Chapter Fifty-Four

“SO why isn’t the Minister of Trade here?” Sir Edward Janacek demanded in a voice which only too accurately reflected his outrage.

“Be reasonable, Edward,” Michael Janvier replied with more than a trace of answering impatience. “The man’s wife has disappeared, his home has just been blown up—possibly with her in it—and even if he’s not ready to admit it, all of the ‘North Hollow Files’ went with the house. And if you believe that the entire disaster was the result of a ‘leaking air car hydrogen cylinder in the parking basement,’ then you probably believe in the tooth fairy, too!”

Janacek started to snap back sharply, then visibly made himself pause. The ferocious explosion which had rocked one of Landing’s most luxurious suburbs had left a smoking crater where the Young’s capital residence had once been and administered an equally savage shock to the political establishment. The existence of the North Hollow Files had been one of the open dirty little secrets of Manticoran politics for so long that even those who’d most detested the tactics they reflected were temporarily disoriented. Of course, just as the Earls of North Hollow had never officially admitted to their files’ existence, Stefan Young wasn’t about to admit that his enormous behind-the-scenes political leverage had blown up along with his mansion. And it was going to take some time—and a lot of cautious probes and tests—before the Star Kingdom’s political leadership was prepared to believe it truly had been. Especially for the people who had been the subjects of that leverage over the years.

The First Lord of Admiralty knew that the implications of the North Hollow explosion were only just beginning to ripple through the establishment. As those implications went more and more fully home, the consequences for the High Ridge Government might well prove profound. Janacek wasn’t really certain exactly how many of High Ridge’s “allies” had been coerced into giving him their support, but he had no doubt that some of them—like Sir Harrison MacIntosh—were in extremely important, if not vital, positions. What might happen once they realized the evidence of their past misdeeds no longer existed was anyone’s guess, but he didn’t expect it to be good. Apparently, the Prime Minister shared his expectations, which probably helped to account for his waspish tone.

Of course, there were other factors which undoubtedly helped to account for it, as well.

“All right,” Janacek said finally. “Personally, I suspect that the disappearance of his wife and his house are pretty directly connected. And no, I don’t think her limo just happened to blow up because of a fuel leak, whatever he wants to believe. I don’t know what anyone could have offered her, but given the LCPD’s failure so far to find any human remains at all in the rubble, much less hers—” He shrugged angrily. “Still, I can understand that he’s… distracted just now. Which doesn’t change the fact that his precious ACS appointee just let the fucking Graysons stomp all over us!”