David Weber - Shadow of Freedom

“I’ve already told you that. No, I did not.”

“Or with Admiral Byng or Admiral Crandall’s movements here in the Madras Sector and in the Talbott Quadrant?”

“No.”

“Never had any reason to believe Ms. Anisimovna was anything except—what was it you called her?—a commercial representative for private- sector interests?”

“Since I never directly discussed her activities here, I’m scarcely in a position to offer an opinion on that. Of course I had no reason to believe she was anything other than she and Mr. Ottweiler claimed she was.”

“And you and Commissioner Verrocchio had no prior knowledge of Admiral Crandall’s deployment to your sector?”

“Admiral Crandall was a Battle Fleet officer,” Hongbo pointed out coldly. “She was deployed on a Battle Fleet training maneuver. Commissioner Verrocchio and I had no control over or influence upon the decision to send her to Madras.”

“And you had no idea she was here prior to Admiral Byng’s arrival?”

“None,” he said firmly, allowing himself a faint stir of hopefulness. It wasn’t really optimism, but from the sound of things, Gold Peak was on a fishing expedition. Was it possible she wasn’t really after him at all, but rather looking for some evidence the ‘Mesan Alignment’ not only actually existed but had been actively involved in events in the region? He could see where the Manties would be eager for any outside evidence they could produce to support their allegations, and he wondered if he should allow himself to suggest that there might , just possibly, be some substance to them. He wouldn’t have to say there was, wouldn’t have to go out on any limbs, but suppose he allowed just a trace of genuine sounding doubt into his responses? It might well deflect her into chasing down that possibility. It might even (although the possibility was probably remote) convince her to cultivate him as a corroborating source rather than hammer him for his suspected involvement with Manpower.

Either way, at least they hadn’t brought out the bright lights, the truncheons, and the fingernail-pullers. For the moment, Junyan Hongbo was willing to settle for that.

* * *

“So what do you make of it?” Michelle Henke asked several hours later.

She and her staff sat around the briefing room table, where they’d just finished reviewing her notes and Alfredo’s comments on the veracity and emotions of Vice Commissioner Hongbo during her conversation with him.

“I can’t say there were a lot of surprises, Ma’am,” Cynthia Lecter replied after a moment, and shrugged. “He lied every time you even implied he’d had anything to do with arranging events out here. No great surprise there. And we already knew he’d met with Anisimovna and Bardasano, courtesy of Brigadier Yucel.”

“I’m inclined to agree, Ma’am,” Dominica Adenauer said. “At the same time, though, we did get pretty positive confirmation that he knows Byng and Crandall were maneuvered into the region. And I know we’re basically arguing from the fact that we know he lied about things, but it’s pretty clear hewas busy maneuvering Verrocchio into doing exactly what Anisimovna—or Ottweiler, at least—wanted Verrocchio to do. And, for that matter, he clearly figured Ottweiler was taking very specific marching orders from Anisimovna, and probably Bardasano. Now, I realize everybody’s always regarded the Mesan government as basically a shill and a front for the transstellars in the Mesa System. But his responses to your questions about their relationship with Ottweiler certainly seem to indicate that Hongbo at least suspected this was more than a business-as-usual corrupt business deal.”

“Granted,” Lecter said. “But let’s face it, Dominica, even if the Alignment never existed at all, the Mesa System would probably be plenty nervous about our frontiers getting this much closer to it. It’s entirely possible Ottweiler really was acting for his government in this case, rather than for any clandestine organization.”

“Except that in that case I would have anticipated the messengers between Ottweiler and the home system also being representatives of his government, Ma’am,” Commander Edwards pointed out. Lecter looked at him, and he shrugged. “Why send people like Anisimovna and Bardasano, with no official connection to the Mesa System government at all? Unless those people had connections to something besides the Mesa System government that was really calling the shots? And if they weren’t here representing a ‘business-as-usual corrupt business deal,’ then who were they representing?”

“That was one of the points that struck me most strongly, too,” Michelle said with a nod. “And according to Alfredo, Hongbo registered a lot of uncertainty himself when it came to whether or not the Alignment existed. And here.” She tapped one of her own notes on the display in front of her. “When I asked him about Levakonic and what Hongbo thought Technodyne was doing out here. Alfredo says that uncertainty quotient of his peaked really high when I suggested the Alignment might have seen this situation in Monica as an opportunity to get a closer look at our military hardware. I think our Mr. Hongbo’s wondering whether or not he’s been taking orders from the Alignment without realizing it for quite some time.”

“Agreed, Ma’am,” Lecter said. “And there’s no question that we’ve clearly established that both Hongbo and Verrocchio have been squarely—and knowingly—in somebody’s pocket from the very beginning. I think we’ve also established that Hongbo was really the primary contact point between Mesa and everything else going on in the Madras Sector. That was worthwhile in its own right, and it’s going to help steer the investigators to the evidence they need. And I’ll concede that Hongbo, at least, is coming to the conclusion the Alignment actually exists. But he wasn’t able to give us a smoking gun. There’s nothing in any of his responses, whether they were truthful or lies, that demonstrates any actual knowledge on his part that the Alignment is a reality and not just a figment of our imaginations.”

“No, there isn’t,” Michelle acknowledged. “There is clear confirmation, though, that somebody in Mesa was pulling the strings out here. That everything we’ve been saying about outside involvement was justified, and that it was coming out of Mesa. Whether it was the Alignment or not is really beside the point, in that regard. Personally, I’m pretty damn sure it was the Alignment. But whether I’m right about that or not, I don’t see any reason to think the string-pullers in Mesa are going to suddenly stop acting against our interests. And it’s occurred to me that there’s one place in the galaxy where we can probably find proof whether or not the Alignment exists.”

Lecter’s eyes widened with what might have been a touch of alarm, and Michelle smiled thinly.

“In my opinion, what we’ve already established from the files we’ve cracked, completely exclusive of anything Hongbo may have said to me or Alfredo may have picked up from his mind-glow is that some group in the Mesa System was directly behind the actions leading to the deaths of our personnel in New Tuscany. Moreover, Ottweiler’s involvement means the Mesan government was involved. There’s a phrase that describes an official government action hostile to the interests of and to the safety of the citizens of another government, people. It’s called ‘an act of war,’ and that’s precisely what the Mesa System has perpetrated against the Star Empire of Manticore.”

Silence hovered for a moment. Then Lecter cleared her throat.