"Intercepted Combine signals suggest aerospace activity behind the near moon. I appended the intel report to Colonel Fancher's report."

The frown twisted into a wry grin. "Interpretation is supposed to be my job."

"No interpretations, Stan. I just reported the signals and source codes."

"If they're forming back of the moon, they may be planning a counterdrop. Flash an alert to Fancher."

"In addition to the relay of the intercept?"

"No, I guess not. Alicia will reach the same conclusion I have." Stan laughed. "William would have cleared the relay first."

Even though he was doing it humorously, he was still comparing me to the founder. I hid behind formality. "Facilitating command's work is my job, sir."

He laughed again. "And you do it well. Thank you, Brian."

I found his good cheer infectious. My feelings about being called by Founder William's name seemed suddenly childish. I was doing my job. My job. And doing it well. Stan's praise wasn't the Wolf's, but it still made me feel better.

6

To Dechan Fraser, the gardens were all the more marvelous for the fact that their wildness was so artfully derived. Each bush was chosen, planted, and trimmed for effect. Here was a tangle of shrubs and wildflowers that might been a jungle on any other planet if one did not recognize the lonely blooms of Kiamban fire lilies; there was a slice of Alshain where a clump of slender rock suggested the spires and minarets of that planet's capital. During his years in the Draconis Combine, Dechan had learned to appreciate this artistic tradition wherein a place, or rather the mood of a place, was suggested by shape, silhouette, and shadow. He had even begun to understand how it was that some of the greatest architects of these oases of peace could be warriors.

The Combine was dominated by House Kurita, and the Kuritans maintained a warrior tradition in the style of the ancient samurai. Like those ancient samurai, the best and brightest of the Combine were both redoubtable warriors and subtle artists. This garden, designed by Takashi Kurita, was a part of that tradition. Takashi was the Coordinator of the Combine, its absolute ruler and embodiment of the mythical Dragon. Although he left the military aspects of governing to his son Theodore, the Gunji-no-Kanrei, Takashi had been a formidable MechWarrior in his youth. He was still a MechWarrior, having only recently led his elite guards into the crucial battle against the Clan invaders in their siege of Luthien. But Takashi was also an artist. The garden was a subtle expression of humanity's imposed control over nature's chaos, as well as an insistent but equally subtle statement of the Coordinator's dominion over all the many worlds of the Combine.

The path led Dechan down into a dell and across an arched wooden bridge. The burble of the stream below him was a hushed, comforting sound as he walked up the slope and around the mossy hump of a knoll studded with boulders of pink quartz. Twisting around the mound, the path continued. Dechan moved slowly, reluctant to leave the calm of the little valley. Then, turning the corner, he saw something that stopped him in his tracks.

Though startling, the massive bulk of the Battle-Mech did not at first seem out of place. Its hulking, mostly humanoid shape was framed within an arch of branches whose leafy shadow dappled the machine's gleaming blue surface. Gold trim highlighted segments of the 'Mech's armor and outlined selected fittings. A golden stripe wrapped around from the heavy launcher housings that gave the machine its characteristic, hunch-shouldered profile, then dipped into a vee down the sloping front of the center torso. It was an Archer,a seventy-ton BattleMech designed primarily for fire support, but a formidable fighter in other roles as well.

Dechan didn't need to see the red disk with the black wolf's-head on the left thigh to recognize the 'Mech. Though the markings didn't quite match his memory, the differences were unimportant. He had no doubt whose Archerthis was supposed to be: Jaime Wolf's.

So, he thought, there must be truth to the rumors that Takashi was once again becoming obsessed with the Dragoons.

Takashi's messenger had told Dechan to take this path, which meant the Coordinator had intended for him to see the Archer.If Takashi had summoned Dechan because of his former connection with the Dragoons, why not also invite Jenette? Dechan had assumed that the Combine's Internal Security Forces were well-satisfied that he and Jenette had long ago severed all ties with the Dragoons. But if Takashi was hunting the Dragoons once more, perhaps even the ISF's assurances would not be protection enough.

Would Theodore help? Dechan and Jenette were supposed to be members of his shitenno,his inner circle of advisors. But could Theodore protect them from his father if the Coordinator decided they were Dragoon spies and insisted on their deaths?

The threat was ironic.

* * *

Years ago—more years than Dechan cared to remember—he and Jenette had gone with Michi Noketsuna on the trail of the Kuritan warlord Grieg Samsonov. Samsonov had been a principal engineer of the events leading to the near annihilation of Wolf's Dragoons in 3028. Michi, seeking revenge for the death of his mentor, Minobu Tetsuhara, had led Dechan and Jenette against the warlord and then on a trail that was to lead eventually to Takashi Kurita. Jaime Wolf had approved and detached the two MechWarriors from regular duty. The trail was long and twisty but had come to a sudden, abortive end after a chance encounter with Theodore Kurita. The then-young Kanrei had convinced Michi that his samurai honor required him to forego his vendetta and to work instead with Theodore to save the Combine from the impending threat of invasion by its neighbors. Publicly, Dechan and Jenette had gone along out of fellowship and became advisors to Theodore's newly reorganized army. At the time, Stanford Blake had called it a coup for the Dragoons, a golden opportunity to spy on their old enemy, Takashi Kurita. Dechan and Jenette had dutifully filed their secret reports on the changing military capabilities of the Combine, each time risking their lives for the sake of Wolf's Dragoons. They had been good spies, constantly awaiting the move Jaime Wolf would make to end the feud with Takashi so they could finally return home. But the call never came. Then the Clans had appeared. Ignored, possibly forgotten, Dechan and Jenette received no word via Wolfnet for more than four years. And when Wolf had found it necessary to contact Theodore, he had used others, contrary to Dechan's understanding of his and Jenette's place in Dragoon-Kurita relations. And for all his protestations that Dechan and Jenette were trusted advisors, Theodore had not taken them to the meeting on Outreach in which Jaime Wolf had briefed the Kanrei and the other leaders of the Inner Sphere on the Clan threat. Hellfire, Dechan didn't even learn of the meeting until a week after Theodore left. Jenette's comment was that it was all politics, part of the game. He had retorted that her faith in the Dragoons was too blind, that Jaime Wolf must have asked Theodore to leave them behind. They didn't share a bed for a week after that.

But that had been almost a year ago and with still no contact with the Dragoons, even Jenette's iron faith was wavering.

Following the path, Dechan passed between the widespread feet of the Archer,his eye caught by some small tablets that lay clumped on either side of the stepping stones. The tablets had writing on them. Crouching to look closer, he saw that each slab bore a name. Most of the names he didn't recognize, but some he did. They were all Kurita warriors who had fought against the Dragoons. The presence of one name especially surprised him, more for its prominent place than for its presence. Minobu Tetsuhara.