“This isn’t the time for jokes,” Kathy said, although she was privately relieved to hear him cracking jokes again. “I don’t know much about assassinations, but if they don’t have a date in mind, they can’t expect you to set any traps for him, not where the Marines might find them. That would be rather revealing.”
“I know,” Cordova said, serious again. “I thought about it and I couldn’t think of a way of doing it, short of walking up to him and punching out his throat. Any weapon would be detected and removed a long time before I could get into his presence. They even make me hand over my cutlass and pistol before I enter the room.”
“Wise of them,” Kathy said, dryly. She had a private worry that one day he would hurt himself on his specially-made cutlass, although he’d told her, with a perfectly straight face, that he’d used it in boarding actions. She didn’t believe a word of it. “How do they expect you to succeed, then, if you can’t get a weapon into his presence?”
“I don’t know,” Cordova said, shaking his head. “The only method I was able to think of involved luring Colin onto my own ground, the Random Numbers, and assassinating him then.”
Kathy saw it clearly. If Cordova, one of Colin’s closest allies, had killed him… and had done so on his own ship, the Provisional Government would come apart… and the Thousand Families would step back into the breech, perhaps with Joshua as Emperor. It would also solve the problem of Tiberius’s own position being weakened…
She broke off as her communicator chimed. “Excuse me,” she said, and picked it up. “Yes?”
“Lady Kathy, the Cabinet has been called into emergency succession,” the voice on the other end said, grimly. “There have been… developments at Cottbus.”
“I’m on my way,” Kathy said. She looked over at Cordova. “I think its bad news.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Carola looked at the pair of armed Marines escorting her and smiled.
She’d expected them ever since the destroyer had flickered into the Solar System, transmitted a brief encrypted message towards the Victorious — and her, of course — and flickered out again before any starship at Earth could intercept her. The message hadn’t been unexpected, of course, merely a report that the Imperial Navy — or whatever the Provisional Government ended up renaming the former Imperial Navy — had engaged Cottbus’s forces… and had been defeated. The alternative, that Admiral Wilhelm had been defeated, had worried her, but the gamble had paid off. Cottbus could now take the initiative and advance on Earth.
The Marines had arrived four hours later, which meant that someone had to have returned from Cottbus to report on the battle to Colin and his allies. Carola was actually quite interested to know what had actually happened — the report hadn’t included any data on losses to either side, although it had implied that the losses had been decisive for the Imperial Navy — but the Marines weren’t talking. They had merely walked into her Embassy and invited her to come with them. She hadn’t bothered to pretend that she had a choice in the matter, although she had been careful to film her departure between the two armour-clad men. If everything worked out as she hoped, it would serve as great propaganda.
Interesting, she thought, as the Marines led her into the Parliament Building. Hundreds of men and women were running around, some of them in a state of panic, much to her private amusement. Cottbus was over a thousand light years away, after all, although she had to admit that Wilhelm could have come directly to Earth in the wake of his victory. She doubted, however, that his forces had escaped unscathed, even with the help of the Nerds. Her husband would have to spend some time regrouping before he could advance.
Perhaps we should have just set out to attack Earth first, she thought, although she knew that that would have been a mistake. They might have managed to break through Earth’s defences — Colin had proven, after all, that they weren’t unbeatable — but they would have still had to reckon with the other rebel formations in the Core Worlds, to say nothing of the first-rank worlds. Luring a force out to Cottbus, where it could be broken, had been the only remaining possibility… and it had worked. The Parliament Building wouldn’t be in such a panic unless the losses had been serious, which meant that there was very little between her husband and Earth.
Her eyes flickered over the interior of the building as she was escorted into a section she didn’t recognise, although she had studied the building’s plans carefully. It looked more faded than the remainder of the building, as if it hadn’t been used for centuries, which was actually quite possible. Parliament hadn’t had a serious role for centuries. No one had been interested, until recently, in actually redecorating the building and it was a tribute to how well the original building had been constructed, back when Parliament might have had a serious role, that it had lasted so long. She already knew who she was going to see and, as the Marines ran her through a series of security checks and gently, but firmly, removed her terminal, she prepared herself.
The door opened, allowing her access to Colin’s office. He was standing in front of a holographic starchart, studying the blinking icons thoughtfully, before blanking it and turning to face her. She took the opportunity to look around his office, noting that it was barren, almost empty, apart from a comfortable chair. It took her a moment to realise that it had probably been pulled out of a starship’s bridge and wondered if it had come from the Lightning, the first starship Colin had captured and used against the Empire. There was no way to know, short of asking Colin, and she wouldn’t lower herself to ask.
“I imagine that you know why you’re here,” Colin said. His voice was curiously flat, something she decided probably concealed anger, or fear. His entire plan to reform and rebuild the Empire had just taken a serious beating. He had to be furious about the disaster, and yet there was little sign of it on his face. “What are you and your husband thinking?”
Uncharted waters, Carola thought, gleefully. Colin had been capable — hell, he’d been more than capable — when it came to fighting the Empire, when everything had been black and white. Now, facing a multi-sided war and knowing that the wrong action could cause more damage in the long run, he had far more difficulty in taking action. It wasn’t an unprecedented situation — human history had been full of them — but it was the first Colin had faced in his entire experience. She doubted that there was anyone alive with the kind of experience Colin needed.
“That we saw our own chance at power and took it,” she said. It felt so good to say it, after spending weeks buttering up the egos of power-seekers on Earth, while trying to mislead Parliament into accepting the Cottbus Sector as an independent state. She hadn’t been brought up to be bluntly honest, in a universe where speaking truth to power could have disastrous consequences, but when she was Empress of the Empire, she would change that. How could anyone survive and prosper when no one dared to tell them when they were making a mistake? “How are we any different from you?”
Colin looked at her, his expression unreadable. “You’re in this for power,” he said, slowly. “I wanted to reshape the Empire itself.”
“The same as us,” Carola said, calmly. “Dare I assume that you have a message you want me to pass on to Markus?”
“There will be no message,” Colin said, flatly. He looked down at her thoughtfully. “I studied the records of the battle carefully. Your husband lured my people into a trap, just as he did with the cruisers, and opened fire. There will be no peace.”