Prince of Havoc

by Michael A. Stackpole

  Her information came from the Wolves, relayed by a network of spies that, to her delight, wormed its way through the arc-Royal Defense Cordon. She knew the Kells would be furious if they knew Wolf spies lurked among their people, and she meant to scourge them with that fact once she had crushed their pitifully small realm. The Kells had long played on their relationship to the Steiner household, but it was a relation by marriage only and Katrina was determined that they would be eliminated, too.

  She got up from behind her desk and ran her fingers back through her long, golden blonde hair. It rippled like a silky curtain from her fingers and fell softly against her white sweater. A white woolen skirt and white leather boots completed the outfit, which had been cut along vaguely military lines. The skirt was not wholly practical for times when the lack of acceleration left the ship weightless, but whenever she planned to be seen during those times, she dressed more appropriately.

  She circled around her desk, studying the cloud of light pinpoints that made up the map of the Inner Sphere. Having been warned that her brother was returning triumphant, she continued with the plan she'd initiated almost immediately upon his departure for the Periphery. The results, so far, had been staggeringly successful. So much so that when and if Victor returned, the surprise she'd have waiting for him would be rather rude indeed, from his point of view. and most delightful from mine. Katrina smiled coldly and focused on the other realms of the Inner Sphere. The large red area on the map sandwiched between Victor's Federated Commonwealth and the Clan conquests was the Draconis Combine. Once her people's greatest rival, it seemed no more than a minor consideration at the current point in time. The previous year's war effort had indeed liberated most of the worlds the Clans had taken from the Combine, but the process of reintegrating them into the Kurita regime was not going to be easy. People who had formed resistance cells to throw off the Clans were having trouble with the re-establishment of civilian authorities not drawn from their own ranks. And the Combine's repressive politics now curtailed some freedoms the people had won in their struggle against the Clans.

  Below her realm, all outlined in shades of dark purple, lay the Free Worlds League. That stale had always been something of a weakling, primarily because internecine fighting among members of the Marik family had repeatedly split the realm. That fighting had taken its toll and, luckily for the League, had killed off a fair number of claimants to the throne. Thomas Marik, the current ruler, had survived an assassination attempt, and his new wife, Sherryl Halas, had borne him a son, Janos, four months ago. This solidified his succession, but left his legitimized daughter Isis not nearly as powerful a player as before. Not that she ever was more than a prize to hold Sun-Tzu Liao at bay.

  The Free Worlds League's newfound solidarity presented Katrina with a bit of a problem because it was a strong realm that had not been ravaged by the Clans. Prior to Thomas' marriage to the Halas woman, he had been eyeing a liaison with Katrina herself. It certainly would have been to his benefit and even to hers, as the League's military could have bolstered her own in case of a renewed Clan offensive. The Inner Sphere's decision to go after the Clans lessened the urgency for such a union, and the opportunity slipped past. as a result, Thomas had to be thinking about what it would cost to take by force what he would have hoped to gain by marrying Katrina. His troops have made no moves toward my border, but I think he is being cautious while Victor is still away. Thomas believes enough in the sanctity of the Star League that he would do nothing to shatter it.

  Not so Sun-Tzu Liao, current First Lord of the Star League and Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation. His election had come at her brother's instigation. Katrina had nominated him for the post, expecting that her brother's vehement objection to Sun-Tzu would be sufficiently irrational that no one would turn around and vote in Victor's favor on a subsequent ballot. That would leave her the only logical compromise candidate, and she would have reluctantly agreed to serve in that post. Instead of taking the bait the way, Victor had backed Sun-Tzu. It is his fault that the Capellan weasel is in power.

  Sun-Tzu Liao had made good use of his power. He had stepped up operations in the DisputedTerritories as well as in the area popularly known as the Chaos March. His progress in the Chaos March had been stopped cold, but he'd been extremely successful in reclaiming worlds in the Disputed Territories. Neither Katrina nor Thomas had objected because Sun-Tzu's adventurism gave him something to do. His determination to-win back previously lost Capellan worlds continued to tie up his resources, for which Katrina was thankful.

  Her first move would be against her brother. Once she'd eliminated Victor, rolling over Sun-Tzu would be simple. She wasn't certain if she would conquer his realm, or simply offer to marry him and absorb it. War would be so costly, but so, too, would be my wedding. after dealing with Sun-Tzu, Thomas Marik would find himself trapped. The problem with the League was that external threats did bind it together, so she couldn't look at direct military conquest there. No, with Thomas what I would offer him is a union of realms, much as my father accomplished in the alliance with grandmother. I could promise my first-born daughter to his son, Janos, to further seal the bargain. That might well work.

  The holovid projection plate on her desk buzzed. She returned to her chair and hit a button. The starfield vanished in favor of a static head-and-shoulders shot of a man in uniform. Below his image was a legend that identified him, noted when the message had been sent, what stations it had been relayed through, when it had been received by the ship's code room, and when it had been decrypted and passed on to her. She glanced at all that information casually, then sat back and used a remote control to start the message playing.

  "Highness, I have word of Operation Fray. We have a line on the target. It came out of a normal survey of anti-government activity. The man believed to be the target was noted to have made very anti-government remarks at an art show opening. He was calling for complete disclosure of facts concerning the Clan war and other matters, including your mother's murder. We have located a catalog for the show and are now in the process of analyzing the works to determine their subversive content. I have authorized surveillance and covert entry if further study of the actual works is indicated. Colonel Lentard, out." as the Message End light started blinking in the upper right corner, Katrina froze the image and slowly shook her head. Operation Fray had only one purpose—killing Sven Newmark. Newmark was the only person who could possibly link her to her mother's assassination. The other individual who had been in Ryan's employ and had helped set up Melissa's death had died in a freak accident on Poulsbo in April. She had even sent a handwritten note of condolence to the man's widow.

  Using the remote she started recording a reply to the intelligence operative. "Colonel Lentard, I appreciate your caution in this matter of Operation Fray, and all efforts should be made to ascertain whether your individual is our target. Bear in mind, however, that he is not a threat for subversive activities, but a criminal who is in possession of material of a highly sensitive nature. Consider him a plague-carrier, if you will. The longer he survives, the more damage he can do If you are certain of your identification of him, eliminate him. Immediately. Archon Katrina Steiner, out."

  She hit another button on the remote to route the message back to Lentard, then tossed the remote onto her desk with a clatter. She supposed it made sense that Lentard wanted to be careful where civil liberties were at stake, and Katrina appreciated his caution. That was the difference between Lentard, say, and the assassin who killed her mother. The assassin had fashioned a bomb that killed Melissa, but had slain other people as well, including Morgan Kell's wife, Salome. It had also maimed Morgan Kell and made him into Katrina's mortal enemy. If only he had used a bit more explosive, I'd now be rid of the Kells.

  Katrina sighed, knowing that wasn't entirely true. Caitlin Kell she'd always liked and considered a friend. Naive, but a friend. Caitlin had been poisoned against her by Morgan, and Morgan's own shift of attitude had come about
through Victor's influence. And though Morgan's death in the bomb blast that had killed her mother might have eliminated one problem, Morgan had also served to hold in check Phelan Kell, newly returned from the Clans and bringing a huge chunk of Clan Wolf with him.

  She stroked her throat and could still feel Phelan's grip on it a year later. Katrina had, she admitted to herself, overstepped her bounds by threatening Morgan Kell when last they had met. Phelan had been there too and had made it very clear to her that if either he or his father died, he had a world teeming with Wolves who would delight in destroying her. Luckily for her, the Kell Hounds and Phelan's Wolves had traveled to the Draconis Combine to fight the Smoke Jaguars, which had kept them out of her hair. It had also kept them from guessing what she was up to.

  The Kells presented an interesting problem for her. Their Arc-Royal Defense Cordon was, in essence, an autonomous region within her Lyran Alliance. While the Hounds and Wolves were off fighting the Jaguars, the Kells had hired mercenary units like the Legion of the Rising Sun, Group W, and the Wild Bunch to keep the Jade Falcons on their side of the border. Those mercenaries were certainly not strong enough to threaten her realm, but they were tough enough that she couldn't see wasting troops on trying to conquer the ARDC.

  Doing just that had initially been one of her plans, but she had reconsidered in light of the amazing successes on the Combine border. Phelan's Wolves had absorbed enough Smoke Jaguar forces to actually make them stronger than before, so not providing them with an excuse to return home to oppose her was a good thing. She also knew Morgan would never act against her unless the move was in concert with something Victor was doing, so anything she did to forestall action by her brother also insulated her against the Kells.

  Which brought her back around to Operation Fray. Her only real vulnerability was possible implication in her mother's death. Revelation of such facts could easily sway public opinion against her and set the stage for a popular revolt that would sweep her from power. Given how much the people loved my mother, I'd be torn limb from limb. I cannot and will not let that happen.

  She fingered a slender gold bracelet on her right wrist and smiled. My secret weapon. As much as Morgan and Victor hated the idea that she had slain her mother, they would be even more horrified to learn that she'd secretly traveled to Clan space and allied herself with Vlad Ward of the Wolves. Katrina and Vlad's mutual hatred of Phelan Kell had solidified the bond between them—a bond born of a strong physical attraction.

  With Vlad poised to strike into the Lyran Alliance—he had been fairly certain crossing the Jade Falcon Occupation Zone would present no problem for his troops—any move by the Kells to unseat her would be rewarded by the destruction of the ARDC. That would involve them in fighting against their old foes, weakening them at a time when Katrina would be rallying loyal soldiers to oppose their treasonous attack on her. Mere saber-rattling by the Wolves or Jade Falcons could forestall Kell action and provide her plenty of time to destroy them.

  Katrina smiled, "So, Colonel Lentard, you deal with Sven Newmark and eliminate that problem for me, and I shall deal with Victor. When he gets home, he'll have a nasty surprise waiting for him, but will have no surprises for me. And that is just the way I want it." She clapped her hands once. "Oh, dear brother, you have won much for the Inner Sphere, just to lose everything for yourself. One must truly pity the hero who lives long enough to see his victory tarnish."

  19

  DropShip Barbarossa

  Landing Zone Alpha Tango III, Unnamed Planetoid

  Deep Space

  1 November 3060

  Victor Davion looked at the image of Kai Allard-Liao on the holovid screen in his office. "Roger that, Kai. None of the other teams have reported contacts either. It looks as if there are no Jags hidden here."

  "Probably true, Victor, but I want to take my lance into a valley about a klick and a half north of here. The iron content in the rocks is giving me weird readings. Probably nothing, but worth checking."

  "Agreed. Be careful and report directly to me if you find anything."

  Kai's smile, though largely hidden by his neurohelmet, showed in his eyes. "Wilco, Victor. Kai Allard-Liao out."

  The image faded, and Victor glanced over at the trio of individuals in his office. "Looks like another possible haven isn't working out."

  Tiaret turned from the DropShip's external viewpoint. "I do not think any of my old brethren would choose this place as a hideaway."

  The planetoid she'd been looking at was hardly hospitable. Cold and barren, the only indication that it might have been a place where fleeing Smoke Jaguars would take refuge was the thin atmosphere whose winds stirred up the dust. The survey teams had found some signs of ancient mining efforts, likely started by Kerensky's people when they first fled the Inner Sphere. The holes they did inspect yielded no signs of recent life and Victor suspected Kai's valley would prove to be empty, too. Andrew Redburn nodded slowly in agreement. "This is the kind of rock one has to be sentenced to."

  The Precentor Martial adjusted his eyepatch. "It might look wonderful to someone fleeing for his life, but the Clans have never struck me as the fleeing type."

  "No, and our intel analysis of their records and battle reports seems to indicate we've accounted for pretty much all of the Smoke Jaguar warriors. The discrepancies are minor. I think our mission is accomplished." Victor sighed. "But, as much as I'd like to be home today, we'll keep searching likely sites."

  "Leaving no asteroid unturned, as it were?" Redburn smiled. "I wish we'd been able to do that with the investigation of Morgan's murder."

  Victor tapped a data disk on his desktop. "I've read the preliminary report that was put together, and your annotations to it, Andrew. I think you did as thorough a job as possible, given the resources you had. We're not much better off here—I didn't bring a full criminal forensics team with us— but I want to go over the details because there's something in the conclusion you've reached that's bothering me. I also think we need to figure out a story to give the rest of the task force so that by the time we get to the Inner Sphere this thing doesn't explode like a bomb."

  Redburn frowned, his brown eyes growing hard. "The conclusion is fairly cut and dried, Highness. Your dear sister Katherine had Morgan assassinated." a cold chill ran through Victor. He knew his sister had been behind the murder of their mother, so it was not a difficult stretch to imagine her plotting Morgan's death. Part of him very much wanted to believe she'd done just that, but some details just didn't jibe in his mind.

  "Believe me, Andrew, I'd love to take your conclusion as gospel, but I don't have a smoking gun or, in this case, a vial of fugu poison that got slipped into Morgan's scotch nightcap." Victor hesitated. I gave that case of Glengarry Black Label, Special Reserve, to Morgan for Christmas, so he could take it with him. I wonder if the assassin knew that? I wonder if my sister knew that and demanded it be used against him? "Whoever was behind this took great care to leave no traces back to him or her."

  Victor sat back in his chair. "Andrew, please correct me where I'm wrong, but this is my take on the report. Morgan was in the habit of having a drink of scotch before bed in the evening. On this particular night he takes a drink from a bottle that's been laced with a type of pufferfish toxin—highly deadly and, because of cultural biases, indicative of a Combine hit. It was determined that a highly special piece of lock-breaking equipment had been used to capture the keycode to Morgan's door, admitting the assassin."

  Redburn raised a hand. "Actually, I was talking to a tech who had to crack some locks on Huntress. I commented that the sort of device he used was probably what got the assassin into Morgan's room. He disagreed. He says spook types always assume folks have the latest in high-tech equipment, but with the time and access the assassin had crewing on the ship, what he probably did was just open the lock and clip onto it a small combination stealer. As the electrical impulses from someone punching the combination in to the keypad traveled to the lock mechanism, the
little clipped device, which isn't much more than a chip, a battery, and some wires, just pulled them in and recorded them. The assassin returned, pulls the chip out and plugs it into a reader and he has the combination. With the right adapter, he could have used any number of trideo players other crew members had to view the combination."

  "I'm glad you pointed that out, Andrew." Victor smiled. "I was thinking it also would have been possible for the assassin to do some computer code-morphing and not pull out Morgan's combination, but just insert another one that would allow him access when he wanted it. No one checked that, according to the report,"

  The Precentor Martial frowned. "I'll put people on it just to double-check. And, I must say, I'm rather pleased you have a job, Highness, because I'm not liking the ease with which you're finding holes in security."

  Victor smiled. "Spend your life trying to duck your security people and you learn a few tricks."

  Tiaret interlaced her fingers, then twisted her palms outward and stretched, cracking her knuckles. "You will not find me so easy to shuck, Prince Victor."

  "No, I don't suppose I will." The Prince sighed. "The assassin introduced the poison into the scotch, then Morgan drank it, lay down, and died. A subsequent search of the ship produced no poison or special devices for stealing the combination to the cabin. A check of personnel records did, however, turn up a number of people who had no real past history before their recruitment by and admission into ComStar. One of them was a man named Lucas Penrose. When they tried to take him for questioning, he killed his guards and almost killed General Winston before she shot him out herself."

  Focht leaned forward in his chair. "In reading over General Winston's statement about Penrose's rantings, he seemed to indicate that upon his return to the Inner Sphere he could escape prosecution for the murder because one of the Great Houses was behind it."