David Drake - When the Tide Rises

Vesey, Blantyre, and Cory rode the ninth float. Vesey seemed uncomfortable but the two midshipmen were in their element. Well-dressed youths were throwing flowers to Blantyre over the Bagarian soldiers lining the parade route, while not only women but some heavily made up men tried to get through to Cory.

"The traders, the country craft we found on Dodd's Throne…," Adele said, scrolling through data. She'd started with the files of Fidelity Mercantile. She could've transferred from there to other databases, but Lampert's information provided all she needed. "They arrived back on Pelosi several days before we did. They brought reports about what'd happened."

"Of course!" Rene said. "We couldn't travel any faster than theBabanguida, and she'd have been a bucket even with a proper crew. But-"

He looked at Adele with a frown.

"-surely they didn't bring positive reports, did they? They were near as anything, well… Except for Commander Leary, they'd have been robbed of everything."

"Lay-deeLear -ee!" shrieked at least a dozen spectators. They were better organized than the Bagarian Navy-or for that matter than the clerks of Fidelity Mercantile. Lampert should hire a few of them, assuming they could read and write. "Lay-deeLear -ee!"

Adele was smiling; good. That was the right attitude to take toward well-intentioned people who didn't have the advantages of education and intelligence, but who nonetheless insisted on opening their mouths.

"It appears that they took being robbed as a given if they met Bagarian warships," Adele explained as she reflexively tried to bring order to Lampert's files. "Rather like crashing if your thrusters fail on landing. You hope they don't fail, but if they do the crash is inevitable. When Daniel-"

A mistake. She didn't underline it by trying to correct the personal reference.

"-stopped the business and saw to the return of whatever hadn't been drunk, they were delighted. And of course the citizens here really wanted a-"

The word "citizens" made her look up from the data unit's holographic display. Stretching across two building fronts above the cheering crowd was a painting on a tarpaulin large enough to cover half a dozen cargo pallets. A female figure-the prominent bust made that obvious-in a white uniform (with a scarlet cloak added, but that was a minor license forthis artist) bestrode, literally a starship. From the turrets drawn all over the vessel's hull it was no ship ever built, but the legend Generalissima DeMarce was painted prominently on the bow.

The figure had a pistol in one hand, a stocked impeller in the other, and with both was shooting at attackers who waved Alliance flags. Because they were more or less in scale with the ship, they barely came up to the ankles of the giantess.

"They wanted a victory," she concluded, but her voice had dropped to a whisper. "By all theGods."

On the figure's left, red letters with an arrow read Captain Adele Mundy. On the right, a similar legend and arrow-in violet-read Grand Admiral Leary's Wife.

"I don't remember having that much fun when we took over theDeMarce," said Tovera. Her voice was chirpy, though she had to shout to be heard.

"There weren't any Alliance personnel!" Rene said. "Why, this is infamous! And we didn't shoot anyone. We scarcely had to threaten Captain Seward!"

"Right, no fun at all," said Tovera. "Well, better luck next time, boy."

She was baiting Rene, a positive sign. Tovera's sense of humor, grim and deadpan though it was, was a human trait. Adele didn't suppose her servant would ever develop a conscience, but this was a step in the right direction.

"I prefer to think of it as amusing, Rene," Adele said as she sent a text message to the commo helmet Hogg wore; he'd pass it on. The information she'd gleaned from Lampert's files wouldn't surprise Daniel, but he might as well have the details before DeMarce and Lampert spoke to him in private.

Partly because of what she was thinking about the Bagarian government and partly because she found Tovera's sense of humor infectious, Adele added, "I find my trigger finger gets quite enough exercise as it is without me needlessly adding to the list of people I intend to shoot."

Before the door of the conference room in the north wing of the Hall of Assembly had finished closing, Jordan Wiens-the Minister of Trade-snarled, "What possessed you to rob our own merchants that way, Leary? Are you out of your mind?"

"You had no right to do that!" Minister Lampert said, his words stepping on his colleague's. "You lied to us, admit it! You lied to us!"

There was a yelp in the anteroom and the door opened again behind Daniel. He didn't bother looking over his shoulder to see that Hogg had followed him regardless of what the attendant outside thought about the matter. The servant's presence wouldn't be necessary, but it wasn't a bad thing to have him around.

Daniel stepped chest to chest with Lampert and said in a ringing voice, "See here, my good man! I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head when you speak to a Leary!"

He wasn't as near the edge of control as his tone implied, but neither was he merely pretending to be angry. This was a case, Speaker Leary's son had decided, when it was politic to show one's teeth.

Lampert stepped back in surprise; Wiens, his mouth open to resume, instead fell silent. No one spoke for a moment.

The Generalissima herself said plaintively, "This really has caused a difficult situation, Admiral. I know you couldn't have foreseen the problems, but I do wish you'd explained ahead of time what you intended. I don't know how long it'll take us to put matters straight."

Daniel thumped his left leg out to the side and crossed his hands behind his back. Only after he struck the pose did he realize he'd just come to Parade Rest. Well, it'd do. Quite obviously the members of the Bagarian government didn't intend to sit.

The central table would seat a committee of twenty, and there were chairs around the walls for aides and functionaries. Over the long south wall was a railed balcony, though the doors onto it were closed and perhaps locked. The high windows in the other three sides were in alcoves with built-in seats. Bright-colored insectoids fluttered against the inside of the panes, though it was beyond Daniel's ability to imagine why they'd entered if they were so determined on escaping again.

But then, he'd walked into this room also, hadn't he? And he'd known full well what to expect.

"Generalissima, ministers," Daniel said. "I told you I was taking the squadron for a training cruise, and that's all I did. That we stumbled onto a pair of Alliance prizes was a piece of great good luck but not a violation of orders either explicit or implied. I'm puzzled that you're not as pleased about that as I am, though; and as pleased as the citizens outside clearly are."

"You see, Leary," said Alfred Decker, the Minister of Resources, "if you start seizing civilian property, the Alliance is going to do the same in retaliation. Many-most, in fact-of our substantial citizens have property and accounts receivable within the Alliance. On Pleasaunce even. What's to stop the owners of the ships you've captured from recompensing themselves from our-that is, from the property of Bagarian citizens?"

"Absolutely nothing, I suppose, minister," Daniel said. He was beginning to find this amusing. He had the trump card and knew it: he didn't mind a public scene over the issue, and the ministers couldn't afford to let that happen. "But you're at war, you'll recall. Guarantor Porra could order such confiscations at any time."

"But hewon't, Admiral," DeMarce said. "Not unless he's, well, provoked. Capturing civilian ships in the way you did on Dodd's Throne isexactly the sort of provocation we want to avoid."