She tried to pull her hands away, but he held onto them firmly. "Names are just labels. If you can, tell me about you. Tell me what you do. Tell me if you're happy."

Jeana nodded and led Dan to a dry section of beach that was above the high-water line but below the sea grasses. She knelt and drew him down to face her. "There's not much I can tell— but it's not because I don't trust you."

Dan nodded confidently. "I know."

Jeana smiled and caressed the side of his face. "I am close to Melissa Steiner, but my duties are hard to define. I do a little bit of everything, yet nothing in a routine sort of way." She fell silent momentarily as she remembered something. "The work is not hard, though it can be demanding and require long hours."

"You'll not have any problems because you spent the day with me, will you?"

Jeana shook her head. "No. Melissa has more than enough people here to attend her. During the wedding, I can just be myself. But afterward, it's back to work."

Dan narrowed his eyes. Babysitting the Archon-Designate is quite a change from being a MechWarrior. I suppose, though, after theSilver Eagle incident, that the Archon felt it necessary."Do you like the work?"

Without hesitation or reservation, Jeana nodded and smiled. "Though I wouldn't have thought it possible, this has turned into the most satisfying job I could ever imagine."

"Good." Dan raised her right hand and kissed the palm. Smiling, he sniffed gently at the perfume she'd sprayed on her wrist. "What is that scent? It reminds me of night-blooming furanciaon Ciotat, but not quite."

Jeana's light laugh sounded a perfect accompaniment to the tenor crash of waves along the beach. "It's a fragrance created specially for Melissa by a cosmetic consortium on Eutin. They call it Nocturne,but they market a similar blend under another name for sale to the public." Jeana leaned forward, dropping her voice conspiratorially. "Melissa says she hates the scent so much she wouldn't be caught dead wearing it. So she gave the whole supply to me because I dolike it."

"And so do I ... on you." Dan leaned forward to kiss Jeana gently on the lips. Pulling him closer with hands around his neck, she deepened their kiss. Dan gathered her into his arms, and hugged her fiercely.

They remained in each other's arms, oblivious to all else until the alarm on Dan's watch started to beep. "Just a reminder about the reception hosted by the Free Worlds League tonight," he said, hitting a button to cut off the sound. "Shall we go together?"

Jeana pulled back, shaking her head. "No. I don't think so."

Confused and disappointed, Dan could not keep the feelings from his face or his voice. "Oh, I'm sorry ... I thought..."

Jeana pressed a hand to his lips and looked into his blue eyes. "Today, being with you has meant more to me than you will ever know, Daniel Allard." She kissed him quickly. "I don't want this day to end, not yet, not tonight."

She took his hand, leading him up the beach toward the sandy path to her bungalow. "There will be other receptions, Daniel Allard, and I would be proud to attend them with you. But tonight, my love, I want you all to myself. . . ."

30

ComStar First Circuit Compound

Hilton Head Island, North America, Terra

18 August 3028

Kneeling at the side of his bed, Akira Brahe slid his valise from under the bed, then hoisted it up onto the quilt-covered mattress. After carefully opening the polybaux case, he let it lie flat on the bed while he pulled the cloth lining away from a long hinge holding together the two silvery metal halves of the case.

Casting a nervous glance at the door, he assured himself that it was, indeed, locked and bolted it. I could get into deep trouble for this, but only a fool travels unarmed at an enemy's invitation.Akira shivered. Until this afternoon, I'd not considered ComStar the major threat here . . .

Akira pulled a multi-bladed pocket knife from the shaving kit on his nightstand, and flipped open its screwdriver blade. He ran his thumb over the triangular wedge cut into the blade to make it a two-pronged fork. Smiling, he fit the blade into the specially shaped screws along the hinge edge.

When the last screw was out, he laid it carefully with the others in the bottom of the case and flipped the hinge plate. From its hiding place between the hinge and the polybaux rim of the suitcase, Akira pulled a thin, paper-wrapped metal strip. The punctured holes down its center matched the location of the hinge screws. The bedside light flashed off the razor edge of the blackened blade as he stripped away the paper covering.

Akira refastened all but two of the screws, closed the case, and slid it back under the bed. He crossed the room to his chest of drawers, from which he pulled a thick leather belt and a clothes brush. He tossed them onto the bed beside the blade. After only a moment's hesitation, he removed his shirt and pulled on a thick black sweater over his naked torso.

Returning to the bed, Akira separated the belt buckle from the belt. An oblong oval of bronze with a lotus pattern worked in the center, the decorative buckle had been styled after a 16th-century Japanese swordguard. Akira slid it into place on the blade's tang and secured it with one of the two screws left from the suitcase.

Then he freed the wooden handle from the head of the clothes brush and screwed it into the blade's tang to form a hilt. Satisfied at last that he'd gotten it set as tightly as possible against the guard, he used the last suitcase screw to fasten it securely. Finally, Akira used the sword's keen edge to slice through the stitching holding the belt's two layers of leather together at the buckle end. The long blade slid home into its sheath without even a whisper.

After stripping the black laces from a pair of shoes, Akira studied the crudely drawn map of the ComStar training facility he'd made upon returning from the tour. As the group left the building, he'd studied the approaches and slowly worked out a plan for returning there without being seen. By soaking his black woolen sweater and pants in water, he would get a slight margin of protection from infrared scanners. Akira frowned, wondering whether it would be enough.

He traced his pencil-marked route with a slender finger. Come in from the sea on the south side and look for openings.Akira remembered the look of pride on the guide's face as he recounted the dozen construction projects undertaken in the past two centuries to expand ComStar's facilities. The accompanying slides, taken from the air, had shown the expansion and often included natural additions to the beaches surrounding the island.

Except in the area south of the training facility. There the shoreline had pushed out about fifty meters over the years, with the last big move coming when the training building was erected. But cliffs were not supposed to expand the way beaches do.

Akira shook his head as he used the shoelace to fashion a strap for the sheath. Why should I find it so difficult to believe that ComStar is training MechWarriors? The guide reminded us that Terra became ComStar's neutral headquarters after Jerome Blake planned and executed a 'Mech assault on the planet. Some even claim that he paid off the 'Mech regiments who helped him with vast amounts of spare parts, but who can say if what he gave away was only a drop in the bucket? Terra was, after all, the capital of the Star League. Who knows what ComStar actually found here?