“Had intercepts not told me who you were, the insolence would have. Give it up, Mr. Donelly.”it not been for the condescension in her voice, I might have just shut Digger down, but I couldn’t. Without replying I cut west. Now, if you’d been reading closely, you’d be wondering why I would go west when there wasn’t a roadway there. It was precisely because there was no roadway there that I chose to go that way. While there wasn’t a road, there was a wide alley used for deliveries and I started charging down it as fast as Digger could go.really must have been quite a sight. The ’Mech’s shoulders scraped sparks from the buildings on both sides. Metal fire escapes screamed as Digger ripped them free, and clotheslines added more fluttering decorations to my ’Mech. In one of those very weird slice-of-life moments, I saw a man in his underwear, the T-shirt creeping up over his belly, watching his Tri-Vid set as I raced past and carried away his wooden balcony.never even batted an eye.the dash into the alley surprised Lakewood, it doomed me. The ’Mech’s holographic display managed to condense 360 degrees into about 160, which showed a narrow alley behind me, and a Centurion turning to stab its autocannon muzzle at my back. Hemmed in as I was by buildings, I could do nothing but watch.flickered, spent cannon shells arced; then Digger’s left leg jerked. It somersaulted foot over knee further into the alley, bouncing off one building, crushing a Dumpster, then wedging tight. Digger’s next step, which would have been with that leg, jammed the severed knee joint into the ground. It punched through the ferrocrete and stuck fast, slinging the ’Mech around to the right before the whole hip assembly shrieked and popped free.released Digger and let the ’Mech slam back-first into a building. It crumpled, but so did the thin armor on the engines. The impact crushed the engines, causing a minor explosion that kicked Digger up about a meter, then dropped it flat on its back. Sparks flew in the cockpit and equipment shorted. My head smashed back against the command couch and I sat there, stunned.enough Constabulary officers appeared on the cockpit canopy and looked down at me. They had guns.had nothing.the day had started with such promise.
fox’s cunning avails him little when the tigress unsheathes her claws., HelenIII, Republic of the Sphere
November 3132to this point I had hopes I could leave one detail out of this narrative, but I really can’t. In order to appear festive and suitable for parade duty, I had worn a clown costume over my cooling vest. Consider it: white, puffy, big cuffs, lots of big, bright polka dots. You can see why I didn’t want to mention it, but since it was the object of much mirth among my captors, omitting it would leave much unexplained., because I had a neurohelmet, no outrageous wig or makeup was needed—unlike Falcon and Jiro. I didn’t see Falcon come in, but the way folks were coming to the interrogation room from outside, I gathered he’d been captured and was singing like something less raptorish than his name.and Lakewood handled my interrogation, and their contrasting costumes almost made my attire seem appropriate. Reis was in full Commander regalia, which was something less ornate than anything worn at Devlin Stone’s final address to the Knights. That’s taken all together, mind you. He had more medals on than the average fish has scales, and they were brighter than a school of fancy guppies., his uniform was more clownish than mine., on the other hand, looked stunning. She’d come from the Centurion’s cockpit, and so still had on skintight black leggings that ran from the tops of her knee-high boots to her bare midriff. She’d shucked her cooling vest, so she only had a bandeau top on. Over that she’d pulled a black silk robe cut to the tops of her hips and tied with a red sash. Her dark hair had been pulled back into a braid tied with a matching red ribbon.’d have been the picture of beauty were it not for the fire in her eyes.of them, despite their anger, did look better than I did. My clown suit had been ripped open so I could be stripped out of my cooling vest. The constables had shoved my arms back through the sleeves—the left one, anyway. My right hand tore through the shoulder seam, so I had a flaccid arm hanging there. My inability to dress with their help had been taken as a sign of resistance, so I got slapped around a bit and my left eye was beginning to swell shut.’ outrage towered. “Did you honestly think your pathetic plan would succeed?”gave him half a glare. “I do know my rights. I don’t have to answer your questions.”little man backhanded me solidly, snapping my head around so that I looked at Lady Lakewood. The anger in her eyes intensified. Before she could say anything, however, Reis hissed in my ear. “What rights? Because of your action, martial law was declared. You are an enemy combatant and subject to the Uniform Code of Civil Defense Justice.”resisted the desire to jerk my head to the right and bash it into his face. Instead I looked up at her. “What is he talking about?”
“Local constitutions allow for the exercise of power in the event of a civil defense emergency. This includes the suspension of certain civil rights.” An edge crept into her voice. “I would remind you, however, Commander Reis, that since I apprehended the suspect, he is a Republic prisoner. This interrogation is a courtesy before I take him away.”
“Republic prisoner? Take me away?”smile slithered on to her lips. “Just because the communications grid is down, Mr. Donelly, don’t imagine we are not able to collect information about you from other worlds. You were lucky that when you left Acamar your trail grew cold. Your luck, however, has run out.”looked at Reis. “You can’t let her take me.”CDRF leader planted his fists on his hips and began strutting. He’d picked out the note of fear in my voice and was on it like a vulture on carrion. “I can’t? Oh, Mr. Donelly, I am powerless to stop her unless”—he let that word hang for a moment longer than he really needed to—“unless you can supply me the name of your boss.”had to think quickly because I was in serious trouble. I didn’t have that much to give him: Mr. Handy and a description. A wig, some contacts, a bottle of insta-tan and a raid on a thrift store for clothes and Handy would be someone else entirely. I could supply some addresses, but those places would be clean or would provide no evidence that would touch Handy.got trickier than that, of course, with Falcon confessing to everything from lustful thoughts about his third grade teacher on up. He’d been with GGF longer than I had, but I’d been put in charge of our operation. From his point of view—one Reis would quickly come to share—I’d been brought in to purge that cell and then take it over for a strike pinpointed at the Constabulary. While I had been given a position of responsibility, I didn’t have the background information I should have had.was really given little choice in what I could do.looked up at him and nodded eagerly. “He was called Mr. Handy. I don’t know who he was really. I didn’t have a way to get in contact with him. Letitia, she was driving the hovertruck, she was my liaison with him. Classic cell system. All the groups in on the other attacks were from other cells.”feral grin drew the corners of his mouth back like opera curtains. “Other attacks?”stomach clenched. “Yes, yes, there were to be other attacks, while you were at the parade stand.”
“And what were these other attacks supposed to be?”mind was reeling. “I don’t know. Cell system. I was isolated and insulated.”
“And you expect me to believe this?” Reis barked harshly. “You’re a fool, Donelly. This is how things went down: you were the GGF’s inside man at ARU. You showed up a month before they did, after all, so you fed them information and they went to war on the company. You intended to do more damage, but I out-foxed you on the mountain. You went underground, arranged for this little outing, never figuring we’d be there waiting for you.”
“But… but…” I frowned, which hurt a lot. If Ray and Letitia hadn’t been the inside agent, then who? Jiro? Going out for coffee that day was the only time we were out of sight of each other. It was possible some covert signaling could have been done, but, if so, I missed it. But then Jiro got killed in the raid, and Reis would have been beating on me because Jiro had been one of his people.
“So, was I the only person in GGF who wasn’t on your payroll?”
“Maybe. I don’t employ idiots.”shook my head because a lot of things were not making sense. “Mr. Handy exists. Go ask Falcon. At Handy’s request he helped kidnap me from the Akuma Street mission.”
“We’ll see if that name comes up. So far our sources make you the leader of the group, Donelly.”
“That’s not right.” I glanced at Lakewood. “Your security people spotted me at that bistro. They had to have seen the man I was with. They have holos of him. He was in the group, too. Find him and he’ll tell you about Handy.”shook her head. “We found the body of a male answering that description early this morning. He had been beaten, but those were old wounds. He’d also been shot in the back of the head.”chill sank into my bones. The last person I’d seen him with had been Handy, which meant Handy had drilled him. If there were no other ops and no other cells, then Handy meant to betray us from the start. He takes Ray away, has him report to CDRF about our raid and say he’s getting more info on other operations, then is killed.’ voice became very cold. “There, yes, you’ve established you knew him. You found out he was my man inside the GGF, so you killed him.”
“But, if he was your man, then you would have reports about Mr. Handy.”raised a hand to silence Reis. “If you don’t mind, Commander.” She grabbed a handful of my hair and cranked my head back. “It breaks down simply like this. Prior to your joining the group overtly, all of your orders were communicated through Letitia. Mr. Handy is a sobriquet applied to a figure who appeared to give orders but, as nearly as the constable could document, only provided money and equipment. It appears that you have been covertly communicating with the GGF from the ARU facility—we have the communications logs to show access from the numbers. You ran the operation from there, used your materiel supplier, or one of his agents, as your front, and stepped in when the commander here eliminated your base of operations. Your setup was good for as long as it lasted, Mr. Donelly, but it slowly collapsed in on itself.”opened my mouth for a moment, then closed it. I’d been led into a box and just proceeded to close things up behind myself. The circumstantial evidence could make me into the group’s leader, while the physical evidence showed quite a trail of damage that could be laid right at my doorstep. Handy had sacrificed me, which would allow him to disappear. Reis could claim he’d broken the back of GGF, be hailed as a hero, and then Handy would use his other cells to do something else and crush Reis. My cell really had been the bait for a trap but, instead of springing it shut on Reis right then and there, they wanted to let hubris lead him on, then drop him the way Lakewood dropped Digger.glanced down at my gaudy knees. “You didn’t get the hovertruck?”
“Abandoned, but your people won’t get far.” Reis resumed his swaggering, then waved a hand dismissively. “He’s yours, take him. Get him out of here.”
“What?” I tried to shoot up out of my chair, but Lakewood got a hand on my shoulder and drove me back down into it. “We had a deal, Reis.”
“You didn’t give me any useful information, and you never would.”
“But you need me. You need a show trial, so you need me.”snorted. “Nonsense. I let Lady Lakewood haul you off and point out that you were a notorious terrorist who had escaped authorities on Acamar, but couldn’t get away from me. I cry loud and long about wanting to have tried you myself, and I vow to get you back here once Acamar is done with you, and I save myself a whole lot of budget problems. Trials are expensive, but media conferences are not.”
“I’m not going back to Acamar!” I shifted my shoulder from beneath her hand. “I have rights. I demand them. I want an extradition hearing!”chuckled. “You’re a Republic prisoner. I have no jurisdiction.”
“Look, you strutting ape, you’ve overstepped your bounds so many times, you might as well go one more. Hold me here.”eyes bulged and his face got purple. “Oh, I am so tempted, but the Universal Code gives me supreme discretion in such cases. And I decide to deny any request for extradition proceedings. He’s yours, my lady, to do with as you will.”
“You are most kind, Commander. I shall not forget this.”man smiled broadly. “Please remember me to your superiors.”swept from the room and Lakewood’s guards, Jack and Jill, came in through the open doorway. Jack hauled me to my feet and checked the restraints on my wrists. Jill bent and shackled my ankles with a meter of stout chain. Maria’s chainsaw might have gotten through it, but it would have taken more time than normally imagined.did do me one favor and waited until Reis had called the media together for a briefing before hustling me into the basement garage and into a hovercar. Jill drove. Jack sat beside me with his meaty right hand on the back of my neck. I rode the center of the seat while Lady Lakewood squeezed herself into the corner. I could feel her eyes on me and caught the little shakes of her head.identification let us into the spaceport and past security to the Leopard–class DropShip Valiant. Being one of the smaller DropShip designs, it had an aerodynamic shape and could carry four BattleMechs. Through the ports into the cargo hold I could see two: what I took to be a Centurion and a Black Hawk.helped me from the vehicle, then picked me up off the ground and marched me up the loading ramp. Jill drove the vehicle up another ramp and into the cargo bay. I expected Jack to hustle me through narrow corridors to a tiny cabin and shackle me to the wall, but instead he took me to a fairly large conference room and sat me down in a relatively comfortable chair.took up a position next to the hatchway, with his back to the bulkhead. He was just where I could only catch a hint of him without turning my head to the right, which I had no intention of doing. He wanted to make me look, and I refused. Because of my swollen left eye, though, I didn’t see Lakewood until she appeared past my left, and I jolted, rattling my chains.laughed.sat on the edge of a rectangular table back against the bulkhead opposite the door. She looked past me. “You can go now, thank you, Sergeant Gaskin.”
“As you wish, my lady. He may be restrained, but he is still dangerous.”nodded slowly. “I will be careful.”snorted. “So will I. Not a word about Acamar. I don’t care what you do.”
“I’ve heard that before.” The door shut behind Jack and she levered herself off the table. “I think, however, I have the key that might unlock your tongue.”with that she took my face in her hands and planted on me the third-best kiss I’ve ever had.
sense of duty is moral glue, constantly subject to stress., Republic DropShip ValiantIII, Republic of the Sphere
November 3132kiss would have been solidly at number two, and might have rivaled even number one, save that my face was still tender from the beating I’d taken. Moreover, still being shackled prevented me from slipping my arms around her and hugging her tightly. Despite those handicaps, it was still a seriously great kiss, and since she’d already planted the gold and silver kisses on me, this one taking the bronze was not a bad thing at all.licked my lips as she pulled back, tasting her and smiling. “It’s been so long, I’d begun thinking you were a fantasy spun out of Tri-Vids and dreams.”towered over me and traced a finger over my left cheek. “I’ve missed you terribly, Mason. Four months and no word.”stared up. “You didn’t get the messages I sent?”shook her head and stepped back. “Not a one. I did get reports that money was moving into and out of your account, so we knew you were here, but nothing else.”sighed. Because I’d come to Helen as a drifter, I couldn’t be sending high-priority, high-cost messages to a Knight of The Republic without attracting a lot of attention. I did send lower-priority messages designed to go through a cutout who would relay them on to others, and eventually they’d get to Janella—or at least that was the plan. I’d sent one a week, but with the collapse of the grid, what little traffic was getting out had to be the high-price stuff.
“So, if none of my messages to you got out, then none of my reports did, either. Why are you here, then?”arched an eyebrow at me. “I believe you meant to phrase that: ‘Thank goodness you interpreted my silence as a cry for help and came to see what you could do to rescue me.’”
“Ah, yes, sorry. Been here… I’ve been here on Helen a long time, talking to lumberjacks and Greens far too long.” I frowned. “Are you going to leave me bound up like this? Your man Jack has a touch of the sadist in the way he tightened these cuffs.”
“Jack?”
“Gaskin, you called him.”
“Oh.” Janella smiled playfully, then crossed behind me and unlocked the cuffs.rubbed my wrists. “And the shackles?”
“Maybe I don’t want you running off.”
“Not me. No place to go on this ship, and no desire to run.”
“Good answer.” She knelt before me and released my feet, then placed her hands on my knees and stood. “We have a lot of work to do.”smiled. Janella was always work before pleasure, which might sound less than desirable after four months apart from each other. The simple fact was, however, that since we were back together, things were back to normal as far as she was concerned. We’d work, then we’d celebrate, but in the meanwhile, we’d enjoy anticipating the celebration.stood and stretched, then enfolded her in the hug I’d wanted since I saw her in Overton. She felt terribly good in my embrace. Just having her weight against me and feeling her arms sliding over my shoulders burned off the time we’d been away from each other. I nuzzled her neck and smiled. “By the way,” I whispered, “thank you for rescuing me.”
“My distinct pleasure.” She kissed my left cheek softly, then slipped from my arms. “We’ll collaborate on a single case summary, then do our own reports to supplement it?”
“Exactly what I was thinking.” I jerked a thumb at the hatchway. “What’s the status on your bodyguards, Jack and Jill?”
“Sergeants William Gaskin and Amanda Poole. Both are seconded from Lament for temporary duty. They’re cleared to know, but there has been no need.” Janella shrugged. “It’s your call.”
“They know you came to get me, though. Having my BattleMech in the cargo hold likely tipped them off.”
“Both could pilot it, so it was assumed they were my backup. They know The Republic has an interest in you, and we’ll have to let them know you’re working for us. How much more than that you want to tell them is up to you.”nodded. Lady Janella Lakewood is a Knight of The Republic and serves as a Knight-Errant—traveling to worlds, unraveling problems, acting somewhere between a diplomat and a tactical reaction force. She grew up a noble and went to the Murchison Academy, where she got her military and ’Mech training. Then, instead of taking a position in Stone’s Pride—another unit akin to Lament—she went to law school and became learned in the ways of the law.Errant fell into one of four classes of Republic Knights. The Knights had been born back when Stone created The Republic and, initially, consisted of his closest advisors and best military leaders. Many of them were later elevated to the rank of Paladin, advising him and, now, advising the Exarch. Only eighteen of the Knights made it to that rank, and upon their shoulders rested the fate of The Republic.were not drawn from the military alone—Janella’s father, for one, was knighted for his work in the sciences. While Stone realized the people of the Inner Sphere were primed to accept as leaders those who were loaded with martial skills, he wanted to use the Knights to do more as he reformed society. David Lear, his closest advisor and chief planner, helped establish as Knights a group of individuals whose example would inspire those who had no martial skills or inclinations. Because Stone’s reforms included the nearly wholesale decommissioning of privately held BattleMechs, the chances for advancement through the military were severely limited. As other opportunities for glory opened up with Knighthoods awarded for economic, scientific, artistic and humanitarian efforts, the best and brightest found new outlets for achievement.other group of Knights is the Ghost Knights. We don’t exist in any documents or on any organizational charts, but rumors abound about us and all the things we do. The tales would suggest there are just legions of us, but I don’t think so—though it could be that I don’t really have a clue as to how many of my brethren there truly are. Like Knights-Errant, we get covertly thrust into situations to look for resolutions, and to implement them if we can do so within our mission parameters. So, while people assume Ghost Knights are real, exactly who we are and how we get chosen is kept very secret. Janella’s guards didn’t need to know I was a Ghost Knight, so coming up with a story that would function but keep them in the dark on that point would work.’s not as if I don’t actually exist. Mason Dunne has his own little spot in the Table of Organization for The Republic. I’m a researcher in an obscure forestry office in the Interior Secretariat. I’m seldom seen and often forgotten, but if a Paladin or Knight calls me in for a consultation, being closeted with a researcher like me attracts no attention.crossed to a bulkhead cabinet, opened it and got myself a bottle of water. “We don’t need to tell them anything right now,” I told her. “I think I’m a bit paranoid because the other attacks didn’t happen, and that’s got me really twisted around. You picked me up because of the Javapulse run, right?”nodded. “You got the tracker with your order, so we were on you. We pulled the security Tri-Vid and identified your companion. What’s interesting is that I worked out where and when you were going to hit your target, but I never got a chance to tell that to Reis. Instead, he told me what you would be doing.”
“But the only way he could know that is if Handy sold me to him.”
“Not necessarily. Your communications woman could have done the selling. One time you were thinking she was talking to Handy, she could have given the whole plan to Reis. You did leave her alone when you went to Javapulse.”
“True.” That particular Javapulse location actually was a contact point for Republic agents. While what I ordered was fairly common, the microphone in the register picked up and identified my voice. The data was logged and provided some basic information that Janella was able to use—my asking for three sugars, for example, meant things would be happening in three days. The register also spit out a specific five-stone coin that had been fitted with a tracking device. Once we left the store, Janella knew every place I went.tapped a finger against her lips. “It’s also possible that Constable Rivers—your late friend from the bistro—discovered more information than Handy wanted him to know. He passed some or all of it along to Reis, and was killed for his trouble. Handy then could have aborted the other ops and given you up as expendable.”
“Possible. Could be he figured out who was backing Handy, which is why he had to be executed. And it could be that Handy’s boss ordered things curtailed to let Reis puff himself up, to cut him down later.”
“Provided there actually are other cells to the GGF.”
“Yeah.” I opened the water and drained half the bottle. “Four months on Helen and all I have to show for it is a handful of dead terrorists and constables, and a lot of property damage done to a precinct headquarters. The Republic will pay for the repairs, I am assuming.”
“Yes, but it won’t come out of your salary.” Janella smiled easily. “The ninth precinct house was scheduled for demolition anyway. Reis showed me plans for a Justice Palace that he wanted to build on that site. If you’d taken the building apart you would have saved taxpayers a lot of money.”pressed the cool bottle to the back of my neck. “Someday this will all sort itself out. I’m just afraid it will be when I’m reading Mr. Handy’s memoirs.”
“Before then, my dear, I’m certain.”warning tone sounded through the ship, indicating that we had been cleared to leave Helen. Janella and I crossed to the exterior bulkhead and strapped ourselves into couches. I offered her some of my water as the Valiant started to roll down the runway. She drank and passed it back, then held my hand as we took off.both watched the world shrink behind us, then I gave her hand a squeeze. “Did you have to convince someone to come after me, or were you sent?”turned and a huge grin blossomed on her face. “Mason Dunne, is that a hint of ego? Did you want to know if The Republic couldn’t get along without you in such dark times?”
“Well, um”—I frowned heavily, hoping that would hold the blush down—“it would be nice to think that some folks thought I might be useful.”
“Actually, my love, it was assumed you were able to take care of yourself. The few news items coming out of Helen were heavily influenced by Commander Reis’ publicity machine. That made it look as if the GGF was strong enough to take the whole government down. People did some checking and realized that not only had we not heard from you, but the contingency support material that you should have been able to draw upon hadn’t made it either.”
“So you flew to the rescue?”
“I wanted to be here about three minutes after you left Terra.” She leaned over and kissed me softly. “Then, after the grid went down, I wanted to come to Helen immediately. Circumstances wouldn’t allow that, however, so I stayed on Terra and did all I could to avert the crisis.”
“How bad is it? The reports here have alternated between it being the end of the universe and a minor hiccup. To hear folks tell it, all the Houses have been swept away, the Clans are gone and if someone like Hanse Davion were alive today, he’d recognize nothing of the Inner Sphere he knew a century ago.”sighed heavily and I caught a strong dose of frustration in her voice. Janella did not do frustration well. Being as smart as she was, she could figure a lot of things out when she had all the facts. That particular sigh meant she didn’t have but a fraction of the data she wanted, which told me more than four months of news media on Helen.
“That bad, huh?”nodded. “The strikes that took out the HPGs were very well coordinated. Not only were they systematic and timed tightly, but they had sufficient force to overwhelm local security—when it existed. Moreover, they targeted key components on the devices that took them down or used computer viruses so the arrays can’t communicate with ground stations. In theory the tactics would allow for bringing them back up fairly quickly since they weren’t destroyed outright. They won’t have to be replaced, but repaired, and there is the big problem.”
“I don’t follow. If it was so precise a series of strikes, why aren’t repairs being made?”
“It’s a matter of supply. The HPGs really are a marvel of technology and were built to last. When they were designed they had some basic, highly durable components that have functioned for centuries without failure. The smaller things, like circuitry and memory, were added in a modular fashion, assuming that as technology progressed, new, better and faster parts would be put into them. The problem was, of course, that the Succession Wars stopped progress and degraded the industrial capacity needed to manufacture HPGs and new parts quickly. With damage to eighty percent of the alpha circuit, a lot of parts are needed.”nodded. Centuries ago, the Inner Sphere had melted down in a civil war that threatened to blast humanity back to the Transistor Age. High-tech industries failed or were converted to the production of BattleMechs. The ability to produce JumpShips and, apparently, the parts that went into HPGs, had been severely limited—right at a time when we could use both.
“So, if there were a supply of these parts, we could have things up and working?”
“Right after the software was fixed, yes, but there isn’t a supply of parts. People aren’t even sure if some of the power couplings and radiation conversion units can be manufactured. In theory we have the technical information about how they were made, but the factories that can do the work need extensive retooling for production.”shivered. “We can’t talk, we won’t be able to talk, save through messages hauled by JumpShips and relayed. What news, then?”shook her head as her smile died. “It’s not good, Mason, not good at all. Republic programs encouraged co-operation. They rewarded it and punished examples of old hatreds. With no communications, the carrot-and-stick approach no longer works. People are beginning to gather power to themselves. Minorities who think they were suppressed are reacting. What you found on Helen is hardly an isolated incident.”
“The Republic is coming apart?”gave me a frank stare with her green eyes. “Lover, I’ve been gone from Terra for three weeks. We’re bound for Terra now. Until we get there, we won’t know if there’s still a Republic or not.”
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