Let me back up that sense of troubled times (here).
Unusual circumstances are necessary to explain why a mere Lieutenant is reporting to a Vice Admiral, not to a Captain or to his usual superior.
Kheraskov has to judge that he is talking to someone who will not betray him by reporting him to the Imperial court. (That would result in preferment for Flandry and ruin for Kheraskov.)
Kheraskov and some of his colleagues have learned things that Flandry hushed up about his assignment to surveillance. That can only mean his dealings with the criminal, Leon Ammon. Yet Flandry is brilliant enough that a high echelon in Intelligence can turn a blind eye when they need someone like him.
Kheraskov paces, hammering palm with fist, talking rapidly. What he has to say matches this build-up.
A sense of menace to both men: I trust that "palpable" is an accurate description.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Just to be picky, Flandry was a Lieutenant Commander at the beginning of THE REBEL WORLDS, an unusually senior rank for someone as young as he was (25).
IIRC, Vice Admiral Kheraskov chose Flandry for a very sensitive mission after studying the dossiers of a dozen officers with roughly similar qualifications. There was something about Flandry which convinced Kheraskov he would be the right choice.
Ad astra! Sean
There's a reason "work to rule" is a form of "strike". Formal rules function only within informal understandings of actual procedure.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Because those formal rules have to be interpreted to informally determine whether or not they fit particular cases.
Ad astra! Sean
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