“I’m not as sure of that as you seem to be,” Janacek growled. “And another thing, I’m getting tired—”

“That will be enough.” High Ridge didn’t quite raise his voice, but its hard edge cut through the burgeoning quarrel like a knife, and Janacek closed his mouth. That didn’t keep him from bestowing a final glare on Descroix, who returned it with interest, but at least it shut them both up.

“I think,” the Prime Minister continued, “that we’re all in agreement that our position today is weaker than it was a few months ago.” He shrugged. “That sort of thing happens in politics, and the same trends that are working against us right now may well turn around and work in our favor once the current furor’s had an opportunity to quiet down. After all, the Opposition has been crying wolf for so long that a substantial portion of the public is tired of hearing it. At the moment, Alexander and his crowd may have managed to engender a certain degree of concern, possibly even panic. But if we can keep a lid on the situation, that concern will begin to fade into a ‘business as usual’ attitude. That’s also the nature of politics.

“The point to which we ought to be turning our attention is just how we go about keeping that lid in place. And to be completely frank, Edward, I think the public is more exercised over the potential increases in the Havenites’ naval power than over the exact language of diplomatic notes.”

“I know it,” Janacek conceded.

“And how do you suggest we go about addressing that concern?”

“Admiral Jurgensen and I have been focusing closely on that very question, I assure you,” the First Lord replied. “As I told you when the existence of the new Havenite ships of the wall first came out, what really matters more than the ships themselves is the technology and sophistication of the weapons and defensive systems they mount. With that in mind, Admiral Jurgensen has ordered an exhaustive analysis of all the information in our possession. That includes direct reports from our own naval attaches, reports from agent networks in the Republic, technical intelligence, and even Havenite news accounts. The consensus of his analysts is that Theisman’s ‘new navy’ is probably a lot less impressive than he wants us to believe.”

“Really?” High Ridge leaned back and raised one eyebrow.

“Really. As I say, the key consideration is the capabilities of the hardware that goes inside the ships. Now, admittedly, there’s no way short of actually physically examining those vessels to be positive about what those capabilities are, but there are certain significant indicators. Probably the strongest single one of those is the fact that they haven’t shown anyone a single CLAC. It’s extremely unlikely—indeed, according to BuWeaps it’s virtually impossible—that the Havenite tech base is capable of matching the range performance of Ghost Rider, much less the fire control and electronic warfare capabilities of our new systems. Don’t forget, we’ve had plenty of experience with examining captured Havenite equipment, so we know exactly what they had in their first line units at the time of the cease-fire. Projecting from that basis, and bearing in mind that Havenite R&D has never been able to match our own, their SD(P)s are almost certainly shorter ranged and much easier to kill than our own are. Substantially more dangerous than any of the classes they had in service prior to the cease-fire, certainly, but not in a class with our own SD(P)s.”