“Are you suggesting that Admiral Bachfisch fabricated this entire affair for some unknown Machiavellian reason of his own?” he demanded.

“I’m suggesting that at this moment we know absolutely nothing for certain,” Janacek shot back. “I can’t think of any reason why Bachfisch might have fabricated anything, but that doesn’t mean I’m prepared to dismiss the possibility out of hand. The man’s been out of Manticoran uniform for forty years, and he didn’t exactly leave it voluntarily, did he? He fucked up by the numbers when he wore the Queen’s uniform—under remarkably similar circumstances, I might add—and I see no reason to assume he didn’t do the same thing here. And even if he didn’t, he’s undoubtedly still bitter over what happened to his career. That might make him an ideal conduit if someone wanted to deliberately plant disinformation on us.”

“That’s preposterous,” White Haven snorted. “And even if he was inclined to do anything of the sort—even to the extent of voluntarily allowing both of his own legs to be shot off to lend authenticity to his efforts—Duchess Harrington and her staff evaluated the records and interviewed the surviving crew members independently.”

“Yes, and sent a task group off to examine the star where this hypothetical ‘Second Fleet’ was supposedly stationed,” Janacek retorted. “But she didn’t find anything there, did she?”

“Which proves absolutely nothing,” White Haven pointed out. “There are any number of reasons why a fleet ordered to remain covert might have shifted its base.”

“Of course there are. And that’s precisely what Theisman wants us to think.”

“Theisman? Are you suggesting now that the Republic’s Secretary of War deliberately sacrificed a destroyer and its entire crew just to convince us he was prepared to contemplate an act of war against us?”

“Of course not!” Janacek snapped. “He never intended for the destroyer to be damaged. But he did expect it to be spotted and followed—why else would he have openly sent two fleet destroyers to ostentatiously orbit the one planet in the entire sector where there was a Havenite diplomatic mission? In a star system where our patrol units call regularly?” The First Lord sneered. “If they were so damned determined to remain ‘covert,’ don’t you think they could have found something just a bit less obtrusive than that?”

“And the purpose of allowing themselves to be spotted and followed?” White Haven asked, fascinated despite himself and despite his scalding anger.

“To convince us of exactly what Admiral Harrington was convinced of,” Janacek said with the patience of someone speaking to a very small child. “Our relations with the Republic are deteriorating steadily. You know that as well as I do. And despite all of his public statements of confidence in his navy’s abilities, Theisman isn’t at all certain of his ability to stand up to us. So he sent his two destroyers off to Silesia with orders to draw our attention there in order to convince us he was sending forces to threaten Sidemore. Obviously what he wants is for us to divert still more of our strength to Silesia, thus weakening ourselves at the decisive point if the cease-fire should fail.”