What had she been told about jump drives? Iceni frowned, thinking, then nodded. “Captain Bradamont told me something, confirming what I had seen in a Syndicate intelligence report. Do you remember when Black Jack’s fleet hit Sancere?”
“Not really. That was a big Syndicate shipbuilding star system, right?”
“Yes,” Iceni confirmed. “The thing is, Black Jack’s fleet shouldn’t have been able to reach Sancere from the star system where they entered jump space. But he knew some tricks, from the old days, that allowed the range of the jump drives to be extended a bit. The Syndicate had guessed that was what he had done, and Bradamont confirmed it for me.”
Drakon gazed at the star display again, plainly reevaluating his earlier assessment. “If the enigmas can jump farther than we think, far enough to access human space from other stars, why haven’t they done it already?”
“Maybe they’re trying to figure out how to do it. But how would the Dancers have learned of that?” She glared at the glittering stars on the display in frustration. “Every question we have just leads to more questions.”
“One thing I do know,” Drakon said. “Speaking in military terms. When you hit an obstacle, there are two approaches you can try. The first is to keep hitting it, trying to break through it. That happens a lot. The other approach is to go around it, to try to find some way of bypassing the obstacle. I don’t care how enigmas or Dancers think. Those are basic realities. The enigmas have tried going through Midway twice, and they’ve been thrown back twice. That’s another reality. So, either they keep trying to push into human space through Midway, or they try to find a way around us.”
“A different star?” Iceni chewed her lower lip as she looked at the star display. “It doesn’t help much, does it? If we don’t have a range to work with, any human star could potentially be within range of the enigma jump drives. Which ones are the different ones that we’re supposed to watch?”
“Maybe the astrophysicists can give us some clues,” Drakon suggested.
“Maybe they can. I’ll tell them to get together with our best jump-drive technicians.” Iceni smiled. “It will drive them crazy. Theoretical physicists hate dealing with engineers.”
“And vice versa,” Drakon pointed out.
Iceni sighed. “There’s been something I’ve been avoiding asking, but since we brought up the subject of crazy…”
He didn’t need her to specify what she meant. “I don’t know whether or not Colonel Morgan is dead,” Drakon said bluntly, his voice harsh. “But, as of when I left Ulindi, she had not contacted any of our people or been found by anyone, and there were a lot of ways she could have died. Odds are, what’s left of her is buried in the rubble of the snake alternate command center.”
Drakon shrugged before continuing. “If she didn’t die there, well, planets are big places, and that planet has a lot of smashed buildings and craters and rubble now. They’ll still be finding remains of people in the wreckage a century from now.”
As much as she did not want to feel any sympathy for Drakon where Morgan was concerned, Iceni could see how his shrug was an unsuccessful attempt to cover up his own distress. “I know she served you well, but she also betrayed you. If she died in the line of duty, that may have been the best possible outcome.”
“Yes. If she died,” Drakon agreed, nodding heavily.
“You think she might still be alive?”
“Until I see a body, I will not be sure. Morgan could be almost superhuman at times.”
“And you are no longer concerned about the child, who by this time might already have been born?”
Drakon sat looking at nothing for several seconds before replying. “Either Morgan’s fail-safe plans took effect, and the girl is already dead as well, or what Morgan told me about provisions being made was true, and the girl has been allowed to survive Morgan’s death. That will give me time to find her.”
He focused on Iceni. “That makes one more person we need to find, but it seems to me the priority is to find your former assistant.”
“We do not know he acted against us,” Iceni repeated. “He may be pursuing whoever did pass that information to the Syndicate.”
Drakon let his skepticism show. “I’m sure that’s what he will say. If he shows up at your door. You changed all your codes, so he shouldn’t be able to get through that door.”
Iceni shook her head. “If Togo wants to get somewhere, he’ll do it. The tougher the defense, the longer he will take to get through, but he will succeed.” She lightly tapped one sleeve of her jacket, the one from which Drakon had once seen a weapon appear with startling swiftness. “If necessary, I can defend myself, and I will shoot to kill, but my chances against him, if he has turned, are not nearly as good as I would like.”
“Do you need extra security?” Drakon asked. “I can send over some people and some equipment.”
“Me?” Iceni laughed. “Need extra protection? I’m invincible, General Drakon. The people idolize me.”
“I saw the vids,” Drakon said. “You did look invincible.” It was hard to tell how he felt about that.
“You didn’t see me once I got back inside this office,” Iceni said. She let her defenses slip. There was quite literally no one else with whom she could share this. “I am frightened, Artur.”
He sat straighter, alarmed in a way that gratified her. “Of what?”
“Them. The people. Not in the Syndicate way. I am frightened of what they will do for me, what I can ask of them. You weren’t there, Artur. You didn’t feel it.” Iceni ran both hands through her hair. “I got back into this office when it was over, and I swear I could hear the gods laughing at me. Have you ever held a weapon so dangerous that you were afraid to use it?”
“It really felt like that?” Drakon asked.
“Yes. I know that I can do some very big things now, Artur. But that means I can make some very big mistakes.” She closed her eyes, seeing the vast crowd again in her memory. “We’ve been worried about giving them more freedom, enough freedom, enough rights, that they wouldn’t revolt against us.”
“Yes,” Drakon said. “The last elections should have kept them quieter longer than this.”
“No!” She opened her eyes and glared at him. “They didn’t want more freedom from me. They wanted a leader. They wanted safety and security and surety. I could have reinstituted all sorts of Syndicate rules then and there, and they would have cheered me.”
Drakon just stared at her. “You’re sure of that?”
“Positive. They will do what I ask, but I still can’t force them. Does that make any sense? It’s true. Let’s lay this out. You must know from what Colonel Rogero told you that the ground forces can no longer be used to enforce our rule.”
“Yes,” Drakon agreed. “Which means I can’t launch a coup against you.”
She lowered her hands and deepened her glare. “That wasn’t my point. I still consider this a partnership.”
“Even though you no longer have to consider it a partnership?” Drakon smiled thinly. “Thanks. It’s been trending this way for a while. I’ve seen it. To the citizens, and to the mobile forces, you’re the one in charge. I’m your senior assistant.”
“You are my partner,” Iceni insisted.
“Not to the citizens. And you were just talking about how much power they have given you.”
“It’s not like I could order my warships to bombard the planet! I’m not talking about coercion! Don’t you understand that?”
“Yes, I do.” Drakon shrugged again. “It’s called leadership. Real leadership. It’s why my division followed me here and why they followed me when we moved against the Syndicate. You’ve built something stronger than that with the citizens, and,” he continued, “you earned it. That was an incredibly gutsy move, facing that crowd with nothing between you and them but whatever defenses were worked into your suit.”