“That’s exactly what I said,” he agreed. “And I meant precisely what you think I meant. Since Jurgensen took over from Givens, Intelligence seems to’ve cut back drastically on its use of human resources here in Silesia. I can’t say what the situation might be elsewhere, but here in the Confederacy, no one seems to be paying much attention to old sources or networks. And, frankly, Honor, I think that’s an enormous mistake.”

“I wish I could say I disagreed with you, Sir,” Honor said slowly. “Unfortunately, if you’re right, it only confirms fears I already had. The closer I look at the intelligence packets they sent out here with me, the less in touch with reality the analysts who wrote them up seem to be.”

“I was afraid of that,” he sighed. “Obviously, there was no way for me to know what ONI was or wasn’t telling the officers the Navy was sending out, but the fact that no one was asking me any questions anymore suggested that the information contained in their briefings was probably… incomplete. And unless I’m very mistaken about the Andies’ intentions, that could be a very, very serious oversight on someone’s part.”

· · • · ·

“Do you think he’s right, Your Grace?” Mercedes Brigham asked quietly as she, Honor, Nimitz, Lieutenant Meares, and LaFollet rode the lift towards the flag briefing room and an already scheduled meeting with Honor’s entire staff.

“I’m afraid I do,” Honor replied equally quietly.

“I know you and he go way back, Your Grace,” Brigham said after a moment, and Honor chuckled humorlessly.

“Yes, and he was my very first captain. And, yes, again, Mercedes, that gives him a certain aura of authority in my eyes. But I’m not blind to the ways people can change in thirty or forty T-years. Nor am I overlooking the possibility that however good his intentions, his information—or his interpretation of it—could still be badly flawed.” She shook her head. “I’m considering what he’s said as impartially and skeptically as I can. Unfortunately, too much of it fits entirely too well with all the other straws in the wind we’ve been identifying.”

“I didn’t mean to suggest that he might be trying to dump disinformation on you, Your Grace. And to be honest, I have to agree that his analysis of what the Andies probably have in mind jibes altogether too damned well for comfort with what we were already afraid they were thinking. I guess my greatest concern is that he’s so much more emphatic about the Andies’ new hardware than anything we had from ONI suggests. For that matter, he’s more emphatic than anything we got from the Graysons would suggest.”

“Agreed. But by the same token, he’s had a much closer look at the Andies than either ONI or Benjamin’s people. In ONI’s case, that’s purely because Jurgensen and his people have chosen not to avail themselves of the resource that was available to them. Unless I’m mistaken, the Captain wasn’t the only human source Jurgensen decided he could dispense with, either. In the Graysons’ case, it’s simply a matter of time and distance. Well, that and the fact that they never even knew the Captain was here, so they can hardly be blamed for not getting his input.