The message came at the fourth hour past midnight.
Voss was not asleep. He rarely slept before the fourth hour. His mind worked better in the quiet dark of a ship city running low, the engines at their nighttime pace, the particular hum of twenty thousand people at rest that was different from the same twenty thousand people at work. He used the hours for the things that required his full attention without the interruption of his court, which was most things.
Tonight he had been going through the latest intelligence on the trade route disruptions. Someone was working against his interests from the land side, methodically and with the patience of a person who understood that the most effective damage was the kind that looked like ordinary misfortune. He had three likely candidates and no
