Gwen nodded and raised her own hand, showing her own surveillance-detection and blocking readout, also displaying steady green. That was their insurance that every security system monitoring this spot had been temporarily diverted, spoofed, or blinded. The crowds walking by could see them, but no one monitoring their location remotely could hear or see them at all. As far as the surveillance systems were concerned, they weren’t there. State-of-the-art equipment like theirs didn’t come cheap, and finding out all the necessary codes to mislead the equipment wasn’t easy, but those were some of the benefits of being a president. “Any problems?” she murmured.
“No,” her source replied. He didn’t seem nervous at all, appearing bored to the casual observer. “What is the difficulty? You know how risky this is.”
“I need answers now, and I need to know that they are accurate answers,” Iceni said. “What is Drakon doing?”
Her source paused, but more as if thinking than hesitating. “Nothing out of the ordinary. There’s a lot of work to be done overseeing the return of our brigades to the surface and catching up on things here now that he’s back.”
“Is he moving against me?”
Another pause, this time apparently in surprise. “No.”
“If you betray me now, either before I die or soon after I die, Drakon will learn who has been giving me information about him.”
“I have no doubt of that.” Her source shook his head. “He is not acting against you. That’s not to say there is no threat. But it’s not from him.”
“Why is he acting odd?” Iceni demanded.
This was a longer pause. “He slept with Colonel Morgan.”
“Oh.”
She wondered what her tone had conveyed as her source gave her a sharp look. “General Drakon got drunk. She took advantage of that. He slept with her one time and only one time. That is what he feels guilty about.”
“You’re joking.” She would have to be blind not to see how desirable Colonel Morgan would be to a man, and Iceni had lived long enough not to expect perfection from any man, especially when it came to his behavior with women. But she could still be disappointed when a man lived down to her expectations. “One time?”
“Yes. He will not repeat it.”
She had picked up something in his own voice. “What disturbs you about that?”
“You know that I don’t trust her. I am afraid she had some other goal when she seduced General Drakon and will try to use that night to her advantage.”
“If he’s going to take some crazy whore to his bed, he should expect problems,” Iceni said, hearing her own voice get sharp and angry. It sounded like she was taking the incident personally, which was ridiculous.
“She’s not crazy, at least not the way that you’re thinking. Morgan acts in ways that cause others to underestimate her. For many of those others, underestimating her was the last mistake they ever made. She is very good at planning for both the long and the short term. She has some plan now. Do not take her too lightly.”
Iceni made an irate sound. “Then perhaps we would be better off without her to worry about. No matter how dangerous she is, she can be eliminated. No one is invincible.”
“I strongly advise against such a plan and such an action. I will not cooperate in it.”
She felt frustrated now, as well as angry. “You hate her as much as anyone. You’ve tried to kill her already, and you’re advising me not to?”
Colonel Bran Malin grimaced. “I did not try to kill her.”
“Why not?”
Another pause. “Three reasons,” Malin said. “First, she’s very tough and very smart. Any attempt would have a rough time succeeding, and the repercussions from a failure would be extremely serious. Second, General Drakon values her advice and abilities. If he found out that anyone had planned a hit on Morgan, he would be very unhappy. If he discovered I had a role in it, my access to him would be forever eliminated. He would not forgive anyone, not even me, for an attack on someone he considers a faithful subordinate. I very nearly lost my access because of the . . . misunderstanding during the attack on the orbital facility here. Drakon would never have believed me or forgiven me if, during that incident, I had not killed someone who definitely did intend on killing Morgan. If he suspected you in an assassination attempt, it might motivate him to strike at you in the belief that a hit on Morgan was just a prelude to a direct attack on him.”
The arguments made too much sense to be ignored, though she doubted his explanation for the “misunderstanding” in which he had fired at Morgan. There was something else there, but she couldn’t tell what it was. “What is the third reason?” Iceni demanded.
Malin’s expression revealed nothing as he shook his head. “That is a private matter.”
“I want to know it.”
“I regret to disappoint you.”