''He's not on Turantic.'' The Senator sighed.
''You can't run a world like that without fallout. Yesterday my friends and I tried to get a handle on your planet. We used the official sites, analyzed the numbers. The numbers didn't add up. Didn't cross-check. You have three definitions of profit and only one of them shows growth,'' Kris said, as much the industrialist's granddaughter as the Prime Minister's daughter.
''Ah.'' Kay chuckled. ''Our stock market has grown for six straight years, hasn't it, Inspector?''
''Every year I get glowing reports from my fund managers claiming spectacular growth. Strangely, for the last three years there hasn't been much extra money to show for it.''
''Productivity up?'' Kris asked.
''The official reports say so.''
''Where's the money going?''
The Senator shrugged.
''It's going somewhere,'' Kris said.
''Certainly. But,'' the woman spread her hands wide, ''I can't tell you, and could get locked up for looking too hard.''
''Nelly, have you got an answer?''
''I noted discontinuities when I first researched Turantic. Now here, I could attempt a better answer, but I would have to go beyond what is available in the public domain.''
''So even your computer can't find a pattern in the available data. If she goes beyond what's posted, you break laws this government is quick to prosecute.''
''Nelly, hold off on further research,'' Kris said, not willing to risk jail for her computer's newfound initiative.
''Yes, ma'am.''
But Kris wasn't willing to quit without tackling at least one more question. ''Nelly, the civilian Turantic fleet has been brought in for upgrade to new safety standards. Should the work required by law be completed by now?''
''Yes, ma'am. It should be done.''
''Yet shifts go on around the clock in the yards. Equipment, some of it quite large, still goes up the elevator.''
The Senator shrugged. ''And I hear, with so many people out of work in our foreign trade, even more are hiring on at the yard and the plants that feed into it. Interesting, isn't it?''
''More than interesting. Do you know anything about what's being shipped up to the yard?''
''Don't know a thing. Some of my biggest supporters bid on those contracts. All went to a Tory supporter. Strange, that.''
Kris thought for a moment. ''Have any of your friends hired anyone away from the winners?''
That drew a chuckle. ''You sound more like a businesswoman than a Navy type. As a matter of fact, no. Lately there hasn't been much job changing. And there are very draconian laws enforcing the nondisclosure agreements that several companies require their staff to sign. I am not sure any manager or scientist could change employers just now and not violate them.''
''Draconian laws passed in the last two years?''
''Three years, I believe, for that one.''
''We're tying up now,'' an Agent announced. The Senator joined her husband and groggy child. Kris let them have a fifteen-minute lead before she and her crew went topside. Other larger yachts were already tied up at the new Yacht Club. On their decks, music, laughter, and talk wafted on the fitful breeze as parties continued, unaffected by death or weather.
''I thought the race was still going,'' Kris said.
''It is, but some, like Tommy here, take less chances with the wind and rain than others do,'' Jack said, giving Tom a nudge.
Klaggath signed that his team was ready. Kris made ready to dodge the newsies ranked before her at the foot of the pier.
''Was this another attempt on your life, Princess?'' shouted several at once. ''Do you credit Nuu Enterprises' withholding of vaccines for this public hatred?'' was there, too. ''Didn't you consider you were putting that little girl at risk when you went racing with her?'' rankled, but ''Is Wardhaven going to invade Turantic?'' stopped her. Jack was stepping forward to do the usual begging off, she was tired, routine, when Kris stopped him with a gentle elbow to the stomach.
Gluing on a sincere and flashy smile, Kris stepped forward. ''I'm sorry. The police haven't told me what happened out there.'' That was true; she'd been telling the police. ''You will have to ask them. However, I can tell you everyone at Nuu Enterprises is moving heaven and earth to get the people of Turantic what they need to beat this threatening epidemic. Remember, I can't leave your beautiful planet until the quarantine is lifted. And I'm just as much at risk as any of you.'' Kris let that sink in. Most of the newsies were nodding agreement.
One wasn't. ''But isn't Wardhaven's Navy, some of it paid for with our tax money, poised to invade us if we don't accept membership in their new Society?''
Kris kept her face blank; Nelly was chasing rumors, but that one hadn't shown up. This was probably the launch for it. Kris spoke carefully. ''Wardhaven prospered in the last eighty years of peace. I don't know anyone on Wardhaven who wants to throw that away. Our Navy is the minimum needed for defense.''
''But aren't they drafting everyone? Even you, a Princess!''
''Lord no. I volunteered, much to my father's dismay and my mother's disappointment,'' Kris said, trying to keep anger out of her voice and her pacing slow and friendly. She put on one of Tommy's lopsided grins. ''I could have those reactions confused. Mother's dismay. Father's disappointment. It was rather noisy around the house that evening.'' That drew understanding laughs.
''But isn't it true Wardhaven attacked Turantic in 2318, and King Raymond led that assault?'' her inquisitor shouted. Heads turned toward the reporter; he had their attention now.
Kris allowed herself several blinks as if she was deep in thought. She'd read just about everything in print on her great-grandparents, including the obscure stuff before they started filling up the school's history books. It was a minor part of Grampa Ray's early life, but Kris remembered it.
''I think you have the date wrong,'' she said. ''It was over a hundred years ago. Those were the bad old days before the Society. Before even Unity. And as for my Grampa Ray leading the attack, you have to be kidding. Back then he was a brand-new Second Lieutenant. As a fresh-caught Ensign, I can tell you, we don't lead anything. We go where we're told. And I'm told I have to go now, so I hope you will excuse me.''
The assenting murmurs drowned out the next question from the gadfly, and Kris made good her escape to the limo.
One woman newsie managed to slip through the security screen. ''I see you're wearing a police department sweatsuit. Is it going to be the latest in fashion statements?''
''The cop who gave it to me said I'd earned it,'' Kris said.
''Takes a lot to earn this crew's respect.''
''Then you'll have to ask them what they liked,'' Kris said as she settled into her seat and Jack shut the door.
''Who was she?'' Kris asked as Klaggath took his place. A bang on the limo's roof, and the car pulled away.
''Her old lady's a retired cop,'' Klaggath said. ''She brought Amy around to the station when she wasn't a week old. I thought for sure she'd follow her mom onto the force, but she got bit by the writer's bug and went bad.'' That drew a laugh.
''But the stories she writes are good. She knows how to dig and doesn't settle for the easy crap. And her editor has guts enough to publish what she brings in. I expect her story tomorrow will make interesting reading.''
A pouring rain started that caused the limo driver to slow. Kris rested her eyes out the window at a view that went from wealthy retreat to rural and then well-treed suburbia. She knew about as much as she was going to learn… without breaking a law. At her father's knee she'd learned information was power. Somebody here wanted all that power. If Kris was to do anything but react to that power, she needed a lot more information than she had. Interesting do-loop she was caught in.
Kris came up for air just long enough to argue with Penny when she asked to be dropped off a few blocks from her apartment.