"Look at me. In the Successor States, the only thing remarkable about me was my family and my hardheadedness. Granted the latter has been of help in the Clans, but had I completed the course of study at the Nagelring, I would have been just another MechWarrior—probably not even a Leftenant. Yet here I stand among you, the leaders of the Clans, having commanded a Star and having won a Bloodname."

He pointed back at the ilKhan. "This is the truth the ilKhan has seen. Three hundred years of breeding has not made us all that different from each other. Were we to proceed, it would be the battle of a knife against a grindstone. Yes, we would get sharper, we would win great victories, but in the end, we would be ground away to nothing.

"The ilKhan's agreement with Focht buys us the time we need to prepare ourselves for the future. This invasion will never again know the lightning victories it did at the start. As ComStar showed us, our tactics are not suited to a long, drawn-out conflict. You did not prepare for that and you lost. The Wolf Clan did prepare for that and we won."

Phelan pulled his head up. "The world-by-world conquest and administration of the Successor States will be nothing if not long and drawn-out. In the fifteen short years the ilKhan has bought us, we can prepare the bases we need to continue our conquest. He has been true to his role as war leader because in seeing defeat on the horizon, he has stopped us from rushing headlong into it.

"Remove him, repudiate the deal, and the Clans will be a memory long before the agreement has run its course."

Phelan returned to his seat and Natasha gave him a wink. Ulric graced him with the barest of nods, then turned to the assembled Khans. "You have heard the arguments. Weigh them, then make your decision. Shall the ilKhan be removed and his deal with ComStar rescinded? How say you, children of Kerensky?"

"Nay," he and Natasha cried as one. They smiled at each other because their voices were not in the minority.

As the monitors winked out and the other Khans left the room, Ulric approached him and Natasha. "You were able to point out that of which I could never convince them."

"Thank you, IlKhan." Phelan shrugged. "Of course, the vote was not unanimous, so the losers could have demanded a combat to contest the outcome. Why did they not?"

"Because, Phelan," the ilKhan said, "they knew I would have asked you and Natasha to defend the decision and that would have decided things more than quickly enough." As Phelan and the Black Widow laughed, Ulric pulled a holodisk from inside his cloak. "This is for you."

Phelan hesitated, remembering that the last holodisk he had received was from Cyrilla. "Do I want it?"

Ulric nodded. "I think so. Anastasius Focht had it relayed here to us. You were effective just now because you are part Clan and part Inner Sphere. I never want you to lose that." He pressed the disk into Phelan's right hand. "It is from your father and, among other things, it includes his acceptance of my invitation to visit us here."

48

ComStar First Circuit Compound, Hilton Head

Island North America, Terra

16 June 3052

 

The Precentor Martial watched the members of the First Circuit resume their places behind the crystal podia from which they had often interrogated him. Both Ulthan Everson and Huthrin Vandel rubbed at their wrists and looked thinner than he'd last seen them. Gardner Riis seemed to be his sullen self; weeks spent in a holding cell had done nothing to improve his disposition or mushroomlike complexion. Precentor Sian, Jen Li, and Precentor Atreus, Demona Aziz, seemed to have weathered their confinement more comfortably, but they did seem tentative as they took up their old positions.

"Welcome back to the First Circuit." Standing where the Primus normally did, Focht greeted them with open arms. "I am pleased to see you all so healthy."

"What is the meaning of this outrage, Focht?" Everson pointed back toward the doors leading into the chamber and | the two Com Guards with rifles standing there. "Why have we been held captive and why are guards posted in this chamber? Why is not the Primus here to answer for imprisoning us? Blake's Blood, I never would have expected you, of all people, to cover for her."

Focht held up his hands. "Calm yourself, Precentor Tharkad. You have been inconvenienced but not hurt. Your robe no longer strains against your belly, so I might even suggest you have benefited from your detention."

"Detention. Ha!" Huthrin Vandel braced himself against his podium. "You make it sound as if solitary confinement were a mere annoyance. The Primus will pay for this affront. Given barely enough to eat until I felt I was dead."

"How appropriate, because that's just what 40 percent of my Com Guards are." He let that sink in for a moment, then frowned heavily. "Because of you, because of actions you took or did not take, many more people lie dead right now than need be. We are going to make some changes, fundamentalchanges, in ComStar to be sure this never happens again."

Gardner Riis' head came up. "What are you talking about? What things? I did nothing."

"Precisely, Precentor Rasalhague, you did nothing.You did nothing to tell the Primus her ideas for dealing with the Inner Sphere and the Clans were lunacy. She had ComStar aiding the Clans because she wanted the Clans to destroy the people Jerome Blake wanted us to protect. In the name of rebuilding humanity, she tried to tear it down even further than it has done by its own hand." Pointing, Focht moved his finger from one member of the First Circuit to another, but stopped before coming to Sharilar Mori. "Though you did not protest her actions here, did any of you work against her outside?"

Everson folded his arms across his chest. "We did what we could."

"Did you? Why did people in your area place Davion stragglers in ComStar-run prison camps when they could just as easily have taken them off-world? What was in your mind when you failed to send messages telling families their warriors were alive or, worse yet, when you sent fraudulent messages saying they were dead?" He shook his head. "At times I have wondered whether you, the people who wanted to protect humanity, have forgotten what it is to be human."

Precentor Sian draped her black hair over the scarlet shoulders of her Precentor's robe. "We did as the Primus directed."

"Really?" Focht skewered her with a steely stare. "And in your case, that meant allowing a message to go out that activated an assassin to kill Justin Allard. You let Romano Liao kill a man whose skills were vital to defending the Inner Sphere from the Clans. For you, for the whole lot of you, I had boys giving their lives?"

"Why attack us? The Primus is the key to this. It is her fault." Riis looked at his fellow Precentors. "Let us strip her of her rank, get rid of her. She's been mad for years."

He glanced up at Focht. "Isn't that a step in the right direction?"

"It's a step." Focht pulled his needle pistol from the pocket on his fatigues. "A bit late, but a step nonetheless." Everson blanched. "She's dead?"

"Yes. I did your dirty work for you." He displayed the pistol, then put it back in his pocket. "Now you will do a few things for me. It is time to change ComStar."

Vandel hunched his shoulders. "If we are going to talk about substantive matters, I demand you send your gunsels out of here. Our councils are private affairs."