The Praxis Read Free Page A

Enderby could stand in his office and contemplate the view. He had no duty awaiting him.
    Nothing was left undone.
    Martinez wondered if a man as successful as Enderby had any real regrets at the end of his life. Even granted that he was from a clan of the highest caste, he’d done well. Though his position had carried him through several promotions, no one was guaranteed the rank of Fleet Commander. He was wealthy, he had added to the honor of his house, his children were all established in life and doing well. True, the wife was a problem, but the investigators had gone out of their way to make it clear that her peculations were no stain on the Fleet Commander.
    Perhaps he loved her, Martinez thought. Marriages among the Peers were usually arranged by the family, but sometimes love happened. Perhaps, in a situation such as the commander’s, it was the love one regretted, not the marriage.
    But this wasn’t the time to speculate on the Fleet Commander’s private life. Martinez knew this was the time for him to use his cunning, to use all the charm he’d intended to use on Warrant Officer Taen.
    Now or never, he thought, and steeled himself.
    â€œMy lord?” he said.
    Enderby gave a start of surprise, then turned to him. “Yes, Martinez?”
    â€œYou just said something. But I didn’t catch what it was.”
    Martinez didn’t know how to begin this conversation, so he hoped to somehow come to a kind of mutual understanding that Enderby himself had begun it.
    â€œDid I speak?” Enderby was surprised. He shook his head. “It probably wasn’t important.”
    Martinez’s mind flailed as he tried to keep the conversation going. “The service is about to go through a difficult period,” he said.
    Enderby nodded. “Possibly. But we’ve had sufficient time to prepare.”
    â€œIn the time to come, we’ll need leaders such as you.”
    Enderby gave a dismissive twitch of his lips. “I’m not unique.”
    â€œI beg to differ, lord,” Martinez said. He took a step closer to the commander. “I’ve had the honor to work intimately with you these last months, and I hope you’ll not take it amiss if I say that in my opinion your gifts are of a rare order.”
    Enderby’s lips gave that twitch again, and he raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t worked with any other Fleet Commanders, have you?”
    â€œBut I’ve worked with a lot of men, my lord. And a great many Peers. And—” Martinez knew he was deep in the morass now. He could feel the slime rising to his armpits. He took a gulp of air, not daring to stop. “—and I’ve seen how limited most of them are. And how your own horizons are so much broader, my lord, so much more valuable to the service and to—”
    Martinez froze as Enderby fixed him with a glare. “Lord Lieutenant,” he said, “will you please bring yourself to the point?”
    â€œThe point, Lord Commander—” Martinez said. “—the point is—” He reached into his shoes for his courage and dragged it quailing into the light. “The point is, I was hoping to convince you to reconsider the matter of your retirement.”
    He hoped for a softening of Enderby’s glance, a sudden shock of concern. Perhaps a fatherly hand placed on his shoulder, a hesitant question: Does it really mean so much to you?
    Instead, Enderby’s face stiffened and the older man seemed to inflate, his iron spine growing somehow more rigid, his chest rising. His lower jaw pushed out as he spoke, revealing an even white row of lower teeth.
    â€œHow dare you presume to question my judgment?” he demanded.
    Martinez felt nails bite into his palms. “Lord Commander,” he said, “I question the necessity of removing a superb leader at such a critical time—”
    â€œDon’t you realize that I mean nothing! ” Enderby