“How unwontedly tactful of you,” Theisman murmured, and all his junior admirals chuckled. The amusement barely touched their eyes, however, and the Secretary of War leaned slightly forward in his chair.

“All joking aside,” he said quietly, “one of the main reasons I wanted to come out here with Arnaud to talk to all three of you at once, face-to-face, instead of inviting you down to the New Octagon, was to keep any newsies from realizing we were talking at all. And another, frankly, is my confidence that we can control the information flow and guarantee security here. Not just against the Manties, either, I’m afraid.”

Tourville and Giscard tightened almost visibly, and the temperature in the briefing room seemed to drop perceptibly. Theisman bared his teeth in a grimace which could never have been confused for an expression of amusement, because he knew exactly what sort of memories and resonances his last sentence had to have provoked in officers who had survived both State Security and his own coup.

“Don’t worry, the President—” he bestowed a brief, genuine smile on Giscard “—knows exactly where I am, and exactly what I’m going to be talking to you about. In fact, she sent me. And, no, she’s not planning a coup d’état, either. In some ways, it might be simpler if we were, but neither of us is that far along towards throwing out the baby with the bathwater.”

“Well, that’s a relief, anyway,” Giscard murmured. “And it’s not much more frustrating than the vague hints and dark mutterings in Eloise’s last few letters to me, either,” he added pointedly.

“Sorry,” Theisman said sincerely, and waved his right hand at Marquette and Captain Borderwijk. “Alenka’s brought along a full briefing packet for each of you, and before we head back to Nouveau Paris, Arnaud and I want to hold at least one general session with all of your senior staffers. But I wanted us to meet with just the six of you first, because it’s particularly important that all of us be on the same page before we start bringing your staffs into it.”

He tipped his chair back, propped his elbows on the chair arms, and folded his hands across his midsection. For just a moment, as his facial muscles relaxed, the admirals saw the fatigue and worry the animation of his expression normally cloaked. Then he inhaled sharply and began.

“All of you know that, left to my own devices, I still wouldn’t have admitted the existence of Bolthole or any of the new ships. Shannon’s done a miraculous job at the yards, and people like Captain Anders and Commander Clapp have performed more than a few minor miracles of their own along the way. Despite that, I think everyone in this briefing room has to be aware of the fact that our capabilities on a ship-for-ship basis continue to lag behind those of the RMN. I hope to God all of us are, at any rate!

“Unfortunately, what I wanted—or any of us wanted—doesn’t really matter. Thanks to domestic political considerations, like the empire-building ambitions of a certain Secretary of State who shall remain nameless, the President and I found ourselves with no option but to go public with the new fleet. What we haven’t yet told Congress, although I feel confident that some of them at least suspect the announcement is coming in the President’s speech tonight, is that she also feels we have no option but to adopt a more aggressive stance in our negotiations with the Manties.”