WITH THE LIGHTNINGS(44)

"He's bragging," Adele's companion whispered. They were only twenty feet from the dais. "But he surely has reason to, doesn't he?"

"He does if he survives the night," Adele said.

"Even more if he doesn't!" the Kostroman replied. He was too young to know how to fake gallantry.

Casque Trading was one of the oldest and largest firms of its sort in the Alliance. This girl seemed young to represent the Casques on so important a trading system as Kostroma, but her being a daughter of the house explained the choice.

The girl bowed, then smiled as she ran her blue eyes across the assemblage. Adele felt their touch. The intelligence within that pretty package was just as real—and as hard—as the thigh muscles.

"I want to thank you and to thank your entire planet for the kindness and hospitality you continue to show me," she said. Her voice was clear and perfectly modulated; perhaps a trifle studied for the ingenue she looked like, but quite in keeping for the local head of an important trading company. "The settlement of Kostroma was a happy day for me and for Casque Trading, as well as for all you wonderful people."

She gripped Grand Admiral Sanaus's hand, bowed again—so deeply that Adele suspected the fabric of her top was glued—and hopped off the dais. She handed Admiral Sanaus down herself, ignoring the aide's attempt to get involved.

"She's really something, isn't she?" Adele's companion said. Conversation had picked up so he was able to speak in a normal voice without fearing the admiral would overhear. "And very wealthy, from what I hear."

"The Casques are old money," Adele said. Her words weren't the agreement the boy probably thought they were. "The founder of the family was a member of the original colony on Pleasaunce, and because the Casques are close to government circles they've grown wealthier as the Alliance has expanded."

"Remarkable," the Kostroman said, watching the woman who called herself Mirella Casque walk away on the arm of his superior.

Remarkable indeed. The woman had a Bryce accent: she was no more a Casque than Adele herself was. The family was a useful cover to explain the amounts of money "Mirella" was almost certainly spending to cultivate the leaders of the Kostroman navy.

Adele didn't know who the woman really was, but she had a good idea of who the woman worked for. Not the Fifth Bureau, though. More likely one of the aspects of Alliance military intelligence.

From what Adele had seen while she worked at the Academic Collections, spies of rival branches of the same nation didn't get along any better than professors at the same university were likely to.



Candace drove the aircar well and fast. The women weren't professionals; so long as the car was in Kostroma City they sat on the two seats in the vehicle's closed back where they couldn't be seen. Margrethe, Candace's "special friend," had a nipped-in waist between a remarkable bosom and lush hips; Bet, Daniel's date for the afternoon and evening, wasn't so much petite as egg-shaped. Her face, framed with lustrous black ringlets, was extraordinarily pretty.

"Benno"—Candace to Daniel—"tells us Cinnabar has the greatest navy there ever was, Lieutenant Leary," Margrethe said. She gave Daniel a smile that showed her dimples. "You certainly have lovely uniforms."

Bet giggled behind her hand and whispered something in her friend's ear. She winked at Daniel and giggled again.

Daniel was wearing his 2nd Class uniform as the best compromise between his needs and his means. Although Bet was already hooked, so to speak, Daniel was too good a craftsman to wear civilian clothes and miss the effect the uniform could have on the girl he was meeting. On the other hand, he wasn't going to risk his full-dress Whites at a rundown fishing lodge.

"We're fortunate to have allies like Kostroma," Daniel said cheerfully. Candace didn't look best pleased at the way both women were fawning over the exotic stranger. He'd been very well aware when Margrethe leaned forward to point out her parents' townhouse to Daniel—and flopped a breast on his shoulder in the process.

The car was over open sea by now. The water was shallow. Knobs rose from the sea floor, their crests fringed with coral and sponges in colored bands varied by depth. Fish swam among the fixed life-forms. They were as brilliant as daubs of light flung from diffraction gratings.

Daniel looked over the side, wishing that he'd brought an identification chart. The Aglaia's database wasn't complete on Kostroman sea life, but he was sure that Adele could have downloaded something suitable if he'd thought to ask her.

"What do you think of Kostroman girls, Lieutenant Leary?" Margrethe asked. "I'm afraid we must seem very provincial to someone who's travelled the way you have."