"Captain Harrington, I" His voice was husky, and he had to stop and cough, then blinked hard and cleared his throat noisily.
"Thank you," he said finally. "You saved my family's lives, and my own. I am eternally in your debt."
The live side of Honor's face heated, and she shook her head.
"Sir, you saved my life in the end. And I was only protecting myself, as well."
"Of course." Mayhew managed a tired smile. "That's why you and your treecat" His eyes cut suddenly to her unoccupied shoulder. "He is all right, isn't he? I understood"
"He's fine, Sir." She kicked herself for speaking too quickly in her haste to reassure him, for the words had come out so slurred they were almost incomprehensible. Rather than embarrass herself by repeating them, she scooped Nimitz up and exhibited him to the com pickup, and Mayhew relaxed a bit.
"Thank God for that! Elaine was almost as worried over him as we've all been over you, Captain."
"We're tough, Sir," she said slowly and distinctly. "We'll be all right."
He looked doubtfully at her crippled face and tried to hide his dismay. He knew Manticoran medical science was better than anything available on Grayson, but he'd seen the bloody wreckage of her eye as the RMN medicsand grim-faced Royal Manticoran Marines in full battle dresswhisked her away. The rest of the damage looked even worse now, and her slurred speech and paralyzed muscles were only too evident ... and hideous. The swollen, frozen deadness of a face which had been so mobile and expressive was a desecration, and despite any off-world sophistication, he was a Grayson. Nothing could completely eradicate the belief that women were supposed to be protected, and the fact that she'd suffered her injuries protecting him only made it worse.
"Really, Sir. We'll be fine," she said, and he decided he had no choice but to take her at her word.
"I'm glad to hear it. In the meantime, however," his voice turned suddenly harsher, "I thought you might like to hear who was behind the coup."
"You know?" Honor leaned forward and felt Venizelos and Truman stiffen with matching interest.
"Yes." Mayhew looked almost physically ill. "We've got his confession on tape. It was my cousin Jared."
"Your cousin?" Honor gasped before she could stop herself, and he nodded miserably.
"Apparently all his anti-Masadan rhetoric's been nothing more than a cover, Captain. He's been working for them for over eight years. In fact, Councilman Clinkscales now thinks he was the second `Maccabeus,' not the first. He thinks my Uncle Oliver passed the position on to him when he died."
"My God," Honor whispered.
"We're just starting to put it all together," Mayhew went on in that same wretched tone, "but Security got several assassins alive, mainly thanks to your treecat. Aside from the first one he attacked, he seems to have settled for blinding his opponents. I'm afraid only one of the ones you hit survived."
Honor said nothing. She merely sat watching his expression and feeling his pain. She was an only child, but the Harrington clan was an extensive one. She didn't need anyone to tell her how terribly it must hurt to know his own cousin had plotted his family's murder.
"At any rate," the Protector continued after a moment, "Howard and his people took them into custody, patched them up, and interrogated them. Howard won't tell me exactly how. I think he's afraid I wouldn't approve of his methods, but whatever he did to them, some of them talked fairly quickly, and he's been able to put together at least a rough chronology.
"Apparently Masada's been building a fifth column out of our own reactionaries ever since the last war. We never even guessedsomething else Howard blames himself forbut that was because, religious fanatics or not, these `Maccabeans' apparently realized their ideals were too divorced from the mainstream for them to achieve anything by open resistance or guerrilla warfare. So instead of coming into the open and alienating the population as a wholenot to mention warning Security of their existencethey've been waiting until they thought they had a chance to decapitate the state in one blow."
"And replace you with your cousin," Honor said flatly.
"Precisely." Mayhew's voice was equally flat. "None of the assassins had ever actually met him, but the support they'd been givengenuine uniforms and IDs, the exact guard schedule, detailed maps, Palace Security's challenges and countersignsall pointed to someone inside the palace itself. And they could tell Howard's people how to locate the `Maccabean' communications net, which led him to a couple of plotters who did know who `Maccabeus' was."
Mayhew looked away for a moment.
"Howard was devastated. He and Jared have been close Council allies for years, and he felt personally betrayed. But instead of arresting him immediately, Howard confronted him in person, and Jared was stupid enoughor desperate enoughto admit he was Maccabeus. Apparently he hoped Howard shared enough of his beliefs to join him. I imagine he thought the two of them together could still kill me and put Jared in my place. Instead, Howard recorded the entire conversation, then called in his people to arrest him."
"Protector Benjamin," Honor said softly, "you have my sincere sympathy. To know your cousin"
"If Jared could betray my planet to Masada, if he could plot to kill my family and succeed in killing men who protected me from birth," Mayhew said harshly, "he is no cousin of mine! The law of Grayson sets only one penalty for what he's done, Captain Harrington. When the time comes, he'll pay it."
Honor bent her head silently, and the Protector's nostrils flared. Then he shook himself.
"At any rate, he's clammed up since his arrest. Whatever else he may be, he seems to hold his beliefs honestly. But he made the mistake of keeping records. They've told Howard a lot, and he believes he can break the entire organization with them.
"It seems Jared's position as Minister of Industry was the key to the entire plot. His father, my uncle, held the same position before him, and they'd placed entire crews of Maccabeans on some of the mining and construction ships. The Masadans have been slipping in and out of Yeltsin for some timeMike tells me it probably wasn't difficult if they translated into n-space beyond detection range, then came in under minimal powerand Jared's Maccabean crews have been rendezvousing with them as his couriers to Masada.
"Howard isn't positive, but he now believes this war was launched not as a genuine bid to conquer us militarily but to create panic. According to one of Jared's people, the plan was for him to have Michael and myself killed at what he judged was the proper psychological moment. That would have made him Protector, and if there'd been enough fear and confusion, he could have made himself dictator, as well, on the pretext of dealing with the crisisat which point he would have `negotiated an end to the hostilities.' Ending the war without Masada's actually attacking the planet itself was supposed to cement his hold on power, after which he'd have appointed like-minded cronies to positions of power in order to `reform' us into voluntarily accepting the Masadan line and, eventually, amalgamating with Endicott."
"I can't believe he'd have succeeded," Honor murmured.
"I don't think so either, but he did, and he'd managed to convince Masada. And if it could have been pulled off, it would have been perfect from the Faithful's viewpoint. They'd have gotten their hands on us and our industry without all the damage a fight to the finish would inflict, and Jared would have terminated our negotiations with you as his very first step. With your Kingdom out of the way, Masadawhich, Howard tells me, is definitely working with Havenwould've had the only outside ally. If his `reform' approach failed, they still could have used that edge to pick us off any time."