A metal hand dropped on Phelan's right shoulder. "Let her go."
Phelan's shrugged his father's hand off. "Listen to me, Katrina, for these are not empty threats. I have a world full of Wolves who will stop at nothing to avenge me and my family." He watched her face slowly turn purple and her eyes begin to bug out. He could feel her pulse pound against his fingers and palm. The image of his mother floated before his mind's eye and he slowly began to constrict his grip.
His father's voice cut through the red rage seeping into his brain. "Phelan, release her."
Phelan dropped Katrina to her feet, but did nothing to help her as she staggered back against her couch.
Katrina rubbed at her throat and said nothing. She gave Phelan a venomous stare, but he looked past it and smiled at the bruises already purpling her pale neck.
Morgan nodded to her. "I believe our audience is concluded. Understand this, Katrina: as long as there exists a greater threat to the Inner Sphere than you, you are safe. Once the Clans are eliminated, justice will be done."
* * *
Katrina rubbed at her throat after the door closed behind the Kells. She wanted to scream in rage, but would never give them the satisfaction.
Or, maybe it was fear that stopped her.
Then fury overrode fear. Phelan Kell had touched her and could have killed her in an instant. All her carefully wrought plans would have died with her. Had Morgan not been there, she would no doubt be a corpse right now. And had Phelan known of her alliance with Vlad of the Wolves and the clear danger it presented to his own group of Wolves, she doubted Morgan would have been able to stop Phelan.
And there is little chance Morgan would have wanted to.
She was also angry with herself for having doubted her initial read of Morgan Kell and his reasons for forming the Arc-Royal Defense Cordon. Morgan had been insulting her, taunting her. He was in open rebellion, and the only reason he didn't try to topple her was because he wanted to save his shells and 'Mechs for the Clans. He and his son were a long-term threat to her power and survival. Though in the past she had thought it a good thing that Morgan had not died along with Melissa Steiner, the sooner she was rid of the Kells, the safer her world would be.
Fear again edged at the fury, but this time only seemed to feed it. Katrina knew better than to imagine that Morgan Kell would have dared speak to her so without evidence of her complicity in Melissa's assassination, but she also knew he did not have the resources to gather it. Her agent inside the Kell Hounds had reported neither an investigation of the assassination by the Hounds nor any rumors concerning it. But she also knew her source was not privy to confidential messages passing between Victor and Morgan Kell.
Fool that he is, Morgan has told me that I'm sitting within the jaws of a trap, and has given me time to get myself free. If he and Victor won't strike until after the Clan threat is eliminated, that gives me plenty of time to discover what evidence they have and destroy it. While they're off saving the Inner Sphere, I will save myself.
* * *
Inviting Morgan Kell into his wood-paneled office, Victor Davion did not think he had ever seen the mercenary commander looking so haggard. "Can I get you something to drink, Morgan?"
"Whiskey, if you have it. Straight up."
Victor took a bottle of Irish whiskey from the bottom drawer of his mahogany desk and set two glasses beside it. "Want a double? That's what I always have after speaking with my sister."
Morgan held up a finger. "One finger—just a taste to steady my nerves. Never use the stuff to fix problems because it doesn't." The older man smiled. "And you shouldn't have any since you're wringing wet from fencing. Dehydrated as you are, it'll go straight to your brain."
Victor poured Morgan a single finger of the amber liquid and slid the tumbler across the desk to him. He left his own glass empty.
Morgan smiled. "You can drink if you want to, Victor. You're a grown man."
"Not so grown that I don't respect wisdom when I hear it." Victor watched Morgan drain the glass. "How did it go with Katherine?"
"Better and worse than you predicted." Morgan set the glass back on the desktop. "She wanted to mend fences and ask me to keep the Hounds and Phelan's Wolves in the Lyran Alliance when the campaign began. I refused, told her I didn't trust her and when she asked why, I said I didn't know many murderers who were trustworthy."
Victor's jaw dropped open. "That's pretty direct."
"True. I know you asked me to do no more than hint that I knew she'd killed your mother and my wife, but Katrina wallows in such a sea of lies that I figured she'd miss subtle hints, or twist them until they looked like whatever she wanted them to be. If I'd been subtle she'd have gone right on believing I think you murdered your mother and my wife—and I couldn't stand her playing that line out with me." Morgan shrugged. "I thought the offensive was the stronger play."
"How did she react?"
"Tears, then threats. Impressive display." Morgan's dark eyes smoldered. "Phelan came close to breaking her neck."
"What? How close?"
"High-necked fashions just became the in thing here on Tharkad."
Victor nodded slowly. "I see. Thanks."
"Do you see, Victor?" Morgan frowned. "I was willing to let Katrina know we were suspicious of her because that's what you wanted, but are you sure that is what you want?"
"I don't think I have any choice, Morgan. Katherine—and I will never call her by my grandmother's name—is certainly self-absorbed, and now I need to make her more so. If this taskforce goes off after the Clans and I go with it, it means I have to leave Yvonne on the throne in New Avalon. I don't want Katherine casting her eyes at reuniting the Federated Commonwealth under her leadership while I'm gone."
Victor tugged at the buttons securing the collar of his fencing jacket. "Besides, she did a good job covering her tracks in the murder of my mother. Only she knows the mistakes she made, the loose ends that still have to be tacked down. If we make her think we already have evidence against her, she's going to have to move to destroy that evidence."
"And by watching her you might be able to snatch it out from beneath her grasp?"
"I have very good people working on doing just that."
"It's a dangerous game, Victor."
"It's not a game."
"But if your people fail, you'll never be able to prove she murdered Melissa."
Victor shrugged. "I can't prove that now. Katherine's ambition is hurting the Inner Sphere's attempt to destroy the Clans. Anything we can do to deflect her from that and set her up for a fall later is to the good. I wish there was another way, but I don't see one."
"Damnable thing is that neither do I." Morgan patted Victor on the shoulder with his organic hand. "The Kells will do all we can to support you. You know that."
"It's one of the reasons I actually believe we have a shot at succeeding." Victor gave Morgan a broad smile. "First we attend to the greatest good for the greatest number, then, and only then, will those who deserve special treatment get their due."
13
Sigfried Glacier Reserve Environs, Tharkad City
Tharkad
District of Donegal, Lyran Alliance
12 October 3058
Victor put a smile on his face—one that was inviting but far from jocular—as he welcomed Thomas Marik to the palatial chalet at the edge of the Sigfried Glacier Reserve. "I'm very pleased you were able to visit me here, Captain-General."
Thomas stood in the middle of the oak-floored foyer with his hands clasped at his back and looked around the wood-framed stone building. "You really gave me no choice, did you? Granted the rustic charms of this place are all that Yvonne represented to Sherryl in enticing her to come here for the weekend, but using her to get to me—well, I should expect that from you, shouldn't I?"
This is going to be tougher than I thought. Victor nodded and preceded Thomas down the wooden steps into the chalet's great room. The whole south wall had been constructed floor to ce
iling of glass, allowing them a full view of the glacier and the ski-slopes on the surrounding mountains. The mounted heads of various game animals hung on the walls, and a lattice-work of thick, rough-hewn wooden beams screened the lower part of the room from the interior of the high-pitched roof. On the east wall a fire roared in a massive fireplace while to the north stairs led up to a walkway and the corridors to the building's northern wings.
Victor waved Thomas to one of the overstuffed couches, then stopped and stood beneath the snarling visage of a dagger-toothed snowtiger. "I know that what I did to you and your family—and I accept full responsibility for my actions— was unthinkable. To you, and to most people, it was abominable. I agree, now, but I want to explain to you why I did what I did."
Thomas stood before the couch but did not sit. "You misjudge me mightily if you think explaining anything to me while you lurk beneath that predatory visage will be accepted at face value. Don't think of me as someone who can be stage-managed into believing you."
Victor looked up, frowned, and then moved aside. "Believe me, you're not being stage-managed here, I am. This little retreat was built by and for the favorite of Alessandro Steiner. You may remember him even though I don't—he died when I was but an infant. He was the Archon that my grandmother— the real Katrina Steiner—deposed. My sister Katherine granted me use of this chalet to remind me that, like Alessandro, I have been displaced by a Katrina Steiner."
Thomas's eyes narrowed. "If you knew this, why accept use of this place?"
"Because Katherine doesn't know that during my time at the Nagelring, I used this chalet rather extensively with friends, to study and to relax. For me, it has pleasant memories. The first time I came here, I decided to make the place my own, to redeem it from the treachery Alessandro had practiced. By letting me use it again, she has given me back something I have always seen as mine."
"Much as you anticipate she will one day return to you the Lyran Alliance." The Captain-General nodded slowly. "You're very arrogant or very foolish."
"Perhaps I'm both." Victor shrugged. "Or perhaps I only wish to lead others to think so. Please, sit. I don't expect what I'm going to tell you will redeem me in your eyes, but it may give you a better understanding of who and what I am."
"And what good will that do me?"
"It will let you decide how far you can and want to trust me." Thomas nodded and sat.
Victor hugged his arms around himself, chilled despite the thick, cable-knit sweater he was wearing. "The plan to create a double of your son originated with my father for two reasons. The first is something you may or may not know about: over thirty years ago Maximilian Liao almost succeeded in taking over the Federated Suns by creating a double of my father and placing him on my father's throne. My father was kidnapped—the whole affair might as well have been ripped from the pages of Dumas' The Man in the Iron Mask. Ironically enough it was an 'iron mask' that saved my father since only he could trigger the ignition sequence on his Battle-Master, using a secret code no impostor could know."
"So this was the inspiration your father had for seeking to substitute someone he controlled for my son."
Victor shook his head. "No, not at all. Liao's trick showed my father what the use of a double might do. I literally owe my life to it because a double for my mother made appearances in the Lyran Commonwealth while the real Melissa was with my father in the Federated Suns. My mother's double even saved the life of the first Katrina Steiner by foiling an assassination attempt against her. If not for that double, I would never have been conceived and the political landscape of the Inner Sphere would be quite different.
"Which brings me to my point about the use of a double to impersonate your son. You saw the move as something evil, but my intention was purely an attempt to buy time—a year, maybe two. I needed time to calm down the rebellion in the Isle of Skye. Your son did die a natural death. If I tried to hide that from you, it didn't change the truth that his life could not be saved."
Thomas nodded slowly. "Are you trying to say there was nothing wrong in what you did?"
"No, Captain-General, but neither did I intend to do harm. You've been sent all the treatment records for your son. Surely your own medical experts have told you we did everything we could."
"I do not think you murdered my son, Prince."
"Good." Victor hesitated for a moment, then sighed. Here goes nothing. "I know it was stupid to think anyone would believe that an individual substituted for another during a hospital stay—out of sight while recovering—could take the place of the real person and rise to power in his place. That was not my intention. That could never happen—it just wouldn't work—and you have to believe that I'm smart enough to know that."
The Captain-General was very good and covered his reaction almost perfectly. "I never would have thought you so foolish, Prince Victor." A momentary hitch in his voice and an increase in the number of times he blinked his eyes were the only clues Victor had that his gambit had paid off.
"I appreciate your kindness, Captain-General." Victor kept his voice even, though he wanted to shout to heaven with his joy. The only good thing that had come out of the debacle with Thomas' son Joshua was a series of genetic tests that proved conclusively that Thomas had fathered Joshua, but that the man was in no way related to Isis Marik. Isis had been born out of wedlock to one of Thomas Marik's mistresses during the time when everyone thought he had died in an assassination attempt. Thomas had stunned everyone by reappearing after disappearing for eighteen months. Though hideously scarred, he was otherwise ready to assume his duties as the heir to the Captain-Generalcy of the Free Worlds League.
To the best of Victor's knowledge only he, a handful of his advisors, the double, and personnel in ComStar knew the truth about the current Thomas Marik. Victor assumed the man had been substituted for the real Thomas Marik by ComStar's previous Primus, Myndo Waterly, in her attempt to stage a revolution that would have put the whole of the Inner Sphere under her control. Her plan had died with her, but Thomas' control of the Free Worlds League meant that its resurrection was a distinct possibility. The fact that the Word of Blake—a reactionary ComStar splinter group that still held to the mysticism that was the core of ComStar belief—had taken Terra over meant that Thomas' currently passive attitude might not always remain that way.
It occurred to Victor that one part of his assumptions about Thomas could be wrong. What if he doesn't know he's not the real Thomas? In reality it meant little—Victor's ploy of hinting at his knowledge would be for naught, but if Thomas needed such a thing to remind him that Victor could be a nasty foe, the situation was worse than even Victor thought it was. I'll have to get Jerry Cranston to work out the implications of Thomas being a sleeper agent. If Word of Blake is waiting to activate him, a radical shift in policy could be necessary and we have to plan for that possibility.
Refocusing his thoughts on his guest, Victor opened his hands. "I hope you understand a little more about why I did what I did. I have been trained as a warrior, and I have been forced to learn more about politics than I ever wanted to, but I realize that's all necessary if I'm to serve my people well. Even though I am a warrior, I want you to know I don't default to war in all situations. I'd rather win by cooperation than by combat."
"That's rather enlightened of you."
"I also have a desire to make certain we're all reading from the same datafile when it comes to the current situation." Victor looked up and studied Thomas' face without flinching. "I know you met with my sister recently."
"You refer to Katrina, yes?"
"Yes."
"Ah, I did meet with her, indeed." Thomas smiled quickly. "I've also met with Yvonne concerning some of the constitutional issues in reestablishing the Star League. You have done well to let her represent you in those sessions. She is very intelligent and keeps us on point with a certain ferocity."
"Yes, she is impressive." Victor smiled more broadly than he wanted to, but then decided it was no sin
to show Thomas that he was proud of his sister. If Thomas respects her, there's less chance he'll try any mischief while the taskforce is off fighting the Clans. "However, I wished to speak with you about Katherine. I know you are friendly."
"It is an informal alliance of convenience, Prince Victor. She could no more afford going to war with me than I with her."
"I understand that." Victor turned and looked out at the glacier. "There are some things you should know about her, however. First among these is that she is capable of murder."
"You can't mean your mother's assassination. I was under the impression that the late Ryan Steiner's hand was involved there."
"SAFE'S sources have gotten very good."
"Much of the information came from Solaris in the aftermath of Ryan's death. Had my intelligence apparatus actually improved much, I would have known earlier about my son."
"True. Concerning my sister, I was not referring to my mother's death, though her role in it has not been fully determined."
"Really?"
"Really." Victor turned to face Thomas. "What I was referring to was a trap she laid for me on Coventry. She allowed information to leak out that reduced the estimate of Clan troops on Coventry by half. Had I arrived with only the troops under my command, plus your Knights of the Inner Sphere, the Harloc Raiders, and the other troops Katherine gave me, I would have been woefully under-strength. Chances are excellent I would have been killed in the fighting."
Thomas remained silent as he considered Victor's words. "You defeated her plan by detouring to pick up two regiments of Kell Hounds."
"Yes, and that was more luck than anything else. Had we not gotten the help of Ragnar and made use of his insights about the ways of the Clans, all the troops on Coventry would have been badly mauled. To get at me she was willing to sacrifice the lives of thousands."
"You believe this, yet you let her govern the Lyran Alliance?"
"Do I have a choice?" Victor lowered his voice. "You and Sun-Tzu are poised to strike against me if I make a move toward reconsolidating my realm. I can't do that now anyway since the Clans still need to be the focus of our attentions. As long as Katherine can supply me with troops and munitions, I can't afford to depose her."