The Dragon Never Sleeps

— 85 —

Hanaver Strate burned with frustration. He was going to spend his entire second term as Dictat in repair dock. It had taken Starbase only five months to recreate XII Fulminata. Meantime, VII Gemina languished, always facing an endless series of repairs.

Guardships came and went, mostly to learn what was happening. V Gallica. VIII Furia. X Gemina. Most recently, XII Victrix. III Parthica and XXVI Ulpia had come in in tandem after a twelve-year campaign beyond the Mauvain Rim. Both were on the Web now, carrying news and warnings to Starbase Dengaida.

And VII Gemina languished. And the only amusement for an otherwise unemployed WarAvocat was running a miniscule fleet of chartered, armed Horigawas.

The data supplied by Haget's team had been electrifying. The Deified had authorized commissioning five Horigawa privateers. The Horigawas had been seduced by the prospect of claiming prize ships.

Where the hell had Haget gotten to since?

A three-ship section of the Barbican had been converted to support the privateers—and only days after WarAvocat loosed them, their prey had vanished from the Web. Everywhere. Though they left ample evidence that they had been around.

Amazing. All this had been going on for centuries. But even a Guardship could overlook something it was not seeking.

Nor had the mess gone unnoticed. IV Trajana had gotten onto it—but no one would listen.

A grim picture. A big one.

He was confident that he had seen but a shadow of a shadow so far.

What the hell had become of Haget?