As her eyes met his, Dan felt something like an electric jolt shoot through his body. She smiled and gathered his left hand into her right. "Come. Let us walk in the garden." She led him down one of the carefully manicured pathways where well-trimmed shrub walls soon eclipsed the palace lights and muffled the music. "You idolized your brother, didn't you?"

Dan nodded. "From the time we were kids." He laughed in remembrance. "He was my older brother, by seven years, but I soon caught up to him in the height department. That's when he started calling me his bigbrother. He's actually my half-brother ... my father's first marriage ended in divorce after he was recalled from the Federated Suns embassy on Sian."

She smiled and stared out at the lights of Asgard. "You're lucky, having a brother. I was an only child."

The mercenary Captain forced himself to smile. "Believe me, ah . . ."

She hesitated. "Jeana."

"Jeana, there were times when I wished to be an only child. I also have a sister and two cousins—twins—who lived with us. It was a full household."

Jeana squeezed his hand. "You had someone to share secrets with and someone who was there when you needed help."

Dan nodded and fought the lump rising in his throat. That was you, Justin. Always there when I needed you."Despite the difference in our ages, Justin was very much my best friend." Recollection broadened the smile on Dan's face. "Justin learned that I was graduating from the New Avalon Military Academy early. He was on Spica at the time, and he wrote me in a spare moment while his company was preparing for a Liao assault. He created a little checklist with a half-dozen 'Mech types contained on it. At the top, he'd written: 'Graduation Present.' His note told me to pick one. Justin said he'd shoot it, but I had to clean it and fix it up."

Dan balled his right fist and slammed it against his thigh. "Justin was always there for me." Biting back angry tears, he turned to Jeana. "I failed him," he said, the words shot through with pain. "I wasn't there when he needed me. If I had been, none of this would have happened."

Jeana stepped closer, bringing him to the spicy sweetness of her perfume. Hugging him fiercely, she whispered, "Don't torture yourself this way. You've leaped to too many conclusions and allowed them to build upon themselves. That's madness...."

Dan welcomed her comfort and concern, and he closed his eyes, feeling suddenly tired. Wrapping his own arms around Jeana, he drank in her physical warmth. Her hair fell against his face, and as he breathed in the sweetness of her perfume, he felt a deep sense of peace. "But why did Justin go to Solaris? Why didn't he come to me and join the Kell Hounds?"

Jeana withdrew enough to look up into Dan's blue eyes. "There are a thousand possible answers to those questions and I cannot be expected to know them, but neither can you! It could have been anything that sent your brother to Solaris. He could have gone to exact revenge, just as Sefnes and his ilk suggest."

Dan shook his head. "Not Justin. No."

"Then perhaps he went to Solaris to prove he was the best MechWarrior in the Successor States," Jeana said. "If he has half the pride of his younger brother, he's out there proving his enemies wrong."

Dan looked down. "Why does he have to prove it in the Capellan Confederation?"

Jeana slipped from his arms and turned her beautiful profile against the lights of Asgard. "Justin is two natures—half-Fed and half-Capellan. When he lost access to one half of himself, he naturally tended toward the other half." She turned and smiled at Dan. "As strange as it sounds, I believe that other half mustone day resurface, and I think you should believe that, too."

"And if it doesn't . . ." Dan stared off into the darkness. "Justin becomes a most dangerous foe."

16

Tharkad

District of Donegal, Lyran Commonwealth

31 December 3027

The Lyran Intelligence Corps operative cleared his throat gently. "Excuse me, Captain Allard, but the Archon and Colonel Kell are returning to the party."

Jeana gave Dan's hand a squeeze. "Go on. I'll catch up with you later."

Dan nodded and smiled. "I'm counting on it. And thank you for listening." He turned toward the LIC agent. "Lead on."

The agent pointed out a path, but was silent as he led the way back out of the garden. Dan nodded his thanks to the agent, then searched the crowd for the Archon. He saw her and crossed toward where she had been standing with Morgan. By the time he reached the spot, however, Katrina Steiner had vanished.

Dan found Morgan engaged in conversation with three men. The older two look so uneasy around Morgan,Dan thought, suppressing a smile. I imagine they see him as a ghost from a past they wish would stay dead.

Morgan smiled and made room for Dan in the small group. "Ah, Dan, I'm so glad to see you. Have you met these gentlemen?"

The stiffness in Morgan's tone and body belied the smile on his face, yet Dan responded to the pleasant introduction as though it were genuine. He half-bowed and extended his hand toward the tallest of the trio. The elderly man's platinum hair and his gray eyes marked him as a Steiner. The thin scar running from the corner of his right eye and up into his hairline did not mar the handsomeness of his finely sculpted features, but it did drain from his stern visage some of the power that showed in his cousin Katrina Steiner's face. "I am honored to again meet you, Duke Frederick."

Frederick Steiner inclined his head slightly. "I understand you deserve no small amount of credit in the Silver Eaglerescue."

Dan shook his head. "I did what had to be done, Your Grace."

The smallest of the three men, a barrel-chested noble, offered his right hand. Limping half a step forward, he smiled slyly. "Spoken like a true hero, Captain. Your modesty becomes you."

Dan narrowed his eyes. And your words, Duke Aldo Lestrade, sound like bait for a very deadly trap."I do not see myself as a hero, Duke Lestrade." Dan nodded toward the Duke's plastic and steel left arm. "Learning to live with your new arm or your hip replacement is far more heroic than anything I have done."

Dan looked up at the third man in the group. Though he had the characteristic blond hair of a Steiner, as well as the perfectly chiseled nose and chin, it took Dan a moment to identify the element that did not fit. It was the man's eyes, which were darker than any Steiner that Dan had ever seen. He extended his hand toward the other man. "Daniel Allard."

The third man took Dan's hand in a viselike grip. "I am Ryan Steiner, Captain Allard."

Dan pumped the younger man's hand twice, then broke free. "I'm pleased to meet you."

Morgan smiled as if he'd noticed none of what had passed between Dan and Ryan. "Ryan, more properly the Duke of Porrima, is Duke Frederick's nephew. I was telling them that I knew Ryan's mother, Donna Steiner, when she taught at Nagelring." Facing Ryan, Morgan half-shut his eyes. "Your mother got married at the Academy, and I was proud to be chosen as one of the Honor Guard for the ceremony ..."

Morgan's words trailed off into an arctic silence as another man joined the group. Frederick Steiner and Aldo Lestrade both flinched visibly as the haggard, gray-haired man slipped between them. Ryan smiled with his eyes, and the old man acknowledged him with the faintest of nods, then turned his full attention on Morgan Kell.