Leoh asked, “Then what can you do?”
“I can do very little. But you can do much. I cannot call the Star Watch for help. But you can contact your friend. Sir Harold, and suggest that he ask me for permission to bring a Star Watch fleet through the Cluster. Any excuse will do … battle maneuvers, exploration, cultural exchange, anything.”
Leoh shifted uneasily in his chair. “You want me to ask Harold to ask you….”
“Yes, that’s it.” Martine nodded briskly. “And it must be a small Star Watch fleet, quite small. To the rest of Acquatainia, it must appear obvious that the Terran ships are not being sent here to help defend us against Kerak. But to Kanus, it must be equally obvious that he cannot attack Acquatainia without the risk of killing Watchmen and immediately involving the Commonwealth.”
“I think I understand,” said Leoh, with a rueful smile. “Einstein was right; nuclear physics is much simpler than politics.”
Martine laughed, but there was bitterness in it.
Kanus sat in brooding silence behind his immense desk, his thin, sallow face dark with displeasure. Sitting with him in the oversized office, either looking up at him t his cunningly elevated desk, or avoiding his sullen stare, were most of the members of his Inner Cabinet.
At length, the Leader spoke. “We had the Acquataine Cluster in our grasp, and we allowed an old refugee from a university and a half-wit Watchman to snatch it away from us, Kor! You told me the plan was foolproof!”
The Minister of Intelligence remained calm, except for a telltale glistening of perspiration on his bullet-shaped dome. “It was foolproof, until….”