Coupe

The guard shook his head. Pulling a magcard key from the wallet chained to his belt, he inserted it into the lockslot on the door. With a click, the mechanism opened and Justin wrenched the heavy door open. He dashed down the small corridor and stopped in front of Alexi's cell.

Justin waited for the guard to reach him. "Quick! Open it."

The little man's piggish eyes grew wide. "But Tsen Shang has taken the only keycard for this door . . ." Realizing what he'd said, the guard began to backpedal.

Dammit!Justin pounced on him like a leopard, carrying the man to the ground. Justin blocked a flailed punch with his right arm, then delivered a savage chop to the throat. The guard gurgled and died.

Justin crossed back to Alexi's cell. "Alexi, this is Justin. Stand away from the door."

Alexi's voice, weak and full of confusion, reached Justin through the door's narrow viewport. "What? Justin?"

"Stand back!"

Justin stripped the glove off his left hand and curled the middle and ring fingers into his palm. Grasping the artificial hand with his right, he pulled the hand out away from the wrist, twisted it ninety degrees to the left so the thumb was up, and pulled again. The whole hand turned back flat, then slid back along the top of his forearm. At the wrist, where the hand had been, the dungeon's dim light glinted from the muzzle of a laser weapon.

Justin snapped the index and little fingers of his left hand up to form a crude open sight for the weapon. He centered the door's lock between the two fingers, then tightened the muscles of his upper arm. A coruscating green beam of laser light stabbed deep into the door's lock. In seconds the mechanism boiled away to nothingness and the beam snapped off abruptly.

Justin frowned as smoke rose through from the cloth of his sleeve. Damn. The lasing cell is gone. I'd hoped to coax more than three shots out of it.He moved his left hand back down into place and flexed it. Mindless of the heat, he reached his left hand into the lockhole and pulled the door open.

Alexi Malenkov had backed himself into the corner of his cell like a wild animal. "It won't work, Justin. I know about friend/foe interrogation techniques. I don't care how elaborate your charade is, I won't tell you anything!"

The wildness in Alexi's blue eyes and the fear in his voice told Justin that his former aide was near the breaking point. Justin opened his hands. "Come with me, Alexi. Davion troops have landed and they'll rip this place apart looking for you. I'm going to give you up and defect at the same time. My position here is no longer tenable."

The hope that flashed in Alexi's eyes sank beneath utter disbelief. "No. It won't work. You'd never do that. You hate the Federated Suns more than Maximilian Liao himself."

Justin's face hardened. "Have it your way. I'm doing this for you, this once. I owe you. For Bethel."

The anger in Justin's voice shocked its way through Alexi's delirium. The Federated agent slumped forward and Justin caught him. "Can you walk, Alexi. Can you?"

Haggard and exhausted, Alexi nodded weakly. "Some. My feet hurt, but I'll manage." His right arm, which he'd draped over Justin's shoulders, tightened down around Justin's neck. "Never work, Justin!"

Justin, feeling the arm move, ducked his head out of the stranglehold and shoved Alexi across the hallway into the wall. Alexi rebounded, turning to face the Maskirovka agent, but Justin laid him out with a right hook to the jaw. Alexi slumped down over the body of the guard.

* * *

Andrew blasted an Enforcerthat barred his way to the Palace 'Mech bay. The Liao 'Mech's autoca

Like a living creature suffering a stroke, the Enforcershuddered when its right flank ignited. The torso muscles controlling movement of the right arm burned through in an instant, dropping the autoca

Three long strides deeper into the fog brought Andrew to the Palace 'Mech bay doors. He hammered both of the Marauder'sarms in overhand blows against the doors. Amid the screams of torn metal hinges and snapping chains, half of the doors collapsed and green vapor drifted into the bay.

Andrew moved with it, and toward the back of the structure, he found what he was looking for. Yen-lo-wangstood silent and solitary guard beside the entrance to the Palace proper. Andrew smiled, raising the Marauder'sarms in a silent challenge, then noticed that the 'Mech's canopy hung open and the pilot's ladder had been run out from the cockpit to the floor.

He walked the Marauderover beside the Centurion,then hunkered down. If you aren't here now, you will be later. I can wait.He nodded to himself as he watched the door into the Palace. I can wait as long as it takes.

Justin knelt by Alexi, pressing two fingers to either side of the man's Adam's apple to check his pulse. Rapid and strong. Good.

Justin looked at the filthy prison clothes they'd given Alexi and at the burn marks on his toes from where they'd strapped electrodes during interrogation. All that and you didn't break? Where the hell does my father find people like you?

Justin hefted Alexi up onto his left shoulder and carried him from the security cell area. As he ascended the stairs from the depths of the dungeons, the sounds of fighting grew louder and the thick scent of burning myomer hung in the air. Panicked servants ran through the hallways and corridors, but no one so much as slowed when they saw Justin.

The Maskirovka man chewed his lower lip. I have Alexi out of his cell. Now how do I get the both of us to the Feds?An even larger problem loomed up in his mind. And how the hell do I get out of here?

He glanced down the corridor leading to the 'Mech bay. With all the fighting going on outside,Yen-lo-wang seems to make sense. Everything I need's in there.Smiling, Justin kicked open the door to the 'Mech bay and stepped through.

His smile died as the Marauderreared up on its feet and shoved both arms toward him. Andrew Redburn's voice, full of anger and ridicule, burst from the Marauder'sexternal speakers. "I knew you'd come here, Justin Xiang, and I've been waiting." Andrew's cruel laughter filled the bay. "Any last words before I blow you away?"

50

Nusakan

Isle of Skye, Lyran Commonwealth

24 October 3029

Daniel Allard tightbeamed a radio message to Morgan Kell as his Archermarched into the arena. "Colonel, don't! You don't have to do this. We're not back on Mallory's World. We can take them—even after fighting against the Fifth Sword, we outnumber them."

Morgan's deep voice came back strong and calm. "Thank you for that observation, Captain Allard. What you do not realize is that, in the end, it would come down to this fight between Yorinaga Kurita and me. It's better this way."

Dan frowned, but words failed him as Yorinaga's Warhammer,in its march to the arena, moved into Dan's sights. Automatically, Dan's right hand kept the crosshairs trained on the large, PPC-armed BattleMech, but his computer never even acknowledged the Warhammer's existence. Just like Morgan on Mallory's World and just the way Yorinaga was when he killed Patrick Kell.