"No way." Victor picked up the Stone Monkey carving and fastened the leather thong around his neck. "You're coming with me to Duke Kuchel's estate for Christmas dinner. I want at least one person there I enjoy talking with."

"But his estate's an hour from here by helicopter. For me to get back in time means we'll only be able ..."

"... to spend four hours there." Victor's grin seemed to match the irreverent leer on the Stone Monkey's face. "You'll save me tracking Galen down and forcing him to call me with 'urgent business' later on. My original plan would have left me stuck there for six hours."

Kai shrugged hopelessly, but felt good. "All right. I'm happy to go with you. Four hours with the cream of Alyina's aristocrats?"

Victor frowned. "Yeah. If worse comes to worse, we'll manufacture a crisis and get back here faster."

Though they found the party was neither worse nor better than expected, the two comrades never did have to manufacture a crisis to save them. Within two hours of their arrival, Kai and Victor were in a helicopter headed back to headquarters. The reports were not good.

The Clans had appeared insystem and would make planetfall in eleven days. And with that news, Kai's premonition of doom returned full force.

36

Unity Palace, Imperial City, Luthien

Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine

26 December 3051

Theodore Kurita's decision to forego formal welcoming ceremonies for the mercenaries pleased Shin Yodama. Having been on Outreach, he disagreed with court protocol experts, who said that such a breach of honor would doom any hopes of a productive working relationship between Combine and mercenary forces. Theodore had reasoned, and Shin agreed, that a formal welcoming ceremony would only give many of the High Command who still felt contemptuous of mercenaries an opportunity to air their counterproductive attitudes.

Shin waited along with Theodore, Hohiro, and the leaders of the Combine defense forces in the cedar-walled reception chamber beneath the palace's helipad. He felt a mild tremor ripple through the floor as the helicopter landed and a shaft of sun streamed down the staircase from above. As the mercenaries began to descend, the whooping of the helicopter rotors drowned out the sound of their boot heels on the circular stone stairway.

Jaime Wolf was the first of the four men to appear. He bowed to Theodore, then approached to offer his hand. "Konnichi-wa,Kanrei-sa/na. I wish the circumstances were better for renewing our acquaintance."

Theodore, having returned the bow in both depth and duration, shook Wolf's hand heartily. "I agree this is not the most pleasant of occasions, but your presence makes it less oppressive. Still, I imagine a Christian hell or two has frozen over because of your arrival here on Luthien."

Morgan Kell smiled as he shook Theodore's hand. "We were speculating that Dante's Inferno would now have to be retitled Spark."

The Combine's Prince laughed politely at the joke and Shin smiled, though the reference went right by him. Theodore offered his hand to MacKenzie Wolf in greeting, then hesitated before the fourth man in the group.

Tall and broad-shouldered, the man wore the double-breasted shirt of the Kell Hounds' dress uniform, as did Colonel Kell. Shin noted that the man's eyes indicated an oriental bloodline, and his deferential attitude toward Theodore gave the impression that he must formerly have been from the Combine. His bronze hair and light-colored eyes led Shin to guess he was from the Rasalhague District. The ribbons sewn to the left ear of the wolf's-head on the man's jacket suggested he had been with the Hounds for a long time. Yet, even with those clues, Shin had no idea who the officer was.

The man bowed deeply to Theodore. " Konnichi-wa,Kurita Theodore-sa/na. It is the fulfillment of a life's desire to meet with you again and to stand with you as an ally."

"I am most honored to welcome you back to the Combine." Theodore bowed respectfully, then straightened up to his full height. "Akira Brahe, you have come a long way since your time in the Second Legion of Vega."

At the mention of the man's name, Shin began to recall the little he knew of the man. Akira was the son of one of the Combine's greatest MechWarriors, Yorinaga Kurita. In 3013, at the head of the Second Sword of Light, Yorinaga had killed Prince Ian Davion, Hanse's elder brother. Thirteen years later, he killed Patrick Kell, Morgan Kell's younger brother. Three years after that, Yorinaga and Morgan fought a duel on Nusakan that culminated in Yorinaga's committing seppuku.Akira repudiated his ties with the Combine after his father's suicide, left the Genyosha, and joined the Kell Hounds.

Shin shot a glance at Narimasa Asano. The gray-haired man smiled as Akira bowed, and then he returned the bow. "I recall that, twenty years ago, we did not look forward to meeting a next time because it could only mean contest in battle. How fortunate that life has proved us wrong."

"Most fortunate, Asano -sama."

Theodore completed introductions between the two groups. Hideyoshi and the First Sword's Yoshida looked less than pleased to see mercenaries on Luthien, but Shin knew their displeasure had even deeper roots. Both men had favored formal ceremonies to greet the mercenaries, less to give honor than to keep Theodore's father away from such an event.

That would have been incredible,Shin thought as he visualized a meeting between Jaime Wolf and Takashi Kurita. The last such took place at Hanse Davion's wedding more than twenty years ago, and had become something of a legend. Jaime Wolf, whom the Coordinator had tried to have killed, took Takashi to task for his lack of honor. Later that year, after suffering a minor stroke, Takashi issued his infamous Death to Mercenaries order that had alienated so many officers, Akira Brahe included. As nearly as Shin knew, Takashi still awaited the day when someone would deliver Jaime Wolf's head to him in a box.

The Kanrei conducted his entourage to an elevator, which took them down to an auxiliary briefing room next to the command center. Shin and Hohiro both logged onto terminals in the room, starting data feeds pouring information onto their screens. With the flick of a finger, either man could summarize the data into charts holographically projected above the meeting table.

Theodore stood with his back to the double doors of the black room. Jaime Wolf and Morgan Kell stood facing him at the far end of the table. The other officers filled the space between the Kanrei and the mercenaries, with Akira Brahe and Narimasa Asano at Theodore's right. Near the center of the group, Shin and Hohiro formed a buffer between the Combine officers and the mercenary leaders.

Theodore wasted no time getting started. "Before your arrival, we were looking at five crack regiments of 'Mechs: the First Sword of Light, the Otomo, both Genyosha regiments, and the Second Legion of Vega. We also had three militia regiments. Two were to be assigned to field operations against the Elementals, using analogs of the armor suits we captured on Wolcott. The third is an Omega regiment that will make any enemy pay dearly if it comes to house-to-house in Imperial City."

With a nod from Theodore, Shin produced graphic representations of each unit's table of organization and equipment. Yoshida winced to see his unit's secrets revealed before men he had ever considered enemies, but Wolf's appreciative grunt and nodded salute clearly made him feel proud. Morgan Kell's dark gaze drank in all the information but, unlike Jaime, he did not reveal his thoughts.