Clovis smiled easily. "I have people as well, father."
The Duke heard his words, but placed different emphasis on them. "Father," he said, musing over the sound of the word. "How often have I been jealous of other men who have children? There I was, a strategist without equal, a political leader who is a god in his own realm, yet I had no heir, no future on which to build. I would look at some halfwit peasant toiling on an agro-combine, with a dozen wailing brats surrounding him like a pack of mongrels. I could not understand my fate because I knew God had chosen me for great things."
Lestrade smiled at his son. "Now I see that it makes sense. It does not surprise me that you have followers of your own. That would only be natural. I can see it in you, the Lestrade fire. You can speak passionately and make people listen. You can inflame them and direct them. How many are your followers? What is your power base?"
Clovis's dark eyes hardened. "It was a small community on Lyons. It was called New Freedom and it died when you ordered the Kell Hounds to abandon the world."
The Duke frowned for a moment as the pain in Clovis's voice confused him, but his dreams of empire carried him away again. "It was too bad about that. But the important thing is that you survived." The horror of losing the son he'd not known sent a tremor through him. "Do you have a son? Am I a grandfather?"
Clovis shook his head. "Not yet."
The Duke laughed aloud. "But you will, Clovis. You will. I will arrange for you a marriage that will strengthen our ties with the Tamar Pact. When your son assumes the throne, he will rule a realm a third the size of the Lyran Commonwealth."
Clovis shook his head. "I'm afraid you don't understand why I am here. Just as you killed your father, I will kill you. First, I wanted you to know who I am, and that your foul line ends with you."
The joy on Lestrade's face melted into outrage, then changed to calculated pity. With his right hand, the Duke tugged on his artificial left hand, bending it all the way back against his forearm. At his wrist, the barrel of a laser pistol popped out and pointed directly at Clovis.
The Duke shook his head. "I am not as stupid as my father. I am never without a weapon."
Clovis laughed at him. "As I told you before, I've been in this castle for two days. I learned about your little trick from the computer and I drained the battery cell last night after you removed the arm to sleep."
Lestrade stabbed the laser at Clovis, but no beam shot from it to impale him. The Duke levered himself out of the chair and raised the plastic and steel limb. "It does not matter! You are nothing! I will crush you!" He took one step toward the dwarf, then clutched at his chest. The Duke sank heavily to his knees before pitching forward onto his face.
Clovis approached him, pleased to see his father's breath moistening the cold marble floor. "I'm a Lestrade, father. I've been here two days and you never saw me. I would have remained here a week or a month or a year if I had to."
Clovis lifted the Duke's head just enough so the man could see the sideboard. "Were I acting just for myself, or the people you caused to be murdered at New Freedom, I would have killed you cleanly. But in your attempt to kill the Archon, you had my best friend's lover killed. You gave Daniel Allard untold pain—pain he does not deserve—and for that, I decided to break you. The only reason you saw me tonight, Father,is because you were moving to drink from the brandy I poisoned when I first got here. I just wanted to see your face when you realized that you would die a complete and utter failure."
Clovis laid the Duke's head back down on the cold floor, then walked away, leaving Aldo Lestrade to die very, very much alone.
48
Nusakan
Isle of Skye, Lyran Commonwealth
24 October 3029
Chu-saAkira Brahe left his company under the command of Jack Seaborg to pace his way through the Genyoshacolumn. Pulling parallel to his father's Warhammer,he keyed up a radio link. Sumimasen, Tai-sa Yorinaga.Please speak with me on our private channel."
His father's voice came after a moment's hesitation. "Hai."After a short buzz of static, Yorinaga Kurita's voice again filled Akira's neurohelmet. "As you asked for this conference by addressing me by rank, I shall assume we will speak only of military matters?"
Akira winced at the anxiety mixed with an uncharacteristic eagerness in his father's voice. What we are to face both worries and exhilarates him. The calm that seemed the core of his being erodes as he draws closer to his meeting with Morgan Kell.He drew in a deep breath in a weak attempt to allay his own anxiety. "Hai, sosen.My primary concern is military, but it does not smother all else that I feel. But the Way of the Sword enables me to put aside personal concerns to consider the military necessities of a situation."
Yorinaga's laughter brought a smile to Akira's lips as the Mech-Warrior stepped his Orionaround a wind-carved dolmen. "Well put, Chu-saBrahe. I am rebuked for placing my personal concerns ahead of military ones, though, in actuality, I have not done so."
Akira frowned. A desert wind swirled red dust up into a bloody dervish that coated both lead 'Mechs with a layer of ochre. He glanced at his heat monitor and noticed that because of the external temperature, his 'Mech's monitor lights were already creeping into the yellow cautionary zone.
"Forgive me, Tai-sa,if your statement confuses me. Ever since you learned that Palmer Conti—at loose ends because of the attack on Dromini VI—jumped his Fifth Sword of Light Regiment in here to destroy the Kell Hounds ahead of us, you have driven us hard in a race you knew we could not win. You've heard the reports of combat communications. You know they joined in battle twenty hours ago, and you know it will be over by the time we get there."
In the silence that greeted his words, Akira visualized his father slowly shaking his head. "Chu-saBrahe, I think you have made an error. Do you mean to suggest that I have pushed the Genyoshaacross this sandstone and lava-rock desert because I fear Conti will kill Morgan Kell?"
Akira swallowed against the fear gnawing at his stomach. "I think you have become wrapped up in personal rivalries. You even ignored a priority transmission from the Coordinator himself, directing you to break off this personal vendetta."
The strength in Yorinaga's voice reassured his son that his father had not abandoned reason. "You will learn, Akira, that there are times when your masters do not know what is right and proper in the world. The message from the Coordinator had obviously been garbled in transmission, for he would never deny me this battle with Morgan Kell. As for my haste in reaching the Kell Hounds, it is not based on any fear that the Fifth Sword of Light will rob me of my battle, or out of a desire to kill Palmer Conti. He is insignificant, and his quarrel with me is a war waged on his side alone. Indeed, I hurry us along because I merely wish to save the Dragon the embarrassment of their total destruction at the hands of the Kell Hounds."
Anger flared up in Akira. "Why is it you concern yourself with the Coordinator's honor? He denied you release while you waited in exile, then promised you the Kell Hounds' destruction as part of the price for your cooperation and leadership in the Genyosha.He has vacillated in his treatment of us, supporting us one moment, then leaving us like orphans to be spat on by units like the Fifth Sword. Even this last message, the one you choose to see as garbled, is meant to deny you vindication. You guard his honor, yet he gives you nothing but shame."