Uncompromising Honor - eARC

by David Weber

  Obviously, there’d been only one way to make that point, and Belinda McCleskey had buried her husband, the man who’d raised Gottfried McAnally after his own miner father’s death in one of those ships whose safety equipment had somehow slipped through the inspection cracks.

  McAnally had followed his uncle into the belts, and he was good. He was one of the best, which meant even Management thought about it, at least for a second or two, before they rejected his operational input. Of course, as the nephew of one of the infamous Argo III hooligans, no one would have considered offering him a position in Management, but at least they’d been smart enough to let him run his own four-boat mining section however the hell he wanted to as long as it continued coming in a solid twenty percent above quota.

  Which, actually, had been incredibly stupid of them, because that squadron of mining vessels had become the core of the MRM.

  It had taken him years to move beyond that trusted handful of hard-rock asteroid miners, but he had. Oh, but he had! The chance that he’d actually have been able to accomplish anything might not have been incredibly great. Personally, he’d estimated no more than a forty percent chance of throwing out the Kellogg regime, and something more like five percent that OFS and Frontier Fleet wouldn’t turn up to crush his movement immediately thereafter. Still, he’d figured, a man had to have a hobby.

  And then, two years ago, the opportunity for more had suddenly appeared.

  He’d come so close.

  Commodore François Malinowski’s System Patrol was a joke, no more than a handful of obsolete light attack craft suitable—barely—for customs patrols, the occasional rescue mission, and escorting transports full of MCPF riot troops to deal with irritating little situations like the one which had occurred on Argo III. At the moment, McAnally had two dozen—two dozen—mining boats which had been fitted with strap-on missile pods and lasers. Any one of them was as powerful as two of Malinowski’s rattletraps, and no one in the MSP or MCPF had a clue they’d been armed or that McAnally’s highly skilled miners had acquired another set of skills along with their weaponry.

  His forty percent chance of kicking Kellogg out the airlock had turned into one of at least ninety percent. And, far more important than the weapons themselves, he’d been offered the one thing that might let the Resistance make its rebellion stand up: naval support. Not just anyone’s naval support, either, but the Royal Manticoran Navy’s. With the RMN in his skinsuit pocket, he’d known the time had finally come to reclaim Meroa from OFS and its thieving, bloodsucking “elected leaders.”

  And now this. Now a light cruiser of something calling itself the Mayan Autonomous Regional Sector Navy—and wasn’t that a mouthful?—had arrived on Merriwell’s doorstep less than two local weeks before his uprising was slated to begin. Arrived to announce that McAnally hadn’t been talking to Manticorans at all. That he’d been played by someone whose sole interest in Meroa was to see the uprising crushed as catastrophically as possible. Someone for whom the MRM’s bloody destruction wasn’t even a primary goal, only “collateral damage” in a strategy focused upon the Star Empire of Manticore and its allies.

  Oravil Barregos was OFS himself. By definition, that meant he couldn’t be trusted. Yet he had a reputation in the Maya Sector of being a different breed of governor, and his cruiser hadn’t arrived alone. It had been accompanied by a Royal Manticoran Navy destroyer whose captain had confirmed every single word of Barregos’s statement. Who’d gone on the public boards and informed the entire star system that the Star Empire had no idea who might have been planning an insurrection here in Meroa. Who’d further announced that the RMN hadn’t promised anyone any support and had no desire to see Meroa disintegrate into violence.

  But who’d also offered a stern warning to the Kellogg administration.

  “Her Majesty’s government has had no prior contact with any individual or group of individuals in this star system,” the level-eyed woman in the black and gold uniform had said. “The Star Empire has, however, become aware that there are a great many people in a great many star systems who believe they’ve been in contact with Manticoran representatives. And Her Majesty has decided that if any of those individuals who honestly believe they’e been promised Manticoran support act on the basis of that promise, the Star Empire will not abandon them to their fates. We do not condone violent rebellion as a means of regime change. At the same time, Her Majesty recognizes that sometimes violence is the only means of regime change available. That decision is not hers to make in someone else’s star nation.

  “The official policy of the Star Empire of Manticore is that we will not provide active support to any organization that engages in open violence, regardless of who that organization believes may have promised to support it, if that violence begins after the Star Empire has announced its new policy. If violence has already begun, then the Royal Manticoran Navy—and its Allies—stand ready to prevent outside intervention in the star systems where it has begun. And, in star systems where false promises of Manticoran assistance have been used to entice citizens into planning armed rebellion, it is the Star Empire’s policy—announced today, in Meroa—to impose a brokered solution to the causes of contention in those star systems. We will not support armed rebellion, but neither will we accept forcible suppression of any group which prepared for armed rebellion after being lied to by someone purporting to represent Her Majesty’s Government. We will offer the services of Manticoran diplomats in efforts to broker a peaceful resolution in such cases, but we will not allow people who honestly believe that we had promised them support be destroyed while we stand by and watch.

  “We believe Meroa is one of the systems in which those false promises of naval support were made. We call upon whoever believed she was operating with the assurance of Manticoran naval support to…rethink her position. And the Star Empire wholeheartedly endorses Governor Barregos’s suggestion of a multi-system conference where all of these issues will be brought out into the open and dealt with.

  “We do not expect this to be easy. We do not expect it to be simple, we do not expect it to be dealt with quickly…and we do not believe the status quo in most of these systems is sustainable or that it will survive. Our analysis is that the people we believe are behind this ‘false flag’ operation chose systems in which internal tensions made rebellion nearly inevitable. As a consequence, we anticipate that there will be enormous resistance, particularly by the individuals and organizations currently in power, to constructive changes in those star systems. We have no desire to forcibly impose our own solutions on those star systems. We will, however, forcibly prevent any outside intervention—for or against the existing regimes—in them. And, assuming that negotiated solutions to the existing causes of contention cannot be achieved under Governor Barregos’s leadership, then the Star Empire of Manticore, the Protectorate of Grayson, the Republic of Haven Navy, the Republic of Erewhon, and the Mayan Autonomous Regional Sector will apply whenever economic and political sanctions seem necessary to compel solutions.

  “No doubt many will condemn this as the raw abuse of power. Others will see it as proof of the Solarian League’s endless claims of Manticoran imperialism. We have no designs upon anyone’s sovereignty, but if we must use raw power to prevent millions of deaths for which the galaxy at large will hold the Star Empire responsible, then so be it. No one is going to die on Manticore’s watch if there is any way in heaven or hell that we can prevent it.”

  She’d gazed out of the display, her brown eyes like flint.

  “I advise every one of you to believe Her Majesty means it.”

  Hillary Indrakashi Enkateshwara Tower

  City of Old Chicago

  Sol System

  Solarian League

  “Talk about throwing a cat among pigeons!”

  Irene Teague shook her head, her expression grim. None of the other Ghost Hunters currently assembled in their Hillary Indrakashi Enkateshwara Tower hideaway looked a lot more cheerful.

/>   “I hate to ask this, Zhing-hwan,” Bryce Tarkovsky said, “but how good is this guy? I don’t mean how much you trust him. I mean how good is he?”

  “Michal Asztalos is about as good as they get,” Weng Zhing-hwan replied flatly. “He’s young, I’ll grant that, but the Gendarmerie didn’t make him a major at his age for screwing up.”

  She paused to look rather pointedly at the oak leaf on Tarkovsky’s collar for a moment, and the Marine nodded in recognition of her point.

  “I admit I picked him because I trusted him to give me an honest report,” she continued, “but I also picked him because I trust his judgment. And because I know Michal’s damned good at figuring out things other people want to keep hidden.”

  “I think part of what concerns me at this point—and what I’m pretty sure is going to bother Daud when he hears about this—is that it doesn’t sound like he had to ‘find out’ very damned much,” Teague said, then shook her head again. “I can’t believe Barregos would have just carelessly left this kind of evidence lying around if he was really up to something!”

  “I’ve been thinking about that, too,” Lupe Blanton said. The others looked at her, and she shrugged. “I realize what we’re talking about is officially more Nyhus’s bailiwick than mine. Having said that, my people and I have seen a lot over the years, and we’ve caught our own people with their fingers in pies they know damned well they shouldn’t have anything to do with a lot more frequently than OFS would like to admit. And I’ve been looking at Barregos’s record. Someone as smart and as capable as he obviously is should be at least as good at hiding his tracks as, say, a third assistant legate assigned to an OFS advisory mission in the Protectorates who’s been embezzling funds from the mission’s mess funds. So I think you’re right, Irene; Asztalos should’ve had to work a lot harder to find any genuine evidence that Barregos wanted to hide.”

  Her tone shifted ever so slightly on the last three words, and Teague looked at her sharply.

  “You’re thinking he didn’t want to hide it?”

  “I’m thinking he not only didn’t want to hide it, but that he and Allfrey took pains to make sure Asztalos found it.”

  “That’s what Michal thinks, too,” Weng said. “I brought along his entire memo, and I’m sure you’ll all want to view it for yourselves, but Philip Allfrey himself gave him access to the files containing this ‘classified’ information. He didn’t tell Michal it was in those files, but he must’ve had a shrewd suspicion about what Michal was looking for. On that basis, I think Allfrey—which means Barregos, of course—wanted this stuff to get back to Old Chicago. Which leads to the additional question of what we do with it now that we’ve got it.”

  “Let me be sure I understand this correctly,” Colonel Okiku said. “According to Asztalos, there’s documented evidence in Barregos’s files that he was contacted by individuals claiming to be Manticoran who weren’t? That these individuals promised him naval support—massive naval support—if he’d rebel against Frontier Security and the League? But that he was subsequently contacted by someone he knows really is high in Manty intelligence circles, and she told him about a false flag operation being run by someone else?”

  “That’s essentially correct, Natsuko.” Weng nodded. Okiku looked at her skeptically, and the Gendarme smiled crookedly at her. “In fact, Michal’s pretty sure he could put a name on the individual who’s ‘high in Manty intelligence circles.’ Having read the relevant portion of the documentation he brought with him—I haven’t had time to go through all of it yet—I’m inclined to think I could, too.”

  “Really?” Okiku cocked her head. “Who?”

  “Unless I’m very mistaken, it was Patricia Givens.”

  Okiku looked blank, but Tarkovsky looked up quickly and Teague pursed her lips in a silent whistle.

  “Obviously, the simple but honest cop here is missing something,” Okiku observed tartly.

  “Pat Givens is the Manticoran Second Space Lord,” Teague said. “That puts her about as ‘high in Manty intelligence circles’ as it gets, since the second space lord is the one who runs their Office of Naval Intelligence. If Asztalos’s right, that’s about the same thing as Kolokoltsov sending Karl-Heinz Thimár somewhere as his envoy. Except that Givens is at least as good as Thimár is—or was, thank good—bad.” She shook her head slowly. “That puts a bit of a different slant on things. If Givens is giving her word to someone about what’s going on, it’s got to be the official Manty position.”

  “Not necessarily.” Tarkovsky shook his head, and she raised an eyebrow at him. “Let me preface my next point by saying that I think that’s what it means, too,” the Marine said. “But Givens, unfortunately, is one of their most senior spooks. She may be a high-ranking naval officer, as well, but all the Mandarins will look at is the fact that she’s a spook. They’ll point out that assuming the Manties really are behind all of this, she’d have to be one of the people who helped craft the strategy in the first place. As one of its architects, she wouldn’t hesitate for a second to lie about it to someone like Barregos, would she? And be honest—if we didn’t already suspect the Manties weren’t behind it, wouldn’t we be ready to recognize the same possibility?”

  “I think that would depend on how stupid I thought the Manties were,” Blanton said slowly, her eyes thoughtful. Tarkovsky looked at her, and she shrugged. “What you’re suggesting has something of a split personality, Bryce. On the one hand, the Manties are telling OFS—maybe a bit indirectly, through Barregos, but still OFS—that they don’t have anything at all to do with this. On the other hand, they’re supposed to be providing naval support to rebellions all over the Fringe, à la Terekhov in Mobius.”

  “But Terekhov also said Manticore had never contacted the Mobian resistance before it started killing people about the time he ‘just happened to turn up’ in Mobius to squash Yucel and Lombroso like cockroaches,” Tarkovsky pointed out. “Sounds to me like someone could reasonably conclude this was simply another iteration of the same strategy. I could certainly make the case that this is two naval officers reading from the same page—sort of like Capriotti and Hajdu using the same stupid talking points to justify Buccaneer—and that all Givens really wants is to get that side of the story better coverage in the League’s ’faxes.”

  “But this time they’re talking to an OFS governor, not the newsies, and not a word about this supposed meeting’s made it into the ’faxes or onto the boards,” Blanton countered. “If the theory you’re suggesting holds water, they’ve bought themselves the worst of both worlds, in a way. They can’t wave away whatever records Barregos might have made, which means—in theory, at least—that OFS has Givens talking covertly to an official representative of the League, face-to-face, for Abruzzi and his flacks at Information to use against Manticore whenever they choose. They have to be aware of what Abruzzi could do with that, probably without even doing a hell of a lot of CGI! But she went ahead and met with him anyway, assuming we’ve identified her correctly. If he’s a good, loyal little sector governor and passes this contact up the chain and they aren’t telling him—and, through him, the Mandarins—the truth, that has to come back and bite them on the arse. If they are telling the truth, and if they genuinely hope to get it to Old Chicago—or the newsies—by this weird, circuitous route, they’re risking a hell of a lot doing it this way.”

  “Which means…?” Tarkovsky asked.

  “I don’t think someone of Givens’s seniority would’ve been talking to someone of Barregos’s seniority unless the Manties and their allies wanted something out of him. And notice that Barregos hasn’t passed Givens’s denial of responsibility—or even a single mention of their covert meeting—on to Old Chicago.”

  A brief, intense silence fell. It lay there for several seconds, then Okiku stirred in her chair.

  “I don’t like where you’re going with that thought, Lupe,” she said quietly.

  “I don’t, either, especially,” Weng said. “On the other ha
nd, the possibility that Barregos is up to something Old Chicago wouldn’t like is the reason I sent Michal out to have a look around for us in the first place. And, while we’re on the subject, I should point out that some of his other contacts suggested Barregos had made ‘a major policy decision’ just before his ship translated out for Sol. They didn’t tell him what kind of policy decision, but given who we know he’s been talking to…”

  “Shit,” Tarkovsky muttered, and Weng smiled sourly.

  “Oh, this is going to get so bad,” Teague murmured, and Blanton nodded soberly.

  “I think you’re right. I think if Barregos wasn’t going to give them what they wanted, then he sure as hell would have reported the entire exchange to Old Chicago. The fact that he hasn’t suggests OFS is going to be hearing really bad news from the Protectorates sometime very soon now.”

  “Maybe. Maybe even probably,” Weng said. “But there’s another side to this, from our perspective.”

  “Oh, I can see dozens of sides,” Okiku said. “I’m just having a little trouble finding one that’s good ‘from our perspective’! Which of the un-good ones—in particular—did you have in mind?”

  “Barregos is smart,” Weng pointed out. “If Lupe’s right about his buying into the game on the Manties’ side, then he must be convinced they’re telling him the truth. And, trust me, this is a man who’d need a lot of convincing before he crossed any Rubicons.”

  “You mean it’s more evidence it’s really the Other Guys,” Tarkovsky said.

  “That’s exactly what I mean.”

  “You may well be right,” Teague said. “In fact, I think you are. But more immediately, this is going to drive MacArtney and the other Mandarins berserk. Whatever Barregos is planning, he’s planning it as the governor of an entire sector. We aren’t talking about single Fringe planets in his case. I don’t like to think about how they’re likely to react in Maya if he decides to sign up with the ‘Grand Alliance,’ but I’m almost more scared by how they’ll react somewhere else. Daud and I are being asked for a lot of analysis on Beowulf, people.”