Chương 15

The state dinner took place in the great hall at Civic Citadel. Long tables were set beneath the banners of the Collective and the Dominion. More than a hundred guests had been selected to attend, drawn from the Collective's political, military, and industrial leadership. Sidearms showed beneath some jackets when men turned or reached for their glasses. Louis sat beside Angelique at the high table. To his right was General Keller of the 1st Collective Armored Division.

To Angelique's left was Director Warren of the Collective Intelligence Office. After the first toast, guests raised their glasses. The dinner began. The first plates arrived in small portions: smoked brisket on corn crisps, crab tartlets, cornbread squares, and pickled green tomato with goat cheese. Servers moved between the tables.

"You're finding Austin survivable so far?" General Keller turned his head toward Louis.

"It's hot," Louis said.

"But the people are hospitable." Keller gave a short laugh.

"We're taught to be. It makes the heat more bearable." His eyes flicked toward Angelique.

"You too, Miss Bourbon?"

"It's an education." Angelique took a bite of tartlet.

"Your airport runs like a military operation."

"That's because it is one, at least half the time." The general smiled politely.

"Airports are easy. Cities are the hard part. We prefer our capital to feel governable." He took a sip of water.

"The farther east you go, the harder that gets." The next course arrived as Keller spoke. Servers set down shallow bowls of seafood bisque. The soup was glossy on the surface. Louis smelled cream and shellfish. Director Warren took a spoonful before speaking.

"He means New Orleans. The Free City likes to pretend it's above the rules." Keller nodded.

"Exactly." He turned back to Angelique.

"It's good for tourism. Bad for order." He paused.

"But perhaps that kind of place interests you more than this one." Angelique glanced at Louis, then back at the director.

"I prefer places that know who they are. Even if they're loud about it." Warren smiled.

"Then you might like Texas. We're very clear about who we are." Louis let a faint smile touch his mouth.

"I've heard New Orleans more than once today."

"You'll hear it again," Warren said.

"It's the one place in the Collective that still behaves like the old America never ended." She gave a small shrug.

"We indulge them because they control the mouth of the river. But that doesn't mean we have to admire them for it." A steward refilled Louis's water. At the far end of the table, Harvey leaned toward Constantine and said something Louis could not hear. Constantine laughed first, then Harvey threw his head back and laughed with him. Several conversations stopped as people looked toward them. Angelique glanced at Keller.

"Is the First Consul always like that?" Keller looked toward Harvey.

"Usually worse. But he kept this country standing." Warren took another spoonful of bisque.

"He's never boring. Terrible man to surprise, though." Chargrilled quail with citrus butter and roasted corn purée arrived next. The meat was tender with bright sauce. Louis took a bite, nodded to himself, and saw Angelique doing the same. General Keller looked at them.

"You two seem to be getting along well enough." Angelique cut her quail.

"We've had practice." She glanced at Louis.

"The cameras love a good story." Louis laughed once.

"And the press has a limited imagination." The general smiled.

"That's true in every state. Though here, we try to teach our young to be careful what they let the cameras write for them." He swallowed a piece of quail.

"I assume your visit will include some time with our new citizens tomorrow." Louis nodded.

"Yes. I believe there's a ceremony scheduled."

"It's important," Keller said.

"Citizenship isn't given here. It's earned." He took another bite of quail.

"Every person in this room knows when they qualified. They remember the day they were sworn in." He looked at Louis.

"It's a different feeling than being born into a name." Louis kept his expression easy.

"I can imagine." Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Keller gave a small nod.

"Have you had much real training, Mr. Collins?" He cut another piece from his plate. Louis set his knife down.

"In what sense?"

"Combat, arms, emergency response, movement, basic protective discipline. Not hobby shooting." The general did not look up from his plate.

"The kind of training that keeps you alive when someone else is trying to change that." Louis considered that for a moment.

"I've trained. Pistols, rifles, some hand-to-hand. Not in the field. It's never been required."

"No," Keller said.

"It hasn't. Not yet." He took a bite and chewed slowly.

"With whom?" he asked after swallowing.

"With private instructors. Some from the Dominion Guard. Some from my father's staff." Louis took a sip of water.

"He insists."

"Good. That's wise." The general glanced at him, then back at his plate.

"Your father understands that capacity is a state asset. You shouldn't treat it like a hobby."

"I don't," Louis said, keeping his voice even. Keller nodded.

"You're comfortable. That shows. But you haven't been tested." He took a sip of wine.

"It changes you. The first time you pull a trigger to kill a man, or you hear a round go past your head, you stop being the same kind of man you were before." He paused.

"I hope you're prepared for that." Louis ate the rest of his bite in silence. No one had ever said it to him that plainly, certainly not from a Collective general. In the Dominion, the ugliness of force was concealed behind security drones, AI surveillance, and the invisible algorithms that made the state feel like a clean, safe machine. The Collective, it seemed, preferred the old language of blood and consequence.

"I think I am," he said at last.

"Good." Keller nodded.

"Because our enemies aren't done testing us." He raised his glass slightly.

"And we are not done defending what we built." Angelique buttered her bread.

"You sound certain they'll come again." The general looked at her.

"Miss Bourbon, the Holy States are not finished. Their ideology is not sustainable, but that does not stop them from trying to export it. They will strike where they believe we are weak. And until they are no longer a functioning state, we must be ready to respond." She nodded and ate in silence. The main course arrived: beef tenderloin with red wine reduction, sweet potato mash, and garlic-sautéed spinach. The general took a bite and grunted approval. He cut another piece.

"I have two sons," he said.

"The eldest is a captain in the 1st Ranger Regiment. He spent three years on the Oklahoma border. Lost two fingers to a Dixie saboteur at Denison. Still serves." He cut another piece, then added, "My younger boy is in the Youth Civic Corps. He hopes to be posted to a border unit next year." He looked at Louis.

"Do you have any plans to serve?" Louis chewed and swallowed a piece of beef before answering.

"I've never been asked."

"You're being asked now." Louis met his eyes.

"If the Dominion needs me, I'll go." Keller watched him for a moment.

"It may," he said.

"The Asia-Pacific is not growing calmer. And your generation will not have the luxury of choosing a quiet life." Louis nodded once.

"I know." Keller swallowed another piece and looked at him.

"You are a guest here. So let me put it politely. In our system, usefulness in a young man is measured less by style than by recoverability. Can he be instructed? Can he be trusted under pressure? Can he follow an order when his instincts say otherwise?" The general gestured with his fork.

"You have been raised in a softer environment. I am not criticizing it. It has its strengths. But it has not prepared you for the world as it is now." Louis looked at him sharply. Keller held his gaze.

"Your father is a very remarkable man," he said.

"The kind of man who can reshape a broken world at such a young age without becoming broken himself." He set his fork down.

"But he will not rule forever. And when that burden eventually passes to you, you will need more than one kind of strength to hold the line he drew. You will need the kind of strength that comes from being shaped by hard choices." He paused.

"That is what we are trying to offer you here, if you are willing to accept it." Louis felt heat rise in him.

"I'm listening," he said.

"Good." Keller nodded and returned to his plate.

"Then we'll see what the next few days teach you." Angelique had been listening without interruption. When Keller looked at her, she looked back calmly.

"And you, Miss Bourbon?" he asked.

"Your family has already learned the price of power lost. Have you been trained to defend what you still have?" Angelique cut into the beef. The knife clicked once against the plate.

"I have been trained," she said.

"By people who believe the same as you. And I understand the value of being prepared." She looked at Louis, then back at the general.

"We are both aware that the world is not kind to people who cannot protect themselves." Keller nodded.

"That is the beginning of wisdom." Angelique ate without answering. Keller did not press further. They finished the main course without another word. Dessert arrived: blackberry cobbler with crème fraîche and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The band started a slower piece. People began talking again. Director Warren took a spoonful of cobbler and smiled faintly.

"New Orleans likes to think it has the best desserts in the Collective. This should convince them otherwise." General Keller smiled.

"New Orleans believes many things that aren't true."

"In what ways?" Louis asked. Warren answered without hesitation.

"The people there do not behave like they are part of the Collective, even though they are. They think like a city-state. Like their own country. They think their history is exceptional. Their traditions are unbreakable. Half the city is held together by overlapping obligations no central state fully commands and no serious state can afford to break." Keller said, "Which is what gives it resilience." He wiped his mouth with his napkin.

"Resilience is good. But obedience is better." Angelique finished her cobbler and set the spoon down.

"And you think obedience is what holds the Collective together?"

"I think sacrifice does," Keller said.

"And sacrifice requires discipline. Obedience is discipline applied to a state." He looked at her directly.

"Without it, we are no better than the ruins we came from." Coffee was served in small silver pots, and guests began to stand. After Harvey made a final toast, guests pushed their chairs back, said their goodnights, and moved toward the exits while the band played them out. Louis stood with the rest of the table. Keller gave him and Angelique a curt nod. Warren gave a small, professional smile, then followed Keller into the crowd. Louis turned to Angelique. She was already looking at him.

"Shall we go?" he asked. She nodded.

"I think we've learned enough for tonight."