Galen hissed. "I don't know. How would it look if you went to her funeral after not attending your own mother's?"

"But won't it look worse if I don't acknowledge the service the Hounds have performed for the Federated Commonwealth?" Victor frowned. "I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't."

"Such are the rewards of your office."

"I suppose." Victor suppressed a yawn. "I think I'll send Katherine to the funeral and have her carry a message to Morgan and the Kell Hounds from me. The same day that Salome is buried, I will lay a wreath at my mother's grave and make a large contribution to the orphanage fund she supported." He sighed. "It all seems like a game of hollow gestures. I would rather be there. I hope Morgan will understand."

"I am sure he will, Highness."

Victor nodded slowly. "Good. At least that's one who will."

38

Kell Hound Headquarters

Old Connaught, Arc-Royal

Federated Commonwealth

18 September 3055

Seated alone and in the dark, Phelan Ward stared at the image frozen on the computer screen on his desk. Isolated from Carew's gun-camera battle ROM, the digitized image showed what looked to Phelan like a green raptor bearing a katana in its talons. Phelan had constructed the composite picture by layering on the frames as the logo was revealed and then consumed by fire.

There was no mistaking it. The fighters belonged to the Jade Falcons.

Phelan felt a chill run to the marrow his bones. It was the conclusion that satisfied Occam's razor—the simplest answer was most often the correct one. Assigning past ownership of the aerospace fighters or of thataerospace fighter to the Jade Falcons limited the enormity of the problem he might have uncovered.

That simple answer brought dozens of questions with it. It was possible that the Red Corsair, with her one DropShip, had staged a raid on a Jade Falcon world from which she got fighters, another DropShip, more 'Mechs, and a new JumpShip, but it was inconceivable that he would not have heard about it. The Jade Falcons would have screamed about such losses to the ilKhan, using the failure of the Thirty-first Wolf Solahma and the Kell Hounds against Ulric like a club. The ilKhan would have told him about the attack, both to stress the urgency of stopping the Red Corsair and to warn him that she had new assets.

Phelan could think of only one reason why he would not have heard about a raid on the Jade Falcons: the raid did not take place. That, in turn, meant that it was the Jade Falcons who had been resupplying the Red Corsair. Yet the Falcons had never acknowledged the bandits as their agents and, in fact, would never disgrace such a good fighting unit with that label.

What began to unfold in the young Khan's mind was the outline of a conspiracy so bold and well-executed that he could not prove a bit of it. Had it succeeded, the Inner Sphere and the Clans would have once again been pitted against each other in a war of conquest. The truce would have been a memory and the ilKhan would have been disgraced and swept from power in a silent coup by the Jade Falcons.

In many ways it made more sense the more he thought about it. The Jade Falcons had suffered gravely in the war against the Inner Sphere. Kai Allard-Liao had almost singlehandedly defeated them at Twycross, frustrated and then humiliated them at Alyina, and then worked with them to liberate the planet from ComStar. Besides, no matter that they came off as the second-best of seven Clans fighting ComStar on Tukayyid, they were so far behind the Wolves' performance that they looked hardly better than the rest. Once an influential and powerful Clan, the Jade Falcons had lost both strength and political influence in the course of the invasion of the Inner Sphere.

The truce of Tukayyid had helped them more than they wanted to acknowledge because it forestalled any Federated Commonwealth counterattack along their border. Both sides raided above the truce line. The year before, a combined Federated Commonwealth/Wolf's Dragoons force had thrown back a big Jade Falcon push at Morges, but real gains were few and temporary at best. But the Jade Falcons were resilient and might still have expanded at the Commonwealth's expense but for one thing.

That one thing was the resumption of interClan raiding. The invasion of the Inner Sphere had brought the Clans together, providing a unifying focus that led to a gradual reduction in internecine battles. With the signing of the truce the other Clans had begun trying to nibble away at the Falcons, whose Inner Sphere holdings were sandwiched between the Federated Commonwealth and the Wolf Clan.

If the bandits had managed to raid their way over the truce line and then had proclaimed themselves as Jade Falcons, two things would have happened immediately. The first was that war with the Inner Sphere would have resumed instantly. That would have pitted the Wolves against ComStar, and the other Clans against the Draconis Combine. Once again the need to vanquish the common enemy of the Inner Sphere would have postponed the internal fighting that threatened the Jade Falcons.

More important, though, the Jade Falcons would have proved that even a bandit outfit could best the Inner Sphere. The various Clan forces opposed to the truce would have immediately swung their backing to the Jade Falcons and could have challenged Ulric to a Trial of Refusal to repudiate the truce. Even if Ulric succeeded in defending his position, the challenges would come so quickly that he would be forced to repudiate the truce himself as ComStar renewed hostilities. Precentor Martial Focht would have been forced to attack because he would no longer have been able to control the radical elements within ComStar.

Until the Jade Falcons succeeded, howeyer, they had to travel incognito because the ilKhan would have forced their recall before they could get anywhere near the truce line. That would have resulted in the Jade Falcons losing even more power and prestige, and possibly embroiled them in a war with the Wolf Clan had they disobeyed the ilKhan's directive.

It occurred to Phelan that if the Jade Falcons werebacking the Red Corsair, revelation of that fact could tear the Clans apart and transform interClan raiding into an all-out civil war. Such internal division would be an unhoped-for boon to the Inner Sphere, all but guaranteeing an end to the hostilities.

I wonder how much ComStar knew about the raiders when the Precentor Martial forced the ilKhan and the Archon to have Victor and me agree to hunting the Red Corsair down?Had a Jade Falcon unit discovered this renegade Falcon plot during their battle against the raiders, they would have suppressed it and the Clan would have dealt with it internally. This would have removed the plotters from their midst, but would have weakened the Jade Falcons and created a serious split in their ranks. ComStar would have loved that.

As a Wolf Khan who was committed to maintaining the peace, Phelan's knowledge of the raiders' possible backing was as good as not having discovered it at all. His appointment as liaison, and the selection of a Wolf Clan unit to hunt the bandits, were the best possible outcome of ComStar's plan. At the least the ilKhan is cautioned about duplicity within the Clans, and at the most, the Clans will devour each other, returning to the very divisiveness that spawned them three hundred years ago.

But, if ComStar knew enough to guess at all that . . .Phelan shivered. Stop! I have conspiracies on the brain!

A message scrolling across the bottom of his screen told him that the Thirty-first Wolf Solahma had linked up with their JumpShip and were headed home. Phelan knew he should have sent a message up to the ship, bidding his people farewell, but he did not because it would have meant seeing Conal's face again. He was happy to be rid of him because he was certain Conal would have applauded the Falcon ploy and even suggested they finish the bandits' mission.