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The ‘Mech’s sound or motion detectors must have picked up the volley of small arms fire from among the trees on the hill above him. It pivoted sharply to face the battle and opened fire blindly with laser bolts and a thundering burst from its autoca
Grayson grabbed Brasednewic's elbow. "Let's move out! Before it's our turn" The two of them crawled out of their trench and worked their way upslope, away from the drumroll of high explosives and the shrieks of dying Kurita troops.
During the initial attack, McCall's Riflemanand Clay's Wolverinehad remained hidden above the road. Lying prone, covered by jungle vegetation, they were well-concealed from recon air or spacecraft by the jungle canopy. Paths down the slope to the ambush site had been carefully scouted earlier. Now, the two armored behemoths slashed aside light trees and vines and crashed into the open, lasers and autoca
The Centurionhalted in mid-stride, then spun and lurched into a shambling run back up the road toward the Basin Rim. McCall levelled paired lasers and autoca
In the ruin of the road below Grayson's position, the Trebuchetstiffened into immobility and, seconds later, its head split. The pilot emerged, streaming sweat, his hands raised. Orange- and brown-uniformed soldiers began straggling in from the brush in small clumps, weaponless, their hands also raised in surrender. Moments later, Lori reported that one of the enemy's Stingershad surrendered, while the swifter Je
Grayson set his autorifle's safety and stood up, suddenly tired. Brasednewic stood up, too, laser rifle canted across his shoulder. "Congratulations, Captain," he said. "Looks like maybe we canlearn some things from you folks after all."
"That's what we came for, Colonel. But let's not underestimate these people."
"Who? The Dracos?"
"No...our people...yours and mine. It was their doing, this raid. They did it...together."
And as Grayson stepped down from the hill, his men—rebels and mercs together—began cheering wildly.
21
This far north, Verthandi's large moon never rose much above the southern horizon. Late in its third quarter, it hung like a ragged-edged orange sickle in an unusually cloudless sky just hours before dawn. The light of Verthandi-Alpha carried only faintly through the window where the man and woman lay in the dark. The man's fingers trailed across the woman's belly, tracing a delicate line from navel to sternum to throat, then circled down again to capture one smooth breast in a lingering caress. In the darkness, Sue Ellen Klein let out a soft moan.
"Hold me, Vincent," she whispered. "Just hold me, please..."
He drew her closer into his embrace. "What is it, Sue Ellen?"
"N-nothing." Her face was wet, the tears glistening by the light of the moon. "You've...all of you... have been so good to me."
"And why not? We're scarcely the monsters the Lyran Commonwealth makes us out to be."
"Oh, I know all that. It's just... oh, Vincent! I killedhim!"
He held her tight, his hands exploring the hollows of her back, whispering into her ear until her sobs subsided. When at last she quieted, he said, "Darling, it wasn't you! You knowthat. But you've got to let go! Jeffrie was killed by that bastard Carlyle...abandoned in a shot-up fighter and left to fry on re-entry. Sue Ellen, you saved him! You kept him from dying a horrible death! Tell me, what if it had been you in the crippled fighter, with your ship melting around you? Wouldn't he have done the same for you?"
"But it's all so confusing. I keep having dreams..."
"About Jeffrie?"
"Some. Mostly, though, I amin the fighter, and Carlyle is outside, watching me burn. And Jeffrie is with him, pleading with him, but Carlyle just crosses his arms and laughs. Or I'm all alone, hanging from a rock ledge, and there's this vast, empty blackness beneath and all around me, and I'm losing my grip..."
She shivered in his arms. "That's the way it feels when I'm awake, like I'm just clinging to the edge, hanging on...and my fingers are giving way and I'm falling into the dark...and now I'm getting it in my dreams, too."
"I've heard you moaning in your sleep."
She drew back far enough to place her hand against his chest, to stroke at the mat of black hair there. "Vincent, if it wasn't for you, I think I'd have gone insane. I mean it. I...I couldn't live with myself for...for a while there. I'm grateful."
He kissed her lingeringly. "And I love you," he said, when their lips parted. "You know, I'm glad to just... listen. If there's anything you want to get off your chest." He dropped his eyes, and smiled. "Such a lovely chest."
In reply, she snuggled closer. "I wish I knew some deep, dark military secret I couldget off my chest," she said after a time. "Something I could give to you to help bring Carlyle down for good!"
He stroked her short hair. "I wouldn't mind that myself. Maybe if we could trap him—you and I—it Would lay to rest some of those ghosts for you. Got anything in mind?"
She shook her head. "Nothing. I sat in on pla
"Military secrets become dated real fast," he agreed. "Still, there might be something else."
"I've told Governor Nagumo's people what I knew about the Gray Death's strength, what ‘Mechs it had, and all of that, but they already knew."
"What would really help would be some clue to where Carlyle might be hiding."
"How could I give that? He knew this planet better than I did...and that's not saying much. All I know is that he was to make contact with members of the Revolutionary Council. That odd little man with glasses—Erudin—was supposed to bring them together."
"Maybe the name Erudin will help. The Governor has extensive files on the names and backgrounds of a number of Verthandi's citizens."
"Well, I already told him."
"Were there any other names mentioned?"
"Huh? Oh, I guess so, but I don't really remember. The names of people isn't going to help locate Carlyle now, is it?"
"I don't know, darling, but who knows what might help? Anything you remember—a name, a meeting place— anythingmight help."
She sighed. "Well, I know we were to meet the Revolutionary Council out in the jungle someplace. That seemed strange to me at the time. I had this picture of us all standing around knee-deep in mud. Erudin laughed when I asked how we were supposed to move ‘Mechs through the mud. He said Ericksson's place was all dry land and full of sur...What's the matter?"
Mills was staring at her with nearly savage intensity. "Ericksson? Who is this Ericksson?"
"Someone we were supposed to meet. Why? Do you know the name? Is it important?"