A commtech's voice came through the console speaker. "Message coming in from the White Fangfor you, Colonel Allard."

Dan winked at Chris. "I can set my watch by him. Probably even has creases in his birthday suit." The Kell Hound commander punched a button on the console and the monitor filled with the image of a handsome man with a fierce scowl on his face. The anger in his eyes seemed to smolder from the depths of some dark, hidden place. "Good afternoon, Star Colonel Ward."

"Daniel, I have to break this prohibition you have placed on extra-system communications."

Dan Allard continued on as if he had not been interrupted. "I would like to present one of my battalion commanders, Major Christian Kell."

Conal Ward looked over at Chris from the screen, his expression darkening even further. "I should have expected it. You are the half-caste, freebirth bastard of Morgan Kell's brother, quiaff?"

Chris nodded. His face did not betray his shock at the words, but only because he knew Conal was trying to provoke him. Had the Clansman not added the word "freebirth" to his insult, Chris might have taken offense. That term, while a vile slur against any member of the genetically engineered Clan warrior caste, was meaningless in the Inner Sphere, where everyone was born "freely." To react is to give him power over me, and that I shall not do.

The Clansman looked back at Dan. "Colonel, I am required to make a report to my leader, the ilKhan. Since you have coerced the spineless ComStar bureaucrats into clinging to this fiction that their hyperpulse equipment is damaged, I am prepared to use my own hyperpulse generator. "

Dan frowned, as if confused, but Chris knew from years of association with the older man that it was a mask of deception. "Star Colonel, a prohibition on communications is in place for a reason. I think your report can wait."

"And I think it cannot." The black-haired man pounded his fist into the palm of his other hand. "This is a military unit, Colonel. We have a chain of command."

Dan's head came up at Conal's furious tone. "And thisis a military operation, Colonel. Your chain of command runs through me. Request denied."

"It was not a request, Colonel."

"It is still denied, Colonel Ward." Dan turned from the screen and nodded to Chris. "The reason I asked Major Kell to be present was to inform you of the reason we've been sitting at this recharge station with our tracking signals identifying us as merchant vessels. I know I have tried before, but you do not seem to understand. Major?"

Chris wanted to laugh out loud, but suppressed the desire. "Colonel, the desire for complete HP-communications silence is because we hope to make Great X a target for the raiders. We know what sort of information they were able to gather on Deia, and your transmission of the interrogation transcripts from the men you captured has been helpful. If we could debrief them, we think we could learn more."

Conal shook his head. "That is impossible. Those individuals have been destroyed."

Dan blinked and came back around to face the screen. "What? Destroyed?"

"That is what we Clans do with bandits. They are obviously defective." Conal became smug. "We do not desire their presence" in the gene pool, so we expunge it."

Chris stared hard at Conal Ward's image on the screen. "But in the transcripts they claimed that it was the Red Corsair who enslaved them and whose orders brought their release."

"Disinformation. You can take nothing they said as fact."

"But Hooper and Vandermeer both checked out as members of the Robinson Rangers. They were captured on Kooken's Pleasure Pit." Dan punched up data on an auxiliary screen. "Voiceprints matched the men you had."

"Then they were traitors and became even more deserving of death."

Dan Allard shook his head. "I think, from this point on, you will not be destroying any more prisoners. Consider that an order."

Conal's face hardened. "I will take it under advisement."

"You will deliver all prisoners to the Kell Hounds, Star Colonel. You will maintain radio silence until such time as the raiders have committed their DropShips to a run on Great X Four."

Chris marveled at how Dan kept his voice level and under control.

Conal seemed unimpressed. "Or what, Colonel?"

"Do not challenge me, Conal Ward." Dan leaned forward and Chris saw his chest expand. "I was on Luthien when we crushed the Smoke Jaguars and the Nova Cats. My 'Mechs are the equal of yours and my warriors are experienced in the ways of Clan combat. If you really want that chip knocked off your shoulder, I have six times as many warriors as you do, and every one of them would love to avenge the Zouaves.

"We're here to stop the bandits, Star Colonel. That comes first. When that's done, we can find some airless mudball where we can settle our differences. Until that time, you're under my orders, and those orders are to stick with the briefing we sent you earlier. Got it?"

Before Conal could reply, a new image filled the console. It was the regional traffic control scan of the solar system, showing little symbols and codes to designate all DropShips and JumpShips in the area. Chris immediately noticed a new symbol located at a pirate jump point two days out from Great X Four.

"Colonel Allard, we have a JumpShip arriving in-system. Prelim scan shows no IFF indicators and it seems to conform to previous scans made on the bandits."

Dan hit a button his desk and an alert klaxon began to blare throughout the Lugh."This is it. To your machines. When the bandits commit, we make this their last raid."

* * *

Locked in the virtual world of the Red Corsair's base, Nelson Geist traveled alone with his thoughts. An internal conflict raged within him and it angered him because he knew that, on one level, the Red Corsair had engineered matters specifically to twist him up. That made him want to dismiss the whole lot and try to keep it out of his mind, but he could not.

She had remained good to her word and released some of the other slaves on Deia. She had summoned those captured on Kooken's Pleasure Pit and told them that hehad chosen those who could go free. Then she had selected three men who had been with the Robinson Rangers and turned them loose. Though Nelson was glad for those men, it tore him up inside to see the anger in the eyes of Spider and the other Reservists, who believed he had betrayed them.

That, however, was a mere stone in the shoe compared to the other huge problem he faced. The Red Corsair had proved to be a voracious and skilled lover. She had kept him with her throughout the burn away from Deia and seemed almost drunk with happiness over having outrun the Wolves. In the intervening three weeks they had continued to spend their nights together, more often than not finally collapsing exhausted in each other's arms.

Nelson had never known such a sexual partner. With her there was no compromise, no surrender. Within days of their first encounter they had blasted beyond the envelope of what he had previously experienced, and never looked back. Their lovemaking seemed to rejuvenate him, even healing the damage his male pride had suffered because of the maiming of his hand. In bed they were equals and even partners, consuming and consumed by what they were and what they became together.

Yet when he awoke in her arms, the shock of where he was and who he was with would jerk him suddenly into crystalline consciousness. He was sleeping with the woman who had enslaved him. He was giving pleasure to the woman who kept his comrades in thrall and who forced him to kill others to prevent their deaths. He was drawing life from a woman who was a handmaiden to death, and finding rapture with someone who caused others to know grief and sorrow.