Coupe

Justin nodded. "We've no idea when they will strike?"

Tsen shook his head. "We've issued orders calling up all reserves. The militia is being reinforced with older MechWarriors, and we've told everyone that we have troops on the way to bolster the defenses. We've initiated the creation of Youth Squads and are training them with Inferno and SRM launchers. We expect them to use the city terrain to good effect to harass the invaders. Davion's people will find it far more costly to take our worlds than during the first wave of assaults."

Justin smiled. "Good. What's the problem?"

The Chancellor frowned darkly as he pulled a folded sheet of paper from his tunic. "This message arrived today from Colonel Archibald McCarron! He says he's moving his remaining four regiments from their garrison worlds to Palos! I gave no such order!" Color flooded Liao's face as his fist crumpled the message. "At my request, Tsen Shang checked and found that the order went out over your signature."

Despite the Chancellor's wrath, Justin sat back in his chair. "Good. Very good."

"What?" Shang shook his head in disbelief. "Palos is a hideous place to deploy a crack mercenary unit like McCarron's Armored Cavalry. Are you mad? Stripping them from the Capellan March border leaves us open to an assault on Sian."

Justin pressed his hands to the tabletop as he stood. "No, gentlemen and ladies, I am not mad. I have merely averted a catastrophe." He glanced at Shang. "What happened to McCarron's first regiment?"

The distrust in Shang's eyes dropped away as he thought about Justin's question. "Davion forces destroyed it utterly in battles on Arboris and Basal."

Justin nodded, the hint of a wry smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "No quarter asked or given because of McCarron's raid into the Federated Suns six, seven years ago. McCarron's Armored Cavalry severely embarrassed the Federated Suns then, and Hanse Davion returned the favor in the first part of his attack. How do you think that makes McCarron feel?"

Shang allowed himself a smile. "He's anxious to prove he's top dog again, and he wants revenge."

Justin lightly tapped the table with his metal fist. "Exactly." He glanced up at the Chancellor. "McCarron's always been a loose cannon. We've granted him duty on worlds that don't need protecting because it puts him in striking distance of worlds that do. Inefficient perhaps, but it works to keep a top-flight merc unit fighting for us at reduced rates.

"Well, this little action of McCarron's is on his own tab. He wanted to hurt the Federated Suns, and he was going to do something whether we gave him permission or not. I recognized this and cut him some marching orders."

The Chancellor's dark eyes half shut, then he nodded slowly. "I see the wisdom in your action. You guided a flood you knew you could not stop. Still, I would debate the wisdom of posting them on Palos. That world may produce the finest champagne in the Successor States, but it is not a military target worth defending."

"I agree, Universal Master. McCarron's Armored Cavalry is really on Sarna."

Justin's words shocked everyone in the room. The Maskirovka analyst slowly nodded his head in response to the unspoken question. "Yes, McCarron and I worked out a code. He is on Sarna, but his message says he is on Palos. That is where Hanse Davion's people will believe him to be. From Sarna, McCarron can hit any world Davion is likely to attack in his next wave."

Candace swiveled her chair around. "Do you believe there is a spy in our midst?"

Justin pursed his lips and thought for a moment before answering. "I don't know for certain, but I feel we are dealing with a traitor."

Shang's head came up. "Why?" His question, voiced without hostility, told Justin the same idea had been nibbling at the edges of his mind.

Justin straightened up. "The first thing that made me suspicious was how easily Pavel Ridzik seems to have eluded the assassin we sent to deal with him. She was perfect. She played to his libido and he stopped thinking. The bomb she used leveled half a block, but he'd already managed to escape the restaurant and the immediate vicinity. He had to have been warned, and his quick alliance with Hanse Davion suggests repayment of a debt."

Shang nodded in agreement. "The problem is that we had a long chain of agents working on that case. Any of them could have let the word slip."

Justin wavered. "Perhaps, but I think the leak comes from here in Sian. Davion might have learned Ridzik was to be hit by someone in a chain, but only a leak at the beginning would have given him the time to arrange for Ridzik's evacuation."

"Point taken." Shang looked up the Chancellor, and Maximilian nodded.

Justin continued. "In addition to that incident, I got to thinking about what Michael Hasek-Davion claimed before he died. He said Hanse had been giving him false data. We discounted that idea because we knew Michael had given us less than 100 percent-reliable information. But what if he was telling the truth for once? Hanse would need someone inside the Maskirovka to make certain any good data we got was diverted while our reliance on Michael's information crippled us."

Romano sat forward like a cat readying to pounce. "Who? Who could it be?"

"It is easier, my Lady of Highspire, to tell you who I do notsuspect." He glanced around the room. "I trust everyone here, and Alexi Malenkov, but no one else."

Candace stiffened. "Not even the Chancellor's wife?"

Justin hesitated. Tsen, Alexi, and I know that Elizabeth Liao had an affair with Pavel Ridzik, but that information was to have gone no further.A glance at Romano shook his confidence, but the expression on the Chancellor's face quickly drew all his attention. What is going on?

Pain and confusion fought for control of the Chancellor's countenance. "Leave her out of this. She will come back."

Romano twisted around. "Father, divorce her. Sentence her to Brazen Heart. You always forgive her when she deserts you, only to return penitent. Wash your hands of the slut!"

Maximilian Liao stiffened with anger, which seemed to infuse his body with life again. "I will not be lectured to by a spoiled whelp, Romano. I am the Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation! I have proved my worth to my nation over and over again! What I wish to forgive and forget concerning the woman I married after your mother died is my business. It is not a subject I choose to discuss with a petulant, landless noblewoman!"

Most others would have withered under Liao's harsh rebuke, but not Romano. She calmly blinked her green eyes at him, catlike as ever. She lowered herself to her place at his feet, but refrained from leaning against him.

Justin looked up at Liao's angry face. If the Chancellor's wife has taken off again, we must find her. Prince Hanse Davion would have a field day with her defection.He narrowed his eyes. It will have to be suggested, but not here and not at this time. I'll put Alexi on it quietly.

Tsen filled the awkward silence with a question. "What have you done about this traitor idea?"

"I've had Alexi double-checking some communications records, but it's a big job for just one person. I've been busy delivering Michael's body and preparing for Operation Intruders Communion."

Maximilian Liao closed his eyes like a sunning lion. "Tsen Shang, you will take over the investigation of the possible spy in our midst. He or she will be found and taken alive. I will have Davion's entire network on Sian."

"Yes, Celestial Wisdom." Shang nodded his head, then looked over at Romano as she tugged on his sleeve. The virulence in her eyes clearly shocked him. He tried to shake his head to divert her will, but she would have none of his reluctance.

Romano stared daggers at Justin. "This extravagant 'command circuit' you have created for your personal quest is using up far too much in the way of JumpShip resources. We cannot transport troops efficiently because of it. You are costing us this war."