“Actually,” Benjamin said grimly, “I don’t much care what the two of them would like, Hamish. And as for their trying to prevent us from using the Junction, I don’t think that would be very wise of them. Under Article XII of the Manticoran Alliance Charter, any treaty partner has free and unlimited access to the Junction for its warships. If I decide I want to send the entire damned Navy through the Manticoran Wormhole Junction, I have the legal right to do so and be damned to anyone who tries to stop me.”

He smiled at his guest, and it was not a pleasant expression.

“Under the circumstances,” he said softly, “I rather hope they do try.”

· · • · ·

“I cannot believe this!” Eloise Pritchart spat, glaring at the hardcopy in front of her. “Of all the unmitigated, lying gall! How dare they hand us something like this?!”

“Well, I certainly didn’t expect it either,” Giancola began, “but—”

“ ‘But’ nothing!” Pritchart snarled. “They’ve flat out lied to their own people and to ours!”

Thomas Theisman sat in his own chair at the conference table, as shocked and almost as furious as Pritchart herself as he looked back down at the critical passage of the latest note from Manticore.

“I don’t understand it,” LePic muttered. “Why would they do this? We told them our territorial demands didn’t include Trevor’s Star. We told them that in so many words.”

Theisman nodded almost unconsciously, for he shared his friend’s confusion fully. Why, when the Republic had outright announced its willingness to renounce all claim of sovereignty over Trevor’s Star had the Manties effectively threatened to unilaterally withdraw from the peace negotiations on the grounds that the Republic had demanded that sovereignty be returned to it?

“Could they possibly have misunderstood somehow?” Walter Sanderson asked slowly.

“How?” Pritchart demanded furiously. “How could even an idiot like High Ridge have misunderstood something this simple!” She pawed angrily through the folder in front of her until she found her copy of the Republic’s most recent note to the Star Kingdom.

“ ‘In response to the Star Kingdom’s request for clarification as to the Republic’s view of the status of the Trevor’s Star system,’ ” she read aloud in a hard, tight voice, “ ‘the Republic specifically does not claim sovereignty over that star system.’ ” She slammed the note back down on the tabletop. “Not claim sovereignty, Walter! I fail to see how we could possibly have been any clearer than that!”

Sanderson shook his head slowly, clearly bemused.

“I’m afraid there’s one very simple possible explanation,” Tony Nesbitt said. All eyes swung to him, and he shrugged. “This is about as bald faced a misrepresentation of the truth as anyone could possibly have presented. It’s not a misunderstanding; it’s a lie. It’s an effort to shift the full responsibility for the failure of the negotiations onto us. The only reason I can see for them to do that is because they intend to break off those negotiations, and they want their people and the rest of the galaxy to believe it was our fault.”