David Weber - The Service of the Sword

He got back on his float chair, which had been helpfully brought around the scanners, and proceeded towards the gate.

"We're early," Gonzalvez said.

"I know. I'd figured more time getting through security."

"So we just lie low?" Mládek said.

"Yeah," Mullins replied, guiding the float chair over to a corner near the gate. "I'm going to take a nap; I had a long night."

Gonzalvez snorted then looked up as the blonde came into the gate, still straightening her clothing. "I'd like a long night with that."

"She doesn't look too happy, does she?" Mullins muttered.

"Not particularly," Gonzalvez said. "Ah, there's our scanner tech."

"Go see if he's got any information on what's going down downtown," Mullins said.

Gonzalvez walked over to the tech, who was obviously headed for his break, and waved him down.

"Pardon me, good fellow," Gonzalvez called. "I was just wondering if you could tell me something."

"Depends on what it is," the tech replied with a smile to reduce the sarcasm.

"The other fellow mentioned some sort of a shoot-out downtown," Gonzalvez said. "I'm just curious about it."

"Well, there was a group of Manty spies we've been chasing all week," the tech said. "That's the reason for the alert here. Anyway, they have them cornered someplace. That's all I know. I'll keep my ears open on break and if I hear anything else I'll tell you. But why do you want to know?"

"Just curious," Gonzalvez replied. "Excitement, danger, foreign adventures," he said with a relish. "It's all so wonderfully alien to my usual life, you know."

"I can tell," the tech said with a snort. "That's your mother?"

"Yes," Gonzalvez said with a sigh. "The head of Oberlon when she was twenty-nine and now no one can pry her out of the seat, don'cha'know."

"Well, good luck," the tech said with a chuckle. "I'll keep you posted."

Gonzalvez went back to the group and sat down. Mullins was flipping through a pad that contained very reasonable, if wholly imaginary, business reports on a company called "Oberlon" while Mládek was just sitting staring out the windows at the shuttle port.

Gonzalvez glanced back over at Mullins and realized that he was riveted on the blonde.

"Mother, is there something wrong?" he asked, clearing his throat.

"Uh, no, dearie," Mullins said, returning to his pad.

"She doesn't appear to be your type, Mother," Gonzalvez clucked.

"Go away, dear," Mullins said.

"On the other hand, she is mine ." Gonzalvez chuckled and walked over to the blonde.

"That was idiocy at the security scanner," he said, holding out his hand.

"Thank you," the girl said, looking up at him with a pinched expression. "But I've had about all the male attention I can handle for the day."

"I'm sorry," he said with a rueful smile. "I can understand. But I thought you'd like to know that the guy in charge of the security detail caught some hell for a completely different reason. He's likely to lose his captaincy."

"Thank you," the girl said curtly. "Now if you'll just leave me alone I can try to get back some of my bearing. Or at least center my aggression."

"Okee-dokee," Gonzalvez said, stepping away as the scanner tech came across the gate area with a smile on his face.

"Good news?" Gonzalvez asked, intercepting him well short of the girl.

"For us," the scanner tech said with a grim grin. "Not for the Manties. When they saw all the reinforcements coming, including your captain friend, they blew themselves up. So it's over."

"Yes, it is," Gonzalvez said shaking his head. "Those poor people. I know they are your enemies, but I can't help but feel for them."

"Well, yes," the tech said, adjusting his perceptions. "A terrible tragedy. But at least now the security won't be so intense and you'll be sure to catch your shuttle."

"Yes, that will be for the good," Gonzalvez said, shaking the tech's hand. "Thank you very much for all your help."

"No problem. Have a good trip."

Gonzalvez sat down by Mullins and took a breath.

"You heard?"

"I heard," Mullins replied. "We'll talk about it when we get back."

"Boarding for the Adrian Bayside will begin in just a moment." A slim female in Bayside Lines uniform appeared at the gate door. "I would like to have anyone with mobility problems, very small children or priority passes to come up first."

"Well, two out of three ain't bad," Mullins said, holding up a hand. "Give me a hand sonny," he quavered.

"Yes, Mother," Gonzalvez said with a sigh. "Coming, 'Robert'?"

"I suppose," Mládek said, standing up and smiling. "Let me give you a hand, there, Mistress."

"Such nice boys," Mullins said, shuffling towards the personnel tube. "You'd never know I met his father in a spaceport bar, would you?"

"Mother!"

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Admiral. Period.

After surviving extraction from Prague, sneaking through Peep space and convincing the Manty contingent on Excelsior that they weren't really double agents—look, here's a Peep Admiral Defector for proof!—Mullins thought it was likely that he would die right here and right now. Or, at least, he halfway wished his heart would just stop or a rock would drop on him or something .

"What in the ever living hells was going through what might, with leniency, be referred to as your mind?!" Admiral Givens was not known for raising her voice. And she did not now. The very fact that they practically had to strain to hear her tongue-lashing, which was just winding up after more than thirty minutes that had traced the course of their idiocy from generations before, through infancy and up to the present day, made it worse.

"Well, we did get the Admiral back," Gonzalvez pointed out.

"It's clear proof that your mother dropped you on your head as a child that you think that question was other than rhetorical, Major Gonzalvez," the admiral continued. "The only reason that Excelsior didn't sanction you was that you brought the Admiral back. And that was a good thing. His information, I'll admit, was useful confirmation."

" Confirmation , Ma'am?" Mullins asked. "He had a head full of StateSec secrets and codes!"

"All of which, and more, Honor Harrington brought back two weeks ago," Givens said.

"Harrington?" Gonzalvez blurted. "She's dead ."

"So we all thought," the admiral replied. "But, in fact, she ended up on the ground on Hades. She staged the largest prison breakout in history and returned with not only a half a million prisoners, but reams of data on StateSec procedures and communications and some political prisoners that the Havenites had insisted had been dead for years."

"So," Mullins said. "We went through all of that for confirmation ?"

"Exactly," Givens snappped. "You two are the most consummate foul-ups I have in my entire organization. I cannot let you out of my sight for more than thirty seconds without you involving yourself in some intensely moronic encounter. I don't care if you live through them; the chaos that you leave in your wake more than makes up for your survival. The whole point is to enter and exit seamlessly , causing not a ripple while you are there. Not killing double agents, blowing up buildings, getting in car chases and otherwise disporting yourselves like you're playing a game . Is any of this getting through to you two hydrocephalic morons ."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

"I'm not in this business to build structures just for you to kick them down like a couple of children who find a pretty vase to break! This is not going to be a short war and we need all the intelligence we can gather; sending you two to a planet is like asking to have the entire system shut out for the rest of the war! Am I getting through to you?"