3

Sian

Sian Commonality, Capellan Confederation

20 March 3029

Justin Xiang slapped a new power pack into the Magna laser carbine, then looked around the corner. He snapped his head back as the two silhouetted figures deeper in the corridor triggered a ruby burst at him. He crouched as best his exoskeleton would allow, then dove into the corridor, rolled and came up on one knee. His finger tightened on the trigger.

Hot scarlet darts of laser fire raked across the corridor. One bolt hit a guard high in the chest, flaring like a meteor against the man's ablative vest. The guard stiffened, then dropped flat on his back. The other guard caught three bolts stitching their way from his right hip to his left shoulder. The impact spun him around, then dropped him into a rigid heap.

Justin ran up the corridor and knelt beside the men he'd shot. He pushed their guns beyond their reach, then turned and signaled to the men hunkered down behind him. Two of them swept on past him and took up positions on either side of the door to the exterior. Not bad, so far. We've only lost three out of our dozen. I can stand 25 percent casualties.He narrowed his brown, almond-shaped eyes. Even more—this mission is that important.

The other six team members moved up to Justin's position. The rear guard kept their weapons pointed back down the corridor to cut off any pursuit. The other three people—known to the assault team as "mules"—sought out what cover they could find. The samples filling the satchels on their web belts made for a bulky outline, but they managed to make themselves small targets nonetheless.

Justin turned to the two men at the facility's entrance. He nodded, sending them through the doorway. One twisted, stood, then fell back against the door jamb as he took fire from outside. The second man jerked himself back through the doorway, but his legs no longer worked.

"They've got a Locustout there!"

Dammit! All the 'Mechs were supposed to be drawn off by our diversion!Justin whirled. "Ling! Maximovitch! Get those V-LAW rockets ready. Be at the door. I'll draw it off."

Justin took a hand-held short-range missile launcher from one of the mules. Glancing through a transparent spot in the launcher, he saw a small piece of the red designator band running around the warhead. Good. An Inferno round. It won't kill theLocust, but the jellied fuel it'll spray all over will screw up its infrared sensors. Scanning for heat patterns must be how it knew I had two men on either side of the doorway.

Justin handed his carbine to one of the mules, then pointed toward the sprinklers running along the center of the ceiling. "If you please, Mr. Chung, let's cool this place down."

One shot started the whole line of sprinklers spraying. Justin let the water soak his clothing enough to kill his IR outline, then bolted for the doorway. Once he hit sunlight, he cut to the right, away from where the team's 'Mechs waited, and back toward the Locust.

Fool! You expected us to go for our 'Mechs to fight you!Justin brandished the missile launcher like a gauntlet to be thrown down in challenge. That's an error you'll not soon make again!

The Locusttried to pivot quickly, but the awkward-looking 'Mech was not built for swift lateral movement. The stubby wing on the ten-meter tall 'Mech's left side geysered spent machine gun shells as the pilot tracked the weapons pod after Justin, but the Maskirovka agent sprinted beyond the edge of the machine gun's arc. The pilot, while continuing to turn his 'Mech, swung the Locust'sunderslung laser into line with the running man.

Justin dropped to his knees, skidding to a halt only three meters from where the laser's hot burst sizzled through the air. As waves of heat washed over him, Justin rose to one knee. He settled the missile launcher's heavy weight on his right shoulder, clamped his metallic left hand to the barrel, then let the missile fly.

In the space of a heartbeat, the Inferno rocket crossed the twenty-five meters to its target. Instead of slamming into the ferro-ceramic alloy armor covering the Locust,the missile blossomed like a horrific, fiery flower. Tendrils of thick, syrupy chemicals shot out over the 'Mech, coating it like honey, then burst into flames.

Crouching in the doorway, Ling and Maximovitch appeared. Their missiles flew straight through the conflagration and exploded against the Locust'shull. Both missiles splashed a black cloud over the 'Mech, but the fire quickly consumed the paint as additional fuel.

Justin raised his left fist in congratulations. Discarding the empty launcher, he pressed his right hand to his throat mike and keyed a channel to his partner. "That should be it, Tsen. We're clear. What was our time?"

Tsen Shang's rich voice came back immediately, but seemed to lack some of the emotion Justin might have expected. "Twelve point two-three minutes. You shaved a minute and a half off the last time."

Justin smiled. "And we got one more person out this time. The mission worked even without gassing the whole complex. This operation is definitely viable."

"Roger." Irritation rimmed Tsen's voice. "The Chancellor wants you to report to him immediately. Don't bother cleaning up. It won't matter to him."

"Roger."

Justin dropped his hand from the throat mike, then frowned. Tsen Shang had been acting strangely ever since his counterattack against the Davion storehouses had turned out to be a big trap. He was blameless though, because he'd been forced to use Michael Hasek-Davion's intelligence reports to plan the assault. There was no way Tsen could have known the information had been tailored by Davion's own Intelligence Ministry. No one could have guessed it.

Justin shrugged his way out of his equipment harness, letting it clank to the ground. He pointed it out to one of the men returning from extinguishing the fire on the remotely controlled Locust.He considered freeing himself of the exoskeleton's grip, but decided there was not time. Unless someone shot him with a down-powered laser blast, the suit would not stiffen up to simulate a wound—thereby causing a problem.

The downturn in Tsen Shang's attitude rubbed at Justin's consciousness like an ill-fitting boot against the heel. He had expected Shang to be glad Justin had persuaded the Chancellor not to execute him or exile him to Brazen Heart. Instead, it only seemed to make Shang more sullen. Justin knew it, too. Romano Liao had something to do with the other man's mood swings. He shook his head. She's definitely a candidate for retroactive birth control.

Justin had first met Tsen Shang two years before on the Game World, Solaris Vll. Tsen, a Maskirovka agent, had posed as a wealthy Capellan noble sponsoring a team of heavy 'Mechs in the gladiatorial combats on Solaris. Justin, newly exiled from the Federated Suns, had fought well and changed the fortunes of the Capellan Confederation in the games. Based on some of Justin's actions, Tsen Shang quickly realized that the son of Davion's Intelligence Minister could be a valuable asset to the Capellan Confederation. Shang abducted Justin, and Maximilian Liao himself recruited Justin into the Maskirovka.

Justin and Tsen worked closely together and developed a plan for streamlining the Maskirovka to make it more efficient. Maximilian Liao accepted the plan, put it into place, then appointed Justin and Tsen to head up the omnibus "Crisis Team." That saddled both men with great responsibility and brought them into close contact with the Capellan royal family.