Morgan turned to face the remnants of the Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers. "You are all that's left of the best fighting unit the Capellan March ever had. Through audacity, quick thinking, and foresight, you escaped the careful trap laid down by McCarron's Armored Cavalry. You took risks no one could ever have anticipated. In so doing, you saved yourselves and others. You are survivors, and we need that quality in the Lions."
Lastly, Morgan looked at the militia. "You we need most of all. You have the enthusiasm that has turned to cynicism for some of us over the years. You don't see things as impossible because there's so much you've yet to try. Besides that, you all know this world better than we could ever hope to. You know the places where the maps are wrong, and you know details about things that no gazetteer could ever tell us. Most important, you have a love for this world that can become contagious. It will keep us going when all might seem lost, and it could give us the edge we need to destroy the invaders."
Morgan wet his lips. "As your commander, I promise you one thing. I may have to give you assignments that could kill you, but I will never issue you a suicidal order. I will never abandon you to the enemy. The Lions will be one force, one power. Together, we will prevail."
Morgan again hunched forward over the podium. "Mark me, gentlemen and ladies. We will win because we mustwin. Liao's forces are coming here to claim victory for themselves. We will battle against a wanton carnage that could suck mankind down into another Dark Age. We cannot allow it. We willnot allow it. Ours will be a victory for all mankind, a beacon of hope for the future."
38
Nusakan
Isle of Skye, Lyran Commonwealth
3 September 3029
Daniel Allard's smile died as he passed through the circular doorway into Morgan Kell's office. The pain and sorrow on Morgan's face filled him with cold dread. "What's happened, Colonel?" Dan knotted the Sanglamore sash off over his left ear. "They caught me right before I went out on patrol saying you had a message from the Archon ..."
Morgan Kell looked down helplessly at his hands. "The message was sent before we left Lyons for our wait here on Nusakan. ComStar sent it to New Freedom. It was broken down there, re-encrypted and sent here." His head came up, and he pointed to a chair in front of his desk. "Have a seat, Dan. You'll want to hear this sitting down."
Dan crossed the plaster-walled room to sit in an old log chair. News from the Federated Suns would come through the Archon because of the Interdiction. What's happened to my family?Clad only a cooling vest and shorts, Dan gripped the chair's rough-hewn arms.
Morgan said nothing, but reached out and touched the controls on a holovid viewer. The dark screen brightened to show the Archon sitting on her throne. Barely visible behind her, and then lost as soon as the camera zoomed in on her handsome face were the legs of the two
Griffin
Katrina swallowed hard before she began. "I extend to you, Captain Allard, the greetings of the Lyran Commonwealth. With all the gratitude I owe you for past services, I consider this message loathsome and unfortunately cruel. It's a duty I would avoid, but it's best you hear it from me than from anyone else."
She drew in a deep breath. "On the 20th of June, three assassins disguised as members of the AFFS gained access to the Triad. Their papers were in order, and two of them were escorted to my private office. I was chatting amicably with them while we waited for Simon Johnson, head of the LIC and your father's counterpart in my realm. The third individual paid a social call on my daughter."
Dan felt as though his mind and body went numb except for one thought, Jeana, my Jeana, is Melissa's double. That assassin went to see Jeana!
The Archon nodded, as though anticipating Dan's thoughts even as she had recorded the message. "Jeana recognized the assassin as an impostor and dealt with him. She appropriated his pistol, and by traversing a series of hidden passageways in the Triad, entered my office through a secret door. She confronted the other two assassins and killed them before they could do me any harm."
The Archon paused for a moment, biting back tears. "She died without pain, but not before knowing she had succeeded in eliminating the threat to my life. For obvious reasons of security, her mortal remains were cremated. Her ashes have been interred in the Steiner crypt beneath the Triad. If you wish, the crypt will be open to you at any time."
Katrina Steiner looked out of the monitor and gave Dan a brave smile. "In the time she was here, Jeana and I became close friends. She spoke of you often and was overjoyed that her gift had indeed kept you safe. Never doubt that she loved you, Captain Allard, and know that she lives on in our hearts."
The screen faded to black and left Dan with a hollow pit in his chest. His throat ached because of the emotions beginning to choke him, yet his feelings did not flood over him. They were there, waiting, just waiting, like thunderstorms on the horizon.
Dan looked over at Morgan. "I felt I'd known her all my life, yet I knew nothing about her. That she was"—he hesitated at the word—" 'safe' on Tharkad made things easier for me. I knew we'd be apart and that I'd not hear from her, so I just walled off the worry and pain of separation." He shrugged helplessly. "Now I want to feel something, but it's empty ... just a void in me."
He pulled the green silken sash from his head and picked at the knot. "I never even knew her full name."
Morgan hesitated, then began to speak quietly. "Her name was Jeana Clay. She was born in 3002 on Poulsbo, where she lived with her father and mother. Her father died in 3005 in a raid on the Bangor military facility there, enabling Katrina Steiner, Arthur Luvon, and me to escape from the Loki agents Alessandro had sent to kill us."
Stunned, Dan looked up at his commanding officer. "How do you ... ? Why didn't you tell me before?" Anger flashed through him, but ultimately proved as elusive as the other emotions he'd sought to capture. A realization formed itself into one word and he repeated that word in a hushed voice. "Heimdall."
Morgan nodded. "Jeana and her family were Heimdall. I don't believe Clay was her original surname—I only knew her father as Grison. After our return to the Lyran Commonwealth, Arthur Luvon created and had placed into the LIC computers a whole series of new identities for the families and survivors of the Poulsbo Heimdall cell that helped us. In fact, it was through a scholarship created by Arthur that Jeana went to Sanglamore."
Dan sank back into the chair and pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes. "All this sleight of hand. Melissa's double is a woman who belongs to an opposition movement. Duke Aldo Lestrade's son belongs to the same group, and his father does the best he can to cause a whole Heimdall settlement on New Freedom to be destroyed. Secret files in the LIC computer." His hands fell away from his eyes. "Simon Johnson would go mad if he knew about this."
Morgan shook his head slowly. "I don't think so." He stood and came around to sit on the front of his desk. "Simon Johnson is the one who put Jeana's new identity in the computer, and her connection with Heimdall is the reason Johnson selected her to be Melissa's double."