“I suppose he did."
"Indeed, Leftenant, he did. Have you forgotten the Community Relations Committee meetings each week? Have you forgotten how he liked to take his first meal in the restaurants of Shaoshan upon returning from field exercises? Have you forgotten his hiring indigs to work as personal servants in his home?"
Redburn looked down at the polished wood-tile floor. "No, sir."
Vitios's voice lost none of its edge. "Why were you stationed on Kittery, Leftenant?"
Redburn's head snapped back up and his anger rocketed through his answer. "To protect the world and the frontier."
"From whom, Leftenant?"
Redburn spat out his answer. "From the Capellan forces of Maximilian Liao."
"The very people the Major spent so much time with. Correct, Leftenant?" Before Redburn could answer, Vitios pressed a new question upon him. "Do you know Shang Dao?"
What the hell is he getting at now?Redburn nodded. "I was introduced to him."
"By Major Allard?"
"Yes."
Vitios nodded. "Isn't Shang Dao the leader of the Yizhi tong in Shaoshan?"
Redburn frowned. "I believe he is."
Vitios canted his head slightly. "I thought the CID had identified the Yizhi tong as a Capellan organization, and that contact between Federated Suns personnel and the tong was forbidden. In fact, you dismissed a cadet on a charge of trafficking with restricted personnel, didn't you?"
Redburn hesitated. "I. . . it was not like that."
Courtney glared down at Redburn from the bench. "Answer the question, Leftenant."
"Yes, sir." Redburn held up his head. "The cadet was dismissed for his addiction to opium. We felt the problem would lapse once he left Kittery, and we did not want the charge of opium substance abuse to haunt him for the rest of his life."
Vitios almost smiled. "Commendable, Leftenant, but the fact remains that Major Allard regularly met with Shang Dao in violation of the CID directives, didn't he?"
Redburn hung his head. "Yes, sir."
Vitios turned back to the prosecution desk and picked up a file. "I have here, and have entered into the record, a transcript of your 'Mech's battle-recorder. In reviewing your transcript, and the transcripts from the other 'Mechs in the battalion, I must congratulate you on your quick thinking and calm under fire. You saved your command from a savage ambush."
Redburn nodded. He shot a glance toward the defense table, and died inside. Leftenant Lofton, Justin's lawyer, was urgently whispering something into his client's ear, but the Major gave no sign of hearing him. He just stared straight ahead, as though trying to burn a hole through the courtroom's gray marble walls by force of will.
When Vitios smiled, he might have been a python spotting a fat pig. "We know the Capellan 'Mechs were waiting for you. Why was that?"
"We are required to file forms with the civilian government in Shaoshan detailing where we plan to travel."
Vitios nodded. "Shang Dao is a member of the civilian government, isn't he?"
Redburn shrugged. "That information is not very secret, your Lordship. When we stopped at noon that day, food peddlers from Shaoshan came out and sold us lunch."
Vitios frowned, but Redburn cut off any comment. "Sir, we MechWarriors bake inside our machines. None of us want to eat anything that's been cooked in the same oven if we can avoid it. Remember, sir, that government contracts go to the lowest bidder, which says a lot about the quality of rations, especially out on the frontier."
Courtney gaveled the courtroom's laughing spectators back to order, and Redburn took heart when even Justin's distant and harsh expression had lightened a bit.
Vitios swallowed Redburn's good feeling in one gulp. "What did Major Allard say to you when Private William Sonnac, whose Stingerwas positioned above the Cicadasthat would kill him, reported strange magscan readings?"
Redburn frowned. "He asked me to check Sonnac's readings. That's standard procedure."
"But that's not all he said to you, is it, Leftenant?"
"Sir?"
Vitios flipped through the transcript. "Let me refresh your memory, Leftenant. Major Allard said to you, 'Andy, check Sonnac's readings. I've got something over the hill I want to see.' " Vitios turned and stared at Justin. "Doesn't that strike you as a little odd, Leftenant? Here you are, trapped in a bowl-shaped valley and your commanding officer leaves a junior officer in charge of green troops in a hostile area while he goes over a hill to check something whose existence no one else can verify?"
Vitios gave Redburn no chance to reply before he waded in like a boxer to hammer home his points. "You acknowledged his command, then shouted, 'Major Allard! Cicadas,sir! All over the place!' His reply to you is, 'Withdraw south, Leftenant.' " Vitios turned a page and began to drift over toward the defense table. "A private, Robert Craon, burst in there. 'Negative, negative,' he says. 'I've got magscan readings off the scale south, east, and north. You're clean, sir. We've got to head out west.' " Vitios looked up and half-turned to face Redburn. "Is that how you remember it, Leftenant?"
Redburn nodded. "Yes."
Vitios's eyes glowed fiercely, and Redburn felt as though he were suddenly plunging through deep, dark space. "A senior officer, the graduate of a superior military academy, and a Diamond Sunburst winner for his actions on Spica, has just learned that his command is surrounded. What would we expect from this sort of man? Wouldn't such a commander return to rally his troops? He's only half a klick over a hill. Didn't you expect him to return, Leftenant?"
Redburn swallowed hard and drew in a deep breath. "Yes, sir."
"Of course you would, Leftenant." Vitios opened his arms to include all the officers in the gallery and the three men on the tribunal. "Anyone with military experience knows a commanding officer does not abandon his men. But what is Justin Xiang Allard's reply to this urgent appeal by his troops? 'No way out here, either. Do what you can, Andy. The cadre is yours.' He abandons his command, then adds, 'It's a trap. All a trap. Don't run west . . .' " Vitios shook his head. "He abandons them and dashes their hopes for any sort of escape."
Vitios smiled conspiratorially at Redburn, and dropped his voice to a malicious whisper. "You did feel betrayed, didn't you?"
Redburn hesitated, then nodded his head with resignation. "Yes."
"And so you were." Vitios looked to Courtney. "I am finished with this witness."
The Major General looked at his watch. "Given the hour, this court will adjourn."
Lofton shot to his feet. "Objection, Your Honor! It's only three-thirty! We cannot adjourn before I have a chance to cross-examine the witness."
"Leftenant Lofton, need I remind you that Prince Davion is holding a reception for Leftenant Redburn tonight. I will not have this man too badgered and exhausted to fully participate in this great honor."
Lofton removed his glasses and narrowed his dark eyes. "No, but you'll retire and a whole evening will pass before I can purge your mind of the prejudicial testimony that Count Vitios has wrung from this valuable witness."
Redburn looked up at Courtney. "I can go on, sir."
Courtney's gavel slammed into the bench. "Enough. Court is adjourned until nine-thirty tomorrow morning. As for you, Leftenant Lofton, one more statement like that and you'll spend the night in a cell with your client because I'll hold you in contempt."
13
New Avalon
Cruris March, Federated Suns
22 January 3027
No, Major, I won't put you on the stand!" Leftenant David Lofton glared at his client. "Your story of what happened in the field that day is utterly unsubstantiated."