Carnifex

16/4/467 AC, First Landing, Hudson, FSC

Matthias Esterhazy had no real idea why Mr. Saito and Mr. Yamagata had asked to see him. Their credentials suggested only that they were deeply involved, and very prominent, in Yamato's considerable shipping industry. He considered it most likely that they were interested in doing business with either Chatham, Hennessey and Schmied, Patricio's family firm and no inconsiderable shippers themselves, or its Balboan subsidiary, Alexander Steamship Company.

He'd done business with the Yamatans before, especially when he'd worked for SachsenBank. Thus he was unsurprised that the two businessmen, and a third who'd accompanied them, beat around the bush with meaningless pleasantries for more than an hour.

Actually, the third man—they'd introduced him only as "Captain Kurita"—said absolutely nothing. He's the interesting one, Esterhazy thought. Old, clearly he was very old, Kurita sat serene and upright. However silent Kurita may have been, and however ancient, Esterhazy saw keen intelligence in his eyes and thought he detected a wry amusement in his face.

He'd almost stopped listening to Saito and Yamagata until he heard, "And in the long run, it's just unsupportable, the price they demand to allow our ships passage."

They'd worked they're way from "Nice weather you're having here" to "Help" and Esterhazy hadn't even been aware of the transition. He looked at Kurita's face again. Yes, there was definitely amusement there. Perhaps he'd seen Taurans and Columbians trying to communicate with Yamatans before.

Kurita turned that gnarled, ancient face toward Esterhazy and spoke his first words since introductions. "Danegeld, Tribune Esterhazy. They don't want to pay Danegeld."

Matthias' head flew back in surprise. That the Yamatan had used the expression "Danegeld" was one thing. He could well have—indeed probably had—been at least partially educated in Anglia or the FSC. But that he knew Esterhazy's legionary rank was simply shocking.

"I have kept up my contacts with Imperial Naval Intelligence, Tribune," Kurita explained, "even though the men who run it are the grandsons and even great-grandsons of the men I served with in the Great Global War. They told me who you were."

Mentally, Esterhazy made a note to inform Carrera that Yamatan Naval Intelligence kept a file on the Legion. He also did some quick calculations. Kurita had to be over ninety years old. He didn't look it.

"The Great Global War?" Esterhazy questioned.

"Yes . . . at the end I was captain, Battlecruiser Öishi."

Subtracting 410 AC from 467 AC, and adding in a reasonable time to progress in rank, Matthias came up with the astonishing figure of at least ninety-seven years for Kurita. Wow; and he doesn't look a day over eighty.

Kurita went silent and serene again, while Saito picked up. "As the good captain, says, Mr. Esterhazy, we do not want to pay Danegeld. It never ends and, if history is any guide, the price always goes up past the point one can afford to pay. For that matter, how much longer until the pirates themselves go into the shipping business and drive us completely out? Whatever your principle might charge us to end this problem, it will certainly be less than what the pirates will cost us in the long term."

"My principle, as you call him, Mr. Saito, is not really in the naval business—"

"Yes, he is," answered Kurita, "now or soon."

"And you have no idea what he charges—"

"Yes, we do."

Once again, Esterhazy turned his gaze back onto Kurita. Maybe you do. And, one supposes, you also know about his little fleet.

"It's likely to cost on the order of five billion FSD a year, sirs. It could be twice that, even three times."

"We know," said Saito. "And what will it be over fifty years if the problem does not end now? And what is the price when the price becomes so high we are economically strangled? We are an island country that depends on imports and exports. Mr . . . . Tribune Esterhazy, without freedom of the seas, we starve."

"Moreover," interjected Kurita, "Mr. Saito and Mr. Yamagata are not alone in this. All seventeen major and minor zaibatsu in Yamato, plus one which is in bankruptcy for the moment, wish to offer their support. In addition, His Majesty's Navy is willing to provide a certain amount of under the table support, to clandestinely curtail operations and overstate expenditures to provide aid beyond the merely monetary."

"You understand I must speak to my principle before I can commit."

"We understand," answered Kurita, and for the first time Esterhazy realized that it was he, not the businessmen, who was senior. "And we have one additional condition."

"And that would be?"

Kurita serene look became for a moment predatory. Decades fell away. "They have robbed and murdered my countrymen. I will accompany your flotilla. I will see these bandits destroyed."