When Diplomacy Fails . . . Read Online Free

relax so easily. Things had improved for her. On the other hand, that pretty well ensured he was going to spend the weekend being a gentleman, and trying not to arouse jealousy in either of them.
    He went for a third drink.

    Joy Highland was irritated, more than usual. Minister of State was not her first choice of job, nor her final goal, but until the election she was stuck with it, and with having to do her best. That was fine. It wasn’t fine for her putative boss, that upstart little social climber, to load extra tasks on her. She wasn’t needed for the Summit on Mtali. It was just an excuse to get her off planet for a while leading up to the election. The outsystem votes weren’t enough to matter.
    Some people would be happy managing international relations on Earth and in the colonies. Managing relations, however, was not directing or leading. Or not enough to suit her.
    That upstart Cruk, when campaigning for secretary general, had violated plenty of finance and ethics policies and laws, and played the press off to his benefit. Fair enough, it got him, and the Equality Party, into power. It got her the position she held now, which was a good launching platform.
    Now, though, he remained a cheat and thief, even to his own party and administration. He might get reelected, but it would wreck them as a party if he did. Hence her campaign. It was completely legitimate. The party caucus could decide if they wished to support another run by him, or by her. If they chose him, she was just young enough to run again on the next cycle.
    Instead, he was trying to derail her early on, so he’d have minimal competition. Hunter was the only other candidate with a shot, and she could take him out any time with accumulated dirt. It wasn’t that he was dishonest. He was dishonest and clumsy.
    Cruk’s solution? Get her off planet with a small staff, to block most of her public appearances and name recognition. Any comment of hers would be twelve hours or more after the fact of the event, and she’d have only recorded second-string facetime, nothing live or leading. Well done, fucker.
    Still, if he wanted to play that game, she’d play it. Mtali was a war zone. That could be useful.
    She checked through her list while alternately responding to deputy queries. James Jaekel, her chief of staff, was going to have to manage in her absence for a while. The fastest she’d be able to respond was twelve hours, and she’d be dealing with events on Mtali. There’d be no instant feedback to keep him on track. Of course, Cruk might have planned that. Or his staff. He certainly was neither that scheming, nor that intelligent. The bureaucrats had an empty suit they could puppet, and they still whined. If she could get in . . .
    “My detail understands they are to be armed, yes?”
    “They do,” said her personal assistant, Jessie. “Does that include explosives?”
    Joy turned, holding her brush halfway to her hair. “What? Oh, hell no. Whose fucked up idea was that?”
    “An Agent Eleonora Sykora, who is a munitions disposal expert. She’s one of the ones who identified the nuke on Salin.”
    “And she wants a nuke?” That couldn’t have been what she just heard.
    “No, she apparently had a nuke at the Prescot mine on Govannon. All she’s asking for now is half a tonne of Composition G, Orbitol and Smithereen.”
    That was impressive in its arrogance. “What a bloodthirsty bitch. Maybe I can get her vote. But no, I don’t need some militaristic nutjob with explosives. The guns will work better for visibility. We don’t want to actually hurt potential voters, just make it obvious I’m actually in a hostile zone.”
    “Should I relay that message?”
    “It’s probably better to let them think it’s agreeable, and stall until they accept it.”
    “They won’t be loaded on the transport, then.”
    “Is there any way we can let . . . no, the stuff is traced, dammit. It will just have to get forgotten.”

    On Sunday