Victor shared Morgan's smile. 'That was the Liao raid on Kathil and your raid on the Capellan homeworld to pull Justin Allard and Candace Liao out, right?"

"Right." Morgan shook his head slowly as he remembered the battles. "I was as eager as you were, Victor, and I took hideous chances. I was lucky because the Capellan forces were not the Clans, or else I might have ended up in your position. But my point is this: you have to wait with your troops and prepare them for whatever mission you will be given. I don't know if you'll be brought back to the front, or if you'll be the only unit in the path of the Wolves. You are not being punished or safeguarded. Most other commanders would look upon a break as a reward for having accomplished so much."

Victor wearily hung his head. "I suppose you're right." I wonder how far I can push this?"I'm willing to acquiesce to your orders, but on one condition."

Morgan raised an eyebrow. "Conditions on orders? I thought you hated personal favors."

"This isn't for me, Morgan, it's for my troops." His eyes took on a devilish glint. "I want my battalion to be the first one refitted. I want to be able to start my people training immediately. I also want my battalion brought up to an operational strength of fifty BattleMechs."

Morgan steepled his fingers. "What is it you have in mind, Victor?"

"The reason we keep getting pounded by the Clans has to do more with our doctrine of war than it does with their superior weaponry. The most trouble they have had in the past is when they come up against irregular forces. We have tried to face them straight up in battle, and though we can win, as the Kuritans proved on Luthien, the cost of such victories is too great.

"I want to modify a reinforced battalion and train it specifically in tactics that will give us an edge against the Clans. I want my unit to become fast and adept at hit-and-run. We can wear them down, hitting them when and where they are not grouped in enough strength to damage us. We want to harass them.

"We'll be just like the Delta Company Andrew Redburn commanded during the Fourth Succession War." The Prince smiled sheepishly. "I was thinking of calling us the Revenants because we'd have returned from the dead to haunt the Clans."

"And you'd want to go back in at Alyina, right?"

Victor stiffened, then nodded slowly. "Am I that transparent?"

Morgan stood. Coming around from behind the desk, he clapped Victor on both shoulders. "Not transparent, just very much a missile with a hard lock onto its target. General Kaulkas warned me about your obsession."

"You'll give me the unit?"

The Marshal of the Federated Commonwealth nodded. "I will, but it is incumbent upon you, Victor Davion, to make sure your troops, your Revenants, are trained well enough so they do not become known as 'the Remnants.' "

"I will." Victor looked up. "And will you give us Alyina?"

"Perhaps." Morgan's eyes grew distant. "I think, though, you will find this war has more than one Alyina and you may be called upon to avenge more than just the death of Kai Allard."

9

Alyina

Trellshire, Jade Falcon Occupation Zone

8 February 3052

Kai Allard's axe swung down in a bright arc, snapping the log in two. Letting the axe remain in the scarred block, he bent down and tossed the two pieces on the cord stacked at the back of the Mahler home. "No, Erik, you can't persuade me to remain here."

The white-haired man shook his head. "You've been no trouble." He rubbed at his left shoulder, the one Kai knew bore a deep scar. "And I've been very grateful for the help you've been around here."

Kai recognized the undercurrent of concern in the man's voice, but he remained resolute. "You'll never know how much you've helped me over the past three weeks. Shelter and warm food have brought me back up to full strength, and this hard work seems to have put a bit more meat on my bones. That aside, however, both Dr. Lear and I agree that our presence is a direct threat to you and your wife. If the Clans catch us here ..."

Mahler shook his head to deny the truth in Kai's words, but Kai saw the man's eyes grow distant. "The Clans have all but stopped their activity in this sector. The world has been pacified. You could stay here."

Kai wrenched the axe free of the block and set another half-log on the wooden stump. "You know as well as I that Dr. Lear and I have responsibilities to our commands."

Crack.Wood cartwheeled off the block as the axe clove through it. "You also already know far more about us than the Clans will think coincidental. For one thing," Kai said, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his left forearm, "you know I'm not Dave Jewell."

Mahler crossed his arms defensively across his chest. "And even if I knew who you truly are, why would I not help you?" His fingers undid the buttons on his red-and-black checked flannel shirt. He pulled it back to reveal the white slash of scar across his left shoulder. "The Dragons did this at Styx when they were trying to take Melissa Steiner from the Silver Eagle.The Kell Hounds saved us, and your uncle was one of them. I don't forget debts easily."

A knot formed in the pit of Kai's stomach. For the last month, despite being light years away from home, trapped on a hostile planet with no resources, Kai had felt very much alive. Dave Jewell's identity had suited him well because it freed him of his responsibility as an Allard and as a Liao. It had also relieved him of the painful feeling that he had let his family down, along with the vast pressure he always felt to succeed. That old weight came crashing down again with a vengeance, however, as Erik Mahler reminded Kai of the heroic legacy his family had bequeathed him.

"That is not a debt you owe me, Erik Mahler. Your defense of Melissa Steiner a quarter-century ago is an act that I must reward by removing the danger of the Clans discovering that you have sheltered the enemy." Again Kai set up and split a log. "Having pierced the secret of my identity, you know I have a duty to communicate back to Prince Davion, and you know I cannot and will not let anything prevent me from acquitting that duty."

Mahler hesitated for a moment, then nodded slowly. "You are correct. I knew that all along. I would not have asked you to stay, knowing what you had to do, but I felt I had to make the offer, and my wife already worries about you and Dr. Lear." He tugged his shirt back into place and rebuttoned it. "Are you sure it is wise to take her with you?"

"I would prefer to travel alone, for speed and to minimize risk, but she will not stay here to jeopardize you." Kai placed the quarter-logs on the pile. "Besides, having someone along who is well-versed in medicine might help get me through any trouble we run into."

"That's not what I meant." Mahler snorted a bit of a laugh and shook his head. "After the first night here, you two have barely exchanged more than formal greetings. Your relationship doesn't seem up to the difficulties you will face if you follow through with your plan."

"Perhaps you are correct." Kai heaved his shoulders and sighed. "But I do not believe Dr. Lear will hamper my efforts. She is smart and competent, and I could not ask for more in a traveling companion."

"Indeed? Then you are a rare man, Dave Jewell." Mahler's gray eyes narrowed. "I, for one, would want a companion who did not hate me."