Warrior: En Garde

Melissa distractedly touched the bloody streak that Patrick's fingers had left on her cheek, then she narrowed her steel gray

eyes. She looked up at the three standing Kell Hounds and Clovis, then down at Patrick Kell. "I want you to be first to know, Patrick Kell. I'm going to marry him. I'm going to marry Hanse Davion."

Patrick smiled broadly, his pain momentarily forgotten, and squeezed Melissa's hands. "It'll be a grand wedding, Mel. Tell him he's a lucky man." He shook his head. "That'll be a big day. I wish I could be there."

Melissa clutched his hands tightly. "You will, Patrick. You willbe there."

Kell nodded slowly. "In spirit, Mel, in spirit..."

Pain contracted every muscle in Patrick Kell's body and bowed his back. He slammed back down onto the cot, then turned and stared through Dan. "Dan, tell him . . . tell Morgan I understand. Tell him I finally understand." Patrick Kell stared straight up at the 'Mechs standing above him. "Is it supposed to hurt this much?" he gasped painfully. He turned to Salome and with great effort made his voice clear and firm, lifting it somehow beyond the pain. "The command is yours, Major."

His body contracted once more, then Patrick Kell fell into the sleep from which there is no waking.

57

Northwind

Draconis March, Federated Suns

5 June 3027

Quintus Allard shook his head as Dan slipped his left arm from the sling. "I don't think that's a wise idea, Dan."

Dan gritted his teeth against the sharp pain in his shoulder, then stared straight at his father and gri

"Yes, but the electrical impulses speed the bone's knitting-together." Quintus took Dan's dress jacket from the valet and dismissed the man. He stepped behind Dan and held up the jacket so that his son could slip in his arms. "Colonel Kell's plan worked admirably."

Dan nodded and let his father carefully slide the left side of his jacket up over his left arm. "Yes. Patrick realized he could not be certain that the passengers would make it to the Cuat all, but he also knew that the Kuritans would never leave the base unless they believed their quarry had fled. Patrick only told those of us inside the rock that the passengers would be loaded up to the Macand headed out to the Cu.Because we were supposed to buy them time, the hour the Draconian commander gave us was a godsend."

Quintus eased the red jacket up onto Dan's shoulders, then came around to help him button up the front. "But Kell also refused to trust the lives of the passengers to a JumpShip that was making a second 'hot' jump in a row. He told Lang and Baker to hide the passengers somewhere back inside the base while the Macmade a phantom pickup run."

Dan nodded, then grimaced as his father fastened the dress jacket's tight collar. "Patrick jumped the Victorout of the Macand into the docking bay as the Kurita time limit ran out. He told the Draconians that the passengers were already up and away. He also told them we were there to cut off their retreat."

Quintus helped Dan snap the jacket's unique double-breast into place. The black layer of cloth had been cut in the shape of the wolf's-head design that was central to the Kell Hound crest. The pointed ears snapped up at the shoulders and the snout fastened down at the waist. The fiery scarlet eyes matched the rest of the jacket's color. The inverted black chevron imposed over a blood-red triangle on Dan's collar mimicked the Lyran insignia for a Hauptma

Dan's voice dropped lower as he painfully worked a black armband up past his left elbow. "Patrick kept shooting and destroying Panthersas the Warhammerattacked him. He wanted to whittle down the Kurita numbers so that we could drive out the remainder of their force after he died. He drew the Warhammerto himself, and in doing so, saved the rest of us."

Quintus backed away to better study his son's uniform, then nodded with satisfaction. "You look good."

"Thanks. Not every day I get to meet the Prince."

"Indeed." A frown creased Quintus's brow. "Dan, are you certain that the Warhammer'spilot was Yorinaga Kurita?"

Dan smiled. "That, and questions about the unit's designation, have been really popular with your debriefers, father."

The Minister nodded solemnly. "We have no record of any Kurita unit known as the Genyosha.As for Yorinaga Kurita, the last we knew, he had retreated to a Zen monastery on Echo Five."

Dan shrugged, then winced. "I watched Yorinaga stalk Morgan eleven years ago. When you see a MechWarrior that good, you don't forget him. You'll remember his moves no matter how long it's been. I'm just sorry that Cat saw him punch out after my Volhit him."

Quintus shook his head. "You shouldn't be. All our reports suggest that when he ejected, the tactical commander, Sho-saNi-iro, panicked. He ordered the retreat that Patrick had bluffed him into believing had been cut off."

Dan flicked a white thread from his black trousers. "The Cujumped out here to Northwind when the Macreached it. The threat of our aerofighters kept the Kurita DropShips at bay, and so they returned to their JumpShips. We loaded all our spare equipment and the refugees onto the Silver Eagleand used the Bifrostto reach Northwind."

The valet knocked gently at the door, then opened it a crack. "Excuse me, Count Quintus ... Lord Daniel.. . but the Prince has requested your presence in his office before the ceremony."

Quintus led his son through the corridors of the government building Hanse Davion had converted into his headquarters on Northwind. "The Prince assembled his staff and brought us all here to Northwind when the first message from Vandermeer reached New Avalon. Your mother and your sister Riva will arrive on the next run up from New Avalon."

Dan shook his head. "They didn't have to ..."

Quintus winked at his son. "Truth be told, I think they're coming as much to meet the passenger you rescued as they are to be sure you survived this battle in one piece."

* * *

The two CID guards at the office door snapped to attention. Quintus nodded to them and preceded his son into the room Prince Davion had appropriated for his makeshift office on Northwind. The whitewashed walls contrasted sharply with the wooden pillars supporting the ceiling.

Hanse Davion stood up behind an unfinished wooden desk. "Welcome, Quintus and Daniel. May I offer you both a drink?" Before either man could reply, the Prince had crossed behind where Melissa sat swathed in a silver-gray robe of native snow-fox furs. He poured an amethyst liquid into two crystal goblets, then held both goblets out to Quintus, who passed one to his son.

Dan shot a quick glance over at Cat Wilson. Clad in his dress uniform, Cat looked uneasy for the first time since Dan had known him. He held his glass of wine carefully, as though the goblet might somehow shatter at any moment.

Beyond him, Salome caught Dan's eyes and they shared a smile at Cat's apparent discomfort. Salome's dress uniform differed only in the rank insignia at the collar and in the cut of her trousers. While Dan's were tucked into the tops of his cavalry-style boots, Salome's trousers hung loose and square to just below her knees. Like both Dan and Cat, she wore a black armband on her left sleeve.