Daring Read Free Page B

accusation.
    â€œI did not .” Kris repeated the denial.
    â€œThen how does she know?” Grampa Trouble asked, kindly breaking Kris and her other grampa out of an endless do-loop of accusations and denials.
    â€œ He told her,” Kris said, and pointed at Admiral Crossenshield, the chief of Wardhaven, or maybe all U.S. Intelligence.
    â€œI did not,” he snapped, with sincerity so refined and polished it might actually pass muster of, say, a kindergartener.
    Both of Kris’s grampas scowled as they eyed the man who was supposed to find out other people’s secrets and keep their own. From the looks of them, Crossie’s sincerity had not passed their smell test.
    â€œI didn’t tell her about the meeting,” Crossie insisted.
    â€œNo, you just sent her a video of the whole get-together,” Kris snapped.
    â€œYou’ve seen it?” Grampa Trouble asked.
    â€œVicky showed it to me,” Kris admitted. “I let my team view it after she did.”
    â€œWhat makes you so sure it came from me?” Crossie demanded.
    From the glowers around the room, including her own staff ’s, that was considered a valid question.
    â€œI’m in it,” Kris said. “The king and Grampa Trouble are in it.” They nodded agreement. “Jack’s in it.” At her request, the king had allowed Jack to remain when everyone else had been ushered out.
    â€œThe Iteeche are in it.” Humanity and the Iteeche Empire had fought a six-year war that almost made humanity extinct. Just ask any veteran. Kris had only recently discovered that Iteeche vets of that war felt the same way. That the humans had almost made the Iteeche extinct! After twenty-five years of being told one story, Kris was still struggling to absorb the other viewpoint.
    â€œThe only person who was in the meeting that wasn’t in the vid that Vicky had was you, Crossie. Methinks you did edit things a bit too much.”
    Now it was the admiral’s turn to frown. “I might have outthought myself on that one,” he admitted, and admitting to the edit, he allowed that he was the guilty party.
    â€œSo, Crossie,” the king said with a tired sigh, “why isn’t my most important secret a secret anymore?”
    The head of black ops, white ops, and all the rest in between didn’t seem at all embarrassed to be caught red-handed going against his king and luring the daughter of his strongest opposition in human space into some sort of game.
    And probably gaming Kris as well.
    She hated being played by Crossie.
    Usually, she refused to get involved in his dirty tricks.
    Problem was, today, the two of them seemed headed in the same direction.
    Which left Kris wondering if she needed to make a hard right turn.
    Oh bother.
    While Kris spun those thoughts through her own head, Crossie was doing his best to spin his own defense.
    â€œYou and I both know this is the worst-kept secret in human space,” Crossie said. “Walk into any pub in the capital here, and I’ll bet you money that half the tables in the place are discussing whether or not you met with an Imperial Representative.”
    â€œThey’re arguing the case,” Trouble pointed out. “They don’t know. Big difference.”
    â€œThe difference was big enough that your pet project of naming us United Sentients fell through,” Crossie countered.
    That got a wince from the king.
    â€œYou and I agree, we can’t bring up the problem of Iteeche scouts disappearing without a trace while all we have is their own word. Your granddaughter here wanted to go do some exploring. You sent her to chase pirates instead. Sorry to say, the pirates didn’t provide her all that much of a distraction.” He gave her a respectful nod.
    Kris returned a proud grin . . . showing plenty of teeth.
    â€œNow she wants to take a swing at whatever is going bump in the night under the Iteeche beds. If a Longknife