Lethal heritage

by Michael A. Stackpole

  Albert smiled proudly. "The quillar crop was very good the past two years. Nadine and I promised ourselves a trip off Rijeka before we died, so we decided to do it now and see Renny graduate ..."

  Albert Sanderlin's voice trailed off as another cadet and his family expanded the intimate group. "Mother, Father, I wish to present to you Duke Victor Ian Steiner-Davion. Victor, these are my parents, Don Fernando Oquendo y Ramirez and his wife, Lenore."

  Victor formed his face into a very public smile and kept it frozen in place. His voice, deadened from the enthusiastic friendliness of moments before, was nonetheless cordial. "I am most pleased to meet you." He lifted his head, stiffening his spine and giving the cadet's parents an appraising glance.

  Don Fernando bowed from the waist before extending his hand to Victor. Victor shook his hand courteously, then waited for Lenore to curtsey before taking her hand and brushing his lips against her knuckles. "Our son, Ciro, has told us much about you, Highness."

  Victor acknowledged Lenore's comment with a slight nod. "I'm sure he has, Donna Lenore. It was a pleasure meeting you. I hope you enjoy the reception." Victor's plastic smile remained in place long enough for the nobles to realize they had been dismissed, then it melted into a more genuine expression as he turned back to the Sanderlins.

  Renny let a low chuckle rumble from his chest as Ciro and his parents withdrew. "I wonder what Ciro the Hero told his folks, Vic. Do you think he mentioned how you took his forces apart in the tactical simulations we did last year?"

  Victor composed his face into a fair imitation of the recently departed cadet and let his voice rise up to match Ciro's. "Si, Mummy, the Duke and I engaged our forces against each other in class last fall. I wouldn't say I embarrassed Victor, but the outcome was most unexpected." Letting his voice return to normal, Victor added. "It's true. He didn't embarrass me and I never expected to win that quickly."

  Rebecca looked back over her shoulder at Ciro, then frowned. "He sounds dangerous. What unit will he be assigned to?"

  Victor and Renny shared a private smile. "We're negotiating on his behalf to get him a position with Romano Liao's personal bodyguard unit or a Periphery pirate gang," Victor laughed.

  Renny elbowed his roommate. "Spooks, 1130 and closing."

  Victor looked over toward the room's main entrance. Several men and women, moving singly and in pairs, entered the room. They smiled cordially and drifted through the crowd with seeming purposelessness, but their wary eyes continuously scanned the room. Renny tagged it perfectly. That's the advance team.

  Victor saw the puzzled looks on the faces of Renny's guests. "Not to worry, Mrs. Sanderlin. Renny and I have spent a certain amount of time eluding the CID agents assigned to safeguard me. He's even better at spotting them than I am." He glanced back at the doorway. "This many infesting the party means my parents cannot be too far behind."

  Some of the color drained from Albert Sanderlin's face. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Victor." He turned to his son. "Come on, Renard, we should, ah, circulate some more."

  Victor held up his hand. "No. Please don't go." Nadine shook her head slightly. "Highness, we are simple quillar farmers from Rijeka ..." She looked over at Ciro

  Oquendo and his parents huddled nearby. "We're no one special ..."

  A heartbeat's worth of anger shot through Victor's eyes. "You're wrong in that, Mrs. Sanderlin. You are the parents of someone I am very proud to call a friend, and that makes you special, indeed. Between friends, and by extension, between their families, there are no ranks.

  "You've come all this way to see your son graduate and to see something of the rest of the Inner Sphere. You've endured a long trip, and I know well the physical strain caused by jumping from star system to star system. You called this a once-in-a-lifetime trip, so let's make it even more memorable." Victor dropped his eyes and his voice. "Please do me the honor of letting me introduce you to my parents."

  Albert Sanderlin gave his wife's hand a reassuring squeeze, then nodded at Victor in silent assent. As Davion turned his attention back to the doorway, a buzzing whisper filled the room. He felt his own heart beating faster and the ache of a lump in his throat.

  His mother appeared first, on the arm of the Nagelring's Kommandant. Tall and girlishly slender, Melissa Steiner Davion showed her age only in the mature grace of her movements. The blue gown she wore, a shade darker than the blue trim on the Cadets' uniforms, was cut in a stylishly youthful fashion. The silken material had been slashed diagonally to her left knee, exposing a shapely calf, and again at the right shoulder, baring her right arm. The diamond and sapphire necklace and drop earrings matched the gown's hue. Her blond hair, worn up, was encircled by a simple platinum coronet.

  Behind her, escorting the Kommandant's wife, came Prince Hanse Davion. Wearing the navy-blue dress uniform of the Davion Heavy Guards, Hahse Davion stood tall and proud. Age had leeched some of the ruddy color from his hair, especially at the sides and back, and had given his face a few seams, but no one would ever mistake that for a sign of weakness. The Prince, his blue eyes bright, exuded a confidence and power that crackled through the gathering like static electricity.

  Victor felt the ache in his throat drain and his smile broaden. It's been far too long since I last saw you. He tugged at the hem of his dress jacket. I hope I've made you proud.

  Melissa freed herself from the Kommandant's arm and made her way across the room to her son. As she came toward him, Victor was reminded of his late grandmother, Katrina Steiner. The way my mother carries herself, and those gray eyes, she is so much like her mother. The memory of his grandmother faded as Melissa came nearer, and he smiled with the pleasure of seeing her again. Then again, my mother is like no one else.

  Victor opened his arms and took her into a warm embrace. "Hello, Mother," he said, planting a kiss on her cheek, and giving her another squeeze. Still with one arm around her, he turned to greet his father. Their hands met in a firm grip, then Melissa stepped aside as father and son pulled each other into a backslapping hug.

  Victor turned to Renny and his family. "Father, Mother, it is my great pleasure to introduce Cadet Renard Sanderlin, his parents Albert and Nadine, and his special friend, Rebecca Waldeck." Victor smiled as he avoided Renny's earlier mistake. "These are my parents, Prince Hanse Davion and Archon Melissa Steiner Davion."

  Hanse immediately kissed Nadine Sanderlin's hand. "I understand we have your son to thank for Victor's successes in the more difficult mathematical subjects taught here." Hanse smiled warmly. "Would that Renard had been at Albion when I was there. Then I might have graduated at the top of my class."

  Nadine, mute with terror, nodded and smiled, but no one noticed her silence in the round of exchanged greetings. Renny snapped a smart salute to the Prince, which Hanse returned equally crisply before shaking Renny's hand. Melissa immediately won over Rebecca and Nadine by complimenting them on their dresses, and that unfroze Nadine's tongue enough that she could return the compliment.

  The informal curtain of bodyguards that drifted between the royal family and the rest of the party held Ciro Oquendo and his kin at bay, but did not prevent three other people from joining Victor and his parents. The first was a tall, broad-shouldered man, whose coppery hair was worn long enough to hide the golden Marshal's epaulets on his black uniform and to half-obscure the dozens of campaign ribbons on his left breast. The woman on his arm wore a black and gold gown that contrasted dramatically with her fair hair.

  Victor greeted both with a smile, then turned to introduce them to the others. "Renny, this is your new commanding officer, Marshal of the Armies Morgan Hasek-Davion, and his wife, Duchess Kym Hasek-Davion." Victor left it to Renny to introduce his parents as he turned toward the third newcomer.

  Standing closer to what Victor considered a reasonable height, the slender man smiled warmly at the Prince. The laugh lines at the corners of his almond-shaped eyes and the occasional snowy strand showing through his coal-black hair were the only hints of the
man's true age. He extended his right hand to Victor, allowing his glove-sheathed left hand to remain hidden at his side. "Congratulations, Highness, on your graduation with honors."

  Victor shook the visitor's hand firmly. "Thank you, Secretary Allard."

  Justin Allard narrowed his brown eyes. "You are aware, I believe, that no one has ever beat the La Mancha simulator scenario before."

  Victor raised an eyebrow. "But I've heard rumors that your son salvaged a victory from it in his final New Avalon Military Academy tests. In fact, news of Kai's success prompted me to try my solution."

  A mild look of surprise spread over Justin's face before he brought his expression under control. "Your intelligencegathering network is good, Victor. I'll have to look into the leaks in NAMA security."

  The younger man shook his head. "No crisis, I assure you. Just don't let my brother Peter near a diplomatic Hermes bundle again." Victor hesitated for a moment. "Isn't Kai graduating this week as well? I mean, the ceremonies run concurrently, don't they?"

  Justin nodded, unable to totally mask his feelings. "Yes, they do. I wanted to be there, but duty called and so I am here."

  Victor heard no animosity in Justin's voice, only the matter-of-fact reporting of a situation. "Will Kai's mother be able to attend?"

  Pain shot through the Intelligence Secretary's dark eyes. "I'm afraid affairs of state delayed her departure from the St. Ives Compact. But after he gets settled in his new posting, we will see him. I probably won't head back to New Avalon until next fall, but the detour will be easy to arrange."

  Victor raised an eyebrow. "What detour? I thought Kai was joining the Heavy Guards, and they're stationed on New Avalon. Anyway, those were his plans during the year I spent as a transfer at NAMA. I know he had good enough grades to make it."

  Hanse Davion's spymaster smiled with fatherly pride at Victor's last comment. "His grades were good enough, but he changed his mind. He told me of his decision two weeks ago when I met with him just before leaving to come here. He's been assigned to the Tenth Lyran Guards. Kai asked me to congratulate you on his behalf and to express his gratitude for your half of the work you did together during your time at NAMA."

  Victor nodded, smiling as he remembered Kai Allard. "Before this week is over, I'll record a holodisc message and we can arrange to have it waiting for Kai when he arrives at his unit." Victor turned and brought Justin into the circle, introducing him to everyone. Then, along with the others, he accepted a glass of champagne from a waiter's silver tray.

  Conversation in the room died as Prince Hanse Davion turned to the crowd and lifted his glass high. "I would like to offer a toast to our assembled sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and companions." With pride in his eyes, he glanced at Victor and Renny, then faced the crowd again. "They are the future of the Successor States and we are blessed that so able a group is ready to fulfill such a mighty responsibility."

  Victor sipped the champagne, but tasted none of it. Deep down inside, Father, I know you 're right. I am ready for the burdens an accident of birth will thrust upon me. He swallowed hard. Still, I must dread the coming of that day, for it will mean billions of lives depend on my judgment—and a mistake made then will be irreversible.

  3

  Starglass Beach, Emerald Ocean , New Avalon

  Crucis March, Federated Suns

  19 May 3049

  Kai Allard felt his heart sink as he spit out the hydrolizer pack's regulator. He swayed with the minor swells of the warm ocean water, but resisted its urging long enough to remove his swimfins and set his diving mask back on his head. No sense in delaying it, Kai. It's obvious she knows. He licked the tangy brine from his lips. You can't run now.

  Wading in toward the black sandy shore where she waited, he shrugged off the hydrolizer, yet still felt weighed down by an oppressive heaviness. The waves pushing him into shore warred with the undertow trying to drag him back out to the depths, but neither force could gain sufficient purchase on his lithe form to win the battle. As Kai drew close enough to see the redness rimming her eyes, he toyed momentarily with the idea of surrendering to the undertow, of letting it drag him out and down to where he would have no more troubles.

  No, he told himself resolutely. Suicide's not an option for you, Kai Allard-Liao. It would dishonor your parents and that you must never do.

  Sunlight sparkled off the grains of ebon sand, making them blaze like stars. Kai tossed the hydrolizer into the sand next to the towel he'd laid out earlier, then sent the swim mask and fins flying after it. Chasing the water from his closely cropped black hair with one hand, he turned to face her. Her uniform, the dress blues all NAMA cadets wore for graduation, looked far too warm for the beach, and the incoming tide had already soaked the bottoms of her trousers.

  "How long have you been here, Wendy?" Kai tried to keep his voice neutral, but the woman stared up at him, then looked down as tears dropped to the sand. "Not long enough, I guess." The mournfulness of her tone tore at him, but Kai knew that nothing he could say would help her. Feeling impotent and awkward, he just waited and watched as Wendy Sylvester fought to transform her emotions into words.

  Finally, her head came up again and she pushed back teardampened strands of straw-blond hair from her cheeks. "I've been trying to figure out why you did it, but whenever I get that squared away, trying to fathom why you didn't tell me about it keeps crossing me up." She opened her hands, then tightened them back into fists again. "I don't understand it. Everything was going to be perfect."

  She looked at him and took his silence as a negation of her words. "I've told you again and again that I don't care that you're a couple of years younger than I am. It doesn't matter. Not at all. I thought you understood that." She paused and looked out toward the water, bringing Kai's awareness back to the sound of waves crashing against the shore. "I thought I meant something to you," she said, looking up at him again.

  Kai breathed in slowly, filling his lungs with the salt air, but he was unable to meet her eyes. "You do mean something to me. You mean a great deal to me—more than anyone else ever." He sighed deeply. Why can't you see it, Wendy? If not now, I would only have screwed it up later. "I do love you."

  "Do you? You have a curious way of showing it. I told you of my family's tradition. My father and mother, my grandparents on both sides, and for as far back as I have heard, all belonged to the Davion Heavy Guards. I grew up steeped in the lore of the Heavy Guards and joining the Guards is all I've ever wanted to do."

  Kai finally met her stare. "I know that and I respect your family's tradition more than you know."

  Wendy shook her head. A breeze coming from the sea blew her hair back from her face and rustled through the sea grasses behind her. "I hear your words, Kai, but I see something different in your actions. Don't you understand I wanted the same thing for you?"

  She hesitated, waiting for some reaction, then continued on when he didn't give her one. "Perhaps you thought I wanted you to join the Heavy Guards because I was going to, because it's a family tradition for us Sylvesters to serve with our spouses in the Guards. Well, that's true. I won't deny it, but I wanted you to join the regiment for other reasons as well."

  Kai started to speak, but she held up her hand to stop him. "Kai, I've seen you grow so much in the last year. You were, and are, as smart as a whip, but until someone like Victor backed your plans, you were your own worst critic."

  Wendy squatted down on her haunches and picked up a piece of driftwood. "You've never said much about your family life, but I know it can't have been easy. Your father was at the beck and call of Prince Hanse. I've met him— your father, I mean—and I know he's not a cold man, but he seems so private and so suspicious. That's good for a man heading up the Intelligence Secretariat, but it has to be hell on his children."

  Kai stiffened. You've got that wrong, Wendy, My father, a man who lived a lie for the good of his nation, and a man later trained to separate truth from deception, has kept nothing hidde
n from us. Because he knew at any moment that he could be killed—and likely as not by my mother's sister, Romano Liao—he made a special effort to let us know his feelings and hopes for each of us. He might not always have been right there because of official duties, but he made certain we never felt abandoned or unwanted.

  Wendy stood again, grasping the small gray stick in both hands. "Your mother is the leader of a sovereign nation that she mostly rules from New Avalon so she can be with your father, but no matter how many summers you all spent together on St. Ives, it must have been hard sometimes."

  Something in her eyes pleaded with him to speak, but he couldn't. There's no denying I had anything but a normal family life, but who's to say what's normal? I grew up knowing both my parents loved me and wanted to give me every opportunity to make the best of myself Kai swallowed past the lump rising in his throat. They always taught me that nothing was beyond my reach.

  "My God, Kai, say something." With a sharp crack, Wendy angrily broke the piece of driftwood in two. "Romano Liao spends her time trying to kill your parents or your aunts and uncles. Dan Allard is off running the Kell Hounds and your aunt Riva won a Nobel prize for her work with neurocybernetics! All these people have so much power, but none of them could take off a little time to be here for your graduation! How could they do that to you?"

  Wendy sank to her knees as tears of frustration welled in her eyes. She flung the broken pieces of wood away from her. "No, dammit! I told myself I won't let this happen." She looked up at him. "All I wanted was for you to join the Heavy Guards, to become part of my family. I wanted to make a place where you could feel confident and secure. I was so happy that day we filled out our assignment requests and both listed the Heavy Guards as our first choices."

  She hung her head, letting her hair fall forward to hide her face. "Then, today, I saw the assignment lists. I'm in the Heavy Guards and you've been assigned to the Tenth Lyran Guards." She spat out the name of the Commonwealth regiment as though it were some bitter poison. "You'll be stationed on Skondia in the Isle of Skye. What did I do to drive you so far away?"