Watching one such crew of captives, Kai noticed that the Elementals guarding the crew did not treat them harshly. Each captive wore a braided bit of white cord on his right wrist and seemed to receive a certain amount of respect. He heard the Elementals address the captives as "bondsman," but he attached no real significance to that title. It did strike him that he saw far fewer captive warriors than he would have imagined, given the haste of the FedCom retreat. There must be more hiding somewhere.

Watching other captives started Kai thinking about his chances of liberating compatriots and leading them in a revolt. None of those he saw looked mistreated or malnourished, so he imagined them still to be in fighting trim. Yet most of the captives were MechWarriors and hardly schooled in the tactics of an irregular infantry.

Seeing no way to organize a force that could throw the Clans off the planet, Kai decided his real duty was to remain free, and if the chance arose, report back to Hanse Davion and his father about the military situation on the world. He knew that if he could get them credible intelligence, they would send a force to liberate Alyina and to rescue him. Gathering that information would mean traveling around enough to see what the Clans had left on the world, and then reaching a ComStar facility from which he could send his message home.

On the far side of the road, Kai ran down into a small gully and walked along in the chilly stream running through it. Fifty meters downstream, he exited onto a flat bed of rock and went up the far side of the gully into a finger of forest. He waited, listening and watching for any signs of other life, then slowly but surely worked his way forward. Stopping in the shadows of thick pines and carefully avoiding stepping on anything that would make noise, he picked a zigzag path through the woods to the garden he'd harvested two nights before.

Stepping over a low fence made of chicken-wire, Kai dropped to his knees beside a patch of tomatoes. Just as he reached out for one, a light flashed on, accompanied by the sound of a shell being racked into a pump-action shotgun. Kai froze, narrowing his eyes against the harsh glare of the flashlight strapped to the gun's barrel.

'Told the wife raccoons didn't brush away their footprints when they left." The voice came gruff from the big silhouette, but Kai heard no hostility in it. "Your name Jewell?"

Kai started to shake his head, but nodded as he realized the man with the gun was reading the name off the breast of his jumpsuit. "Yeah, Dave Jewell, that's me. Now that you've caught me, what are you going to do with me?"

The light flashed off. "Take you to the house. Clanners can't punish us more for having two Feds under our roof than they can for one, jalC'mon."

Kai stood slowly and stepped back out of the garden. A voice inside him screamed that he should be running away, or at least disarming the man, but he held back. The farmer gave him a fair amount of room, but Kai knew the shotgun was his any time he wanted to take it. Kai nodded and let the farmer lead the way.

The small, two-story wooden house to which his guide led him showed yellowed lights around the edges of drawn shades. Enough of it spilled out across the porch to show Kai which loose, weathered boards to avoid. It also gave him a brief glimpse of his grizzled host, but he could not remember ever having seen the white-haired old man before. Still, by the ease with which the man held the shotgun in one hand, Kai guessed he'd seen military service.

The farmer waved Kai into the building. To the left of the door, a small lamp burned on a dining table surrounded by six chairs. Beyond it, in the far left corner was a kitchen with a wood-burning stove that kicked out wave after wave of welcome warmth. Dominating the center of the room, a staircase led up to the second floor. Off to the right side of the door, a group of chairs had been arranged around a circular carpet to form a comfortable conversation nook. Back in the far right corner, the walls were stacked with shelves containing both old, real-paper books and a host of holovid books along with a reader.

"Welcome to our home, Mr. Jewell." The farmer set the shotgun in a rack beside the door. He turned and pointed to the white-haired woman by the stove. "This is my wife, Hilda. I am Erik Mahler, formerly a MechWarrior in the service of the Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth."

Kai smiled and accepted the man's hand. "David Jewell, Tenth Lyran Guards."

"Tenth Guards?" Hilda smiled and wiped her hands on her apron. "Then you will know out other guest." She walked to the stairs and called softly. "It is safe, my dear. Come down."

Kai loosened the string tying his camo around his neck. Letting the sheeting slip to the floor, he started to remove his backpack, but it hung forgotten as the Mahlers' other refugee descended the stairs. She was tall and slender, with short black hair that barely brushed the collar of her flannel shirt. The yellow discoloration on her brow he put down to the last vestiges of what must have been a nasty bruise. Her blue eyes lit up with surprise when she saw him. "Kai!"

Stunned, Kai dropped his pack. "Deirdre? Didn't you get off with the others?"

She stiffened. "The Clans overran our hospital. I fled with the others." Her right hand rose to touch the bruise above her right eye. "I hit something, I don't remember what. I don't remember anything until I woke up here."

Erik smiled. 'This far was the eye in a nasty storm. The battle raged all around, but no one came here. I found Deirdre wandering through the woods and I brought her back here." His right eyebrow arched. "She called you, 'Kay.' "

Kai nodded, "It is a nickname that's stuck since my time at the New Avalon Military Academy. I used to say 'okay' so much that my classmates started calling me 'Kay.' The regiment picked it up. Some folks think my name really is David K. Jewell."

Deirdre's expression of pleasure at seeing Kai began to drain away, but she gave no indication she would betray his deception. Mahler, looking from Kai to Deirdre and back again, either noticed nothing or decided to disregard whatever conclusions he was drawing about the two of them.

Hilda seized the opportunity offered by the momentary silence. "Kay—if you do not mind me using your nickname—you can wash up and I will get you some clean clothes, if you like. Then you can eat something."

"Bitte."Kai smiled.

"Deirdre, why don't you take Kay to the pumphouse out back and show him how to fill the tub." Erik Mahler shrugged with notable stiffness in his left shoulder. "After years of service, I retired and determined to get back to the land and avoid the technological trappings of society. I find it more relaxing. And with the Clans cutting down on the amount of power available to outlying areas, we are less affected than others."

Kai smiled politely. "Having lived off the land for the past two weeks, your home looks to me like a lost Star League depot of stuff." He picked up his cloak and pack, then turned to Deirdre. "If you will lead the way, Doctor, I will become more human."

* * *

Kai stripped off his soiled jumpsuit and tossed it onto the pumphouse bench. His almond eyes and bronze flesh bespoke his Eurasian blood, though his dirty face and hands were dark enough to suggest African origins for his family. Catching sight of himself in the door mirror as he pulled off his cooling vest, Kai saw that he'd lost what little fat he'd been carrying. He combed his fingers back through his short black hair, pulling at two snarls, then shuddered.