“Maybe,” Honor acknowledged. “On the other hand, I’m not entirely certain that whole affair has been as completely put to bed as it might appear just now. The circumstances which led to the… circumscribed nature of the investigation aren’t going to obtain forever. And the information that was handed over to the Crown may not be all the information there is. Or that can still be turned up if someone looks in the right place.”

“Well, someone certainly looked ‘in the right place’ for the Wilberforce information.”

Alice Truman’s observation came out in ever so slightly questioning a tone. Everyone in that dining compartment was consumed with curiosity about the source of Honor’s private information on the network of Silesian system governors and Navy officers who’d reached highly profitable accommodations with Mesa. It was far too detailed and internally consistent for them to doubt its accuracy, but none of them could begin to imagine how she’d gotten her hands on it.

And she intended to keep it that way. She owed Anton Zilwicki that much for his trust in handing it over to her.

“That particular information does provide an example of what I’m talking about,” she agreed with a slight smile which told Truman her fishing expedition was going to come up dry. “Not that any of it has any domestic Manticoran connections—or not direct ones, anyway. But I’ll settle for progress anywhere, where genetic slavery is concerned. And given that we know which systems and which Silesian freight lines to watch, we may just make a little bit of a difference with Wilberforce, after all.

“None of which,” she added, pulling the conversation back to its earlier thread, “has any particular bearing on whether or not the Opposition—and especially the Opposition’s Navy types, like yours truly—should have realized how… flabby the Queen’s Navy was getting. Or keeps me from wishing I’d paid enough attention to at least realize this particular mistake was being made in the first place!”

“Well,” Goodrick said, accepting the change of subject for all of them, “we all realize it now, Your Grace. And since it’s already been made, all we can do is dig in and undo as much of the damage as possible before we ever get to Sidemore.”

“Agreed.” McKeon nodded sharply, and leaned forward, his manner suddenly businesslike. “And all joking aside, Roslee and I have been thinking about a new series of joint exercises we can carry out in the simulators.”

“I take it that the fact that you’re bringing it up now means that you’re not talking about exercises restricted solely to the wall?” Truman made the statement a question, and McKeon nodded again.

“We’re already working on that side of it, Alice. What Roslee and I wanted to discuss is how we could best go about structuring our training schedule to exercise the wall and the LACs jointly, both in cooperation and against one another.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea to me,” Honor said firmly. In fact, that sort of discussion was precisely why she believed in inviting her officers to dine with her on a regular basis, and she looked over her shoulder at Andrew LaFollet.