Suddenly energetic, Mike slid himself into his chair. “Okay. First. You’re right. Get von Spee in here, ASAP. Second, get in touch with Spartacus and tell him I’ll want a private meeting. Private as in private. If I have to, I’ll use regular soldiers and goddamit firing squads to put a stop to any and all anti-Jesuit riots from now on. But I’d really prefer it if the Committees handled the problem informally.”
“Ah, I believe what you’re alluding to is actually illegal, Michael, not ‘informal.’ ”
“Sure is,” Mike said cheerfully. “And be assured that I will so inform Spartacus in no uncertain terms. If I catch the Committees doing anything illegal like pounding the crap out of stinking bigot lynch mobs, I will have them charged and prosecuted to the full extent and rigor of the laws.”
“Amazing, really,” mused Nasi.
“What?”
“I do not believe I have ever heard a sentence that long which had almost the entirety of its emphasis upon a single word in it. ‘Catch.’ The rest was practically a murmur.”
Mike just grinned. “Third. Get in touch with Morris in Prague and have him feel out Wallenstein. Shouldn’t be a problem, I don’t think. Wallenstein’s always been partial to the Jesuits. He’ll probably be tickled pink.” The prime minister paused for a moment. “I don’t suppose there’s any way we could get him to think we’re trying to make amends for the ruckus over the copper business, is there?”
Nasi enjoyed the opportunity to bestow a placid look upon his boss.
“Right,” Stearns snorted. “Grow up, Mike. ‘Wallenstein’ and ‘moron’ don’t belong in the same sentence either. So it goes. Fourth. Start sending out feelers—quietly, you understand; I don’t need my stubborn Lutheran emperor hollering at me—suggesting that any Jesuit educational project will be more than welcome to set up shop in the USE. Um. Well, hold off on that until we’ve had a chance to consult with von Spee. We gotta be slick, here. We really can’t afford to show our hand openly. Gustav Adolf hollers really, really good, if I say so myself as shouldn’t.”
Nasi nodded. Mike Stearns was capable of hollering superbly well himself, though he rarely chose to. But Gustav Adolf was in a league of his own. “We should be able to manage well enough, I think. Freedom of religion is the law in the USE after all—”
“—until Wilhelm wins the election,” Mike interjected sourly.
“—and in any event, alas, the emperor is preoccupied on the war front. He’s not likely to pay much attention to the complex minutiae of educational affairs. Which—you’d be amazed—can get incredibly complex and minute. And don’t exaggerate, Michael. Wilhelm and his Crown Loyalists advocate the restoration of established churches in those provinces whose legislatures elect to do so, but he’s always been very careful to stipulate that no minority faiths—even non-Christian ones—will be penalized in any way. He even insisted on writing that in as a formal part of his party’s program.”
Mike didn’t look noticeably mollified. “Yeah, swell. So members of nonestablished churches get taxed to support the established ones, and then have to pay for their own out of their own pockets.” He blew out a breath. “Oh, well. I admit it beats pogroms and inquisitions and auto-da-fé. We do what we can, one step at a time. Mostly, by taking ten steps forward and nine steps back.”
“Which is still a step ahead,” Nasi replied. “That’s a quote, by way, from a speech I recently heard. Given by a man who, I regret to say, I have come to conclude is the most brazen politician in Europe.”
He swiveled in his chair and gazed back upon the Allegory of the Rebirth of Magdeburg. “It’s astonishing, really. I can—just barely—understand how a superb artist could visualize you in that preposterous Roman armor. But how did he manage the expression on your face?”
Mike glanced at his portrait. “That suggestion of stalwart dim-wittedness? The hint of adulation for the emperor? The mouth that looks like butter wouldn’t melt in it?”
Nasi nodded.
“I gave Pieter firm instructions, what do you think? Paid him a good bonus, too. Worth every penny. Gustavus Adolphus thinks very highly of that painting, did I mention that?”