Conti regarded Yorinaga like a cobra watching a mongoose. "True, but you lost your base to a raid by Morgan Kell..."
Pounding his fist into the table, Theodore cut off discussion. "Enough, Conti. This is shameful. If you resent Yorinaga on a personal basis, settle your differences with him outside this room. His Genyosha is a superior fighting force, and all of us in this room know it. By the same token, we know my father has abandoned it in much the same way he has forgotten the whole Dieron Military District. The Genyosha are an elite unit, but they get no supplies. This holds true for the entire district. My father is not giving us the materials, support, or respect we are due."
Theodore pointed to the star map. "My plan will enable us to beg, borrow, and steal the supplies we need to sustain a campaign of conquest. The Genyosha will be our first unit going into the Isle of Skye, and they will destroy the Kell Hounds. Yorinaga has earned the glory and the right, and he shall have it."
Palmer Conti's face darkened, and Jinjiro sensed wheels turning within wheels in his mind. The Kurita Tai-sho looked up. "Will not the strike at Nusakan tip our hand?"
Theodore chuckled slightly. "No. The Archon has given her blessing to this battle between the Kell Hounds and the Genyosha. She is enough of a warrior that she will not move troops into that area for fear of dishonoring Morgan Kell. What few troops remain in the Isle of Skye will not be anticipating an attack, and we will catch them unprepared."
Theodore watched as Conti reluctantly nodded his agreement. "That settles it, then," said Kurita. "By the new year, we will rule the Isle of Skye. If he's lucky, I will let Aldo Lestrade live long enough to see how brilliant his plan truly was."
29
Moore
Dieron Military District, Draconis Combine
1 August 3029
Tai-i Jinjiro Thorsen moaned as Caterina Enritsu, the concubine Theodore Kurita had presented him in reward for his service, massaged the ciofaf-scented oil deeper into the muscles of his right thigh. He raised his head to look at her, but without his glasses, she appeared as a blur of golden hair and lightly bronzed skin. He reached out, brushing his fingertips against her shoulder, and she kissed his hand.
"So, Thorsen-sama, you must be a very important man. It is not often the Coordinator's son sends his personal aide to demand special treatment for a patron."
Jinjiro nodded, then let his head sink back down on the futon. Caterina slid her hands up his body, sending a thrill through him, then started to massage his left shoulder. "No, Caterina-san, I am not that important." I wish I were, then I could afford your services, and you would admit me into that closed circle of important clients you keep. Your importance is far greater than mine.
She laughed lightly and melodiously. "I think you are being modest, Jinjiro. You must have done something to deserve a promotion from Chu-i to Tai-i today."
Jinjiro tried again to focus on her face. Is she teasing me? "How did you know I was promoted just today?"
She winked at him and urged him to sit up. As he raised himself up on his elbows, she moved around behind him. With her hands on his shoulders, she gently pressed him back down so his head rested in her lap. "A guess, nothing more. You started to introduce yourself as a Lieutenant as if you were used to that title. As Theodore Kurita arranged for me to be your hostess and—just between us—called to make sure I would be especially good to you, I assumed the promotion had taken place today."
Jinjiro's eyes grew wide with amazement. She knows the Coordinator’s son, and he asked her to take special care of me! Warm fire ignited in his belly as she rubbed her hands over his chest and down his abdomen. "You are correct. After a big meeting, Theodore Kurita himself announced my promotion."
Jinjiro expected her to comment, but Caterina said nothing. She reached for a cup of sake on the low table beside the futon and brought it to his lips. Jinjiro sipped some of the rice liquor, then lay his head back down against her thighs. "What is wrong?"
Caterina shook her head briefly, then forced a smile onto her face. "Nothing, really." She paused, set the cup down, and then began to massage his temples. "It is just that I hear so often about meetings and more meetings. Moore is within striking distance of the front and I fear our warriors will be in their meetings when the Lyrans come to conquer us."
Jinjiro felt the shudder throughout her body. "No, no, you do not understand. This was not a meeting like those you describe." Jinjiro smiled as she brought the sake cup to his lips again. He swallowed more of the liquor and felt the glow in his belly slowly spread up to his head. "You need not fear the Lyrans much longer."
Her fingers shifted down to knead the muscles in the back of his neck. "I think you say this to humor your little mekake, Jinjiro-sama, but you need not fear. I will not let my personal anxieties spoil this night for you. I appreciate your effort, but it is not necessary to lie to me."
Jinjiro shook his head. "An officer would not lie. This is the truth." A voice inside him warned against saying anything more, but a giddy feeling overrode his caution. She knows the Coordinator's son. "Within two months, you will find yourself deep behind the lines."
Caterina smiled lustily down at him. "Perhaps, Jinjiro, perhaps." She shifted around, gently lowering his head to the quilted mattress, and stretched her naked body down next to his. "Then again, I might just follow a considerate, ambitious officer like you as far as you care to take me."
Caterina Enritsu looked down at the lean, sleeping form of Jinjiro Thorsen. Sleep well, lover, for it would not do for you to notice my absence. She glanced at her chronometer, then pulled on a dark sweater. She felt uneasy about leaving in the middle of a performance, but knew the drug she'd slipped into the sake would keep Jinjiro safely unconscious for the short time she was gone.
Indeed, the drug had worked perfectly. It loosened Jinjiro's tongue enough that he'd easily revealed the information she wanted. I knew from the first look at that innocent face and those thick glasses, that an appeal to his protectiveness would work. I wish I could wait until tomorrow to deliver this information, but it's too vital. The LIC needs it now. I have to risk it.
She crossed back to the sleeping Mech Warrior and kissed him on the forehead. When I get back, I'll give you something to remember that will blur anything and everything else about this evening in your memory. She smiled to herself. After all, all that I've done so far has been to thank you in the name of Theodore Kurita. When I return, though, I will show you the full depth of the Lyran Intelligence Corps' gratitude.
30
Sian
Sian Commonality, Capellan Confederation
3 August 3029
Justin realized something was very wrong when he noticed members of the House Imarra battalions standing guard on either side of the briefing chamber's portal. Where the hell are the Death Commandos? Who authorized a shift of duty for them? Remembering the urgent sound in Candace's voice and the worried look on her face on the visiphone's view screen, Justin answered his own question. Romano. She has to be the source of this trouble. I hope she's done nothing I can't fix.
The two hulking guards did not look at Justin as the chamber door rose into the ceiling, but they moved instantly to block Alexi Malenkov's passage. Seeing their movement out the corner of his eye, Justin spun and batted the nearest guard's hand away from Alexi's shoulder. "Let him go."
The Imarra warrior glanced over his shoulder as Romano framed herself in the doorway. "Malenkov is not allowed in here. I do not trust him." She held her head high, and her green eyes blazed with defiance. Her black trousers and green tunic had been cut in a military style, but the way she let the blouse gap open to reveal tantalizing glimpses of her breasts mocked the crisp correctness of the guards' uniforms.
Justin stared at her implacably. Warlord or seductress, Romano? Which will it be today? "I do not care if you trust him or not. I do." Justin let his voice drop so that only Romano could hear his words. "If not for him, Ling would have had me."
Justin's revelation sm
ashed Romano's haughty facade like a sledgehammer hitting bone china. He guided Alexi through the door, then entered the chamber himself. Romano nodded reluctant permission to the guards, then turned away from the door. Despite the blow, Justin noticed that her color and confidence returned as she moved toward the head of the table and drew closer to both Maximilian Liao and Tsen Shang.
Justin glanced at Candace, reassuring her with a smile. Her expression lightened somewhat, but she looked anxiously at her father and the holographic map suspended above the holotable. What is going on here? Candace looks as though she's been through a month-long campaign. Max seems enthused and Tsen is beaming like a child who's won a contest.
The Chancellor folded his arms across his chest. "Please, Shonso Xiang, do not feel slighted that this is the first time that I discuss this matter with you. I know you have many worries concerning the refit of the House Imarra regiment with the new myomer muscles. I wanted this to be a surprise."
Justin nodded. "I am honored by your concern, Supreme Counselor." A surprise! What now?
Maximilian smiled at Romano. "Romano, who has been as concerned as you about the recent Davion advances, has worked with Tsen Shang to come up with a way to break the back of the invasion. The Interdiction has already slowed our enemies. This will stop them dead in their tracks and even force them to retreat."
Justin shifted his gaze to Tsen Shang and appraised him openly. The tall, slender analyst's smile nearly died under Justin's gaze, but a squeeze on his arm from Romano buoyed his spirits. Justin noted this new fire in Shang with a mix of amusement and fear. He's abandoned himself to her. That will make him either useless or very dangerous.
"What have you got, Tsen?" Justin asked.
Smiling at Romano, Tsen disengaged his arm from hers and moved to the table. He hit a few keys, commanding the computer to redraw the map. It formed itself into the strategic display Justin had become all too used to seeing of late: red worlds denoted those taken by the Federated Suns, and green stood for those still loyal to the Chancellor. The Tikonov Free Republic, governed by a Davion-backed military council since Ridzik's death, had been colored in with blue.
Tsen pointed his right hand toward a world in the Capellan March of the Federated Suns. Red highlights sparkled from diamond chips mounted along the long fingernails of his last three fingers. "This is the key to the Davion war effort. If we cripple this world, we will hamstring Hanse Davion's invasion."
Justin peered closely at the map, then felt his heart rise to his throat. Kathil! Justin's head came up. "You can't hit the shipyards at Kathil."
Tsen's grin faltered momentarily, then Romano slid her left hand along over his right shoulder as she advanced to the table. "His plan is brilliant, Justin Xiang!" The map's reflected light bathed her face in blood. "You're just jealous because Tsen Shang found the one assault that will stop our enemies while you were out hunting down a measly scientific base."
Justin stared at her, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. "You can't hit Kathil. That world is one of a dozen planets in all the Successor States that has factories capable of repairing damage to or building new JumpShips." He looked over at Shang. "Those JumpShips are the apex of lostech. We don't know how to build them anymore. We don't know what makes them work. But we do know how to keep the factories running to turn them out. If you destroy those orbiting factories and drydocks, you will cripple the Federated Suns all right, and the future of mankind along with it!"
Romano sneered. "That hardly sounds like the Justin Xiang who hates Hanse Davion enough to mount hunting expeditions into Federated Suns territory."
"Romano," Candace broke in sharply, "you have forever been too stupid to look five minutes into the future. Hanse Davion did restore production of the yards just for this war, but destroy the factories capable of creating and repairing JumpShips and you doom mankind. The JumpShips we have now will eventually wear out and fail. When the last of them does, we will be forced to remain on our worlds forever. Trade between our diverse colonies—trade that makes life in the Successor States possible— will wither and die!"
"Stop!" Maximilian Liao's voice, again filled with the strength of command it had lacked so often since the invasion, cut off his daughters' bickering instantly. Candace stared savagely at her sister, but Romano smiled and turned to her father.
The Chancellor nodded appreciatively toward Justin. "Once again, I find your concern and insight a blaze that marks the boundary between suitable action and recklessness." He rested a hand on Tsen's shoulder. "However, in all fairness to Tsen Shang, he anticipated that objection and has worked around it."
Justin bowed respectfully to the Chancellor and Tsen Shang. "Forgive my presumption, Citizen Shang."
Tsen curtly returned the bow, then poked several more keys on the table's keypad. Portions of a holographic promotional video created by Kearny-Fuchida Yare Industries flashed up to replace the map. Shot from a small shuttle, the footage showed close-ups of an orbiting factory. Tsen froze the image when the factory's bank of microwave collector dishes came into view.
"I realized we did not want to destroy the factories for a number of reasons, the primary being that we might want to use them ourselves when we return to take the world." Pointing to the microwave dishes, the analyst smiled easily. "Because the Kearny-Fuchida drive components are not shielded during the manufacturing process, radiation outputs from fusion and fission engines can damage them. For this reason, power is sent from Kathil up to the orbiting factories in the form of microwave beams."
Tsen moved the vid ahead to a point where it showed one of the large generating stations on the planet's surface. A grove of smaller dishes moved along, tracking a factory until its orbit took it over the horizon, or just into another power district. "While KF drives might be lostech, geothermal generating stations are not. If we hit the generators and destroy them, the shipyards will be out of business."
Justin frowned. He has a good point there. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and those stations are a very weak link. "The generating stations can be rebuilt."
Tsen smiled, then looked beyond Justin. "True, but as the figures Alexi ran for me point out, one station would take over seventy billion C-bills and two years to build. Davion could do it faster, but. .."
Justin nodded. ".. . But he'd be unable to continue financing his war."
Romano smiled sweetly in victory. "And he would face opposition at home. More and more JumpShips would have to be pulled from his consumer economy to move troops. The product shortages caused by the war's hunger for JumpShips have already caused him some problems. He would have to withdraw his troops to bases he can support with fewer ships."
Justin turned to Alexi. "Comments?"
Alexi moved forward enough to use the keyboard on that side of the table. He punched in a request for data, shifting the display to a tactical readout on Kathil. Tsen Shang smiled broadly and Justin realized the grin came easily because spies reported Davion had only a half-strength militia unit garrisoning the world.
Color drained from Alexi's face. "My God, has the Fox been so stupid as to leave this world naked?"
Romano looked down at Alexi. "Would you have expected anything less arrogant from him? He imagines us broken and defeated. He will pay for that."
Tsen shot Romano a quick smile, then met Justin's hawk-gaze. "JumpShip circuits rotate troops out of Kathil on a regular basis, but a circuit got disrupted right after Ridzik's death. It will be another six weeks before troops arrive on Kathil."
Justin studied the readout again. "Can you get there in time?"
Romano usurped Tsen's answer. "We've shifted and extended the command circuit you used to return from Bethel. Our troops land during the first week in September."
Anticipating Justin's needs, Alexi hit a button that summoned the strategic map to the screen again. Justin mentally counted the number of jumps required for the trip. Seven jumps, with a week out of this system and a week heading to the target planet
. It can be done.
Justin nodded. "You can use the House Imarra troops, if you wish. Their 'Mechs are all refitted."
Romano laughed aloud. "No. They will remain here. Our troops have already left."
Alexi looked at Justin. "That's why the Death Commandos aren't around."
Justin straightened up. "Just one battalion? Is that enough?"
Tsen shook his head. "The Death Commandos and the Fourth Tau Ceti Rangers headed out this morning at 2.5 Gs to the nadir jump point. That gives us two battalions to face the militia, or whatever rotates in, if the schedule is repaired somehow. Our people will travel in complete radio silence—not even ComStar will know of this mission until it is over. Davion's only ever had a battalion on station there anyway. Like you," Shang sneered, "he could never believe anyone would attack the world."
Tsen allowed himself a loud laugh. "Even if he knew of the assault—which is impossible because ComStar is not passing information from Davion spies—he doesn't have any troops in a position to do anything about it."
The Chancellor looked over at Justin. "Well, Shonso Xiang, are you surprised?"
Justin breathed in deeply, using the time to sort out his emotions. He smiled slowly, but let it widen into a grin. "Surprised, yes." He stabbed his right hand through the holographic map, offering it to Tsen Shang. "Your plan is flawless."
Taking Tsen's hand, Justin shook it heartily. "Yes, Tsen, with the success of your assault, we will finally be in a position to take back what Hanse Davion has stolen from us."
Justin looked up from his desk as Alexi Malenkov came through the door. "Good, Alexi. I'm glad you could get here so quickly."
The tall blond man smiled. "I came as soon as I heard you needed me." Concern knitted his pale brows together. "What is it?"
Justin waved Alexi to a chair, then walked around and sat on the front corner of his desk. "I want to ask your advice about something, and I want you to be perfectly honest with me." The smaller man shrugged uneasily. "Seeing Tsen's plan, and knowing how near the end is for Hanse Davion, it got me to thinking about a lot of things."
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