"Great, Galen, I'm so glad I'll be remembered when I'm dead." Murphy pounded a fist onto the table. "I'd prefer being alive and forgotten."

"Murphy, you haven't got a clue, have you?" Galen shook his head. "On Twycross, yeah, Kai saved our butts, but we all know what happened in that fight, don't we? Remember how we pulled our units around so that the Clans would have to turn, too, forcing their reinforcements to fight through their own people to get at us? And if you can't remember, Victor fought until his 'Mech was clean on ammo and then some. He was one of the last guys off the battlefield, and as I recall, you retired before he did after that one."

Livinsky sat forward. "We're not arguing Murphy's strengths or weaknesses, Galen. We're talking about Victor, remember? Maybe it's all well and good that you and this Ranger rat are behind him, but Murph's protest still stands. How can we entrust command to a man who will probably kill us trying to live up to his father's legend?"

Hudson shot Galen a hopeless look and Galen rubbed his forehead with one hand. "You don't get it, do you?"

"Get what?" asked Murphy.

"You think Victor is trying to live up to the example his father set, right? You think he's trying to become the Fox, right?"

"Hard lock and fire, Galen."

"Morons." Galen's voice dropped low and dripped contempt. "Victor's already so far beyond where his father was that someday they'll remember the Fox as his predecessor, nothing more."

Murphy snorted loudly. "That's treason, Galen."

"Galen speaks the truth."

Everyone looked at Shin as he spoke. "With all due respect to Hanse Davion, the threats you people faced from the Capellan Confederation and from my own Draconis Combine are nothing compared to the Clans. When Hanse Davion battled our forces, he was fighting against similar technology and warriors with similar skills. Yes, Davion was a genius and accomplished things that no other leader in the Successor States had done, but those deeds are nothing compared to battles being fought today."

Shin's dark eyes glittered. "In the Fourth Succession War, Hanse Davion hit the Capellan world Tikonov with the eight Crucis Lancers Regimental Combat Teams. That was the greatest 'Mech engagement in the Inner Sphere since Aleksandr Kerensky sacked Terra to kill the Usurper. The military experts of the day believed Davion could never mount such an assault, but he did it. He succeeded.

"That victory, however, is nothing compared to the recent battle for Luthien. I was there. We had sixteen crack regiments, including Wolf's Dragoons and the Kell Hounds. We had well over thirteen hundred BattleMechs against the eight hundred the Clans threw at us. Even with the advanced 'Mech technology the mercenaries had and some 'Mechkilling aircraft we put into service, the Clans almost succeeded in taking Luthien. No one from the Inner Sphere ever dared dream of what the Clans nearly accomplished in a single day."

Galen nodded solemnly. "Times have changed. Victor knows how to fight the Clans, and he's spent most of his waking hours training you clowns, reviewing intelligence from our sources and the Dracs, or planning out his assault. There's never been a military leader who so thoroughly understands the opposition."

Another officer, an older grizzled man, rubbed his hand over his chin. "What are you telling us, Galen?"

"What I'm telling you, Charlie, is this: Victor isn't Hanse Davion and he isn't Jaime Wolf. He isthe worst nightmare the Clans have ever had. If we're with him, we'll stroll into Teniente and come out with Hohiro Kurita, leaving only smoking Jaguars behind."

Galen pointed straight at Murphy. "And before you get on about how Victor is trying so hard to be his father, think on this: Would Hanse Davion have even bothered to ask for this vote of confidence, or would he have just told us to go? Give Victor credit for wanting your confidence, not just assuming he's already got it as his birth-right."

* * *

Shin saw a nervous Victor Davion look up from his desk as he and Galen entered the office. "Galen, Shin, what's the verdict?"

Galen smiled broadly and Shin copied the expression to his own face. "The Revenants are behind you, boss. Now it's up to you to get permission to go."

Relief flooded Victor's face. "I'll get on that right away."

"Good, but if they say 'no,' don't sweat it."

"Excuse me?"

Galen threw him a wink. "The Revenants voted to follow you to Teniente even if we have to do it on a two-week pass."

21

Alyina

Trellshire, Jade Falcon Occupation Zone

21 March 3052

Kai felt his mouth go dry as he pressed a hand to the sharp-edged footprint. The depression went down a full two centimeters into the slightly muddy soil. "Whoever made this is big"

"And the track was made recentiy." Deirdre, kneeling beside him in the brush, traced the print with her finger. "What do you think?"

"I think we're correct in our suspicion that we're being stalked." Kai wiped his fingers on the soiled legs of his jumpsuit. "Someone this big has to be an Elemental."

"We're lucky, then, that he left this print, unless ..."

"... Unless he left it here on purpose." Kai pointed off through the woods. "Best return to our camp and gather up our equipment. This zone might have been safe for a little while, but that littie while is clearly over."

Deirdre nodded in agreement and started off through the undergrowth. Even in the half-light of the false dawn, she picked her way effortlessly through the brambles and ferns carpeting the forest in undergrowth. Like a wraith, she slipped between two birch trees and vanished from sight.

Kai smiled, marveling at how well Deirdre had adapted to life in the wilderness. It turned out that she, too, had spent time as a Youth Pathfinder. As she put it, living off the land was less a case of learning what she could and could not do as it was trying to remember what she had learned on Pathfinder outings. While Kai had concentrated on things like electronics and athletics in his Pathfinder career, she had done more camping and herb-lore studies that, combined with her medical training, made life away from civilization much easier.

As he came through the birch stand, he saw her crouched just below the ridgeline separating them from their camp. She glanced back at him, then waved him forward. She stood and darted ahead, her head vanishing as she sank back down on the other side of the ridge. Hurrying up the hillside, Kai reached her first position and looked down at their camp.

They'd set it up in an open area in another birch copse. Deirdre said she thought it was a deerstand and Kai had started dreaming of venison, but they hadn't seen anything larger than a rabbit in the week since settling there. The birches and undergrowth grew closely enough to conceal the camp, and the trees even broke up the smoke from the small fire they allowed themselves each night.

Kai shook his head ruefully. Any number of his friends would have described the setting, including the lovely Doctor Lear, as romantic, definitely the fulfillment of a fantasy or two. But Deirdre still held herself apart from him, even though their relations were on the friendly side of cordial, and they both slept in the same petrochemtarp lean-to. Kai was fairly certain it had nothing to do with the bounty-hunter incident, which left him back guessing about her early days and his father's adventures during the war.