Ritchie noticed two things about the pre-dinner reception party pretty much the moment the five cadets walked in the door together.
The first was that it was the most awkward, uncomfortable gathering of people she could ever recall attending.
And the second was that with the exception of the now-deceased Diplomat Lavatar, everyone who had been there the night before was there again. And at the governor"s house on Buennagel, that was extremely unusual. Visitors came, visitors left. Some stayed for more than a day, sure, but never once was it every single one of them. And no one new arriving? That wasn"t something she had ever seen before, either.
Basically, everyone who had been at the dinner party the night before was under house arrest, not just Ritchie. She would bet the only differen
