Free Executive by Piers Anthony

what I can, when I can, inadequate as this may be.
    My romance with Emerald, of course, was long dead. We retained the dream of the past, but today our respect for each other had other forms of expression, as her husband understood. We got right down to business.
    “Saturn is sending troops to take over Ganymede,” I said. “What do we do?”
    Mondy had been middle-aged when I met him; now he was old. For some men seventy is not old, but for him it was. He looked terrible: bald and fat and pallid. But his mind remained murkily penetrating.
    “You underestimate the problem, sir,” he said. “Those are not mere troops; they are technicians.”
    “Technicians? I don't see how—”
    “Bearing sophisticated new equipment to recede the locks at Tanamo,” he concluded.
    Spirit whistled. “That puts a different complexion on it!” she exclaimed.
    “We thought it might,” Emerald said, a trifle smugly.
    Tanamo was the big naval base on Ganymede, whose transfer I had arranged during my ambassadorship. It had moved from the control of Jupiter to the control of Ganymede. In exchange Ganymede had agreed to cease all covert fomentation of revolution and shipment of arms to dissident elements of Latin Jupiter. This had eliminated a prime source of irritation and saved Jupiter much mischief. Former President Tocsin, of course, had done his best to undermine this accord, preferring open hostility, as hostility facilitated his endorsement of the monstrous military-industrial complex of Jupiter. There were great profits to be made in the fever of threatening war. It was my intent to dismantle that complex, and Admiral Phist was just the man to do it. But this move by Saturn—that could torpedo everything.
    I shook my head. “Why?” I asked. “I was ready to get along with Saturn!”
    “Did you suppose Tocsin was the only tool of the special interests?” Mondy inquired. “The ruling council of Saturn is engaged in a continual and savage struggle for power, both internal and external. They perceive an opportunity to achieve a significant advantage during your period of indecision, which will not only put Jupiter on the defensive but will thoroughly refute dissent in their own population. That dissent has been growing in strength in recent years, spearheaded by people like Khukov.”
    “Khukov!” I exclaimed. “I have no quarrel with him.” For Admiral Khukov had been the other party to the compromise of Ganymede; together we had helped both Ganymede and ourselves. I had taught him Spanish, privately, and he had taught me Russian; these secret abilities were most useful on occasion.
    “It is the Politburo that has the quarrel with him,” Mondy said. “He has criticized their inefficiency, such as their repeated failure to become self-sufficient in food grains, but his power base is such that they cannot liquidate him. But a coup like this would enable them to eliminate threats both external and internal.”
    It was coming clear. “The Ganymedan ambassador said they planned to depose the premier.”
    “That would be the premier's first concern, naturally,” Mondy agreed. “But that is only the initial step. It is necessary because the premier insists on honoring the covenant he made with you. He will not pervert Tanamo or resume clandestine arms shipments. Once they have changed the government of Ganymede, there is no practical limit to their mischief.”
    “We'll have planet-buster missile bases there again!” Emerald put in.
    “Obviously this must be stopped before it starts,” I said. “Emerald, you can call an alert—”
    “No, sir,” Mondy said. “That would not be expedient.”
    “But we can't let it happen!” I protested.
    “There are ways and ways,” he said. “Jupiter has mismanaged interplanetary relations for so long that it has come to be expected. You have a chance to change that.”
    “But if we don't intercept that ship before it reaches Ganymede, there will be hell to pay!”
    “And if