Victor nodded. "3042. Some House Marik troops decided it was time to nibble on the Sarna March to see how badly we'd been damaged in the 3039 war against Theodore Kurita. Andrew convinced them, quickly and forcefully, that any weakness on our part was a figment of their imagination."

Galen rubbed his hand over his unshaven chin. "Yeah, I remember that now. I was just coming out of the War College. O.K., so that's who he is. Now what about the two next to him? Those aren't AFFC uniforms."

Victor looked along the line to the next two men. Both wore similar uniforms of red jackets and black trousers tucked into knee-high boots. The jacket was double-breasted and shaped as a hound's-head with ears that rose to each shoulder and a muzzle that fastened down at the jacket's waist. The older Mech Warrior had four ribbons sewn onto the hound's left ear to represent the unit's commendations. He also wore spurs on his boots, marking him as a product of a Federated Suns military academy. The younger man wore no spurs and his jacket showed only one unit commendation ribbon.

"The older man is Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Allard. He's the commander of the Kell Hounds and the brother of Intelligence Secretary Justin Allard."

Galen squinted at the mercenary. "That's Dan Allard? He seems like he's been around forever."

Victor shook his head. "The white hair is throwing you off. He takes after his father and went white early. He's only in his fifties, though he's been with the Hounds for over thirty years. He was there when they rescued Melissa Steiner in the Silver Eagleincident. Morgan Kell appointed Dan as the Kell Hounds commander when he retired eight years ago."

"And the other man? Who's he?"

Victor hesitated for a moment. "That's my cousin, Christian Kell. He's a Major with the Hounds and commands the First Battalion."

Galen rested a hand on Victor's shoulder. "You say that as though trying to convince yourself he isChristian Kell. Now me, I thought Morgan Kell had only one son—the one who died out in the Periphery last year."

Victor bowed his head. How well you put it, my friend. I do have a hard time believing Chris is Chris because I see so much of his father in him."Phelan was Morgan Kell's only son. Christian is Patrick Kell's son, but Patrick never knew it at the time he died. Eight years ago, Chris showed up at a world the Kell Hounds were garrisoning and presented Morgan with a verigraphed message from a woman who had been Patrick's lover. It said Christian was Patrick's son."

Galen raised an eyebrow. "The Kell fortunes are known to be vast, and that would have been right after your grandmother left a huge legacy to Morgan Kell. They had him genotyped to verify the claim, didn't they?"

"Yes, though it was hardly necessary." Victor's senior by four years, the tall, slender mercenary towered over him by twenty centimeters and outweighed him by fifteen kilos. In the way he wore his black hair and in the structure of his features, Victor saw a familiar face, but it was of a man who was older and who had died several years before his birth. "Only his brown eyes mark him as different from his father. I only know Patrick Kell from holovids, but the resemblance is eerie. My mother considers it the clearest proof ever offered of reincarnation, notwithstanding the fact that Christian was born almost a year before his father's death."

"Huh." Galen smiled quizzically. "Where did he go to school? Rising to Major so quickly means he must be hot."

Victor took pride in Galen's respectful tone. "He doesn't talk about it much, but he was raised in the Draconis Combine, speaks Japanese fluently, and is reported to be every bit the demon his father was in personal combat. When he arrived, Morgan retired and took Chris to the Dragoons' world of Outreach. For the next three years, Chris studied with the best. Rumor has it that Jaime Wolf even offered him a commission with the Dragoons. He entered the Hounds as a Lieutenant, but worked his way up to Major through his action during the Ambergrist Crisis."

"That's a fast crowd waiting for you." Galen nodded toward the last man in the group. "In that company, the last guy must be Death personified."

It took Victor a moment to recognize him, then he nodded. "Correction. This is the guy Death is afraid of. That's Kai Allard-Liao. He's Dan's nephew and Justin's son. You can't tell it by looking at him, or even by listening to him, but Kai is one of the sharpest tactical minds ground out by any of the Academies since his uncle or Morgan Hasek-Davion graduated. He's got an intuitive grasp of military situations that's unbelievable. In combat simulations, he moves a 'Mech like it's grafted straight into his brain."

Galen's eyes narrowed. "I hear a 'but' lurking there somewhere. What's the down-side?"

Victor shrugged. "Given the chance, any chance at all, Kai will second-guess and berate himself into indecision and inactivity. And the damnable thing is that it's not just a lack of self-confidence. He knows he's smart, but just can't allow himself to think he'll be just as smart tomorrow or the next day or the next month. When it works, his analytical ability is uncanny at picking out the weaknesses of the enemy."

"He sounds to me like the type of man you bring in to assess a situation in toto, then confine his part of the operation to a narrow field in which he has little room to assess what he must do."

An astute observation, Galen. "I think you may well be right."

Victor bent and hefted the small bag of supplies given him by the Hejira'screw. Stepping off the escalator, he nodded to Galen. "Now that you know who they are, let's go meet them."

Rounding the corner in the circular jetway tunnel, Victor smiled and stripped the glove off his right hand. He stepped into the receiving lounge, then stopped and saluted sharply. "Kommandant Victor Steiner-Davion reporting for duty, sir." Behind him, Galen Cox stopped and saluted as well.

Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion returned the salute crisply, then extended his hand to Victor. They shook hands, then embraced in back-slapping hugs. "It's good to see you safe, Victor."

Victor nodded, then pulled back away from his cousin. 'This is Hauptmann Galen Cox. He's the reason I'm here." Victor rubbed his jaw. "He has a foolproof method for dealing with officers who are foolish."

Morgan shook Galen's hand, then turned to the others in the greeting party. "You know General Andrew Redburn, of course."

Victor saluted Andrew, then shook his hand. "It is good to see you again, General."

Andrew chuckled lightly. "The last time was when they coerced me into giving a speech at the Nagelring."

"And an excellent presentation it was." Victor looked up and met Andrew's gaze. "It started me thinking about warfare in a different way, bringing home the awesome power we command in a single BattleMech."

Victor moved along to the next man in line and offered him his hand. "Hello, Colonel Allard."

The white-haired mercenary took Victor's hand in a strong grip and pumped his arm warmly. "I'm glad to see you here. I didn't think they could keep you away, but I was afraid someone might be foolish enough to try."

Victor took pleasure in Daniel Allard's sincere greeting. "Thank you, Colonel. I'm glad no one was so foolish as to try to keep the Kell Hounds away." With that, Victor extended his hand to the other Kell Hound.

"Greetings, Major. Very good to see you again."