“Even conceding all of that, though, what he’s been able to piece together about the new Andermani systems tallies much too closely for comfort with what Greg Paxton did manage to put together. Not to mention what Captain Ferrero’s had to say in her reports. Or that Sidemorian analyst, what’s-his-name?” She frowned, then nodded. “Zahn.”

“Lieutenant Commander Zahn’s husband?” Brigham asked.

“That’s the one,” Honor agreed. “George just finished reading one of his position papers and briefed me on it last night.”

Brigham nodded. Commander George Reynolds was Honor’s staff intelligence officer, and Honor had selected him for the post of “spook” at least partly on Brigham’s recommendation. The chief of staff had worked with him before and been impressed by his ability to think outside the box.

“George wasn’t prepared to unreservedly endorse Zahn’s conclusions,” Honor continued, “but he did say that the logic seemed tight, assuming the basic facts on which it was based were accurate. And now Captain Bachfisch seems to be confirming those facts from an entirely independent perspective.”

“If both of them are right,” Brigham said unhappily, “then we’re holding an even shorter stick than we thought, Your Grace.”

“I wish you were wrong,” Honor told her. “Unfortunately, I don’t think you are.”

“So what do we do about it?”

“I don’t know. Not yet. The first thing is this meeting, though. We need to get the rest of the staff brought up to speed, get them started thinking on possible threats and responses. And, of course, I’ll want to get Alice and Alistair briefed in and thinking about it, too. Hopefully, at least one or two useful ideas will come out of it. And I’m enlarging the invitation list for dinner tonight, as well. I want you, George, Alistair, Alice, Roslee, Wraith, and probably Rafe and Scotty, at a minimum to join the Captain and me over supper.”

“Will he be comfortable with that, Your Grace?” Brigham asked. Honor looked a question at her, and she shrugged. “It’s pretty obvious he’s spent a lot of time establishing himself out here. If word leaks that he’s a Manticoran intelligence asset, it could do him a lot of damage. It might even get him killed. I just wondered if he really wanted that many people to know who your information source is. I don’t expect any of them to let it get to the wrong ears, but he doesn’t know them the way we do.”

“I asked him that, more or less,” Honor replied after a moment. “He’d already considered the same questions before he ever asked to come aboard Werewolf. I don’t think he’d be here in the first place if he weren’t prepared for the sorts of questions we’re likely to ask him. And he may not know them, but he does know me, and I think he trusts my judgment about who might or might not be a threat to his own security.”

“In that case, Your Grace,” the chief of staff said as the lift car reached its destination and the doors hissed open, “we’ll just have to make certain that none of us is a threat, won’t we?”