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  Shin swallowed hard. "I can only tell you that I know our information is traveling much slower than ComStar would send it. You seem far more knowledgeable about this matter than I." Shin surrendered with a shrug of his shoulders. "It may be as you suggest, but I do not know."

  Omi smiled briefly, then folded her hands in her lap. "At least our Black Boxes have been directionally shielded so that our information is not broadcast for all to see." She pointed to the display. "Can you call up data intercepted from the Federated Commonwealth's transmissions?"

  Shin nodded. "It is possible." He typed a simple command into the computer. "I have summoned up the information we have on one particular unit, just to see how the others from Outreach were being positioned. Here it is, the data on the Tenth Lyran Guards."

  Shin saw Omi's intense interest flash for the briefest instant across her face, but he hid his notice of it. "That is the unit to which Hanse Davion's heir has been assigned, is it not?"

  "Yes, Oad-san. Victor is a Kommandant, Galen Cox is a Hauptmann, and Kai Allard a Leftenant. From what we can determine, their Regimental Combat Team is being placed on Alyina. That may have changed by now, as the reporting time for such data is quite long. It is possible the Guards will be shifted to counterattack a world the Clans target."

  Omi watched Shin like a hawk. "Tell me what you thought of Victor Davion, Yodama-san."

  Her directness startled Shin. Not only was it highly irregular that she be concerned with his opinion, but her tone suggested she placed a certain amount of weight on his judgement. "I can only do that from a warrior's point of view, Lady Omi."

  "That, and from a yakuza point of view, yes?"

  "Hat" Shin tugged his left sleeve down at the wrist to hide a piece of the black and gold tattoo. "I think Victor is most capable as a warrior. He is good in single combat and can also work with other warriors in a coordinated fashion. He and Galen Cox almost seem to share one brain at times. Victor is also gifted in tactical and strategic skills. If not for his physical size, he might be considered a model warrior."

  She smiled at that. "And his faults?"

  "I would not call them faults so much as passions. He is fiercely loyal to his friends, and at times, he acts impulsively to aid them. Still, in the training on Outreach, he learned from his mistakes and became less likely to place himself in jeopardy as time went on."

  Shin smiled, remembering something else about Victor. "He does not suffer courtiers gladly. I think Prince Davion would rather slog through mud with friends who value him sincerely than be among those who do him homage because of his bloodline. That could make his life more difficult, but it also adds a disarming directness to his interactions and will keep truly valuable men by his side."

  "And your judgement of him from a yakuza viewpoint?"

  "If he were an oyabun, we would own the world. As a police magistrate, he would be death itself."

  Omi stood slowly and wheeled the chair back to her brother's desk. "Thank you, Yodama-san, for giving me so much of your time. One more question and I will leave."

  "If you feel you must leave ..."

  "I must let you get back to your work." Her expression betrayed a trace of fear, but her voice remained calm and even. "You say Victor is loyal to his friends. But what of this alliance my father has made? Will the Davions wait to stab us once we tum our backs?"

  Shin exhaled slowly as he considered her question. "Were it up to Victor, no, we would have nothing to fear. That is not to say that I do not trust your father's judgement implicitly. Yet we have all grown up hearing stories of the craftiness of the Fox. I would certainly not want to see the Combine lulled to sleep by any promise of Hanse Davion's for fear we might never waken again."

  28

  DropShip Barbarossa, Inbound

  Alyina, Federated Commonwealth

  16 November 3051

  Kai Allard stopped halfway through the hatch and turned around. "You needed something, Highness?" Other officers leaving the small briefing room slipped past Kai one by one to eventually leave him alone with Victor. "Close the hatch."

  Kai heard the tension in Victor's voice, but knew him well enough to intuit that it was something more personal than business on Victor's mind. "What's the matter?"

  Victor looked up at him and blinked his gray eyes. "Sorry, Kai. I must sound like the heat death of the universe is imminent or something." He cracked a smile. "Nothing so terrible, I assure you. I just wanted to speak to you alone in order to pass on some personal information that came with our orders. No one else is getting any personal communications because of our cutting ComStar off ..."

  "Got it." Kai sat down on the edge of the conference table. "What's happening?"

  Victor dropped into a well-padded chair and put his feet up on the table. "Our parents made it back to New Avalon without incident. My brother Peter went AWOL from his NAIS company during exercises so he could be there when they arrived. He wants to ship out here immediately."

  Kai chuckled lightly. "Peter always was a bit headstrong, He's the only cadet who's ever given Firsties more trouble during hazing than they gave him. What made him think he wanted to be out here?"

  "I'm not sure." Victor shrugged. "I think he heard that Ragnar Magnusson is younger than he is and I gather his grades have been less than stunning."

  "My father said Quint was a bit irked about having to stay at the Sakhara Academy while we were training on Wolf's world." Kai rotated his fist to loosen up his forearm. "I guess Cassandra and Kuan Yin convinced him to stay at the Academy."

  "There's more," Victor said gravely. "Intelligence from Sian reports that Romano has put your mother and father under an edict of death. I'm sorry."

  "Again?" Kai forced himself to take the threat lightly. "This is at least the tenth report we've had of another assassination plot. All the others that have leaked were dismal failures. The ones we didn't foresee came close, except that the agents always managed to bungle them. The assassins all got picked up coming in-system at St. Ives or Loris."

  "Even so, we're tightening security here, just in case Romano's insane enough to go after you."

  Kai nodded. "I appreciate the warning, but we'll have to tell the Liao assassin to take a number. After the Clans are through with me, he can do his worst."

  "I suppose."

  Kai sensed a sudden shift in Victor's mood. "There's something else. Are you still upset at our assignment to Alyina even though the Clans bypassed it in favor of Devin and Pasig?"

  "No. I'm certainly not happy about it, but it could be worse. Alyina has some good defensive positions." Victor glanced down at his hands, then back up at Kai. "My father said that various folks in the Draconis March have been reminding him of their loyalty and that they wouldn't ever want to be faced with a choice between staying with the Federated Commonwealth or allying with another state."

  "What?" Kai couldn't believe what he heard. "That's treason, isn't it?"

  "I suppose. From what I can make out, Liao agents in the

  Sarna March have been spreading stories of a torrid romance between Omi Kurita and me. Of course, it eventually got to folks in the Draconis March and they reacted unfavorably, to put it mildly. There has been no incident, mind you, but I don't appreciate their interest in my life."

  "Ah." Kai narrowed his eyes. "But you and Omi Kurita didn't seem to be carrying on a big romance. Has something changed that I don't know about?"

  "Not unless you want to call a goodbye kiss a big romance." Victor pounded his fist on the table. "I barely know her and now I've got people protesting about a phantom relationship. How dare they?"

  Kai got up and began to pace the room. "Victor, don't you realize how many people's future rides on you? You turned twenty-one back in April, and if it hadn't been for our training, you would certainly have been officially invested as the heir to both thrones of the Federated Commonwealth. Hell, your father might even have abdicated in your favor, which some were predicting at the time—war or no war."
>
  "What has that got to do with anything?" Victor demanded angrily.

  "It has to do with how others react to your behavior. The people in the Draconis March only feel safe as long as they believe you hate the Dracos as much as they do. They know you and your father keep the Draconis March strong to prevent the Kuritans from trying to take it away. They like that. It reassures them, makes them think you're following in your father's footsteps.

  "Now they hear you're romancing Theodore Kurita's daughter." Kai shook his head. "They figure she's bewitched you and that you'll begin to start making excuses for the Dracos. Then poof! They're suddenly Theodore's vassals."

  "That's ridiculous."

  "To you and me, but not to them." Kai stopped his pacing and leaned his hands down on the conference table. "Look, I trust you to make the right decision, no matter what. If you want to romance anyone—save Kali Liao—I'll back your play. But you've got to start looking at things the way others might interpret them."

  Victor sighed and hung his head. "I've been thinking just these kinds of things, too, of late. Even if I don't like the situation, you're right and I must be careful. But, Kai, only you can help me."

  "Whatever you need."

  "Rumor and damage control mostly. Try to get it out that this 'romance' is merely idle gossip. With you and Galen and my cousin Morgan to back me, who will doubt that I've got my head on straight? Which I do, by the way."

  Kai laughed. "I'll agree with that. After all, didn't you find the most interesting woman on Outreach?"

  "Our mothers excepted."

  "Of course." Kai opened the hatch. "Don't worry, Victor. Before long, we'll all have way too much on our minds to worry about who is romancing whom." He threw his friend a friendly salute. "Later."

  Kai glanced at his chronometer, thinking that if he moved quickly, he still had a chance to reach the sick bay before the change of shift. Using an access ladder to descend two levels, he then cut through a maze of narrow corridors and bulkheads. Passing through the hatch, he tugged the sleeves of his shirt down into place and gave the orderly at the reception desk a smile.

  "Is Doctor Lear in?"

  The orderly glanced at the clock on his desk. "She still has a few minutes on her shift. Name?"

  Kai jerked his thumb toward the interior office. "I'll announce myself."

  The orderly nodded and Kai passed through the examination room to the small office for the medical watch officer. He knocked on the bulkhead and braced himself for her response.

  He almost thought she was glad to see him, then the look on her face changed immediately to the dark mask of anger and hatred she reserved for him, though he'd never learned why.

  "Afternoon, Leftenant Allard. Something I can do for you?"

  Kai did his best to ignore her icy tone. "I have seen the assignments for the landing on Alyina. Your field hospital will be located in sector 2750."

  She nodded, her blue eyes full of suspicion. "We've been assigned to take over a veterinary hospital attached to the agrocomplex at Tassa."

  "I know. My company is assigned to cover that area." Kai looked down at his feet. "Tassa is close enough to what could be a front that things might get nasty. I'll do my best to keep you informed so you'll have plenty of time to ready patients for evacuation, if necessary."

  "You are most kind, Leftenant." Deirdre closed the chart on her computer desktop and prepared to open another. "If there is nothing else, I have work to do."

  "Actually, there is something. I want to say thank you."

  "For fixing your legs on Twycross?" She waved away his thanks as trivial. "I was just doing my job, Leftenant, as were you when you kidnapped me and killed those soldiers." Anger rippled through her words, but Kai thought her usual cutting tone had lost some of its edge.

  He shook his head. "No, I mean ... of course, I appreciate you for that, but it was what you did on Outreach, in the Council of Lords, that I wanted to thank." He gave her a weak smile. "Romano certainly subjected you to some badgering."

  White fury flashed through Deirdre's eyes. "What makes her so hateful? She did everything to force me to say I considered you to be the worst officer imaginable."

  "But you didn't."

  "No mean feat. The worst officer ever to live was present in the room, and he's a Davion. Compared to him, you are a paragon of virtue." She searched Kai's face with what seemed a mixture of pity and wonderment. "As much as we have our differences, I am not blind to how much more caring you seem than most officers in this army. I've had enough of hatred in my life. I don't intend to give Romano any more fuel for her anger."

  "My parents asked me to convey their gratitude, too. They wanted to meet you, but you headed off planet too quickly."

  Kai noticed she stiffened slightly at the mention of his parents, then visibly fought down the reaction. If possible, her tone became even more formal and her manner more distant, but not so much as in the past. "I had to do some things before taking assignment aboard the Barbarossa," she explained. "It was obvious how proud they are of you, and happy that someone else vindicated their belief. I require no thanks from them, however."

  As Deirdre Lear turned back to her computer files, Kai understood that the interview was over. "Well, thank you again for the support," he said lamely.

  As he turned to leave, her voice made him look back. "Kai ... Leftenant... thank you for offering to keep me informed on Alyina. And for organizing the evacuation of my field hospital on Twycross. We lost some men, but many more would have died if the Clans had broken through."

  Kai gave her a nod, then slipped into the corridor. Out there, he leaned his head against a cold bulkhead and closed his eyes. The Clans came closer to a breakthrough on Twycross than I have come with you, Deirdre Lear.

  Kai smiled and flexed his fingers. "Since sector 2750 is in my company's area of control," he said aloud, "I should familiarize myself with the background of all personnel being assigned to it. Let us see, Dr. Lear, what clues your files may offer in solving this little mystery. And I won't rest until I know why you hate my family, and what can I do about it."

  29

  JumpShip Dire Wolf, Assault Orbit

  Memmingen, Free Rasalhague Republic

  20 November 3051

  Phelan Wolf watched Natasha Kerensky shake hands with Star Colonel Marcos within the confines of the bridge holotank. As she turned away, he saw the predatory grin on her face. Head held high and stride springy with pride, Natasha returned to her bidding station.

  Phelan relinquished his place at the bid computer keyboard and moved over to a general access terminal. "How do you think the bidding will go?" he asked.

  She threw him a wink, which prompted both Phelan and Ranna to smile. "You two pups watch this. Marcos won't know what hit him. Give me first bid because of my age, will he!"

  Phelan shook his head. Having seen Cluster commanders bid away men and materials in preparation for a planetary assault a dozen times on at least a dozen previous occasions, he still could not get used to it. He knew the ground rules. A commander went in to attack with whatever he had bid, but could bring down reinforcements equal to his rival's last bid, without penalty. Ultimately, he could bring down as much as the opening bid in the contest for that planet, but his rival would have to allow him that option, which would mean concessions to the losing bidder. Though Phelan acknowledged that the bid process forced commanders to do the best they could with their troops, the idea of an artificial limit on forces used to take a planet still shocked him.

  He looked across the bridge at the large wall display that would show the bids and counter-bids. If Natasha chose, she could open with a bid to include all her forces. The computer would paint an icon for the Dire Wolf, three for aerospace fighters, three for Elementals, and nine for Mech-Warriors. Phelan knew Natasha was too shrewd to make such an opening bid, but he couldn't guess how much she would give away initially.

  "Phelan, what is your assessment of the Third Drak0ns?"


  The young MechWarrior frowned. "They are a sharp unit, but the Precentor Martial's information places them on Skondia. All they have defending Memmingen are militia and a unit cobbled together from the Black Omen and the Outlaws mercenary units. They're tough, but there aren't many of them."

  Natasha's eyes became like crescent moons. "But if they were there, they would tie up a Triple or two, Quiaff?"'

  "Aff."

  "Good." Tapping out a series of keys, Natasha put her bid up on the screen. Phelan was relieved to see no icon representing the Dire Wolf because that meant the ship's awesome firepower would not be used to raze the planet. Only one five-pointed blue star with white trim appeared to represent Natasha's aerospace element. Likewise, Natasha allowed herself only one four-pointed green daggerstar with silver trim to represent Elementals. She even sliced out three of her nine MechWarrior stars.

  Phelan glanced down at the small box worn on his jumpsuit belt. Its little LED remained dark, as did the unit on Ranna's belt. He knew that meant Natasha had bid away the Stars of which they were members. Even if Natasha won the bidding, neither Phelan nor Ranna would see combat. He turned to complain to the Black Widow, but saw that the LED on her notification device was not lit.

  He raised an eyebrow. Natasha doesn't intend to win this bidding. What does she know? Are the Third Drak0ns on the planet?

  Star Colonel Marcos countered with a bid pulling two

  MechWarrior stars from the display, but added back a Star's worth of Elementals and aerospace support. He smiled confidently across the holotank, where a vector-graphic hologram of the planet slowly rotated. Standing behind him, Conal Ward patted Vlad on the shoulder while Vlad busied himself at the bid computer.

  Natasha closed her eyes briefly. 'Two Stars of aircraft give him twenty fighters. The two Stars of Elementals counter the militia, leaving him four Stars of 'Mechs to take the Black Outlaws." She glanced over at Phelan. "Sound right to you?"

  Phelan held up his left hand for a second, then finished punching an information request into the computer. A file started to scroll up over the screen, and he froze it as the information he wanted appeared. "ComStar says the Black Outlaws have a combined air wing of fourteen aerospace fighters. The Third Drak0ns also have twenty aerospace fighters, a reinforced air company. Most important," he said with a grin, "Memmingen is the home of the Vandal Air Force. They're a bunch of old fliers who have a full six-plane wing of MechBuster fighters. Neither the planes nor the pilots have been in combat since 3030, but they could still be deadly." -