"That victory, however, is nothing compared to the recent battle for Luthien. I was there. We had sixteen crack regiments, including Wolf's Dragoons and the Kell Hounds. We had well over thirteen hundred BattleMechs against the eight hundred the Clans threw at us. Even with the advanced 'Mech technology the mercenaries had and some 'Mechkilling aircraft we put into service, the Clans almost succeeded in taking Luthien. No one from the Inner Sphere ever dared dream of what the Clans nearly accomplished in a single day."
Galen nodded solemnly. "Times have changed. Victor knows how to fight the Clans, and he's spent most of his waking hours training you clowns, reviewing intelligence from our sources and the Dracs, or planning out his assault. There's never been a military leader who so thoroughly understands the opposition."
Another officer, an older grizzled man, rubbed his hand over his chin. "What are you telling us, Galen?"
"What I'm telling you, Charlie, is this: Victor isn't Hanse Davion and he isn't Jaime Wolf. He is the worst nightmare the Clans have ever had. If we're with him, we'll stroll into Teniente and come out with Hohiro Kurita, leaving only smoking Jaguars behind."
Galen pointed straight at Murphy. "And before you get on about how Victor is trying so hard to be his father, think on this: Would Hanse Davion have even bothered to ask for this vote of confidence, or would he have just told us to go? Give Victor credit for wanting your confidence, not just assuming he's already got it as his birth-right."
* * *
Shin saw a nervous Victor Davion look up from his desk as he and Galen entered the office. "Galen, Shin, what's the verdict?"
Galen smiled broadly and Shin copied the expression to his own face. "The Revenants are behind you, boss. Now it's up to you to get permission to go."
Relief flooded Victor's face. "I'll get on that right away."
"Good, but if they say 'no,' don't sweat it."
"Excuse me?"
Galen threw him a wink. "The Revenants voted to follow you to Teniente even if we have to do it on a two-week pass."
21
Alyina
Trellshire, Jade Falcon Occupation Zone
21 March 3052
Kai felt his mouth go dry as he pressed a hand to the sharp-edged footprint. The depression went down a full two centimeters into the slightly muddy soil. "Whoever made this is big"
"And the track was made recentiy." Deirdre, kneeling beside him in the brush, traced the print with her finger. "What do you think?"
"I think we're correct in our suspicion that we're being stalked." Kai wiped his fingers on the soiled legs of his jumpsuit. "Someone this big has to be an Elemental."
"We're lucky, then, that he left this print, unless ..."
"... Unless he left it here on purpose." Kai pointed off through the woods. "Best return to our camp and gather up our equipment. This zone might have been safe for a little while, but that littie while is clearly over."
Deirdre nodded in agreement and started off through the undergrowth. Even in the half-light of the false dawn, she picked her way effortlessly through the brambles and ferns carpeting the forest in undergrowth. Like a wraith, she slipped between two birch trees and vanished from sight.
Kai smiled, marveling at how well Deirdre had adapted to life in the wilderness. It turned out that she, too, had spent time as a Youth Pathfinder. As she put it, living off the land was less a case of learning what she could and could not do as it was trying to remember what she had learned on Pathfinder outings. While Kai had concentrated on things like electronics and athletics in his Pathfinder career, she had done more camping and herb-lore studies that, combined with her medical training, made life away from civilization much easier.
As he came through the birch stand, he saw her crouched just below the ridgeline separating them from their camp. She glanced back at him, then waved him forward. She stood and darted ahead, her head vanishing as she sank back down on the other side of the ridge. Hurrying up the hillside, Kai reached her first position and looked down at their camp.
They'd set it up in an open area in another birch copse. Deirdre said she thought it was a deerstand and Kai had started dreaming of venison, but they hadn't seen anything larger than a rabbit in the week since settling there. The birches and undergrowth grew closely enough to conceal the camp, and the trees even broke up the smoke from the small fire they allowed themselves each night.
Kai shook his head ruefully. Any number of his friends would have described the setting, including the lovely Doctor Lear, as romantic, definitely the fulfillment of a fantasy or two. But Deirdre still held herself apart from him, even though their relations were on the friendly side of cordial, and they both slept in the same petrochemtarp lean-to. Kai was fairly certain it had nothing to do with the bounty-hunter incident, which left him back guessing about her early days and his father's adventures during the war.
As she started down toward the camp, Kai eased the autorifle from his shoulder and held it by the pistol-grip. He worked toward his left, giving himself an angle on Deirdre and another perspective on the camp. He slid down the hill on dead leaves, then came to a stop behind a thick pine. Standing, he looped the sling around his left forearm to steady the rifle.
At the edge of the birch stand, Deirdre waited and watched. As the first sliver of sun came over the top of the ridge, the light ignited the green in the leaves and slowly drew a shadow-curtain back across their campsite. Deirdre gathered up a couple of pieces of wood, then stood and walked into the camp.
He had no warning of the trap waiting for her and no way of spotting it. As she neared the ring of fire-blackened stones in front of the lean-to, her right leg sank to the knee into the ground. The sticks flew as she caught herself on her hands. Kai saw her shoulders hunch as she tried to pull her leg free, then her body jerked and her shoulders eased.
"Calm yourself, Lear," commanded a husky voice from beyond the lean-to's black tarp. "You might as well come in, Jewell. She is stuck fast and I will kill her if you do not give yourself up."
"Stay back, get away!" Deirdre turned as much as she could in Kai's direction. "Don't come in here. Just get away."
"Admirable, Lear, but foolish." Kai saw the red dot from a laser targeting-scope meander along the sand and caress her right thigh. "Her life is in your hands, Jewell. Come in now and I let her live."
Kai stood slowly and walked into the camp. "I'm here."
"Very good. Strip the clip from the autorifle, clear the chamber, and discard it. Do the same with your pistol, please."
Kai complied with the command, but purposely made no move to toss away the survival knife tucked into the top of his right boot. "I've done it. You can come out now."
Kai nearly swallowed his tongue as the Elemental made his appearance. Dropping ten meters straight down from one of the birch trees, he landed solidly on both feet, knees bending to absorb the shock of landing. He wore his long black hair brushed back from his face and the outline of black grease around his eyes made them look sunk back into his skull. His black garb clung to his body like a second skin, covering him from throat to groin. Lacking sleeves or legs, the outfit reminded Kai of the uniforms wrestlers at the New Avalon Military Academy wore in their matches.
He's every bit as big as I imagined from the footprint, and then some! Kai knew the Clanner topped him by a head and a half, and weighed at least twice as much. The man's biceps were thicker than Kai's thighs and his chest could have doubled for a DropShip landing pad. Maybe it would have been better if Truper had shot me.
The Elemental bowed his head in a salute. "So you are the nit causing the uproar with ComStar. How amusing. Our Star Captain warned us about approaching you, but I deduced, after watching you for several days, that luck had more to do with your eluding ComStar than did any skill. I could have bid away my eyes and still found you."
He held up a rectangular black device. "You even let me trick you into thinking I had a gun with this laser sight. We knew this was the sector where you would m
ost likely be lurking, so I had to bid hard to get it. Another one in my unit bid a single bullet, but I beat her by bidding a sight and a knife." Reaching around behind himself, he drew forth a wicked silver dagger and flourished it. "Dig a hole with this, sharpen some sticks with it, and I have you. Hardly worth the effort."
Kai tried to keep his face impassive as his spirit imploded. He looked at the weapons he had discarded and mentally kicked himself. If he had kept talking, I could have.... Deirdre looked over at him with an apology on her face, but he shook his head. "This is my fault. I am sorry I failed you. I ..."
"You, Jewell, are the sorriest excuse for a warrior I have seen on this world." The scorn in the Elemental's words cut at Kai. "Taman Malthus thought to make you a bondsman to our Clan, but I think I will merely summon Com Guards to take you to their reeducation camp. You are a perfect example of everything a warrior should not be."
Kai bristled at the insult. "Oh, and a soldier who disobeys his superior officer is better than I am?" Part of him knew any reply was foolish, but two and a half months on the run had worn his sense of restraint quite thin. "Our warriors, as poor as they might seem to you, at least learn how to obey!"
The Elemental's piggish eyes opened wide as Kai's remark hit home. "Our Star Captain may have won himself a Bloodname, but it is tainted. No one would fight for it because of the disgrace of its last owner on Twycross. Taman's lack of judgement in going for a Bloodname with an inferior pedigree is again evident in his caution concerning you. Were you as dangerous as he thinks, your capture would guarantee my nomination in the next Bloodname contest for House Konrad. As it is now, you will be the core of a joke I tell."
He's right, Kai, you are a joke. The voice echoing up from the darkness of Kai's soul sought to suck him down into despair. He is bigger than you, and far deadlier. He is a real warrior. Give in to him. He can protect Deirdre, so give her to him.
Kai's weariness with running and hiding started to conspire with his self-doubt, but something else clicked in him. No, dammit, I have survived too long to be dismissed as a joke. He slid his knife from the boot-sheath. "You want something to laugh about? Perhaps you're ticklish. We can find out."
"Oh, so the slug thinks it has teeth, does it?" The Elemental barked out a laugh. "Yes, you have tickled my funny-bone with that one. Now put your knife away before I am forced to hurt you."
"Do it, do it," Deirdre shouted. "It's over. Don't do anything stupid."
Stupid. Cowardly. You embarrass her, as you embarrass your family and your nation. Kai felt fear rise up and constrict his throat. He shifted the knife to his left hand, then wiped the sweat from his palm on his pant leg. It is true. He will kill me.
"Still game?" The Elemental raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Perhaps this expedition will not have been a waste."
"No!" Deirdre tried to pull her leg free, but cried out in pain and stopped the attempt. "Don't fight him. Surrender. Live."
Kai shot her a brave smile to mask his true feelings. "I don't think letting me live is quite what Demi-Precentor Khalsa has in mind, Deirdre. Remember, I killed two guards, shot up his office, and kidnapped you." He looked up at the Elemental. "As soon as we are done bargaining, I am ready."
"Bargaining?" The Jade Falcon nodded sagely and cast the laser sight aside. "I am Corbin and I will grant you a Warrior's death."
"That gives me great comfort, but it is not quite what I had in mind," Kai said as he shifted the knife to his right hand. "You are much bigger than I, so I demand a concession from you. If I blood you, you will let Doctor Lear go free."
Corbin's quizzical look melted into a grim grin. "Bargained well and done."
"Don't do this! Not for me!" Deirdre shouted.
The Elemental nodded Kai a salute. "To honor you, if you fail, I will make her a bondswoman."
"And I will do everything I can to make sure you don't have to go to that trouble." Kai realized that his bargain and Corbin's response meant his feeble attempt at misdirection had worked and reminded Kai of another battle against the Clans. Adler Malthus, the commander of the Jade Falcon unit making its way through the Great Gash on Twycross, had fallen prey to a similar deception. How odd that history repeats itself. Here I am again facing a superior Clan force, with Dr. Lear's fate depending upon my success.
The two men slowly began to circle the small clearing. Kai watched Corbin and began to dread the panther-like fluidity of the man's motions. The Jade Falcon stayed up on the balls of his feet and kept his left hand weaving back and forth, continually hiding and revealing the blade of the dagger in his right hand. Corbin's steps ate up more ground than Kai's, ever shrinking the circle. Like a noose, it tightens ...
Kai unconsciously dropped into his own fighting stance and switched the knife to his left hand. He concentrated on watching Corbin as a whole, not any one part of him. Kai also centered himself, bringing his breathing under control. He worried less about finding an opening through which he could thrust his knife than about reading Corbin for a sign of an impending attack.
Kai worked at ridding himself of panic. What are my goals in this fight? Kai took a half-step backward. I must blood him, I must!
Corbin closed and slashed left to right at Kai's midsection. Kai leaped back, then took a tentative swipe at Corbin's arm as the Elemental recovered. The return slash missed cleanly and the Jade Falcon pulled back to laugh. "That was an attack? Then I suppose she has to cut your food for you lest you starve."
Kai's face burned crimson. Blood him? The only blood on him today will be yours.
Corbin hunkered down in an unorthodox guard position. With the dagger clutched in his right hand and his right arm curled up over his shoulder like a scorpion's tail, the Elemental withdrew his most obvious threat. He held his left arm forward to guard his body and crouched low enough that he could get good distance on a lunge.
He flipped his left hand over and waggled his fingers at Kai. "Come on, you can have a free cut."
He mocks you! Kai snarled and darted forward. He feinted with his dagger at the man's hand, then stabbed out with his right foot and drove it into the Jade Falcon's thick left thigh. This did not slow Corbin, however, who pivoted on that leg, swept his left arm wide in a parry of the feint, then thrust his dagger forward in a move meant to spit Kai on the blade.
Without thinking, Kai shifted his knife from right hand to left and grabbed Corbin's right wrist in his own right hand. Planting his right foot, he twisted his body inside the Elemental's reach. Using the larger man's momentum against him, Kai drove his right hip into Corbin's midsection and tugged on his arm as he bent over. The Elemental shot up across Kai's back and landed hard on his rump.
The MechWarrior twisted the Elemental's arm, but before Kai could lock and break the elbow across his knee, Corbin pulled free. Kai slashed at him with the knife, but holding it in his left hand made the strike weak. Kai felt it hit, but it seemed not to affect the Clansman as he spun to his feet.
Corbin began to laugh defiandy, but when he pressed his left hand to the small of his back, it came away bloody. His brown eyes sparkled. "You are almost competent, Jewell, but I would have taken your kidneys and severed your spine with such a cut. There. You have blooded me and your doctor will go free. Now it is my turn."
Moving faster than any human being Kai had ever seen, Corbin came in again. Mirroring Kai's earlier move, the Elemental flipped his dagger into his left hand, then cut cruelly at the MechWarrior. Kai tried to jump back from the slash, but the tug he felt on his jumpsuit leg told him he had failed. The hot sting of Corbin's dagger slicing the flesh over his right thigh shocked him.
Kai half expected the Clansman to back off and gloat over his handiwork, but Corbin burrowed in close. Gingerly dancing back on his cut leg, Kai avoided the brunt of the charge, but not by much. He flicked out a right jab that caromed off his head, with the only effect being Corbin turning in Kai's direction.
Returning like for like, Corbin dropped a short right jab into Kai's ribs. The
fist pounded like a sledgehammer into ribs barely recovered from being broken during the escape from ComStar. Agony exploded in Kai's chest and he hunched over to protect his ribs.
An open-handed cuff to the head blasted him on his feet and sent him flying. He landed in a heap, rolling to a stop in the ruins of the lean-to he and Deirdre had constructed. Tangled in the petrochem sheet, he fought himself halfway clear. Just as he realized he had lost his knife, a booted foot lifted him from the ground with a kick to his midsection. He slammed into a tree, then dropped to the foot of it and clawed breathlessly at pine needles and roots.
Unable to breathe and with his chest on fire, Kai braced for the next assault, thinking that Corbin would kill him this time. He tried to get up, but only made it halfway before collapsing again. You are finished.
Corbin's shadow fell across his face. "I was wrong. You are no Warrior, for no Warrior would just lie there." The Elemental filled his voice with contempt. "I will slay you and leave you in an unmarked grave so none of your kinsmen can be embarrassed by your failure."
Corbin's words found a willing echo in the dark voice that had always haunted Kai's thoughts. You have ever been a failure, Kai Allard-Liao. They will erase you from the roll of Liaos, and none will dare speak your cursed name.
Kai coughed and felt his ribs creak. "It doesn't matter. I beat you."
"You what?"
Kai panted for a second, then pulled himself up on his elbows. "I blooded you. You have to let her go. I won."
Corbin's malignant laughter filled the clearing. "Oh that? I agreed only because I thought it would get more fight out of you. I never intended to honor that bargain because only bargains struck between Warriors need be honored." Corbin squatted down with his hands resting on his knees. He stuck his face into Kai's. "No freebirth is ever enough of a Warrior to bargain with me."
As the Clanner started to bounce back upright, Kai struck. Stiffening the fingers of his right hand, he speared them into the Elemental's throat. The large man gurgled an outcry and toppled back, clutching his adam's apple. Kai kicked his feet free of the tarp and unsteadily rolled to his feet. Seeing his foe sprawled on his back, Kai stomped on his groin, then turned away and started limping toward the ruins of the lean-to to find his knife.
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