“What if they have orders to attack if they’re discovered, My Lady?” Yu asked.

“I doubt very much that they do. I could be wrong, of course, but we can’t afford to paralyze ourselves trying to second-guess what they may or may not be planning to do. My feeling is that this entire operation was set up to be as covert as possible. Under the circumstances, I think it’s more likely they have orders to withdraw if their presence becomes known. If nothing else, I’d think that they’d have to be unhappy about how the Andies may react to their having sent a major fleet presence this close to their borders. At any rate, I think it’s worth the gamble. We’ll drop in on them, let them know we’ve realized they’re here, and see how they respond.”

She looked back at Truman.

“So, as I say, I want you to be obvious, Alice. But I also want you to emphasize the need to be cautious when you brief your COLACs. I don’t want anyone crowding the Peeps—I mean, Havenites—closely enough to provoke them into defensive fire. Clear?”

“Clear,” Truman agreed, and Honor was pleased to taste her intense satisfaction at having been handed the assignment. Some task group commanders would have been wondering if they were being sent out as a way for the station commander to put a convenient scapegoat into the line of fire in case something went wrong. Other station commanders would have been completely unable to delegate the authority, which might have suggested a certain distrust of their subordinate’s capabilities. There was no need, she thought, for Alice to know just how hard she really did find it to delegate in this instance. Not because she had any qualms whatsoever about Alice’s abilities, but because the responsibility for what she’d just ordered done was hers, not Alice’s.

Unfortunately, with everything else that was going on, she needed to be right here, just in case it all hit the fan while Alice was away. Speaking of which…

“In the meantime, Alfredo,” she continued, turning back to Yu, “we’ll keep your other people here with Alistair’s at Sidemore to cover it during Alice’s absence. I think it’s at least possible that no one in Nouveau Paris knew Benjamin had sent you out here when they dispatched this Second Fleet. I’d just as soon keep it that way in case things go south on us.”

“Understood,” Yu agreed.

“In that case, people, let’s be about it.”

· · • · ·

“Hecate is over two days overdue, Sir,” Captain DeLaney pointed out quietly.

“I know, Molly. I know.”

Lester Tourville frowned as he contemplated the unhappy implications of DeLaney’s reminder. There could be any number of reasons for Hecate’s failure to arrive as scheduled. Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of one of them that he liked. And whatever it might have been, his orders were clear. It seemed extremely unlikely that anything could have given away Second Fleet’s presence, but extremely unlikely wasn’t the same thing as impossible. Nor was it impossible, however unlikely, that Hecate’s nonarrival was the result of something besides the normal hazards of navigation.