"I don't think I'd mind too much having Ranna come after me in mydreams, but we're probably not working from the same basic premises, Leftenant-General." Galen hit the Play button. "ComStar here on Garrison sent this our way because they thought you'd want to see it. Their people shot most of it, but it's unedited and a bit rough."

The gray static on the screen melted away into a black scene lit only by a view of distant fires burning in a town. Flames guttered up through window casements, and white streaks of tracer rounds shot into the hills from out of the darkness of the town. Most died on the way, but a few hit something that made them ricochet into the sky.

The return fire was devastating. Beams, both PPCs and lasers, answered the light autocannon fire. Lancing indiscriminately through the town, the beams touched off strobing explosions whose light showed buildings melting. Big fireballs launched themselves into the sky, and yet more houses and shops were set ablaze.

Victor glanced at Galen. "Not too concerned about keeping the fighting away from noncombatants, are they?"

"No, sir. It looks like they hammered a militia unit in the field, then closed on the town of Nyrere somewhat quickly. Scattered resistance incited this sort of pounding."

The scene shifted to morning. A thick gray mist hung over the town, as viewed from the heights where the fighting had been recorded the night before. Leaking smoke, fire-blackened buildings stuck up out of the dirty fog like weathered gravestones. Except for the seemingly random movements of five BattleMechs patrolling the streets, the entire town looked dead.

Another shift and the recorder appeared to be in the middle of the city. Victor could tell from the shadows and the white ball the sun projected on the fog that a goodly chunk of time had passed since the camera had last showed the town. Now the camera was on the ground, moving through the ruins, showing images that confirmed the earlier graveyard scene.

Victor had a hard time believing that so small a town could produce so much rubble. Torn and bloated bodies clogged the streets. Water geysered up out of shattered fire hydrants, and lakes formed where bodies choked off the sewer outlets. Dogs ran in packs through the streets, while frightened-looking people sat dazed on stoops with no buildings. Others picked through rubble and repeatedly called the names of those they must have believed trapped within.

The scene shifted to another broken city, and Victor turned to Galen. "Looks like the bandits did on Zhong-shan what they did on Pasig and Kooken's Pleasure Pit."

"Yes, but not as bad. They left prematurely and only took foodstuffs and some other basic supplies. The water purification plant had a six-month supply of spare parts laying around. Stuff worth millions, but the bandits didn't touch it. They didn't even take time to loot the World Treasury Archives."

The Prince shrugged. "Would it have mattered? The stuff they took from the Pit and Pasig was junk. Pasig reported that the bandits looted a display of counterfeit works, labeled as such."

"I'm not an art critic, sir."

Victor smiled. "So why do you think they headed out early?"

"ComStar reported that the Thirty-first Wolf Solahma arrived in the system on the thirteenth. That was three days into the attack and a day after the first footage. The Clan troops beamed a challenge directly to the raiders, which ComStar monitored. It seemed to be a straight challenge, but the raiders decided not to fight."

The Prince raised his left eyebrow. "That's a good sign."

"Yes and no." Galen pointed to the footage playing across the screen at that moment. "This may have been the reason. It looks like the Red Corsair got hit."

The holovid showed a woman with long red hair being carried on a stretcher to a DropShip. An obvious member of the Corsairs held the stretcher at her feet, but a man dressed in an olive jumpsuit was holding the other end. He lifted the stretcher up into the DropShip, and Galen froze the frame on him as he turned away from it.

"This guy here is a real enigma." He tapped the screen at the man's right wrist. "He has a steel band, which ComStar estimates is the pirate equivalent of a bondcord. It confirms the suspicion that a significant number of them are Clan renegades."

"Okay, they're taking bondsmen or slaves. What's so enigmatic about that?"

"Well, ComStar identified this guy as the one who gave the orders that a shipment of food be diverted to one of ComStar's orphan relief centers. A bondsman doesn't give orders, much less have them obeyed, unless he works for someone very important. After putting the Red Corsair on the DropShip, this guy got out a message to the local ComStar rep to move that center fast because it had been ordered destroyed. He said he had bought them some time, but couldn't be sure the order wouldn't be reinstated."

"Was it?"

"Not as of the time the raiders left."

Victor stared at the man's face. "Any ID on him?"

Galen nodded. "I looked through the pictures of the folks listed missing after Kooken's and Pasig. He looks like Nelson Geist, who was maimed on Wotan four or so years ago. He recovered on Kooken's Pleasure Pit and joined their militia. He was reported missing after the raiders hit there."

"Geist." Victor looked down. "Was this guy any relation to Jon Geist? Jon died on Teniente."

"Yes, sir. Jon was Nelson's son."

The Prince shook his head. "There's no way a man like Nelson Geist could be working with the raiders, is there? The Clans maimed him, they killed his son, the raiders attacked his home."

Galen shifted his shoulders uneasily. "On one hand, given the number of Clanners we suspect to be raiders, I would say no to your question. On the other hand, though ..."

"What?"

"Well, sir, I'd have been the last person to suggest someone like Prince Ragnar would go over to the enemy, much less Phelan Kell."

Victor felt his stomach begin to knot up. "I see your point. This Geist lost a lot to the Clans. Maybe his spirit was broken."

"And if it didn't happen like that, there'd be other ways to accomplish the same thing." Galen started the holovid moving again. "It could be that he resented his maiming and the loss of his son and somehow blamed his troubles on you and the Federated Commonwealth. Many of those who fled the Tamar Pact worlds resettled on Kooken's Pleasure Pit, so there would be plenty of people there to help nurture such a view."

"It's unfortunate, but what you're saying makes sense." Victor watched Geist walk back toward the building from which the Red Corsair had been carried. "I still don't know if I buy his working with them, though. His action with ComStar shows he has some feeling for the refugees displaced by the fighting."

"There's not a soldier in the Revenants who would make war on children, Highness."

"Point. So, worst case, we have a man with considerable experience in the Inner Sphere military who has the ear of the Red Corsair."

"Right." Galen nodded solemnly. "And, best case, we have an experienced warrior watching how the Red Corsair works."

"No, the best case is that he'll get fed up and kill her." Victor rubbed a hand over his jaw. "The Wolf Clan didn't even engage them with aerospace fighters as the raiders left?"

"Not possible. The Wolves came in at the nadir jump point because it had a recharge station. The raiders had come in at a pirate point above the plane of the elliptic and another day beyond the planet for the Wolves. At best they could have chased after them and possibly inflicted some damage, but that would have involved sending DropShips out at three gravities and not recovering them for two more weeks. The fact that the Solahma bid away their fighters really hurt them in this situation."