Read Online Cauldron of Ghosts by David Weber, Eric Flint - Free Book Online

the program because it was all pretty much the same to her. If she remembered right, this new image was another ancient painting called Water Lilies by . . . Claude Money. Something like that.
    There was silence in the room, for a few seconds. Then Berry sighed and said softly, “I just want to see him again. And Victor too. They should be here any day. I was so happy to find out they were still alive.”
    There had been a time, less than two years ago, when Ruth would have been delighted to discover that Victor Cachat had shuffled off this mortal coil. But it seemed like ancient history now.
    “So am I,” she said. “So am I.”
    There was a buzz at the door. “Open,” said Ruth.
    One of Torch’s intelligence officers came in, a man in his fifties by the name of Shai-gwun Metterling. Unlike most immigrants, he had no genetic connection to Manpower at all, neither personally nor anywhere in his heritage. He’d come to Torch because of his political convictions.
    In and of itself, that wasn’t all that unusual. By Ruth’s rough count, there were at least twenty thousand people who’d immigrated and taken Torch citizenship since the new star nation was created who’d done so purely out of idealism. What was unusual, and had immediately caught Ruth’s attention, was Metterling’s background. Most such immigrants tended to have skills and training that weren’t all that immediately useful. There were two hundred philosophers in the mix, twice that many poets, well over a thousand musicians—and a sad dearth of engineers and doctors.
    Metterling, on the other hand, had been a colonel in the Andermani Navy’s intelligence service. A well-regarded and decorated one, too, not someone who’d been cashiered. Ruth had checked, very carefully, worried that he might be a double agent. But Metterling had come through her scrutiny with flying colors.
    “What’s up, Shai-gwun?” she asked.
    Metterling gave Thandi a glance that seemed a bit apprehensive. “We just got word from Cachat and Zilw—ah, your father, Your Majesty.” That last was said to Berry.
    Who practically sprang off of Hugh’s lap. “They’re here!”
    Again, that quick glance at Palane—and it was no longer a “bit” apprehensive. “Ah. Well, no. It seems they decided to go straight to Haven.”
    Thandi rose from the arm rest and stood straight up. “And aren’t going to—didn’t—stop here on the way?” she demanded.
    “Ah. Well, General Palane . . . Ah. No.”
    “I’ll kill him,” Thandi predicted.

Chapter 6
    “We haven’t done that in a while,” said Yuri Radamacher. His voice was barely louder than a murmur, with complex undertones that conveyed satiety, exhaustion, smug self-satisfaction, bemused wonder at capabilities thought lost forever, and, most of all—the saving grace that would keep him from ridicule or possible bodily harm—full of affection for the person lying next to him.
    Who, for her part, slapped him playfully on his bare midriff. That produced a meaty sound. Yuri was not exactly fat, but he was in no danger of being blown away by a gust of wind, either.
    “Don’t sound so pleased with yourself,” she said. “Of coursewe haven’t done that in a while. We haven’t seen each other in . . . what’s it been, now? More than a T-year.”
    “Three hundred and ninety-six standard days. God, I’ve missed you.”
    Sharon Justice rolled onto her side and propped her head up on one hand. “I missed you too. But look at the bright side—for the first time in years, it looks like we’ll be able to see each other regularly and for . . . oh, hell, it could be a long time.”
    Yuri hesitated, tempted to raise the subject of marriage. Even the Republic of Haven’s stringent rules concerning assignments for its officials were subject to relaxation and modification when married couples were involved. But after a moment, he decided to let it slide.
    He knew that Sharon was twitchy on the subject. That was not unusual,