Empire's Legacy

Chapter 26: Treason and Tea

The door opened and a small woman in a cadet uniform entered, carrying a tray weighed down with a bone china tea service and a plate of sandwiches. The cups rattled as she set it down on the table, and she blanched as she straightened. She turned to face Brenner, her body stiff, and saluted.

"Your tea, Secretary." Try as she might, the cadet couldn't keep her eyes from sliding to the left. Everyone knew that the Secretary had a daughter. Everyone knew that the Secretary's daughter had gone off the map years earlier and popped up sporadically—some said she was the only person who'd ever openly defied the Secretary. Although, the cadet reflected, she didn't know anyone who'd ever seen the Secretary's daughter, much less anyone who could have ever seen her defy him...but still. Every cadet knew about Annieka Brenner, even if no one really knew what she looked like; her Commissioner file had been hacked years earlier, and among the other information that had gone missing was her most recent ident photo. All that was left was her student ident from her days at the University and a poor-quality eye-in-the-sky snap from the last time she'd visited C-Prime.

Amy noticed the cadet surreptitiously trying to watch her out of the corner of her eye and hid a smile. She remembered being a cadet, although no one had ever had the temerity to assign her to wait on her father. No, she'd been given Chancellor Naisbitt, because no one knew what else to do with her. That assignment had lasted an entire week before she'd been taken off waiting duties altogether. Naisbitt had not been amused by her inability to hold her tongue when she was supposed to be learning to be silent.

"Was there anything else, Cadet?" Brenner inquired.

"No, Secretary," she said, her gaze once again sliding away from his face and onto Amy's.

He smiled at the cadet, but his eyes remained cold. "May I inquire as to why you are still standing here, then? My guest is not here for your gazing amusement."

The cadet started and her eyes widened. "N—no, Secretary," she managed. "If there is nothing else, sir, I have duties to which I should return."

"I think that an excellent idea," he replied. "I suggest, Cadet, that in your spare time you endeavor to practice keeping your eyes where they belong—unless you wish to wake up one morning to find that they no longer belong to you."

Swallowing, her face the color of overcooked oatmeal, the cadet saluted sharply and left the hall as swiftly as possible without running.

"Was that necessary?" Amy said when the door had closed behind the cadet. She nabbed a tiny sandwich; two bites later, it was gone.

"You were a cadet once. Her duties do not involve gawking at state guests; one is assigned to a member of state to learn about government, military matters, and, most importantly, discretion." Brenner poured the tea and handed her a pretty little teacup. "Something at which, as I recall, you failed spectacularly."

"My discretion was not so much an issue, Dad, as was my inability to let Naisbitt continue on unchecked, something I think he rather took exception to," Amy said. She held her teacup to her nose and inhaled the steaming liquid. "But quite frankly, I don't give a shit if the whole of C-Prime knows I'm here. Your offices are virtually the only place in the universe where I answer to the name of Annieka Brenner."

"Ah yes, you did cast aside your connection with your exalted" his mouth twisted "father the moment you arrived at the University. And abandoned your plans to study political science at the same time."

"Those were never my plans," she pointed out. "You were the one who wanted me to have a military and political career."

He regarded her with an unreadable expression for a moment, and then said, "Did I?"