“According to Commander Reynolds’ information,” Ferrero went on in a flatter, harder voice, “Chalmers has recently taken receipt of approximately three hundred fresh slaves for delivery to New Hamburg. They arrived aboard a Solarian-flag freighter about two months ago, and they’re due to be picked up by a New Hamburg-flag merchie sometime within the next couple of weeks. Under the terms of the treaty with New Hamburg, we have the authority to stop and search New Hamburg’s vessels anywhere, and our instructions from the Duchess are to do just that.”

“I would assume that under the circumstances we’re not going to be able to expect any cooperation out of the local Silly authorities,” Lieutenant Commander Harris observed.

“I think that’s probably a safe assumption, Shawn,” Ferrero agreed in a dust-dry tone.

“That’s going to make intercepting the New Hamburger harder,” the tac officer thought out loud. “Just spotting her is going to be hard enough.”

“Might not be as difficult as you’re thinking,” Llewellyn pointed out. “Zoraster is better off than a lot of the star systems out here, but we’re not talking about someplace like New Potsdam or Gregor. There shouldn’t be more than three or four—half a dozen at the most—hyper-capable merchies in-system at any one time.”

“Agreed, Sir,” Harris replied. “On the other hand, though, there’s only one of us.”

“And we can only be in one place at a time,” Ferrero agreed. “Fortunately, we have one more minor advantage, courtesy of Commander Reynolds.” They all looked at her expectantly, and she showed her teeth in an expression no one would have been likely ever to confuse with a pleasant smile. “It would appear that Governor Chalmers is also familiar with the terms of our treaty with New Hamburg. Which is why the ship he’s expecting will arrive squawking the transponder code of an Andy merchant ship.”

“That,” Llewellyn said thoughtfully, “could be a bit of a problem, Ma’am, given how tense things are out here right now.”

“I’m sure that’s why Chalmers picked an Andy code.” Ferrero nodded. “No Manticoran’s skipper in her right mind is going to want to provoke any incidents by stopping Andy merchant shipping. Unfortunately for Governor Chalmers, if Commander Reynolds’ information is correct, he’s chosen the wrong ship this time.”

“What do you mean, ‘wrong ship,’ Skipper?” Lieutenant McKee asked.

“Chalmers is going to be expecting a ship identifying herself as the Andermani merchant ship Sittich. There happens to be a ship of that name on the Andermani merchant registry. But that Sittich is a four-megaton Spica-class bulk carrier. The Sittich Chalmers is expecting is a two-megaton tramp. We don’t have her class or any detailed sensor info on her, but we do have a complete fingerprint on the real Sittich from Gregor Astro Control, and it’s less than six months old. So if we see someone squawking Sittich’s transponder code and she doesn’t match our filed sensor data, then I think we can be fairly confident we’ve got the right target. And if Commander Reynolds’ informant was telling him the truth, our Sittich is not only going to be outfitted as a slaver, she’s going to have at least some slaves actually on board. Zoraster is her last stop before she heads back to New Hamburg, and she’s supposed to have picked up consignments in at least two other star systems.”