Read Online Loralynn Kennakris 2: The Morning Which Breaks by Owen R. O'Neill, Jordan Leah Hunter - Free Book Online

bombshell on the floor of the Grand Senate in the form of a proposal that the League issue an ultimatum to the Bannermans over their support for the Mankho plot. This stroke, coming just as a vote of no-confidence on the Archon’s government appeared to be inevitable and the various claimants were jockeying for position, stole the limelight from his several competitors and sent half of them into eclipse. The very brass of the measure heightened its impact, coming as it did from a Grand Senator who was heretofore best known for his ability to straddle any issue and for his appeal to the often-contrarian backbenchers.
    It was also the first public revelation of Bannerman involvement, and it instantly elevated the issue from a Nedaeman political crisis to an interstellar one. The Bannerman ambassador returned to his capitol on Sephar the next day for consultations with the Confederacy’s President-for-Life, who ordered his navy to conduct a series of fleet exercises in the Hydra. Invited by the Bannermans, Halith sent observers.
    While the Bannermans explained the pacific nature of their exercises—training, nothing more—older heads grappled with the proposal, which they found absurd, especially as Gayle had said next to nothing about the specifics of his ultimatum. This very lack, which might have seemed irresponsible or obtuse at another time, buoyed Gayle up now. With nothing concrete to attack, those who criticized him were tarred with the brush that had been so liberally applied to the Archon, as being against doing something . The Speaker, wise enough not to play Canute with the rising tide, bided his time.
    Stories about these developments circulated through the Chattering Classes and were sagely commented on and speculated about, but there was a general feeling that little would come of it; that the Grand Senate would dilute any proposed action through politically expedient compromises, and that once the media cooled off, the whole affair would reduce itself to just another tempest in a teapot.
    Three-hundred-eighty light-years away, another opinion was heard. “Worse’n a reformed harlot out for blood,” said Chief Inspector Taliaferro to Commander Wesselby during another of their oh-dark-thirty meetings. “If they’d gone in and done this job when we had Mankho’s organization by the short hairs, I’d have cheered for them. But now that they’ve had all this time to refit and recoup and we don’t even know where the son of a bitch is, they wanna barge in and carry on like a Bashan bull.”
    “Or a braying ass full of mischief?”
    “I like that. A braying ass full of mischief—spot on. Where’d you hear that?”
    “Poetry. A braying ass of mischief full . I think that’s how it went.”
    “The Bible?”
    “No. An ancient named Douglass. He was an escaped slave who preached against slavery.”
    “I didn’t know you liked poetry.”
    “I have unsuspected depth. Do you think Gayle’s serious?” Trin disliked politics and followed it only inasmuch as it made her job more difficult when it wasn’t making it impossible.
    “The braying ass?” Nick smiled and Trin looked down, diplomatically covering an inward sigh; she had a feeling she’d be hearing that phrase a lot from now on. “Dunno. I kinda doubt it. If I had to guess I’d say he’s expecting the ultimatum to get hung up in committee. He needed a way to give the Archon the finger in public and see what sort of support he has when it comes to a no-confidence vote. An ultimatum isn’t something people can straddle the gate on.”
    Trin shook her head and then snapped in pure waspish exasperation. “But releasing the Bannerman data! Do they really have no idea what that cost us in terms of assets? What in the hell was he thinking? He set us back years!”
    An amazingly witty remark on the idea that a politician might actually think presented it to Nick’s mind, but taking note of Trin’s expression, he forbore. “The way I heard it,