The Head leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his neck. “The best liars
know how to combine just enough truth with their lies to make them believable. She told
us quite honestly that they were going to attack, but her date was slightly off. She told us
they had a large fleet, but she understated its size enough to mislead us. I’m willing to
bet that she was telling the truth when she said she’d never met C, but her physical
description of him is not to be trusted and those telecom numbers she gave you for
reaching C are pure gibberish.”
“And that identity she gave us as ‘Gretchen Baumann’ is equally phony, right?” Yvette
said.
“The identity is real enough,” the Head said. “Gretchen Baumann was born on the planet
Kiesel forty-three years ago; but she died at the age of seven from a fall down the stairs.
She quite obviously did not grow up to be our Lady A-again, an ingenious blending of fact
and fiction.
“As far as we’ve determined to date, the story about implanting our people with post-
hypnotic suggestions to inform her conspiracy what we’re doing is pure fabrication. We’ll
check it out, of course, but I think it unlikely she would have spilled her actual source of
information. Even if she thought her victory in that battle was inevitable, she still would
have kept something in reserve.”
The Head stood up, walked around to the front of his desk and sat down on its edge. “In
the meantime, we have to concentrate on the positive. No matter how close a call we
had, we still ended up with a brilliant victory. The enemy fleet was decimated, and the
survivors have to be demoralized. If nothing else, we’ve gained ourselves some breathing
room. It’ll be quite some time before C can build his forces up again to a high enough
level to pose much of a threat; he and Lady A will have to content themselves with
harassing tactics in the meantime. And there’s always the chance that after this defeat
they’ll give up their conspiracy plans altogether.”
“There’s always the chance DesPlaines will turn to chocolate,” Yvette said dryly, “but I
wouldn’t put much faith in it…
At this point Helena stuck her head in the door from the outer office. “That call’s coming
in from Luna Base, Father.” The Head nodded. “Khorosho, I’ll take it in here.”
Jules stood up nervously. “If it’s something personal, we could leave.”
“I wouldn’t hear of it. It is personal, but not for me. Please stay, all of you.”
He turned to his screen, which was beginning to flicker, and in another moment the image
of the caller appeared. It was none other than their new Empress, who was interrupting
her inspection tour of Luna Base to talk specifically to these superb secret agents.
Jules and Yvette knew Edna rather well, Pias and Yvonne less so-but none of them had
spoken to her since her ascension to the Throne. All were a little flustered at this
unexpected contact, but Pias-ever the gallant-recovered first. He stood and bowed
deeply with a sweeping gesture. “Your Majesty, I’m honored,” he said.
Edna watched with amusement as the others echoed his behavior. “I’m still the same
person I was before,” she told them. “I expect my friends to treat me in private as a
friend, not as some fragile china doll on a shaky pedestal. I called because I wanted to
thank you for all you’ve done so far, and to wish you continued success.”
“Thank us?” Jules said. “Our failure nearly wrecked the Empire.”
“Zander showed me your report on Gastonia, and I think it’s remarkable,” Edna said. “I’m
not talking about your being duped into carrying false information, or the fact that Lady A
and Tanya Boros escaped. The information about the planet itself was fascinating. I’d
had no idea that kind of thing was going on. And particularly to learn of the many innocent
people condemned to a life of barbarity simply because they were born of traitorous
parents-that’s not the kind of thing I want occurring, in my Empire. I think the concept of
Gastonia as a prison world has outlived its usefulness; Stephanie was never my favorite
ancestor, anyway. I intend to call a meeting of the Imperial Council to discuss alternate
ways of dealing with traitors-and all this reform has come about because of your work.
Hardly a failure, I’d say.
“And as for Yvette and Pias, the information you obtained with Captain Fortier, and the
actions the three of you took, helped keep my reign from being the shortest on record.
Pias in particular.” She turned to look directly at the Newforester. “I’m told that the
piloting you did was … quite remarkable.” “Never had a lesson,” Pias replied.
“You might try a few,” Edna scolded lightly. “If you hadn’t had such heroic success, I
might now have to consider grounding you permanently on some rather serious charges.”
Pias’s face fell. “Reckless flying, I suppose.”
Edna smiled, taking all the sting out of her words. “No,” she said. “Actually I was thinking
of saving an Empire without a license.”