The Khan rapped his knuckles on the computer console. "The Corsair's evacuation plan for the base is here. It talks about using the nuke to destroy everything."

Conal shrugged. "So the Red Corsair stumbled upon a device hidden by the pirates who used to inhabit this place, and she decided to use it. She was a renegade."

"No she wasn't." Phelan frowned heavily. "She was being aided and abetted by the Jade Falcons. They gave her ships and BattleMechs both before and during her campaign."

"You will find no record of such things in Jade Falcon files." Conal shrugged. "Besides, she is dead and what was given to her is immaterial to my trial. It will not, in fact, affect how my trial turns out. Innocent or guilty, I will win."

"I don't understand."

"I know." Conal held out his left hand. "If I am found innocent, you and the ilKhan will be viewed as having entered a treasonous alliance with Victor Davion to retake Elissa. Ulric will be challenged, as will you. Natasha will be challenged, too, and you will see the Crusaders replacing you within the hierarchy of our Clan. A new ilKhan will be elected and the truce will be repudiated."

Conal's right hand came up. "Even if I am found guilty of treason, my act of treason will have been in the name of defending a woman who proved what we all know to be true: the truce is a sham that protects the Inner Sphere from us. With only a poorly armed and supported force, she was able to raid at will within the Inner Sphere."

Phelan swallowed hard. "The truce is again questioned, Ulric is challenged, and the peace dies."

"And that is just from the Clan side of things." Conal pointed back toward the door. "If even a hint of this gets out to the Inner Sphere, the demand for war on their part will shatter your precious truce. And you can be assured that word will get out, because I will demand testimony from the Kell Hounds and other Inner Sphere witnesses."

Conal folded his arms across his chest. "Sooner rather than later, the truce is dead and we return to doing what we do the best—war. If you were really of the Clans, you would see that and would have joined me. You know I am right—I can see it in your eyes—I have won! You have lost, the Inner Sphere has lost. You know now what my trial will make manifest to everyone."

In one smooth motion Phelan drew his pistol, aimed, and pulled the trigger. The bullet caught Conal over the right eye and blew back out the rear of his head. His body twisted around and fell to the ground, dead before it hit.

The Khan of the Wolf Clan came around from behind the desk and picked the grease pencil off the floor. Grasping it firmly in his left hand, he carefully drew a black circle in the middle of the floor. It surrounded the body.

He finished the circle and placed the pencil on the desk. "Guards!"

The two Elementals, anxiety showing on their faces, burst into the room with their guns leveled. They looked from Phelan to the body and back up.

"He preferred a Circle of Equals to a trial on charges of treason." Phelan holstered his pistol. "He lost."

Epilogue

Kooken's Pleasure Pit

Federated Commonwealth

13 November 3055

 

Christian Kell smiled at the two boys playing in the yard when he stopped the Rover he had rented in Dobson. He climbed out, then pulled his black cap from beneath the shoulder flap on his red fatigue shirt. He settled it on his head with a tug on the bill, then walked toward the house. By that time the two boys, clones of each other, stood in his way, craning their heads back to look up at him.

"You're from the Kell Hounds, aren't you?" one asked.

Chris squatted down to meet them at eye level. "I am and I would guess you are Jacob and you are Joachim." The twins looked at him in awe, and Chris smiled, thankful he had been lucky with his guesses. "Your grandfather told me all about you."

"Boys, come inside."

The blond twins turned to look at the woman standing on the porch, holding the door open. "Mom, he's a Kell Hound. He knows Grandpa."

"In the house. Now!"Her stance and her tone promised no reversal and no mercy, so the two boys trudged listlessly under her arm and into the house. She released her grip on the door, then let it slam shut behind them. Hugging the folds of a thick sweater around her, the woman stood ready to defend her sons against the threat he represented to them.

The mercenary straightened up. "I am Major Christian Kell."

"I know who you are. I remember you from when you tried to visiphone." She looked up at Chris and the blue of her eyes sent a jolt straight through to his soul. "I told you then that I didn't want to talk to you. I meant it."

"I knew you did, at the time. I thought. ..."

"You thought wrong, if youthought at all." A shiver shook her skeletal form. "First Jon and then the Kommandant. I won't have it happen to my boys. Please leave."

"Mrs. Geist, Dorete, I'm here to discharge a debt to your father-in-law." He coughed lightly. "You're not making this easy."

"His dying doesn't make it very easy on me." Venom pumped like blood through her words. "Nelson Geist is dead. He lived and died by the sword. You owe him nothing."

"Wrong!" Chris re-exerted control after his initial shout. He could see she wanted to provoke a reaction. "I owe him my life. Every one of the people we brought back here to Kooken owes Nelson Geist his life. The fact that the Inner Sphere is not again at war with the Clans is because of Nelson Geist. Just hear me out, give him that much, then you can tell me to leave."

Dorete remained silent and stone-still. The breeze tugged at the hem of her floral print dress and whipped a few wisps of blond hair across her face, but she did not move a muscle. She didn't even blink and Chris wondered if she was going to faint. When she did not, he took her silence as permission for him to continue.

"Nelson Geist resigned his commission with the militia and joined the Kell Hounds before he died. He was given the rank of major. Because of that you—and your sons—have certain rights and privileges that we accord the survivors of our fallen members."

Her head came up and Chris saw a tremor in her lower lip. "I have memorial flags and apologetic holovids enough, thank you, Major."

Chris shook his head. "I understand that, ma'am. This is different. We're taking Major Geist to Arc-Royal to be buried with the other Hounds. We'd like you and his grandsons to come along. You'll have a place there. We have programs that will get the boys an education."

"No!" She bunched the sweater in her hands as she balled her fists. "I won't have my boys turned into soldiers."

"That's not what we're talking about, Mrs. Geist." Chris pulled off his cap and clutched it in his hands. "We're talking about a chance for the boys to grow up to be whatever they want: doctors, lawyers, whatever. No obligation to the Hounds: we'd be repaying our debt to Major Geist."

"Nelson Geist is dead." Her face hardened. "I don't want anything from him."

"That's too bad, Dorete, because you already have it." Chris let an edge creep into his voice. "Nelson Geist gave you a future. That's why he died, to give a future to you and to your children and to their children and to theirs." Then he softened his voice again. "And, yes, they mightdecide to be soldiers, but if that happens, you know as well as I that, short of killing them yourself, you could do nothing to stop them."