TA49

==Chapter 49 - The Armada==
Unity City
Sol Star System Star System
Wolf Empire
3170
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"A game of chess?  I thought the Sea Foxes were..."
"...actually serious about this-well, for a moment, at least."  Alaric Ward chuckled.
Mori Hawker snorted and passed back the glass bottle with its amber contents.  "Do you want to kill that kid?" she asked, "I have been watching the fights, and as famed merchants people talk."
"What are they saying?" he asked.
"She has used three liters of type O blood culture, her jaw is held together with  biologically neutral superglue and surgical alloy. Half her teeth are being replaced with ceramics because they were broken out. There are more mesh splints in her ribs than bones, she's had to have surgical intervention on several organs... and those are the minor injuries.  She is certainly giving her medical techs plenty of practice putting her back together after each bout.  Defeating an opponent in such unhealthy condition is hardly something honorable."
"Funny you would be concerned with honor." Alaric noted.
"Keep it up, Wolf.  I am not bothered by the appearance of honor, but in your position you have to be." the Sea Fox Khan said with a smirk, "As both ilKhan, and more importantly, First Lord, you have to be more concerned with keeping up appearances than anyone." he said.
"Here is a secret, Khan Hawker.  That girl you are so worried about?" Alaric paused dramatically, "Is holding herself back. At several points in each bout, she had the opportunity to go for the lethal strike-and she did not."
"You are pushing her." Hawker said, "I would be impressed if I understood why."
"I liked her mother." he said.  "Sharon made sense for a Spheroid. Her motives and methods were as transparent as any I have ever seen, and her integrity made her a good friend. So I meet her child, and..." he sighed, "Disappointment.  The gene-child is disappointing on some level I have yet to fully grasp.  Your 'chess game' may reveal depths, but I suspect the girl simply has a lack."
"I hear other things." Hawker mentioned.  "Fifteen men is a lot for a mugging, quiaff?"
"Aff.  My Watch commander thinks it was a targeted assassination, but we have been unable to secure evidence. Which means either an intelligence agency or an inside job." Alaric confessed, "I may need an outsider to uncover it. To cover it so well means whoever arranged it, is in a highly placed, sensitive, position.  the stumbling block is motive."
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