DROPSHIP FUJINAMI
NEW EXETER SPACEPORT
EMPORIA
FEDERATED SUNS
7 APRIL 3150
1630 HOURS
Yoshizawa couldn’t get the baron’s last words out of his mind. A man who has nothing left to lose will do anything to take down an opponent. The thought concerned him. He would have to have his people look for more trickery than the MechWarriors’ juvenile approach of resistance. Perhaps he’d been too comfortable with his easy victory. It was early days still.
“Beyond the bruising to your throat, you’re fine,” Dai-i Sumiko Nakata said. “I’ve given you something for the swelling.” The doctor marked something down on her noteputer. “If you still have trouble swallowing tomorrow, inform me or Chu-i Lo. He is discreet.” She gestured to the man tending to Sumi.
What does the baron have planned? Yoshizawa wondered, still distracted. “What of the captives?”
“The baroness is dead. Chu-i Lo treated Vogel just enough for him to live through the night. Per your orders. Though he was given nothing for the pain.”
“Good.” He dismissed the doctor with a wave of the hand.
Sumi waited until they were alone before she spoke. Then she whirled on him. “What were you thinking, putting yourself in danger like that?”
“You forget your place.” He ground his teeth, biting back the harsher insults and words that struggled to get out.
“I forget nothing, Takeji. You forget I’m more than a mere courier. You also forget how important you are to the Seventh.” This last blunted the brewing argument between them.
Yoshizawa shook his head. “What were you doing there? You could have been killed.” Just the thought of explaining Sumi’s death to her grandfather coiled his stomach into something tight and unpleasant.
“You could have been, too. Good thing I was there. And armed.” She raised her chin and lowered her voice. “As my oyabun’s shingiin, I ask again. What were you thinking?”
She walked a dangerous line between dai-i courier and yakuza shingiin. They both knew it. They locked eyes for a long moment. She dropped hers first, giving him the upper hand despite her superior rank in the Yoshida-gumi. Yes, he would have to force her to leave sooner than he’d wanted. Of all his counselors, she was the one who held something above him, and that could not stand.
He walked to the mirror and looked at the bruises around his neck. They were an ugly, swollen red that would deepen into purple over time. He would need to wear clothing that hid them from his people. He also needed to hide the pain of his aching head. Anything stronger than the mild painkiller he’d already taken would dull his senses too much, and he needed all of his facilities working at top form.
From his vantage point, he saw Sumi wasn’t watching him. She looked at her face in a hand mirror. She had a couple of bruises that could be hidden by makeup, but the swelling was obvious. He ignored her repeated question. “Clearly, you did not decide to sit in on my interview with Vogel and Blanc because you thought I was incompetent…” It came out as a statement, but hung in the air like a question.
Sumi’s sneer at Blanc’s name disappeared and smoothed into something much more neutral and wary. She put the mirror down. “They are going to assume you hit me.”
He turned from the wall mirror and shrugged. While he cared what his soldiers thought of him, it was common knowledge that the two of them were lovers. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d struck a lover or a subordinate. “Let them think what they want to think. If someone has the courage to ask, I will tell them you saved me from an assassination attempt. Now. Why were you in my interview room?”
“Beyond saving your life?” Sumi tilted her head and folded her hands in her lap. She looked demure, sweet, and obedient. Both of them knew she was nothing of the kind. “Getting time with you to discuss business has been difficult.”
“I’ve been busy.”
“You’ve been toying with the captives and allowing your personal council to run the invasion.”
He curled his lip at her accusation. “I have delegated responsibilities, like all good leaders do.”
“You have. To great effect.” She watched him with a keen eye.
She knows something I don’t. Something she feels is important. Yoshizawa gathered his waning patience and sat opposite her. “You rarely do or say anything without something specific in mind. This is what you are doing now. I know you have informants throughout the Seventh. We are loyal to the Yoshida-gumi. Does something concern you?”
Her small smile of satisfaction, brief as a wink, appeared and disappeared. He knew he was correct. Whatever she knew—or thought she knew—concerned her…and Sumi was not one to panic. Yoshizawa settled into a state of patient acceptance. He would receive the information, process it, and go from there. “Tell me. You have my attention.”
Sumi straightened in her seat as if reporting to her oyabun. “We have been here long enough to get a sample of the people, food, equipment, and other resources Emporia has at our disposal. Enough to do a statistical analysis. While Emporia is an agrarian world, the only thing they have in abundance is land. However, the planet’s axial tilt gives them a short growing season within a relatively small percentage of land. More than sixty percent of the land is not suited for crops, and few herd animals are hardy enough to thrive in the mountains. Given a few decades, I could see Emporia as a possible mining resource once the infrastructure is in place. Assuming they have the minerals we need.”
He nodded. “Give me your short-term conclusion.”
“If we are receiving all the food this planet has to give—which I seriously doubt—there’s not enough food here to feed the Seventh and the planned conscripted army for more than a few months. While the planet’s food chain appeared stable for the population, it is too small to support both them and the Seventh Ghost Regiment for a long campaign. This will be another Capra within a year. Fourteen months if we begin rationing now. At least, that’s if the food stores gathered reflect the true amount of a harvest. Again, I doubt it.”
Yoshizawa doubted it, too, but that was a thought for another time. He glanced at her somber face. Something else bothered her. “Is there more?”
Sumi nodded. “Your council has already discovered this. Sho-sa Kusunoki will bring it up with you at the council meeting tomorrow afternoon.”
He looked away, his calm acceptance shredding. “I did not call a council meeting for tomorrow.”
“No, you did not. They have all spoken to one another. They will call for it. I suspect they will send you a polite request this evening. Most likely from Chu-sa Yuuki. I believe the food stores problem is an excuse to question the methods of the campaign.”
“Joji. He would have the courage and the duty to do so. Fume has her hands full with the Emporia MechWarriors.” He glanced at her. Sumi still sat in the alert pose of the dutiful daughter. “You have more to say?”
She bowed her head. “I have…thoughts.”
We are back to treading the knife edge of advice and orders. You are a woman with more than two masters. When will you decide that that is too many? Yoshizawa gathered his dignity and patience about him like a blanket. It was time to make her feel heard—whether or not he agreed with what she said. “Advise me as dai-i and shingiin. I would hear all your thoughts.”
“While my father sees a new market with this foray into Federated Suns territory, I believe Tai-sho Sunada either made a mistake sending you here to colonize…or he is attempting to rid the Draconis Combine of the Seventh Ghost Regiment altogether by sending you into a situation that cannot sustain itself.” Sumi paused, choosing her words carefully. “I do not believe this will benefit either Clan Yoshida or the Draconis Combine. My thought is that you strip this planet, leave behind a small force to hold it, and manage a captive population to continue food production. Then go on to the next planet.”
“Which one do you recommend?”
“While Sauk City is the richer of your next two potential targets, Allerton is more vulnerable. It’s a border planet.” She shrugged. “Sauk City might be more of what you want with this campaign. It could be your base of operations instead of Emporia. It has more of the technology and manufacturing industry that you’ll need to keep the Seventh running, but that also means you’ll probably have more resistance than you’ve received here. That decision is for you and yours.”
He rubbed his chin, considering her words with a true mind. If all was as she said, her thoughts would be in line with his. But she did not know his mind or his true motives. It was unfortunate, if her intel about the food production was true. He would have to follow up with his council—if nothing else, to make them feel heard and kept unsuspecting. Perhaps she was right: if the current food supply couldn’t support the Seventh for more than a few months, turning it into a slave planet to produce food would be better than using it as his staging ground.
Instinct made him consider Sumi, her words, and her body language in a new light. She bore his scrutiny like one born to a lifetime of such. She has made a decision, he thought. She is moving away from me. There’s a wall that was not there before. Is this experience, or something else?
He nodded as if he approved of what he saw. “What do you plan to do in the meantime?”
“I need to prepare two reports. One for the tai-sho and one for my oyabun. They need to know what’s come of the tai-sho’s orders to take this section of Federated Suns space.” She graced him with a brief, humorless half-smile. “Also, I wish to understand Tai-sho Sunada’s mind in sending you on this campaign. I need to understand if he means for you to fail or to succeed against all odds, reaping the benefit of your hard labor.”
“I am ever loyal to the tai-sho and the Draconis Combine.” The lie, sweet as poisoned honey, was wasted on her.
“My investigations into the tai-sho will inform my subsequent report to Kumicho Yoshida.” she continued, looking past him and through the wall as if she viewed some future date. “While this campaign has promise, it has all the hallmarks of something underhanded.”
“Underhanded?”
“Something not right. Everything I’ve seen you do here is in conflict with everything I know of your history and your tactics. Capra was a disaster for the Seventh. I don’t see you falling prey to such schemes unless there is a snake hidden amongst the flowers.”
Yoshizawa leaned on his long experience to hide his surprise that Sumi could see so much despite her young years. “Does this mean you are leaving us?” It was what he wanted in the short term, but it would be dangerous in the long run.
She focused her gaze, clear and determined, on Yoshizawa again. “I don’t want to, but I must. Duty requires me to report in and investigate.”
Once she left, he would be unable to control her or the flow of information to or from her. The need to have her out from underfoot and keep her from seeing too much warred with his need to control everything around him. “Of course, I will not stop you, but your particular insight will be missed. Then again, we all owe obedience to our masters.”
Sumi raised her chin. “Obedience and care. I will find out what’s behind Kyoshi Sunada’s plan for you and the Seventh, one way or another. Then I will help you turn it to our advantage. Yours and the Yoshida-gumi’s. Grandfather admires your ambition and drive. He will know of your success as soon as I’m able to inform him.”
“You are generous, Sumi. I will not forget it.”
A flash of her impulsive impishness returned. “As if you could.” She stood, walked to the mirror, and gave her hair a perfunctory pat. “I need to go. Things to do.” She turned to him. “With your permission, of course.”
They both knew she wasn’t really asking for permission. She was just adhering to the forms of politeness. Such small courtesies went a long way between allies. More so with enemies.
This last thought brought him back to the baron’s words yet again: “We’ve been dead for days. Our bodies just haven’t stopped fighting yet.”
He kept his face impassive and unconcerned despite the heaviness in the back of his mind. “Of course.” He gave her a kiss on her bruised cheek. “I’ll tell you how the meeting with my council goes tomorrow…for your report. Assuming you don’t already know by the time I have a chance to speak to you.”
Yoshizawa’s placid expression morphed into something troubled once Sumi left. There was no way to prevent the young woman from leaving. The moment she did, the clock would begin to tick. Three days to the JumpShip. The series of jumps into Draconis Combine territory. The reports to both her masters. Her investigation into the tai-sho’s orders would be short and shocking. She’d then know he was acting on his own…as would the tai-sho.
Their oyabun would know as well.
He folded his hands in his lap. From the moment Sumi departed, he would have less than one month to prepare. Sunada was not known to be kind, patient, or generous with any subordinates who disobeyed direct orders. Sunada would assume the worst.
In this case, he would be right.
Timing would be key. Yoshizawa would have to inform his council of Sunada’s original orders, and convince them that what he was doing now was for the good of the Seventh. But he had to wait until after Sumi left. She had eyes and ears everywhere. As long as he controlled who departed and when, his plan would still work.
Then he would figure out how he would spin things for Kumicho Makoto Yoshida.
A small dissenting voice in the back of his head attempted to remind him of Baron Vogel’s words. Yoshizawa dismissed it as the fearmongering it was. He’d spent too much time and effort freeing the Seventh from the Dragon to flee back to its taloned embrace at the first sign of trouble.
He would follow his plan, for good or ill.