34

Red Ledge Pass

Bloodstone Range of the Rockspire Mountains

Northwind

June, 3133; local summer

“Night’s coming on,” said Jock.

“So it is,” Will said. He looked at the sky to the west, where blue was fast shading into indigo and the setting sun touched the clouds with crimson. “We’ll have time enough to get up by Red Peaks before we have to show a light.”

“I’m worried,” Lexa said. “We haven’t seen any fliers all day. None of theirs, none of ours.”

“Could mean anything,” Jock said. “Maybe they’re mixing it up somewhere else.”

“It could be that,” Will said. “But if I had to guess a reason, I’d say that there was weather rolling in that the pilots don’t want to fly through.”

He gestured to the east, where thick clouds darkened the sky almost to blackness. “See that?”

“I see it,” Jock said. “But I’m a city lad myself. I couldn’t say what it means.”

“This time of year,” Will said, “it means trouble. If I were still at my old job, right about now I’d be telling all the bold offworld hunters and fishermen to get ready to spend their weekend playing cards back at the lodge, because the best place to be in bad weather is snug under a roof.”

“Too bad you can’t tell that to the Wolves,” said Lexa.

“Aye,” said Will. “But if we meet any of them, I don’t think we’ll have the opportunity for talk. Not with words, at any rate. Maybe with rifles.”

Lexa glanced at him curiously. “Have you ever shot anything? I mean, for real?”

“Just animals,” Will said, at the same time as Jock said, “No.”

“Me neither,” Lexa said. She ran a hand over the stock of her laser rifle. “I know I’m good at the targets. But when it comes to the real thing… I don’t know.”

Will said, “When the time comes, we’ll all do what we have to do. Remember, our primary orders are to make contact and report. Delaying the Steel Wolves comes extra.”

“The three of us by ourselves aren’t going to be able to delay anyone very much, anyway,” Jock said.

“We’ll do the best we can with what we’ve got,” Will said. “Let’s go.”

They scrambled up the slope, with Will in the lead. The scrub conifers that grew at this altitude provided only scant cover, and the stones rolled under their feet, sometimes cascading downhill behind them.

“Don’t skyline yourselves,” Will reminded them as they approached the crest of the first slope.

“Don’t worry,” Lexa said. “We won’t. Just because I like to shoot at targets doesn’t mean I want to be one.”

They paused just downhill from the crest line, and flopped belly-down on the dirt to crawl the last few yards. Will propped his binoculars in front of his eyes.

“See anything?” Jock asked.

“Nothing moving.”

For a while they watched the road below in silence. Then Lexa said, “All this waiting and watching is just grand, but you’d think that there’d be something else we could do.”

“I know what you mean,” Will said. “But first let’s get a little farther east.”

They crawled backward down from the skyline. Then they walked along the ridge, ten yards below the crest, for close to three kilometers, until Will said, “Here. This is the best place to watch the road.”

“I can’t see anything from here,” Lexa complained. “It’s getting too dark.”

“Listen for the noise of birds being disturbed. They’ll fly up from the woods. Look for smoke or dust.”

“And look for gunfire,” Jock added. “The Wolves are going to be out there looking for us at the same time as we’re looking for them. They don’t have a trusty native guide, either, so they’re going to believe that anything that so much as rustles in the underbrush is a Highlander scout patrol.”

“That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking,” Will said. “Which gives me an idea about what we can do with all that explosive firepower you’ve been hauling around in your backpack.”

“And what’s that?”

“How big is the biggest ’Mech you know?”

“I’ve heard that the Jupiter ’Mechs are twelve meters tall,” Jock said. “I’ve never seen one of ‘em, though.”

“Doesn’t matter. Twelve meters tall would give it a stride of about five meters.” Will paced out the dimensions of a single giant step. “Give me a piece of rope. Great. Those demolition blocks you’ve got with you—measure out the footprints of a Jupiter. Lexa, use your laser rifle to drill holes down to rock so Jock can put in the charges. Separate detonators for each charge.”

“I believe I know what you’re planning,” Lexa said. She unlimbered her laser rifle and aimed it down at the rock. “And you’re a mean, mean man. I like the way you think.”

35

Red Ledge Pass

Bloodstone Range of the Rockspire Mountains

Northwind

June, 3133; local summer

“Star colonel.”

Nicholas Darwin looked down at the sensor operator from his position in the open hatch of the Condor tank.

“What is it, Warrior?”

The sensor operator wore a set of heavy earphones. At the moment he was holding one of the padded earcups away from his head so that he could hear his commanding officer’s reply. “We have picked up something of interest on seismic, sir.”

“What kind of interest?”

“We are no longer getting useful data on electromagnetic out here—there is too much iron in these hills. But, sir, listen to this.”

He pulled off the headset and handed it up to Darwin, stretching out the connecting cable so that his commanding officer could put on the headphones and listen without having to climb back down into the belly of the tank. Darwin settled the headset onto his own head, and adjusted the cups over his ears.

The sensor operator hit the replay button on his console, and Darwin could hear it—the sound that ruled the battlefield. Footsteps. Big footsteps. The footsteps of something heavy enough to shake the very ground when it walked.

A BattleMech.

“Did any of the other sensor units pick this up?” Darwin asked as soon as the replay was done.

“Aff, sir. Scout Team Beta, with the Shandra scout vehicle four kilometers to the north. We are comparing signals now, sir, and—”

The sensor operator paused and touched the display screen.

“There it is, sir. Range twenty, due west of our position, moving from south to north at forty-five kilometers per hour. We are getting separation, and a good triangulation.”

“Very well,” Darwin said. “Do you know where it stopped?”

“Aff, sir.”

“Chart it and transmit that location to all units. With that size and speed, it could be an Atlas or even a Jupiter. If it starts moving again, let me know.”

“Sir.”

Darwin turned back to his tactical comms. “All units, enemy ’Mech located. We are going to take this one. Arm with long-range armor-piercing.”

The other commanders acknowledged.

Darwin smiled. Now that he had the Highlanders’ ’Mech located, he would be able to take it out with a sudden, overwhelming blow.

“Forward,” he said. “We will salvo on target when in range.”

Anastasia Kerensky would be pleased.

On the cliff top by the saddle between the mountains, time passed slowly. Will, Lexa, and Jock took turns watching the road to the west through infrared binoculars. The night air grew cooler around them as they waited, and the wind made sighing noises in the conifers on the slope below.

“What happens if you guessed wrong?” Lexa asked, after nothing had happened for some time.

“Then some other scout team will get the glory,” Will said. “But I don’t think—”

“I see something,” Jock called down from his position lying belly-down on the ridge, the binoculars to his eyes.