Despite their protestations to the contrary, Erik Mahler insisted upon driving Kai and Deirdre to the nearby city of Dove Costoso in his hovertruck. Hilda packed them a picnic lunch and filled Kai's knapsack with some civilian clothing she'd tailored to fit the two of them. When Kai refused to take anything that he'd not brought to them, Hilda assured him she had removed any tags that might let the Clans trace their benefactors. Kai knew instantly that she would brook no argument, so he acquiesced.

Secretly he was very pleased with everything the Mahlers had done for him and Deirdre. Hilda had stripped the chemical lines out of his cooling vest, leaving it a warm, bulletproof garment Kai could wear unnoticed under one of Erik's cast-off woolen shirts. She also let out the seams on some trousers so Kai could wear his 'Mech boots beneath them without attracting too much attention. She'd even removed all traces of his and Dave Jewell's name tags from the clothes he had carried with him.

Erik and Kai labored to fill the bed of the hovertruck with a blocky table Erik had made and some firewood Kai had chopped. With Erik, Deirdre, and Kai crammed into the front seat, they would look like a family from the outlying area heading into Dove Costoso to do some selling in the farmers' market there. That was their cover story, so Kai hid his needle pistol under the bench seat in the unlikely event a patrol became suspicious.

Hilda, her eyes glistening with tears, nodded approval. "You can always come back here, you know, if you must."

"I know," Deirdre said, putting her arms around the older woman and hugging her tightly, "I cannot thank you enough for all your help."

"Just be safe, Deirdre. That's all I ask." Kai also hugged Hilda and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you very much, FrauMahler. We will be fine."

"Send word, if you can."

"We will," Kai told her, but both of them knew it was a lie.

* * *

Erik's route to Dove Costoso took them straight across the Bolliti swamp. "For the two of you to have traveled this way on foot would have been disastrous. If the alligators and quicksand missed you, the brutto vaporewould surely have ended your little trek."

Deirdre frowned and squirmed between the two men. "Ugly vapor?"

"Clouds of insects that live in the swamp. If you've not got a thick hide or fur, they hit you with a narcotic sting, then implant eggs. The victim generally remains unconscious for the two days it takes for hatching, then the pupae leave for the swamp to continue their breeding cycle."

Kai felt decidedly queasy at the thought of bugs chewing their way free of his body. "Not a high survival rate on hosts, I take it?"

"Nope." Erik shook his head. "Of course, they tell me one of the Clan Elementals survived a hatching, but that's just a rumor."

Free of the swamp, the hovertruck started up the gradually sloping plains that led to the Riscaldamento Mountains, where Dove Costoso nestled in the foothills. In the predawn, its lights were the only signs of human habitation until the sun completed its slow climb over the mountains. With the coming of dawn, Kai could make out occasional homesteads similar to that of the Mahlers. The city itself, for that matter, seemed small by any true civilized standard.

"I have a question." Deirdre chewed her lower lip. "We're going to Dove Costoso to use its ComStar facility to send a message to New Avalon. That would be very expensive, but we don't have the money to send such a message. What do you plan to do about that?"

Kai shifted in his seat. "The message will be expensive, but there are ways to get one sent without money."

She cut him off. "Oh, forgive me, I had forgotten your word should be considered golden to ComStar."

The oblique attack on his nobility set Kai back for a moment. "Actually, Doctor, I'm surprised you don't realize I am in no hurry to use my family's resources when the Federated Commonwealth itself has provided us with a means for sending a message." He frowned. "Besides, I would just as soon avoid broadcasting who I am, for the time being."

"You do well to ward your family's reputation of infallibility, Leftenant."

"It's not that." Kai felt a shiver run down his spine. "Something is wrong. The Clans knew Victor was on Alyina and they went directly after him. I don't want to put myself in a position to be used against my father or Hanse Davion."

Mahler steered the hovertruck around a flock of sheep crossing the roadway. "So you will continue to be Dave Jewell?"

Kai shook his head. "Under the circumstances, I don't think identifying myself with the Federated Commonwealth troops is a good idea, either." Kai caught his reflection in the hovertruck's side mirror. "With my black hair and oriental eyes, I should pass easily for a Combine expatriate living here. How does Kevin Abunai sound?"

"It works, but I still don't understand how or why ComStar will send a message from this Kevin Abunai to Hanse Davion."

Kai smiled. "The Federated Commonwealth has set up a number of blind accounts with ComStar, as have corporations and other organizations. By knowing the account number, we may send a message to New Avalon and the Prince pays for it. Depending on how the account was set up, the message will be considered priority or some level of routine below that."

"What? I never heard of that." Deirdre frowned angrily. "Why wasn't I informed of this secret number system—or is it reserved for blue bloods?"

Mahler raised an eyebrow. "It is reserved for officers of your rank and above, so you wereinformed, Doctor, unless you were not trained in survival and evasion techniques."

Deirdre blushed. "I was at a medical conference when I was supposed to take that course. That's not what my records reveal, but ..."

"Doctors are seldom asked to perform some of the sillier training the rest of us endure." Kai smiled reassuringly at her. "It's no problem. Do you know your unit designator?"

"1024."

"And your rank code and Commonwealth identification number?"

"G15a and 4432-44323-19826."

Mahler smiled. "Then you know what number to give ComStar for sending a message back home. As a G15a, your message would head out at a near-priority level, if I remember correctly. Isn't that right, Leftenant?"

"Huh? Right." Kai blinked twice. "Yes, it would be a quick message."

Deirdre looked over at him. "What?"

"Nothing." Kai looked down, refusing to meet her gaze. What she'd just told him was as revealing as it was puzzling. Her personnel file had said she was from Odell, a world in the Crucis March of the Federated Commonwealth. Her identification number, however, began with a 4, which Kai knew meant she'd been born in the Capellan March of the Federated Commonwealth, well before the war that sliced the Capellan Confederation in half.

Does her hatred of me have something to do with the war? Hanse Davion sent my father to spy on Maximilian Liao, but his cover eventually had him directing much of the Capellan war effort against the Federated Suns. Did she lose a relative in that war? Is that why she loathes me?

Erik slowed the hovertruck as it joined other outland traffic heading into the city. "I will take you into Dove Costoso and drop you within four blocks of the ComStar station. It's still located in temporary headquarters because the city refused to rezone unless ComStar gave them preferential rates on communication. Still, all their equipment works, or so I have been told."