“Exactly,” Theisman agreed. “I’m hoping, probably with more optimism than rationality, that High Ridge will authorize as small an increase in naval spending as he thinks he can get away with. That would extend our window of relative naval security.”

“I think you’re right about optimism getting the better of reason, Tom,” Giscard replied. “Not necessarily about how High Ridge’s priorities would work out if he were left to his own devices, but about how likely we are to be able to keep Manty intelligence in the dark about our true capabilities indefinitely. I know we seem to’ve kept the wool pulled over their eyes for a lot longer than I would have thought we could have, but the cat’s out of the bag now. They know we fooled them, and that’s going to make them even more determined to get at the real numbers. Even someone like Jurgensen is going to be able to form a much more realistic estimate of our total ship strength than we’d like if he makes it the number one priority of their ONI.”

“I know,” Theisman admitted. “And all I’m really hoping to do is to delay that moment for as long as possible. Our own building programs are continuing to accelerate out at Bolthole. And Shannon—” he smiled at Foraker “—tells me that she’s shaved another three months off the projected construction schedules for the new Temeraire-class units. So if we can just keep them from laying down new construction of their own for the next two or three T-years, I think we’ll probably be in a position to stay ahead of them, or at least even with them, in effective naval power no matter what they may do.”

“But there’s no denying that we face both a window of opportunity and a window of vulnerability,” he continued in a graver voice. “The window of opportunity is defined by however long we can keep the Manties from realizing our actual military potential and taking steps to neutralize it. The window of vulnerability is the period in which the Manties have time to neutralize it if they decide to do so. The most dangerous aspect of the entire situation, in many ways, is that the awareness of our opportunity makes it very tempting for us to take action in order to close the window of vulnerability. Frankly, that temptation becomes even stronger whenever I consider our responsibility to devise a general war-fighting plan with the Manties as our most probable opponent.”

“That’s a very dangerous temptation, if you’ll allow me to say so, Tom,” Tourville said in the quiet voice which always seemed so startling, even to his intimates, in contrast to his public “cowboy” persona. “Especially since I’m sure that somewhere deep inside, at least a part of a great many of our officers and enlisted personnel would not so secretly like to get a little of our own back against the Manties.”

“Of course I’ll allow you to say it,” Theisman told him. “In fact, I’m delighted to hear you say it. I assure you that it’s something I’m trying very hard to keep in mind at all times, and having other people remind me of it can’t hurt.”