honor’s contacts within the current Admiralty were much less extensive than they’d been when Baroness Mourncreek was First Lord, but there were rumors that Alice had stepped on someone’s rather senior toes when she’d been captain of HMS Minotaur. That, coupled with the fact that the Trumans had served in the Royal Navy for almost as many generations as the Alexanders had, and that they were equally fervent members of the anti-Janacek faction, had consigned Alice to half-pay and cost her confirmation of her promotion to vice admiral.

Even Sir Edward Janacek and Jeanette Draskovic had found that one just a bit difficult to rationalize away, given the fact that Rear Admiral Truman, temporarily “frocked” to the acting rank of vice admiral, had commanded Eighth Fleet’s CLACs throughout the campaign which had driven the People’s Republic to its knees. Not that they’d allowed that to stand in their way, and Alice’s obvious and none too private disagreement with current Admiralty policies had made it easier for them to justify it—or her lack of employment, at least—on the basis of irreconcilable policy differences. Which, as Honor had fully recognized, was yet another reason for Draskovic’s pettiness over the slate of officers she’d requested.