seen that the same logic applied in part to the Federated States. Hate the Peace Fleet as they might, they could not go on record as objecting to a conference that might lead to peace. Hence the open flight rather than the usual series of cutaways and deceptions.
Esmeralda closed her book and put it away in her bag. Of the five given to her by the Balboan agent, Khalid, she’d brought two with her. She was reading it not for the story, which she found deadly dull, and not for the illustrations, but to familiarize herself to places where she was more likely to find certain key words she would need to make the simple code Khalid had given her work.
But I can contact them , thought Esmeralda. And it’s just possible they might send someone to contact me.
Hotel Cielo Dorado , Aserri, Santa Josefina, Terra Nova
Things like major conferences for international peace or the end to specific national wars rarely happen instantly. This is especially true when those calling the conference don’t really have an interest in working for peace nearly so great as they do in coordinating a war. Thus, while the Balboans were engaged in figuring out how to avoid the conference while maintaining the patina of aggrieved victim of Tauran imperialism, and while sundry TU diplomats and bureaucrats made their travel arrangements, for themselves, their wives, and their lovers . . . and sometimes all three . . . or four . . . while General Marciano arranged for a couple of companies of infantry and a company of military police for security, and while the Earthers’ ambassador arranged contracts, the people who mattered, the de facto ruler of Xing Zhong Guo, the high admiral of the Peace Fleet, and—to his considerable surprise—the chief military officer of the Tauran Union Defense Agency, General Janier, met early.
“I really don’t understand why they haven’t removed me,” said Janier, to Wallenstein, over dinner one night. “Did you . . . ?”
“No,” Wallenstein admitted. “Oh, I would have put in a word if I’d thought of it, but I was in a blue funk until well after it became obvious that you weren’t going anywhere.”
“Then why? How? I don’t—”
“They can’t admit a mistake,” said Xingzhen, more politically astute than either of her co-diners. “They can’t allow anything but the appearance of perfection. If you are relieved they have to admit something bad happened. Oh, it obviously did happen, but as long as the reality is denied with a straight face then it didn’t. Admit the truth? That would mean their perfect world, their perfect illusion of a perfect world, was a lie.”
“Oh,” said Marguerite.
“Makes sense, I suppose,” admitted Janier. “At least as much as anything else in the fantasy of the Tauran Union makes sense.”
Clever bitch, this slant-eyed bit of perfection , thought the Gaul.
“It’s a fantasy world now,” Marguerite agreed. “That’s why you always needed, and still need, a successful war. There’s no other way, pious platitudes aside, to make a real, rather than a fantasy, country.”
Esmeralda hadn’t been invited to dinner. She didn’t want to be there anyway. Instead, she had first checked the e-mail address and password for the account Khalid had given her, then encoded a brief message using one of the books she’d brought. The hotel had had a business center, but it was too open and she was afraid she’d be seen. She asked the front desk for some help and, given whose party she was in company with, they’d found her a free computer at an empty desk in a small office. From there she’d logged in to the e-mail, opened the draft coded message from the Balboans, then typed in her own message, and signed out of the account.
Legionary Recruiting Station, Cedral Multiplex Shopping Mall, Aserri, Santa Josefina, Terra Nova
Sergeant Morales, recruiter and transportation coordinator for the legion for the foreign city of Aserri, didn’t quite know what to
Esmeralda closed her book and put it away in her bag. Of the five given to her by the Balboan agent, Khalid, she’d brought two with her. She was reading it not for the story, which she found deadly dull, and not for the illustrations, but to familiarize herself to places where she was more likely to find certain key words she would need to make the simple code Khalid had given her work.
But I can contact them , thought Esmeralda. And it’s just possible they might send someone to contact me.
Hotel Cielo Dorado , Aserri, Santa Josefina, Terra Nova
Things like major conferences for international peace or the end to specific national wars rarely happen instantly. This is especially true when those calling the conference don’t really have an interest in working for peace nearly so great as they do in coordinating a war. Thus, while the Balboans were engaged in figuring out how to avoid the conference while maintaining the patina of aggrieved victim of Tauran imperialism, and while sundry TU diplomats and bureaucrats made their travel arrangements, for themselves, their wives, and their lovers . . . and sometimes all three . . . or four . . . while General Marciano arranged for a couple of companies of infantry and a company of military police for security, and while the Earthers’ ambassador arranged contracts, the people who mattered, the de facto ruler of Xing Zhong Guo, the high admiral of the Peace Fleet, and—to his considerable surprise—the chief military officer of the Tauran Union Defense Agency, General Janier, met early.
“I really don’t understand why they haven’t removed me,” said Janier, to Wallenstein, over dinner one night. “Did you . . . ?”
“No,” Wallenstein admitted. “Oh, I would have put in a word if I’d thought of it, but I was in a blue funk until well after it became obvious that you weren’t going anywhere.”
“Then why? How? I don’t—”
“They can’t admit a mistake,” said Xingzhen, more politically astute than either of her co-diners. “They can’t allow anything but the appearance of perfection. If you are relieved they have to admit something bad happened. Oh, it obviously did happen, but as long as the reality is denied with a straight face then it didn’t. Admit the truth? That would mean their perfect world, their perfect illusion of a perfect world, was a lie.”
“Oh,” said Marguerite.
“Makes sense, I suppose,” admitted Janier. “At least as much as anything else in the fantasy of the Tauran Union makes sense.”
Clever bitch, this slant-eyed bit of perfection , thought the Gaul.
“It’s a fantasy world now,” Marguerite agreed. “That’s why you always needed, and still need, a successful war. There’s no other way, pious platitudes aside, to make a real, rather than a fantasy, country.”
Esmeralda hadn’t been invited to dinner. She didn’t want to be there anyway. Instead, she had first checked the e-mail address and password for the account Khalid had given her, then encoded a brief message using one of the books she’d brought. The hotel had had a business center, but it was too open and she was afraid she’d be seen. She asked the front desk for some help and, given whose party she was in company with, they’d found her a free computer at an empty desk in a small office. From there she’d logged in to the e-mail, opened the draft coded message from the Balboans, then typed in her own message, and signed out of the account.
Legionary Recruiting Station, Cedral Multiplex Shopping Mall, Aserri, Santa Josefina, Terra Nova
Sergeant Morales, recruiter and transportation coordinator for the legion for the foreign city of Aserri, didn’t quite know what to
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