Leon Ammon:
"'...I did notice you and had you studied. I learned more than stands on any public record, boy. The whole Starkad business pivoted on you.'
"Shocked, Flandry wondered how deeply the rot had eaten, if the agent of a medium-scale vice boss on a tenth-rate frontier planet could obtain such information."
-A Circus Of Hells, CHAPTER TWO, p. 207.
Vice Admiral Sir Ilya Kheraskov:
"'...we've taken quite an interest in you since the Starkad affair. That had to be hushed up, of course, but it was not forgotten. Your subsequent assignment to surveillance had intriguing consequences.' Flandry could not totally suppress a twinge of alarm. Kheraskov chuckled again; it sounded like iron chains. 'We've learned things that you hushed up. Don't worry...yet.'"
-Poul Anderson, The Rebel Worlds IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 367-520 AT CHAPTER TWO, pp. 383-384.
For at least the third time, Flandry is told that he will either come to grief or go far.
After Flandry has successfully completed the mission assigned to him by Kheraskov, there is considerable suspicion, although no proof, of irregularities, including high treason and murder.
Grand Duke Edwin Cairncross:
"'The business wasn't publicized - would've been awkward for diplomacy, right? - but a man in my kind of position has ways of learning things if he's interested. You pulled the fangs of the Merseians at Chereion, and we no longer have to worry about them.'"
-Poul Anderson, A Stone In Heaven IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 1-188 AT III, p. 37.
So Intelligence covers up some of Flandry's assignments and also some of his private escapades because it is in their interests to keep him in their ranks.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
People like Kheraskov hushed up some of Flandry's more questionable acts for two reasons: the Empire needed him and because, in a left handed kind of way, what he had done STRENGTHENED the Empire.
I was also reminded of the beginning of THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS, where we see Flandry reflecting that if the thumb witted guardians of Terra were not so lax, they would sift thru a million reports and investigate a similar number of mysteries. But that would necessitate a bigger Navy, and even possibly discovering things compelling the Navy to fight!
So, instead of simply filing a recommendation that Unan Besar be checked out, because he suspected nobody would act on it, Flandry decided to go there himself.
Ad astra! Sean
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