"You represent the future. We're not fighting for, over, or about you, really. We're fighting so that our vision of the future, of which you are a part, will win out over their vision of the future. If you die here, lots of dreams will die with you."

Melissa glanced down at the guns lying on the tunnel floor. "But I don't know if I could shoot anyone ever again."

Clovis flipped her pistol around and offered it to her. "If you're not willing to fight for the future, who will be?" Clovis stared ahead while he spoke, as though gazing light years into the distance. "Besides, you and I have a duty to protect the Commonwealth. The Draconians are after us here, but it was someone inside the Commonwealth who arranged your kidnapping. We've got to get out of here to prevent them from gaining any benefit from this little bit of treachery."

Though tears streamed from her eyes and her face wore a stricken expression, Melissa reached down to pick up the autorifles. Standing aside slightly, she let the dwarf take the lead.

Clovis climbed from the hole and crossed to the doorway. Melissa followed. Cautiously, they crept from the room and worked their way down the hall. Traveling away from the command center, they quickly reached an engineering stairwell leading down to Echo level.

Clovis smiled. "As I remember it, Viscount Monahan used to berth his small boat back by the small docking bay. He used it to travel to some of the other asteroids that the company mined in this system. Unless the ISF ninjas have destroyed it, we can use the boat to hide on another of the asteroids."

Melissa nodded and made her way down the stairs. Then she covered Clovis as he worked his way down. Finally, at the bottom of the stairwell, Melissa checked the outside corridor, then signaled all-clear.

As she stepped from the doorway, all she caught was a slight blur of motion as a ninja clinging to the wall above the doorway dropped onto her. He encircled her neck with a thick arm and kicked her rifle away. Though she made to grab the pistol on her right hip, the commando numbed her arm with a chop from his right hand, then flipped her roughly against the wall. Stars exploded before Melissa's eyes as her head smacked into the ferro-crete. Through the flashing lights, she saw the ninja scissor his legs and spill Clovis to the ground. In one smooth motion, the ninja drew his katana.He raised it up beside his right ear, as Clovis raised one hand to ward off the coming blow.

"No!" she said sharply, with all the power and authority she could summon. "I am Melissa Steiner. Do not kill him." The ninja, used to taking orders, stiffened, then turned. He lowered the blade, then bowed deeply. "I am honored, Archon-Designate." He pointed back to the stairwell. "You will follow me to my Commander."

She saw something tug at the commando's left shoulder and begin to spin him about even before she heard the shot. Without conscious thought, her right hand reached for and drew her pistol. As the commando looked back down the hallway and clawed for the carbine hanging down at his hip, Melissa shoved the automatic pistol into his stomach and jerked the trigger.

The ninja danced backward into a twisted heap of blood and limbs. The dying man's hands clutched at his stomach and he cried out, but Melissa felt no pity or remorse. A cold rage, a rage directed against the people and events that had forced her to kill him, filled her. Perhaps now I have begun to earn what will become mine. Before I can accept responsibility for others, I must take responsibility for myself.This time, no mocking laughter taunted her from the depths of her being.

Keeping her pistol trained on the dead ninja, Melissa glanced back in the direction from which the original shot had come. Slumped, tattered and torn, against a wall, Leftenant Andrew Redburn slowly lowered his rifle. His dark green tunic had been all but torn from the left side of his body, with only a ragged strip of bloodsoaked cloth linking cuff and shoulder on his left arm. His trousers had fared little better, and some of the burned patches still smoldered. Redburn coughed wetly, and dropped to one knee.

Taking one last look at the ISF commando, Melissa dashed down the hallway, with Clovis close behind. "Andrew! You're alive! Thank God!" She reached out and touched the side of his face. Her hand came away wet from the blood trickling from his ears.

Andrew coughed again and winced. A droplet of blood leaked from the right corner of his mouth. "Yeah, well, that's the idea, isn't it."

Clovis stared at him. "How badly are you hit?"

Andrew shrugged. "Busted some ribs and popped my eardrums in an explosion. I can't hear too well, and I think my right lung is punctured. It only hurts when I breathe. Of course, this beats what happened to the guy sitting on my legs at the time. He shielded me from the blast."

Melissa forced herself to smile. "Clovis knows of a boat back by the small docking bay. Can you walk?"

Andrew nodded and levered himself to his feet. "Hell, for a chance to escape this rock, I'll dance if I have to!" Melissa tried to put his left arm around her shoulder to help support him, but he shook his head. "You need your hands free to handle one of the rifles. With any luck, the guy you shot was the only man posted on this level." Andrew pointed at the dead ninja. "Clovis, grab his little pig-sticker. You need something."

The dwarf grabbed the tantoand led the way down the hall. The trio proceeded carefully. Despite the fact that Melissa had fallen prey to the ninja's earlier trap, both men looked to her for direction. Honoring their trust, she studied each stretch of the corridor and silently pointed out what she saw as hazards.

The trio picked their way cautiously through the remnants of a long, running battle. When they reached the spot where Andrew's fire team had died in an explosion, the stench of blood and burning flesh overwhelmed Melissa. She fell to her knees and vomited, but refused help when both men tried to lift her to her feet. I will redeem the sacrifice of these lives,she vowed silently. I will make the plotters pay . . .

As they moved further down the battle-scarred corridors, nothing further interfered with their swift progress. Melissa even found herself smiling as they reached the corridor to the smaller docking bay. "This is it, gentlemen." She signaled Andrew to assume her position, and started to sprint across the corridor. Halfway there, she slowed, then stopped.

Andrew stepped out beside her, and his rifle clattered to the ferrocrete floor as soon as hers did. Clovis peeked around the corner, then sagged against the wall. He shook his oversized head. "So close ... so close."

The trio raised their hands in the universal sign of capitulation.

A Pantherfilled the path before them. With a gracious bow from the waist, the 'Mech and its pilot accepted their unconditional surrender.

BOOK 4

51

A2341CA

Dieron Military District, Draconis Combine

26 May 3027

Dan threw up his hands. "Am I the only one who sees this thing as insane?" He looked around the oval conference table, but none of the Kell Hound executive staff would meet his gaze. "Yes, jumping us into Kurita space was a brilliant bit of planning. They'd never expect it. Do you know why? It's utterly mad, that's why." Why can't the rest of you see that?

The hatch into the narrow, dimly lit conference room hissed open. Pale and drawn, Patrick Kell strode uneasily into the room and gently lowered himself into a chair at Dan's left. Because Patrick was not wearing a shirt, everyone could see the massive bandages covering the puncture wound on his left side. The faintest hint of pink in the center of a bandage indicated that the wound still leaked.