Kai smiled. "Think so?"
"Well, except for two things that I wonder about."
"Yes?"
"Isn't our projected path to Mount Sera going to bring us awfully close to Dove Costoso?" She wrinkled her nose. "I don't really want to be on the same continent with that ComStar demi-Precentor."
"There go our plans for visiting him for tea, I guess." Kai gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "We'll skirt the city by a wide enough margin to avoid detection and capture. We'll be close, but not that close. Next?"
"Tell me again why we didn't keep the hovertruck."
The Mech Warrior grimaced. "The truck wouldn't have been suited to the trip we're making. We'd have been forced to stick to the roads or less broken terrain.
"Besides, by programming the hovertruck to run all over the search sectors, we should have confused anyone following us. They won't know when or where we got off the hovertruck, and sending them their Elemental back in it is bound to cause them some problems. It nothing else, we bought time by forcing them to bid out a new hunter to send after us."
"Somehow, Kai, that is not a fact in which I would care to delight."
Kai nodded and felt the hairs at the back of his neck begin to rise. He looked over at Deirdre and let her smile infect him.
He even let himself believe the sense of dread festering in his mind was nothing more than a cold breeze playing over the jumpsuit's collar.
* * *
"And I bid no rocket pack for my armor!" roared one Elemental.
"I will not use my laser!" shouted another.
Taman Malthus vaulted the railing surrounding the small amphitheater in which the members of his command bid for the right to pursue Dave Jewell. He landed solidly, planting both feet on the ground as if driving pilings down to the bedrock below. Clad in nothing more than a pair of shorts and sandals, he balled his fists and stared hard at the last two men in the arena.
"You are pathetic. You are all pathetic." Malthus let his harsh gaze sweep over the men and women of his entire Star. "This is a man you hunt, not a BattleMech."
"But Star Captain, you saw what he did to Corbin."
"I saw. He cut him, beat him, and broke his back, then trussed him up like an animal bound for market. He tied him to that hovertruck and sent it on a crazy chase through the search sectors. That complicates things, but does not tell us if Jewell is good or Corbin was just stupid."
Malthus pointed back toward the Star's administration building. "The labs analyzed Corbin's dagger and have found blood reside on it. Jewell has been cut and could be in bad shape. Sending the truck out may have been a desperate move to utterly throw us off the track."
"I bid," began one woman.
Malthus waved her bid off. "Your bid is worth nothing because my own bid isnothing." He raised clenched fists to shoulder height. "I will get him with my bare hands."
"How?" shouted another Elemental. "We have not a clue as to where he is."
"Yes we do. He is hurt and must realize he cannot hope to elude us in the wilderness for much longer. That means he has to head back to a place large enough for him to lose himself and, quite possibly, make contact with partisans."
The Elemental leader folded his arms across his heavily muscled chest. "We will concentrate our search in and around Dove Costoso. We will cut across his trail and find him. He has killed a man in my command, which makes him more than a nuisance for Demi-Precentor Khalsa. Yes, we will find this Dave Jewell and then, when he thinks himself most safe, his life will be mine."
27
Lothan
Wolf Clan Occupation Zone
17 April 3052
Phelan snarled as yet another glowing mark on the outline of his 'Mech showed him where the Elemental had nibbled away another bit of armor. "You little bastard. If you came out where I could see you, I'd kill you, but I can't find you."
Edick's actions surprised Phelan. During the ritual, the Clansman had boasted proudly of his previous victories in the Bloodright contest, giving a long account of all his deeds. Cowering and sniping were not what Phelan would have expected in this fight.
He had been happy when Natasha pulled the top coin from the cup, saying, "You, Phelan are the hunter. How will you hunt?"
He turned to Edick and smiled broadly. "I will hunt augmented."
He had expected that to give the Elemental trouble, but the huge man shrugged it off as if Phelan had demanded water-pistols at twenty paces. Phelan knew Edick had won all his previous Bloodrights and had opted to fight barehanded against his foes. He'd killed an aerospace pilot in his first fight, and put the two Mech Warriors he faced since then in the hospital. Instead of becoming nervous about the first fight where he would be at a severe disadvantage, Edick smiled calmly. "We will fight in the Camelot Industrial Park on Lothan."
The instant Phelan saw the site Edick had selected for the battle, he knew the man had some good advisors. Buildings both large and small made up the modern industrial center, all fabricated from similar building materials that turned the park into a glittering world of steel and mirrors. At the ilKhan's command, the whole facility was evacuated in preparation for the battle. Somewhere inside that looking-glass labyrinth an Elemental waited for Phelan.
The dying sun filled all the mirror faces with blood.
Phelan switched his scanner from vislight to infrared, then immediately popped it back before it burned his eyes out. The heat reflected by the mirrors made using IR useless. As nearly as Phelan could figure, Edick had taken up residence in the big building to his left. By running from floor to floor, or possibly just bashing his way through interior walls, the Elemental was managing to shoot his small laser at Phelan from the safety of cover.
Another Mech Warrior might have burrowed straight into the building, but Phelan was not of a mind to do that. He knew Edick was counting on his reluctance to do wholesale property, damage while defending himself. For Phelan, however, his reluctance to wade into a building came from its being the only obvious solution to the problem and because he was not entirely comfortable with the 'Mech he piloted.
Though the free selection of venue was supposed to make up for any advantage gained by the winner of the coin selection, the Clans took other steps to ensure that the Bloodright battles were approximately fair. Thus Phelan was issued a Mercuryfor his fight with Edick, rather than being able to use his Wolfhound.The light 'Mech was well-known for its reconnaissance ability, but its weaponry was only slightly better than what an Elemental had. None of the 'Mech's weapons could put Edick down with one shot, which was precisely why they had assigned him this BattleMech.
"All I have are lasers, which aren't useful against these damned mirrored buildings! I'd give my right arm for a simple machine gun so I could shoot out these windows." When he balled his fists reflexively, the Mercury'smechanical hands aped the movement.
The buildings surrounding him rose up to a full ten stories, or three times his height. Their metal content, both in building materials and equipment, made magscan useless. Sunlight made IR scanning equally impotent. Phelan concentrated on vislight, but he knew the chances of his spotting whatever little openings Edick was using to shoot at him were impossible. As long as the man remained in the building, he had Phelan at a disadvantage.