"I fail to see how sending a message ahead ordering them to wait can be considered luck." Galen smiled and a little color came back to his face. "Actually, I'm anxious to see Avalon City—during the day, that is. An air tour at three in the morning is fine, but it lacks the color promised in all the travel brochures."
Victor nodded sharply. "And you shall have that tour, my friend. Tomorrow night we go out and celebrate. We celebrate our being alive, and if the message from the Jade Falcons is correct, we celebrate Kai's return from the dead!"
"Only Kai." The blond Hauptmann shook his head. "He probably waskilled on Alyina—several times over in fact, but he came back because you had a deal to meet in twenty years and he didn't want to disappoint you."
Victor remembered Kai's smiling face and the suicidal charge Yen-lo-wangmade to save his life on Alyina. Somehow I would not put it past him to return from the dead.He sobered up for a moment. "I wonder if Kai knows his parents are dead?"
Galen shrugged. "I don't think he could get all the way to New Avalon without someone expressing their regrets to him along the way."
"Tomorrow I'll record a holovid and send it out Alpha Priority. My father had wanted me to break the news to him. If I can't do that, I can express my sympathy."
"I think Kai would like that."
Victor saw the palace swing into view through the porthole on the starboard side. "We're over the Peace Park right now. See, that's the palace. The front remains lit up at night for insomniac tourists, which is why private quarters are around back in the dark. Only offices occupy the front quarter."
Galen pointed to one set of three windows lit from inside. "Fancy that, the government has night owls."
Victor squinted and used his left hand to form a view-finder. "Not surprising. That's my father's office. He probably fell asleep at his desk again."
The two men laughed as the helicopter swooped over the palace, then settled down in the middle of a ring of lights out by the back lawn. Victor thanked the pilot, and the two of them disembarked. Running hunched over, they cleared the circle and clutched their caps against the air blast as the helicopter climbed into the air again.
As they straightened up, a man in the uniform of the Intelligence Ministry's Bodyguard service saluted. "Welcome home, Prince Victor. Per your radio instructions, no one has been notified of your arrival. The household is asleep."
Victor nodded. "My father is still in his office?"
"Yes, sir, at least he was five minutes ago. Minister Mallory brought him a priority holodisk about an hour ago, but your father viewed it in private."
"As you said, the household is asleep."
The bodyguard smiled. "I believe so, sir." He looked over at Galen. "We have Hauptmann Cox billeted in the suite down the hall from your rooms. Just use your service number as your lock code, Hauptmann."
"Thank you, Leftenant."
Victor started walking toward the Palace's rear entrance, and the security man fell into step on his left while Galen secured his right. "I think we will slip in and surprise my father, then retire for the night."
"Perhaps you will be more successful at persuading him to get some proper rest, Highness. He spends so much time in his office that the men guarding him must have sunk roots into the hall by now."
Victor smiled as he heard the concern in the man's words. "I appreciate your frankness, Leftenant. I will see what I can do."
The Leftenant returned to his own office on the ground floor while Victor and Galen climbed a broad marble staircase to the third floor. Turning right at a massive bronze statue of Ares, they entered a long corridor lined with white marble pillars. The walls were decorated with an elaborate mural depicting the history of House Davion. Victor slowed so Galen could study the painting.
"This is it, Galen, the history of humanity according to the Davions."
His companion grinned. "A tad solipsistic, but I don't have to mind it now because we're all one big happy family, right?"
"Well, it does help that the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth never really got a chance to go at each other." Victor sniffed the air in an exaggerated way. "Hmmm, no new paint. I guess they haven't immortalized the Revenants yet."
"Damn, ignored by history again!" Galen grumbled lightly.
The two guards at the door to Hanse Davion's office snapped to attention and saluted when Victor approached. Both Mech Warriors returned the salutes, then one of the guards quiedy opened the heavy bronze door. Victor and Galen slipped into the room noiselessly and shared a smile.
Hanse Davion sat in a big, wingback chair behind his desk. The chair had been turned so they could glimpse only a bit of his profile. The Prince faced the holodisk viewer built into the oaken cabinets on the far side of the room, but his chin had dropped to his chest, and he looked to be sleeping.
As Victor approached his father's desk, the holovid viewer speakers suddenly began to play muted strains of the Capellan anthem. Victor turned to look at the screen, which showed the Capellan crest dissolving into the image of Sun-Tzu Liao. He stopped short and Galen stopped behind him.
Sun-Tzu smiled slowly. "Prince Davion, in attending to the affairs of state subsequent to the deaths of my parents, I came across the holodisk your agent, Justin Allard, had left for my grandfather. I believe you are aware that this holodisk was the straw that broke my grandfather's last feeble grasp on reality. I also believe it unbalanced—or further unbalanced—my mother's mental state. In light of the effect it had on them, I thought I would return the courtesy and record this for you.
"Of course, I know you are too strong for the recording to affect you the way it did them." The new Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation seated himself on the edge of a stone desk. "Still, if this provides for an hour or two of sleeplessness on your part, I will consider the expense more than worth it."
Victor glanced over at his sleeping father and grinned. "Wrong again, Sun-Tzu."
"As you know, Prince Davion, my realm is small and not that powerful. The St. Ives Compact is poised at our belly like a knife. My uncle, Tormana, is active in the occupation zone you call your Sarna March. He agitates against us, infiltrates agents into the Confederation, and constantly bellows about invading and liberating the rest of the Confederation. Of course, acting as your agent in a war of conquest is hardly what I would call an act of liberation.
"I realize the utter folly of attacking him or the St. Ives Compact, for you would immediately crush my tiny nation-state. However, even pledging never to attack you cannot relieve me of the threat you pose to my realm. For this reason, I have taken steps to ensure our survival."
The camera slowly zoomed in toward Sun-Tzu. "Again, in a tradition you started with my grandfather, I wanted to convey to you personally my marriage plans. I have asked for and been granted the hand of Isis Marik in marriage. The ceremony will take place on Atreus later this year. I would give you exact details or even an invitation, but having heard of your conduct at the last wedding between two realms, I thought it wiser to leave you at home."
Victor stared at the screen, unbelieving. Sun-Tzu marrying a Marik? That backs up the Confederation with the might of the Free Worlds League, who are now producing new 'Mechs and equipment designed to fight the Clans. How much of that will be diverted to shore up the Confederation's defense?
"I bid you a fond adieu, Prince Davion. Do devote all your resources to fighting the Clans. You do notwant to go to war with me."
The image faded, then the Capellan crest came up and the anthem started again. Disgust on his face, Victor pointed at the machine. "It's on an endless loop. Shut it off." He turned toward his father. "It's a wonder he could sleep through that."