Deirdre stuffed the map into her pack. "And you're sure the facility is there?"

"Very sure, in fact." Kai scattered the ashes from their little fire with his right foot. "At the New Avalon Military Academy, I attended a talk by Professor Todor Meir. He talked about research he had been doing, scrupulously avoiding any mention of where he had been. Later, at a reception, he noticed I was wearing a diver's watch and we started to talk scuba diving. He mentioned the Mar Negro on Alyina. A minimal amount of detective work put the puzzle together for me, and my father confirmed the accuracy of my deductions."

Deirdre smiled as she fell into step beside him. "Like father, like son, I guess."

Kai glanced at her, looking for any hint of her old hatred, but her beautiful face showed none. "I'd like to think so."

She stepped over a fallen tree. "Oh, I think you do well in that regard. I know your parents are very proud of you."

"Really?" The jolt of pride shooting through his chest surprised Kai. "What makes you say that?"

Deirdre silently paced a few steps further through the shadow-laced forest before answering. "When I had to testify on Outreach about your actions on Twycross, I could read it in their eyes. Though I wanted to hurt your father, I could only tell the truth. I don't think they could be more proud of you, Kai. Your background has made you the kind of person I'd like to be."

"Don't say that. You've done wonderful things, and you'll do more."

She shrugged. "I'm trying to atone for the things my father did. My background hasn't been much of a help in anything I've tried to do."

Kai shook his head and worked his way up a hill using a lattice of roots as steps. "You dwell too much on what you think are the sins of your father. Peter Armstrong might not have been the greatest father in the universe, but I don't think you're his daughter, really."

"What?"

"Look, you say you wanted to make up for your father and what he did to the Federated Commonwealth. You could have chosen a million different ways to do it." Kai reached back and helped her top the little hill. "You chose medicine as the avenue through which you contribute to the Federated Commonwealth. I think that's because your real father, Roy Lear, was a doctor. I think, in choosing what you would do with the rest of your life, you built from your real background."

Kai shrugged. "Of course, what do I know? I should leave all this psychology to the professionals."

Deirdre tucked strands of dark hair behind her left. ear. "I never looked at it that way. I always thought of my stepfather as a mentor, not a father. I loved him, but not in the normal way."

"But who is to say what is normal?" Kai chuckled lightly as he thought about his family. "My parents were forever heading off for this or that reason. State dinners, meetings on other worlds, wars to plan and fight—the list had no end. Even so, they made sure we each knew we were loved. They had confidence in us and wanted us to become whatever we desired. Despite not seeing them for months at a time, it may have been better than having a parent who was always around but never loved you enough. The way I grew up might not be classed as normal by an outsider, but it was normal for me."

She slipped her left hand into his right. "You're pretty smart for a soldier, you know."

Kai smiled. "Think so?"

"Well, except for two things that I wonder about."

"Yes?"

"Isn't our projected path to Mount Sera going to bring us awfully close to Dove Costoso?" She wrinkled her nose. "I don't really want to be on the same continent with that ComStar demi-Precentor."

"There go our plans for visiting him for tea, I guess." Kai gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "We'll skirt the city by a wide enough margin to avoid detection and capture. We'll be close, but not that close. Next?"

"Tell me again why we didn't keep the hovertruck."

The Mech Warrior grimaced. "The truck wouldn't have been suited to the trip we're making. We'd have been forced to stick to the roads or less broken terrain.

"Besides, by programming the hovertruck to run all over the search sectors, we should have confused anyone following us. They won't know when or where we got off the hovertruck, and sending them their Elemental back in it is bound to cause them some problems. It nothing else, we bought time by forcing them to bid out a new hunter to send after us."

"Somehow, Kai, that is not a fact in which I would care to delight."

Kai nodded and felt the hairs at the back of his neck begin to rise. He looked over at Deirdre and let her smile infect him.

He even let himself believe the sense of dread festering in his mind was nothing more than a cold breeze playing over the jumpsuit's collar.

* * *

"And I bid no rocket pack for my armor!" roared one Elemental.

"I will not use my laser!" shouted another.

Taman Malthus vaulted the railing surrounding the small amphitheater in which the members of his command bid for the right to pursue Dave Jewell. He landed solidly, planting both feet on the ground as if driving pilings down to the bedrock below. Clad in nothing more than a pair of shorts and sandals, he balled his fists and stared hard at the last two men in the arena.

"You are pathetic. You are all pathetic." Malthus let his harsh gaze sweep over the men and women of his entire Star. "This is a man you hunt, not a BattleMech."

"But Star Captain, you saw what he did to Corbin."

"I saw. He cut him, beat him, and broke his back, then trussed him up like an animal bound for market. He tied him to that hovertruck and sent it on a crazy chase through the search sectors. That complicates things, but does not tell us if Jewell is good or Corbin was just stupid."

Malthus pointed back toward the Star's administration building. "The labs analyzed Corbin's dagger and have found blood reside on it. Jewell has been cut and could be in bad shape. Sending the truck out may have been a desperate move to utterly throw us off the track."

"I bid," began one woman.

Malthus waved her bid off. "Your bid is worth nothing because my own bid isnothing." He raised clenched fists to shoulder height. "I will get him with my bare hands."

"How?" shouted another Elemental. "We have not a clue as to where he is."

"Yes we do. He is hurt and must realize he cannot hope to elude us in the wilderness for much longer. That means he has to head back to a place large enough for him to lose himself and, quite possibly, make contact with partisans."

The Elemental leader folded his arms across his heavily muscled chest. "We will concentrate our search in and around Dove Costoso. We will cut across his trail and find him. He has killed a man in my command, which makes him more than a nuisance for Demi-Precentor Khalsa. Yes, we will find this Dave Jewell and then, when he thinks himself most safe, his life will be mine."

27

Lothan

Wolf Clan Occupation Zone

17 April 3052

Phelan snarled as yet another glowing mark on the outline of his 'Mech showed him where the Elemental had nibbled away another bit of armor. "You little bastard. If you came out where I could see you, I'd kill you, but I can't find you."

Edick's actions surprised Phelan. During the ritual, the Clansman had boasted proudly of his previous victories in the Bloodright contest, giving a long account of all his deeds. Cowering and sniping were not what Phelan would have expected in this fight.