The Price of Glory

Grayson nodded. "I've heard. And chances are, it's still someplace close by. There was no way for the local garrison commander to ship so large a cache offworld."

"You've heard?" It was Graff's turn to look surprised. He seemed to fold back into himself, his sudden animation failing. "Well Colonel, your military intelligence is better than I gave it credit for."

"Is that all you can tell us? That Marik wants to find the League storehouse?"

"It's not just House Marik. That'swhat I'm trying to tell you! It's ComStar!"

"So what's ComStar's interest?" Lori asked.

Graff shrugged. "ComStar has access to old records . . . including Minoru Kurita's reports on the Helm raid."

"The reports to the Council back on Luthien."

Graff nodded. "The Council on Luthien could accept his report at face value, for they weren't actually hereto put things together, you see. But when ComStar researchers read those reports, they had plenty of time to wonder. That cache must have been huge!Where could so many BattleMechs, so much war materiel, be hidden? ComStar maintains armies too, you know, to defend its own interests. Such a large, secret installation . . . that is of enormous interest to ComStar.'

"Hmm." Grayson studied Graff intently. "All very interesting. But none of it explains why this Precentor you mentioned wants to disgrace my regiment."

Graff hesitated until McCall said, "Come, laddie, speak up, or will ye be takin' tha' walk we mentioned a wee bit ago?"

"It was Rachan's idea ..."

"So you said."

"You, Colonel . . . you and your people, were in the way."

"Of what?"

"Of ComStar. This planet, Helm, is divided into administrative districts. Your contract with Janos Marik specified that the landhold of Durandel would be yours in exchange for your service to Marik."

Grayson nodded. "Yes."

"As Lord of Helmfast, you are, in effect, the governor of the whole stretch of territory from the Araga Mountains southwest to the sea. Governor, in fact, of everything on this part of the continent, except Helmdown itself, which is a special reserve of the Duchy of Stewart, under the planetary title."

"I am familiar with the legal aspects, Graff."

Graff shrugged. "Precentor Rachan was bringing his plan along. Durandel was to have been given to Garth for . . . oh . . . services to the Commonwealth. Helmfast had been vacant for some years, its last landholder gone . . . disgraced. Perhaps that was ComStar's doing, too. I don't know. Rachan had been maneuvering for a long time to get the legal title to Helmfast."

"Which would give him legal title to the lost cache."

"Mostly it was a matter of timing. Rachan figured that it might take years, perhaps decades, to find the lost cache. It has to be within a few tens of kilometers of the ruins of Freeport— hasto be—but he didn't expect the search to be easy. It could be anywhere in an expanse of thousands of square kilometers. One guess is that it's in the Dead Sea Flats. That vast, empty depression was filled with water until quite recently. It's possible that the mining efforts to create a hidden chamber for storing the weapons resulted in the sea's draining into cracks in the bedrock. Another possibility is that the cache is still buried under Freeport, but deep under meters of ferrocrete and steel, where it can't be found. It would take years of drilling and probing just to check all the possibilities in just that one location. And there were other cities in the area. You see what a task it is? Rachan expected the search to take years."

"And when he found it," Clay said, "He'd need a small fleet to move it. That meant the cooperation—and the silence—of the Lord of Helmfast."

"He figured I wouldn't be cooperative."

Graff smiled wanly. "You were studied quite closely, Colonel, for some time before the decision was made to disgrace you. It was determined that your personality was not . . . suitable to their purposes. Lord Garth met their criteria perfectly."

Lori tossed her head. "Well, Garth is a lot fatter than Grayson ..."

"He is also more malleable . . . and he has a certain handle that allows others to manipulate him."

"Which is?”

“He is greedy.”

“Ah."

"In any case, Helm was to have been given to Garth, not you. But in order to get you and your Legion out of Durandel ..."

Grayson closed his eyes. "The ... the people on Sirius V .. . Was that for real? Or is it just a story that's been circulated?"

"Oh, it's quite real. Lord Garth was in charge of thataspect of the operation." As Graff saw the expression hardening on Grayson's face, he grew more agitated. "That wasn't me! I ... I told you! I was a Captain in the Guard! Rachan approached me almost a year ago. He told me about the cache and asked me if I would help him. I was . . . flattered. ComStar Precentors rarely have dealings with merc Guard Captains!"

"And what, exactly, did he want you to do?"

"I was to join your regiment as a MechWarrior. The contract assigning the Helm landhold to you and your regiment had not been signed at that point, but Janos Marik and his staff had been discussing it. Rachan didn't want that to happen. But if it did, he wanted someone already in your regiment, someone who could keep him informed of your movements, your plans."

"A bloody spy," Clay began. "As well as a traitor."

"I'm no traitor! I was in the service of ComStar . . . for the good of humanity."

"Ah, it's the good of humanity now!" Grayson said. He was suddenly angry. "Millions of people slaughtered . . . and it's for the good of humanity!"

"That wasn't me ..."

"Wasn't it? I wonder ... I happen to remember that last day on Sirius V. You had the duty, on patrol in your Assassin. "

"Well . . . yes ..."

"And you swapped around with Vandergriff," Lori said, her eyes widening. "There was some comment about it, I recall . . . that you would prefer standing sentry-go to enjoying the fleshpots of Tiantan."

"Why did you wantto stand duty that night?"

Graff compressed his lips and shook his head. "I didn't blow up that dome."

"No, but two sentries were found dead, killed at close range by laser fire and vibroblade. Do you remember?" Lori shook her head slowly, as if she couldn't quite believe what she was saying. "We questioned you about it because it happened on your watch, but we assumed it was the work of Liao soldiers who didn't want to turn in their arms. But there was someone else there that night, wasn't there? Someone who had to steal a pair of hovercraft in order to move in and . . . and what, Graff? Plant explosive charges on the domes? Charges that could be detonated once we were away, but before most locals would realize that we had gone ... to make it look like wehad done the deed?"

Grayson said. "They had to get past you, didn't they?"

Graff nodded, his expression one of lost misery.

' 'And you stand there and claim you didn't kill those people? The responsibility was yours!"Grayson turned from him in disgust. "Del! Get him out of my sight!"

"No!" Graff cried. "You promised ..."

Lock him up in the stores tent, Del."

"Yessir. C'mon, you."

As Clay took Graff by the collar and hustled him from the tent, Lori stood up and walked around the table to Grayson.