Akira frowned heavily, irritation and anger like sparks in his tawny eyes. He nervously ran the fingers of his left hand through his close-cropped bronze hair. "It makes no sense, sosen.Why would the mercenaries do this?"
Yorinaga turned slowly toward his son. "No sense? Explain to me what confuses you."
Akira, stung by his father's tone, stiffened. "Do you askthis as my father, or order it as the Tai-saof the GenyoshaT'
Yorinaga bowed his gray-haired head. "Sumimasen,Akira. Forgive me. I did not mean to rebuke you or seem to question your abilities." Yorinaga looked again at the pattern of destruction. "It is just that I desire to see all this with your eyes. Perhaps your eyes are less blind than mine."
Akira nodded. "I wonder about more than just what the Kell Hounds did to our base. It makes sense to me that they would destroy it. They would have expected us to be here, and we were not." Akira waved a hand to take in the full circle of ruins. "The strange thing is that their actions were inconsistent with what our Internal Security Forces tell us about the tactics of mercenary scum."
Akira licked his lips. The ISF tells us all mercenaries are without honor, but I did not see that on Northwind when fighting against Team Banzai or even the group masquerading as the Kell Hounds Third 'Mech Battalion, Bradley's Bravos. They fought for more than money. They fought like true warriors.
Yorinaga allowed himself a brief smile. "I am certain reports of this incident will cause some confusion in the court at Luthien. While we are out attacking Northwind because the ISF reported the Kell Hounds are there, the Kell Hounds have penetrated Combine security and learned of our home base. They hit it, only to find we are not here, while we discover they are not at Northwind."
Akira smiled. "Luthien will also have to puzzle over why the Kell Hounds ordered all the civilians to clear out from the base, and why they gave them five hours to move all of the Genyosha'spersonal effects from the buildings they intended to destroy." Akira looked down at the building on which they stood. "And they'll wonder why the command center was spared."
Yorinaga narrowed his eyes. "Morgan Kell ordered the civilians out and allowed them to move our possessions because he wanted it clearly understood that his war has nothing to do with the Draconis Combine, or even the Genyosha."Yorinaga looked at his son. "And the reason he left this building standing is because it was from this point that he orchestrated the base's ruin."
Yorinaga pointed toward a pile of debris. "See where the natatorium stood? Notice how the stones seem scattered randomly, but fall in a cross-shaped pattern beside that largest pile?"
Akira shrugged. "I supposed some Christians had arranged those stones in memory of a comrade they believed trapped in the building when it was destroyed."
The Genyosha'sleader smiled. "Your assumption was correct, but you attribute it to someone here on Nashira. You will recall that the ISF learned that Morgan Kell retreated to a Christian monastery on Zaniah while I was in exile on Echo. Kell ordered the stones laid in that pattern to mark the place where his brother died."
Akira frowned, trying to remember the name of the world where Patrick Kell had been slain. That happened back before I joined theGenyosha. "Styx? That system is just a collection of asteroids." Akira smacked his right palm against his forehead. "Just as the natatorium is reduced to a collection of blocks."
Yorinaga smiled, pleased with his son's perception. "This building represents Terra, and the rubble piles mark the location of worlds to a rough distance of 130 light years out."
Though never schooled in astronavigation, Akira had learned enough from talking with JumpShip crewmembers to recognize the placement of some worlds. "Why, sosen?What earthly purpose could this star map have?"
Yorinaga drew in a deep breath. "As you have guessed, the sort of blind stabs we, the Genyosha,and the Kell Hounds, engaged in back in January could continue forever. We might never be at the same place at the same time, and Morgan Kell took precautions against that happening again."
Yorinaga pointed at a ruin off toward the northeast. "That pile represents the Steiner world of Ryde. Around it you can see three smaller piles of bricks—these taken from buildings other than the one transformed into Ryde. They represent the world's three moons."
Akira nodded. "They are positioned in a manner that indicates when the Genyoshashould appear there?"
"In June," Yorinaga said. "Only a month from now. We can just make it in time."
Akira drew himself up to his full height. "Sumimasen, Tai-sa,put it down to my mother's Scandinavian blood or to my poor training with the Eleventh Legion of Vega, but how do you know this will not be a trap?"
Yorinaga shook his head slowly. "Morgan Kell would not do that. No, this is the last act in a play that began sixteen years ago on Mallory's World."
The garish light of Nashira's red moon painted scarlet highlights over Akira's face. "That would be 3013. I thought your fight with Morgan Kell took place in 3016."
Yorinaga closed his eyes and tried to relax, but Akira saw the tension in his father's slender frame. "Kell and I first opposed each other in 3013. My battalion of the Second Sword of Light had succeeded in trapping the command company of the Fourth Davion Guards in a maze of canyons. Our aerowing controlled the skies over this area, which prevented the Davion Guards from jumping scouts onto the ridgelines to find a way out. With the fighters to spot for us, we knew where to hunt for our quarry, but without scouts, they did not know where to run or hide."
Yorinaga massaged his forehead with his left hand. "If ever there was a glorious battle, this was it. Prince Ian Davion, on sheer strength of personality, kept his troops together. He sprang ambushes on us, but never let his rear guard get trapped. On the few occasions when we engaged his people in a real firefight, the Prince's Atlaswas always the last 'Mech to withdraw.
"We finally trapped the company in a canyon that tapered down into a narrow route out. Prince Ian held my people back, delivering salvo after salvo of long-range missile fire that savaged the 'Mechs of my command. When his missiles were exhausted, he used his autocannon and medium lasers to halt our advance as his command trickled out of the canyon."
Yorinaga's eyes snapped open. "You should have seen it, Akira. That Atlasshrugged off our assaults as though they were pesky flies. Armor flew from the 'Mech in sheets of molten debris, but Ian Davion made no move to retreat. Here he was, leader of the Federated Suns, almost as important as Takashi Kurita himself, but he would not turn and run. Seldom is such a warrior born outside the Combine."
Yorinaga's nostrils flared as he remembered, and Akira listened, spellbound. "I ordered my troops back, then brought my Warhammerforward to engage the Prince. We both knew I would kill him, but I believe he took comfort in knowing I would give him a warrior's death.
"He was magnificent in battle. He moved his Atlaswith an agility I've seen in only a handful of Mech Warriors. His last volley with the autocannon all but tore off my Warhammer'sleft arm and his lasers raked over my armor like the claws of some angry beast. He was spectacular, but I was better."