She knew Alfredo Yu and Warner Caslet far too well to doubt for a moment that both of them had been overjoyed by the changes taking place in the Republic of Haven under Eloise Pritchart and Thomas Theisman. Both of them had known Theisman well. Indeed, in many ways, Yu had been as much Theisman’s mentor and exemplar as Raoul Courvosier had been for Honor, and both he and Caslet had felt the heart-yearning to return to their homeland to share in its rebirth.

But she also knew they were the honorable men she’d just called them. They’d given their allegiance to Grayson and to the Manticoran Alliance. Indeed, Yu had been a Grayson citizen for over three T-years. The decision of whether or not to remain loyal to Grayson, even if that risked pitting them someday against the Republic once more, had not come easy for either of them, yet there’d never really been any question of how they would choose.

And the fact that High Ridge’s refusal to negotiate a genuine peace treaty means they’re still technically traitors during time of war didn’t make things any easier for them, she thought grimly, still quivering inwardly with fury that a political cretin masquerading as a naval officer like Jurgensen should dare to impugn their honor.

“At any rate,” Benjamin went on once he was certain she had her temper back under control, “he’s openly disparaged—politely, of course!—our security systems while studiously ignoring or denying the failures in his own. In light of the difference in our track records, and the sheer arrogance of the man, a lot of Greg’s senior people, and especially the ones who’ve worked most closely with Alfredo since we organized the Protector’s Own, are deeply affronted by his insinuation that somehow we’re less security conscious than the Star Kingdom is.

“The problem though, in practical terms, is less about our hurt feelings than it is about the reliability of what they are sharing with us. Speaking purely as head of state of Grayson, I don’t need the additional friction this is generating—not at this particular moment. It’s bad enough to have the lunatic element in the Keys pressing for us to go it alone in the wake of the Star Kingdom’s ‘insults’ to Grayson and to one of our steadholders in particular. I don’t need to have senior officers of my own Navy pissed off, if you’ll pardon the language, with their RMN counterparts, as well. But I can live with that, within limits, at least, because my officer corps knows how to take orders, including orders to get along with idiots like Sir Edward Janacek and his flunkies.”

The Protector’s tone remained almost whimsical, but there was a savage, cutting edge buried in the whimsy, and Honor once more realized how rare it was for him to be able to show his true feelings at moments like this to anyone outside his own family and the innermost circles of his Council.

“As I say,” he continued, “our primary concern is that what we’re getting from the ONI reports doesn’t match what we’re getting from our own sources. We realize Manticore has spent decades, or even longer, setting up its intelligence-gathering nets, whereas we’re still very new to the game, but we also know exactly where our information is coming from. We don’t have any way to know that where Jurgensen’s synopses are concerned, and he won’t tell us. The end result is that knowing our data’s pedigree automatically makes it seem more reliable to us. And, frankly, the fact that so much of what we seem to be getting from ONI these days is pure fluff only aggravates that.”