Vitios smiled coldly. "Oh, I understand how busy your Major was, Leftenant. After all, that is what this trial is about, isn't it?" Vitios turned his attention to the deposition and flicked it open. "In fact, you did not have confirmation from Major Allard that he would join you until the day before the exercise, when you had a private meeting with him. Is that not correct?"

Redburn nodded uneasily. "Yes, sir."

Vitios dramatically cupped his right elbow in his left hand and tapped his pointy chin with his right index finger. "In your deposition, you characterized the meeting as urgent. What did you speak about?"

Redburn bit his lower lip. "I expressed to the Major my concern over some unrest in the training battalion. I told him that his participation in the exercise would help morale and might regain him some of the respect due a MechWarrior of his reputation."

Vitios made a hissing sound as though the Leftenant had said something that pained him. "This 'unrest' in the battalion. What was that about?"

Redburn shrugged and tried to downplay the gravity of the question. "Recruits seldom like their CO, especially when he's hard on them."

Vitios stepped forward, then spun to face the gallery. "Come now, Leftenant. You know the real reason for the dissatisfaction in the battalion, don't you? Were there not demonstrations of support for Sergeant Philip Capet? Weren't the troops furious because Major Allard, without provocation, had dismissed a Gold Sunburst winner?"

"That may have been part of it, Count Vitios."

Redburn's hopes that he'd parried the Count's dangerous thrust died on the Count's riposte. "And part of that unrest was due to Major Allard's trafficking with the indigs, wasn't it? How could these recruits trust a man who regularly traveled among, met with, and preferred the company of the enemy to what should have been his own people?"

"Objection!" Justin's attorney shot to his feet and stabbed the air with one finger. His left hand struggled to shove his glasses back into place before they could fall from his face entirely, but his intense stare did not change. "The prosecution is leading the witness and has stated his question in a totally prejudicial manner."

The ranking tribunal officer, Major General Sheridan Courtney, turned toward Count Vitios. "Sustained. Be more careful, your Lordship."

The Count nodded. "Leftenant, did Major Allard visit with indigs on any sort of regular basis?”

“I suppose he did."

"Indeed, Leftenant, he did. Have you forgotten the Community Relations Committee meetings each week? Have you forgotten how he liked to take his first meal in the restaurants of Shaoshan upon returning from field exercises? Have you forgotten his hiring indigs to work as personal servants in his home?"

Redburn looked down at the polished wood-tile floor. "No, sir."

Vitios's voice lost none of its edge. "Why were you stationed on Kittery, Leftenant?"

Redburn's head snapped back up and his anger rocketed through his answer. "To protect the world and the frontier."

"From whom, Leftenant?"

Redburn spat out his answer. "From the Capellan forces of Maximilian Liao."

"The very people the Major spent so much time with. Correct, Leftenant?" Before Redburn could answer, Vitios pressed a new question upon him. "Do you know Shang Dao?"

What the hell is he getting at now?Redburn nodded. "I was introduced to him."

"By Major Allard?"

"Yes."

Vitios nodded. "Isn't Shang Dao the leader of the Yizhi tong in Shaoshan?"

Redburn frowned. "I believe he is."

Vitios canted his head slightly. "I thought the CID had identified the Yizhi tong as a Capellan organization, and that contact between Federated Suns personnel and the tong was forbidden. In fact, you dismissed a cadet on a charge of trafficking with restricted personnel, didn't you?"

Redburn hesitated. "I. . . it was not like that."

Courtney glared down at Redburn from the bench. "Answer the question, Leftenant."

"Yes, sir." Redburn held up his head. "The cadet was dismissed for his addiction to opium. We felt the problem would lapse once he left Kittery, and we did not want the charge of opium substance abuse to haunt him for the rest of his life."

Vitios almost smiled. "Commendable, Leftenant, but the fact remains that Major Allard regularly met with Shang Dao in violation of the CID directives, didn't he?"

Redburn hung his head. "Yes, sir."

Vitios turned back to the prosecution desk and picked up a file. "I have here, and have entered into the record, a transcript of your 'Mech's battle-recorder. In reviewing your transcript, and the transcripts from the other 'Mechs in the battalion, I must congratulate you on your quick thinking and calm under fire. You saved your command from a savage ambush."

Redburn nodded. He shot a glance toward the defense table, and died inside. Leftenant Lofton, Justin's lawyer, was urgently whispering something into his client's ear, but the Major gave no sign of hearing him. He just stared straight ahead, as though trying to burn a hole through the courtroom's gray marble walls by force of will.

When Vitios smiled, he might have been a python spotting a fat pig. "We know the Capellan 'Mechs were waiting for you. Why was that?"

"We are required to file forms with the civilian government in Shaoshan detailing where we plan to travel."

Vitios nodded. "Shang Dao is a member of the civilian government, isn't he?"

Redburn shrugged. "That information is not very secret, your Lordship. When we stopped at noon that day, food peddlers from Shaoshan came out and sold us lunch."

Vitios frowned, but Redburn cut off any comment. "Sir, we MechWarriors bake inside our machines. None of us want to eat anything that's been cooked in the same oven if we can avoid it. Remember, sir, that government contracts go to the lowest bidder, which says a lot about the quality of rations, especially out on the frontier."

Courtney gaveled the courtroom's laughing spectators back to order, and Redburn took heart when even Justin's distant and harsh expression had lightened a bit.

Vitios swallowed Redburn's good feeling in one gulp. "What did Major Allard say to you when Private William Sonnac, whose Stingerwas positioned above the Cicadasthat would kill him, reported strange magscan readings?"

Redburn frowned. "He asked me to check Sonnac's readings. That's standard procedure."

"But that's not all he said to you, is it, Leftenant?"

"Sir?"

Vitios flipped through the transcript. "Let me refresh your memory, Leftenant. Major Allard said to you, 'Andy, check Sonnac's readings. I've got something over the hill I want to see.' " Vitios turned and stared at Justin. "Doesn't that strike you as a little odd, Leftenant? Here you are, trapped in a bowl-shaped valley and your commanding officer leaves a junior officer in charge of green troops in a hostile area while he goes over a hill to check something whose existence no one else can verify?"

Vitios gave Redburn no chance to reply before he waded in like a boxer to hammer home his points. "You acknowledged his command, then shouted, 'Major Allard! Cicadas,sir! All over the place!' His reply to you is, 'Withdraw south, Leftenant.' " Vitios turned a page and began to drift over toward the defense table. "A private, Robert Craon, burst in there. 'Negative, negative,' he says. 'I've got magscan readings off the scale south, east, and north. You're clean, sir. We've got to head out west.' " Vitios looked up and half-turned to face Redburn. "Is that how you remember it, Leftenant?"