Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [128]
Ross knew all this, of course, but he didn’t know that Bacco did. “How long- ?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Bacco said with a dismissive wave.
“Actually, ma’am, due respect-it does matter.” Ross hesitated. Nan Bacco was a good woman, and he didn’t want to make it sound as if he was accusing her of something, but he had to know the answer to this. “Did you know when I offered to consult for your campaign?”
“No. I found out later-the morning of the first debate, in fact. By then, the campaign was at full bore, and- ” She shook her head. “I don’t know, I didn’t really think about it. We had eight billion other things on our minds at that point, and I was a lot more concerned with what Zife did than what you did. But what you did…” She got up and let out a long breath. “For the last year, I’ve been wondering what to do with you, Bill. I mean, you showed my predecessor the door, and there’s a part of me that’s been wondering, What happens if I do something to piss him off?”
“That’s unlikely, ma’am. There were a lot of reasons why I chose to show such public support for your campaign, and one of the biggest was the fact that I had faith in your inability to put me in the position President Zife did.”
Bacco, who had been staring out the window at the sunset over Paris, now whirled around at Ross. “God, do you know what you sounded like just then?”
“Ma’am?”
“It’s not enough that you removed Min Zife from power, but then you took it upon yourself to use whatever influence you could to put the person you preferred in his place.”
Ross shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Ma’am, I think you overestimate my importance. You won that election without any help from me.”
“Bull,” Bacco said angrily. “I had plenty of help from you, and while I’m flattered that you think I could’ve managed without it, that doesn’t change the fact that you did what you did. Now maybe I should’ve said something right after Esperanza found out, but I thought it was best to let it lie. We need to move past what Zife did to the Federation, and we couldn’t do that if we rehashed Tezwa all over again.”
Ross frowned. “I take the fact that we’re having this meeting to indicate that something’s changed.”
Bacco nodded. “There’s a reporter down on the second floor right now who just had a long conversation with Kant Jorel, who then had a long conversation with Esperanza, who just had a long conversation with me, during the middle of which I had Sivak call you over here.” She walked back over to her desk and sat back down. “This reporter knows that Zife was responsible for the cannons on Tezwa, knows that Tezwa couldn’t afford those cannons and the Danteri ships they bought, knows that Quafina used the Orion Syndicate to funnel the cannons to Tezwa, and knows that Starfleet found out and that they-that is to say, you-forced Zife to resign to pay for the rather vicious crimes he committed, since a public airing of them would be disastrous.”
Appalled, Ross asked, “You’re not going to let the story run, are you?” At that, Bacco tilted her head, and Ross realized he’d misspoken. “I mean, there must be some way to convince-I mean- “
“What do you suggest, Admiral?” Bacco asked tightly. “We make this person disappear? That’s not how we do things.”
Ross had to almost physically restrain himself.
Then Bacco got a look of horror on her face. “Isn’t it?”
“Ma’am?”
“Back in May when Jaresh-Inyo died, Esperanza tried to track Zife down to invite him to the funeral on Mars. She couldn’t find him. She couldn’t find any sign of him. Nobody on Bolarus, on Earth, anywhere knew where to find the most prominent person in the Federation for the last eight years. It shouldn’t be that hard, if all he did was retire.”
Ross said nothing. He worked for this woman, admired this woman, and because of that, because he knew how important she was to the Federation, how necessary it was that she keep doing the job she was doing, he could