"Not good enough for this thing, I'm afraid. I qualified for underwater demolitions only two years ago and C-34 is what we used." He looked up at Shin. "Do you know anything about explosives?"

The yakuza MechWarrior smiled easily. "When I was seven, the Kuroi Kirihad me planting packets of C-34 wherever I could to harass Commonwealth troops on Marfik."

"Nothing like on-the-job training." Kai dropped below the table's edge once again.

Victor squatted down on his haunches as Shin joined Kai under the table. "Kai, is there anything you can do to move the bomb?"

"I don't know. I don't think it has a mercury switch imbedded in the plastique because someone pounding a fist into the table could make a connection and set it off. Still, moving the table or the bomb might trigger it."

Shin pointed out that the timer had been stuck into one end of the square packet of explosive. "It might be possible to trim away some explosive to lessen the force of the blast."

Kai nodded and patted down the pockets of his jumpsuit. "We'd need a probe or a knifeblade—non-conductive only—to do the job. Highness, see if anyone has something."

Victor stood. Ragnar and Galen had whisked the south end of the table away and turned it onto its side. They'd wedged it in a corner and set chairs in front of it. Cassandra stood at the head of the table waiting for Hohiro or Sun-Tzu to help her drag it off. "We need something sharp, but it can't be metal." Victor checked his own pockets. "I didn't bring anything with me. Anyone?"

Hohiro checked, but came up a blank. A look of frustration knotted his features, then he turned and pointed to Sun-Tzu. "Your nails."

Sun-Tzu stood quickly, sending his chair flying. Hohiro lunged at him, but Sun-Tzu sidestepped the attack. With a flash of gold, he raked the nails of his left hand through the flank of Hohiro's jumpsuit. Hohiro hissed with the pain, but before Sun-Tzu could slash him again, Cassandra took her cousin down with a kick to the back of his left knee. She grabbed his outstretched right hand and twisted the arm around in an arm-bar that forced Sun-Tzu's forehead to the carpet.

"If you want a nail, I can just break one off."

"No!" Ragnar shouted in a horrified voice.

"What?" Victor looked from Ragnar to where Hohiro pressed his right hand to the cuts over his left flank. "He may think we don't have to do anything about this bomb, but that's a minority opinion. We need one of his nails."

"No we don't. The gold leaf would be conductive." Ragnar grabbed the zipper tab on his jumpsuit and ripped it free of the seams. When he had freed thirty centimeters, he bit through the cloth backing and pulled it entirely away from the garment. Picking at the zipper with his fingernails, he obtained a clear piece of the zipper teeth and started to unravel it.

"The zipper is nylon. Kai can use the nylon line the same way a potter uses a piece of string to slice a pot from the wheel." Ragnar dropped to his knees and handed the nylon strand to Kai. Standing again, he grabbed a corner of the north side of the conference table. "Well? Are you going to help?"

Both Hohiro and Victor exchanged glances. It's so easy for you, Ragnar, because you're still just a kid,Victor thought. You don't realize all that's going on behind the scenes here. You've been included in this group to accord the Free Rasalhague Republic equal status with the other states represented. This sort of cooperation might work fine here, but this is not the real world.

Hohiro went to the other side of the table and Victor took up a position near its head. Cassandra released Sun-Tzu as the table swept over him, and she took up part of the burden on Hohiro's side. The four of them wrestled it into place, with Cassandra and Hohiro neatly vaulting it to get back into the center of the room.

Sun-Tzu uncoiled slowly and rubbed his right shoulder with his left hand. "If you ever touch me again, witch, it will be the last time."

Cassandra gave him a cold stare. "Don't make any promises you can't keep, cousin!"

Ragnar stepped in between Cassandra and Sun-Tzu. "Stop it. You shouldn't be fighting."

Sun-Tzu pushed Ragnar aside, slashing open the right sleeve of his jumpsuit. "I don't need you to defend me, Pauper-prince. You're here in some ridiculous show of putting your father's dwindling realm on equal footing with the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere. Your presence is only barely more palatable than that of this amazon and her brother. Bandits born of a bandit realm, they have less standing than you."

Hohiro wiped his bloody hand on the breast of his jumpsuit. "Sharp words from a bastard."

"Oh, you wound me, sir," Sun-Tzu mocked. "Which is worse in your tradition, Lord Kurita: to be born of unwed parents, or to be born of a union for which a mythical bloodline was created and one that so shames the participants that they dare not announce it to the world until their eldest child is five years old?"

Hohiro started to take a step forward, but Victor's hand on his arm restrained him. "Don't. He's got claws."

Hohiro pulled his arm free and spun on the Prince of the Federated Commonwealth. He grabbed the front of Victor's jumpsuit with his right hand and pulled him up on his tiptoes. "Keep your hands off me!" He thrust his left index finger at Sun-Tzu. "That one has insulted my parents. No man may so speak and still live."

Victor's left arm came up and around in a blow that broke Hohiro's grip. His right fist shot forward and hit home over Hohiro's slashed ribs. Hohiro's left hand shot back in an open-handed cuff that snapped Victor's head around.

Stars exploding before his eyes, Victor reeled back against the upturned table. He regained his balance for only a second before Hohiro tackled him and they both crashed back over the table. Victor felt Hohiro's hands tighten around his throat and blood pounding in his temples, but he refused to signal any sort of surrender. Again and again, he drove his right fist into Hohiro's ribs and occasionally snaked a left hand up into the side of Hohiro's head.

"Enough!" Victor dimly heard the shout above the sound of his own heartbeat echoing in his ears.

"Hohiro, fusagu!"The Japanese command brought instant cessation of the pressure on Victor's throat. He sucked in a noisy breath, then coughed loudly as Hohiro straightened up over him. Victor took pleasure in seeing Hohiro hug his left arm to his ribs, and determined to show no weakness by rubbing his own throat. Forcing a grin onto his face, Victor scrambled to his feet.

His grin died immediately.

Standing side by side, Hanse Davion and Theodore Kurita regarded their sons as though both were utterly mad. In the center of the room, Galen Cox and Shin Yodama stood frozen in the position of holding one another back from interfering with the battle between their charges. Ragnar looked positively stricken, Cassandra decidedly angry, and Sun-Tzu smug beyond all reason.

MacKenzie Wolf and Christian Kell flanked Jaime Wolf as he moved into the room. Jaime looked to where Kai lay working on the bomb, then turned on the others with an icy stare. "So this is it? This is the future leadership of the Inner Sphere?" The anger in his voice unabated, he flicked a glance at Hanse and Theodore. "I wish you both long life and more heirs to ward your realms.

"I am especially surprised at the two of you." Wolf crossed the room and stood before Hohiro and Victor. Victor tried to meet his harsh stare head on, but embarrassment forced him to break eye contact and look down at the floor. "Both of you have already faced Clan troops and both of you know that it took everything you had to win out. You had to coordinate your actions, plan your strategies, and possess the vision and flexibility to adapt as the situation changed. But here you let petty jealousies reduce you to behaving like children bickering in a sandlot."