"Yes sir," Dan said. "I've been with the Kell Hounds since then." It gave him an unpleasant start to realize that Wolf was not asking,but telling Dan that he already knew about him.
The trace of a smile worked its way onto Wolf's lips. "Yes. And how's the shoulder?"
Shocked even further by the question, Dan hesitated. How the hell does he know about my injury?He swallowed hard to force his heart back down from his throat. "Excellent, sir."
"Good. I'd hate to think that a MechWarrior of your caliber would let a broken bone keep him down for long." With a smile, Wolf turned to Kell. "Now a question for you, Morgan."
"Ask," Morgan said, returning the smile, but cautiously.
"I've often wondered if the Kell Hound name was, in some way, a play upon the Dragoons' name."
Shaking his head, Morgan chuckled to himself. "No, Colonel . . ."
"Call me Jaime."
"No ... Jaime. The Kell Hound's name comes from something far older than Wolf's Dragoons." Morgan narrowed his eyes. "Wolf's Dragoons, as I recall, first appeared in the Federated Suns back in 3005. I remember it well because I was just out of Nagelring myself. Anyway, the name originated before the turn of the millennium and almost seventeen years before we formed the unit."
Morgan smiled broadly. "Arthur Luvon, Melissa's father, was my cousin. One summer, when Arthur had come to visit our family on Arc-Royal, he saw Patrick and me running around, baying at the moons, and generally terrorizing a neighbor's flock of sheep. He tagged us the Kell Hounds, drew up our crest, and said we'd be great MechWarriors some day." Morgan's smile laded a bit. "Patrick and I formed the unit with the money Arthur left us when he died."
Wolf held up his hands. "Just wanted to satisfy my curiosity. No offense ever taken, really." He smiled easily now. "Actually, the Dragoons always appreciated the fact that the other unit with a wolf/hound crest fought so well."
Quintus Allard appeared at Dan's side. "Excuse me, gentlemen," he said. "Colonel Wolf ... Colonel Kell, Prince Hanse Davion has asked me to invite you to join him and Archon Katrina Steiner." Quintus waved a hand toward the doorway leading out of the reception room.
Realizing that the invitation did not include him, Dan bowed his head toward Wolf. "A pleasure meeting you, Colonel Wolf. In fact, the dream of a lifetime."
Wolf smiled. "We should have met on a battlefield."
"No," Dan said, as he withdrew with a smile. "I said it was a dream, not a nightmare."
With a nod to Morgan and his father, he turned from them to enter the reception hall, now crowded with people. The tall windows running from floor to the two-story vaulted ceiling gave the room an airy feel. Though the couples swirling gracefully over the dance floor cut off his view of the other side of the room, Dan assumed that the long row of tables laden with food and drink also ran the length of the room's far wall. Combined with the pleasing music and the gentle hum of conversation, the festive atmosphere was most welcoming.
Dan smiled as he looked around with pleasure at the elegance and gaiety. I'll relax, put Justin out of my mind for the time being, and just try to enjoy myself. What could possibly go wrong?
Even as the words formed themselves in his mind, Dan felt doomed. Making her way through the crowd like an SRM with a hard lock onto its target, the Baroness de Gambier drove straight at him. He managed a weak smile, but it faded into puzzlement as Felicity pulled up short at the sight of someone slipping her hand through the crook of Dan's right arm.
Dan turned, half expecting to see his sister come to his rescue. "Jeana!" he gasped, at the same moment catching a whiff of the same spicy scent that she had worn back on Tharkad.
Jeana smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Come, Daniel. You owe me a dance." Taking his hand, she led him past a fuming Baroness and onto the dance floor.
As they moved to the music, Dan drew her close enough to whisper in her ear, "Thanks for the save."
Jeana laughed lightly. "Never like to see a friendly have to punch out."
Dan raised an eyebrow. That's MechWarrior jargon! But she can't be! She sure didn't look it at Tharkad, and the red gown she's got on now makes it hard to imagine her in a cooling vest and shorts.
Dan pulled back enough to look into her green eyes. "What are you doing tomorrow?"
Jeana shrugged. "I'm not sure. ComStar has so much going on for us. How about you?"
"I don't know," he said.
Jeana threw back her head and laughed. "Whatever it is, Dan, let's do it together."
27
ComStar First Circuit Compound
Hilton Head Island, North America, Terra
18 August 3028
Myndo Waterly clenched her fists so tightly that pain shot up her arms as her nails dug into her palms. This failure is unforgivable!She stared hard at the black-robed man kneeling on the inlaid star in the Primus's Chamber as though the heat of her gaze could melt him. "How can you tell us that you don't know how Colonel Wolf brought those swords into our Compound?"
The man looked up, directing his response to Julian Tiepolo. "Most exalted Primus, the Colonel's luggage went through screening twice, as did all the other guests' baggage." He looked down. "There was no mistake. Neither time did the swords appear on the scanning devices."
Tiepolo regarded the man with a benevolent expression. "You must understand, Jarlath, that we are most concerned about this incident. You did well in having your personnel offer to keep the blades for the Coordinator—I daresay he may not claim them when he leaves. But the matter of how they were smuggled onto our island is troubling."
Precentor Dieron's head came up. "It is more than troubling, Primus." She stabbed a finger at Jarlath. "This man directs ROM. He is the head of our security services, but he tells us there was no mistake. He maintains that the swords could not have been smuggled onto the island by Jaime Wolf, yet we all saw him pull those blades from the sack. Just yesterday, Jarlath reported that no one had smuggled weaponry into the island. How are we to believe him when he's been shown so emphatically to be wrong?"
Ulthar Everston shook his head. "Jarlath, in the wake of the events last evening, have the guest rooms been searched?"
The ROM chief nodded. "We have carefully gone through every chamber. We have recovered no weapon, yet we did gather a wealth of forensic samples, which we have forwarded to the laboratories for analysis."
"Don't try to evade the question, Jarlath!" snapped Precentor Dieron. She looked around the circle of Precentors surrounding the ROM chief. "Does it provide any of you with solace to know that your assassin dyes her hair or what his DNA sequence might be? No!" Myndo stared hard at Jarlath. "Your job is to maintain oursecurity."
Precentor Tharkad opened his hands. "Precentor Dieron, Jarlath and his ROM agents are keeping us secure." He smiled easily at the other members of the full First Circuit. "We have not been assaulted and neither has any of our guests."
Ah, the Primus speaks through his other mouth.Myndo calmly tucked some strands of her golden hair back behind her right ear. "Again you evade my point. ROM searches for weapons were meant to keep them off theisland. ROM failed. ROM surveillance of all meetings, covert and overt, was supposed to keep us informed. Again ROM fails."