Ridzik tapped the map again. "McCarron's Cavalry is in place, and detachments of the occupation units have now joined them, ready to strike. When Davion's main body arrives at Stein's Folly, there will be a terrible surprise waiting."

Liao laughed humorlessly. "Terrible for them. With one stroke, we will wipe out the cream of Davion's forces, along with the best of his commanders. But there will still remain the man himself. Along with his webwork of treacherous treaties and unwritten understandings with other spheres of influence."

"We are trying to find some leverage," Ridzik said. "Intelligence informs me that they are making every effort to find someone suitable for use as a hostage. Davion's family, unfortunately, is too well guarded."

"No lovers?" Liao's tone was sharp.

"Oh, lovers, yes. But none who could be used to alter his policies. He chooses well, that one. His women are all loyal, not only to him but to what he stands for. They would die before letting themselves be used to damage the Federated Suns."

Liao chuckled. "Admirable. If true. What of male lovers? Sometimes that can be a less...sentimental... relationship."

Ridzik sighed. "Only one close friend. Not a lover— from what we can discover—but a friend from youth. One Ardan Sortek."

"Sortek...I know his father. A hardheaded old fool, indeed. Full of talk about honor. No, he would not be a lover...but he might well be a lever. A childhood friend can be dearer than a mere partner in fleshly concerns." Liao looked thoughtful.

"Sortek is on New Avalon," Ridzik continued, "in the Royal Brigade. A unit-commander. Hanse will never let him out of his sight, I fear. But we might keep our spies alert for anything that changes concerning him."

Tt pays never to ignore any opportunity, no matter how seemingly remote." Liao said. "See to it. And send me the breakdowns on the units we have deployed. I want to be able to chart everything as the reports come in. You may go."

When Ridzik had bowed his way from the room, the Chancellor of the Capellan Federation stood for a long while at the map. He seemed to be measuring distances from world to world, from Sian to New Avalon. He traced the lines demarcating the borders of the five Successor Houses. To be Supreme Lord of them all....He sighed.

When the requested information came, he bent over the wide table serving as his desk, soon lost in the intricacies of supply and manpower. Only the arrival of an Adept from Comstar brought him out of his concentration.

"A message from Stein's Folly, Highness," the girl whispered. She was very young, and so shy that she hardly dared raise her voice to audible levels.

"Well? Well? Out with it!" Liao snapped. His patience, never notable, seemed to have worn thin within the past months, while his plans ripened.

"Command on the planet reports guerrilla activity. Severe damage to headquarters, resulting in forty casualties, among them Commander Rav Xiang. Request immediate assignment of new commander or brevet-promotion of subcommander Sten Ciu."

Liao jerked upright in his swivel chair. "What?" His sallow skin was suddenly flushed, his pale eyes blazing. "What else?" His tone was deadly.

The girl seemed on the verge of fainting as she continued. "Detachments remaining on Stein's Folly on search-and-destroy missions have reported no success in locating the source of the guerrilla activity. The swamps and the dense forests are natural hiding places for small groups of hostiles."

"The 'Mechs—what about the ‘Mechs? They should be able to stalk right through such terrain!"

"Six 'Mechs lost to quicksand, together with their pilots. The other two were lost, but their MechWarriors escaped. There seems to be no way to retrieve the lost equipment, as concentration of enough men and machinery to extricate them attracts hit-and-run attacks."

Liao was now a dangerous color. "Get Ridzik!" he breathed.

The Adept bowed and scurried from the room, relief showing in every movement. In a moment, the Colonel tramped into the chamber and stood staring down at his seated ruler.

"Sir?" he asked.

"Only minor mopping-up! That iswhat you said, isn't it?" Liao demanded.

"It is. That is the information given to me on the state of affairs. It seems that our commander was in error." The soldier hadn't turned a hair before Liao's obvious wrath.

"Well, his error was a fatal one. He is now dead. You will go and take his place, and will take charge personally of springing the trap on Davion."

Ridzik looked pained. "With this most important maneuver in the process of completion, would it be wise for me to drop everything here?"

Liao seemed to swell, his small figure straightening in the chair. "You will do as I say. And you will not question my orders. There is more to this than a simple group of holdouts. I am certain of it. Find the leader. Bring him to me. We will have the truth out of him and know with certainty whether anything more than loyalty to a lost cause is at work there." He glared up at Ridzik.

"I can arrange the surprise attack quite well, as you know, Colonel. You take too much responsibility upon yourself these days. A change of scene will be good for your...health." He was almost purring.

Ridzik, who had been unmoved by Liao's anger, now seemed visibly shaken by the man's present mood. The Chancellor was most dangerous when he seemed calm and concerned with his subordinates' health.

"We have weeks yet to complete our strategy and to make ready. Our people are in place a single jump from their goal. We have not the logistical problem Davion faces. Eight jumps from New Avalon to Stein's Folly—a time-consuming matter for his commanders. The rest of his people can do nothing but wait for recharges of their JumpShips as they leap from world to world, toward their goal."

He smiled.

Ridzik shuddered.

"You will go to Stein's Folly by way of my personal jump sequence. I want to know what is going on there... How a handful of holdouts can disrupt command quarters and kill one of my best people. You will be back at Sian by the time you are needed, Ridzik."

The Colonel saluted formally. "Sir!" he said quietly. He knew when to obey his volatile Duke without question. This was one of those times.

As the Colonel left the chamber, Liao stared hard at his retreating back. Even Ridzik...even Ridzik could not be entrusted with too much power, too much knowledge of the intricate machinations of the Prefect of Sian.

He looked down at his own hands, clenched into fists on the table. He prided himself on the fact that the left one seldom knew what the right one was doing.

It was the secret of his success.

8

It had been a difficult period for Ardan as he worked with his Techs, readying the Victorfor transport. He had supervised the loading of the bulky mechanisms into the DropShip, along with the necessary parts, supplies, and weapons for the troops accompanying the command on its swift journey to the port at Dragon's Field.

He dreaded the trip. Jump always affected his inner ear, making him nervous and irritable even when there were long layovers for recharging. To go through on the Command Circuit was something he dreaded even more, because the jumps occurred without the usual layovers in between. His trips with Hanse to the Summer Palace had always left him drained.

As the time for departure drew near, he kept putting off his farewell to his family. Adriaan Sortek was made of rock, his son sometimes thought, but his mother, Vela, tended to dissolve into tears whenever her son went into battle.