Текст книги " Lethal Heritage "

Victor Ian Steiner-Davion pressed his back to the smodth wall of the Kommandant's living quarters, letting the crowd's commotion roil around him. A faint smile touched his lips as he watched other members of the graduating class, wearing the same smart, dress-gray uniforms with skyblue trim, guiding their parents, siblings, and guests through introductions with other people's proud kith and kin. It's funny to see how we change when family and friends from outside the Academy come to visit. The Nagelring's little world and its social order dissolve as the real world comes pouring in.

Victor's blond head came up and his smile broadened as his roommate stepped into and nearly filled the doorway leading from the Kommandant's garden. Victor raised his hand and waved. "Over here, Renny."

Tall and broad-shouldered, Renard Sanderlin acknowledged Victor's greeting with a smile and a nod. He turned back and led three more people into the room, then ate up the distance between himself and Victor with long-legged strides. Engulfing Victor's hand with his own massive paw, he pumped Victor's arm warmly. "Hey, Vic, glad to see you still here. There was a line at the restaurant ..."

Victor waved off the excuse and grabbed Renny's left sleeve, pulling the larger man around just enough to see the unit insignia newly sewn onto the uniform's shoulder. Embroidered on a gold background in black thread, the head and mane of a roaring lion stared out at him. Victor's smile mirrored that of his friend. "You made it into the Uhlans! That's great, Renny. Congratulations!"

The embarrassed flush that began with Victor's enthusiastic response deepened as Renny looked back over his shoulder at the trio he'd led across the room. Swallowing hard, he broke his grip on Victor's hand, then turned further to the left and the group moved forward. "God, where are my manners? Vic, these are my parents, Albert and Nadine Sanderlin ..."

Victor released their son and extended his hand to each in turn. "I am most pleased to meet you." Albert Sanderlin wore a dark business suit, which Davion knew was brand new, both from the stylish cut and the uneasy way Renny's father wore it. Nadine Sanderlin wore a formal gown of dark blue satin that complemented her slender figure. I think Renny had it right. His mother forced his father to buy a new suit, then she made her own gown. She probably also sewed the Uhlans' patch on Renny's uniform.

Victor then smiled at the beautiful young woman who completed the group. "And you are Rebecca Waldeck. I recognize you from the holograph Renny has on his desk, though I must say that it doesn't do you justice." Victor took Rebecca's extended hand and bowed slightly as he kissed it. Her dress, a gown of purple silk, might have been a year out of date, but on her it looked fresh and stylish.

Renny's mother smiled politely. "Victor?" she said hesitantly, waiting for Renny to supply his roommate's family name.

Renny shot his mother a horrified glance, then relaxed at the amused expression on his friend's face. "Mother, this is my roommate, Victor Davion." He hesitated for a moment, then added more softly, "Duke Victor Ian Steiner-Davion."

Victor saw Nadine Sanderlin stiffen, then begin to drop into a curtsey. He leaned forward, gently catching her by the shoulders. "Please don't," he said, color rising to his cheeks. He pointed to a gold cord looped around Renny's left shoulder and then to the similar braid around his own. 'This reception is for those of us fortunate enough to be in the top 5 percent of our class. Here, thank God, I am among equals and wish to be treated no differently than my friends."

Nadine Sanderlin pressed a hand to her mouth. "Forgive me, Highness. I should have recognized you from the news holovids ... It's just that you seem so much, I mean, in the holovids, you're ..." She stopped, embarrassed again.

Victor reassured her with a smile. "I know. I think the holovids make me look taller, too." He laughed easily. "I feel sorry for the camera operators, most of whom are your son's size. Their directors have them shoot from impossibly low angles to make me seem taller. At 1.6 meters, that means the angles are verylow, indeed."

Victor glanced at Renny and slapped the back of his right hand against his roommate's flat stomach. "Of course, finding uniforms to fit me is easier than it is for pituitary giants like your son."

A grin brought life to Albert Sanderlin's angular face. "You have to understand, Highness ..."

Davion held up his hand. "Victor ... please."

Sanderlin nodded briefly. "Victor, we weren't quite sure if Renard was stretching the truth a bit when he sent us a holodisc saying he'd become your roommate his last year at the Nagelring." He held up his calloused hands as though to ward off a protest. "Not that we'd expect Renny to lie, but we wondered whether he might be exaggerating somewhat. Even when his messages talked about 'his roommate, Victor,' well, it all sounded so ..."

"I understand, Mr. Sanderlin." Victor smiled warmly. "As I hear it, if someone in the cadet corps hasn't reported himself to be my roommate, he's at least claiming to be in the same company." He turned to Renny. "No, Renny and I became friends when he took pity on me and helped me through cryophysics and astronavigation back in our trey year. In fact, if not for your son, I'd not be here at this reception."

Renny licked his lips nervously. "You'd have gotten all that stuff anyway, Vic. But if you hadn't spoken to your cousin, I'd not have been admitted to the First Kathil Uhlans."       ,

Victor shrugged. "I just told Morgan he'd be missing the hottest graduate of the Nagelring since Katrina Steiner herself. If you hadn't measured up, you'd not have been made a Lion." The Prince of the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth turned his attention back to Renny's guests. "Enough of this mutual admiration society. Renny was very happy when he got the message that you'd be able to attend our graduation. And he went sailing down the corridors of Kell Hall whooping like a grazerang when he learned you'd be coming along, Rebecca."

The girl, her long blond hair just a shade darker than Victor's, nodded shyly. "When Mr. Sanderlin offered to bring me to Tharkad to see Renard graduate, I couldn't say no." She twisted a simple silver band on the ring finger of her left hand. "We haven't seen each other since Ren left for the Academy."

Albert smiled proudly. "The quillar crop was very good the past two years. Nadine and I promised ourselves a trip off Rijeka before we died, so we decided to do it now and see Renny graduate ..."

Albert Sanderlin's voice trailed off as another cadet and his family expanded the intimate group. "Mother, Father, I wish to present to you Duke Victor Ian Steiner-Davion. Victor, these are my parents, Don Fernando Oquendo y Ramirez and his wife, Lenore."

Victor formed his face into a very public smile and kept it frozen in place. His voice, deadened from the enthusiastic friendliness of moments before, was nonetheless cordial. "I am most pleased to meet you." He lifted his head, stiffening his spine and giving the cadet's parents an appraising glance.

Don Fernando bowed from the waist before extending his hand to Victor. Victor shook his hand courteously, then waited for Lenore to curtsey before taking her hand and brushing his lips against her knuckles. "Our son, Ciro, has told us much about you, Highness."

Victor acknowledged Lenore's comment with a slight nod. "I'm sure he has, Donna Lenore. It was a pleasure meeting you. I hope you enjoy the reception." Victor's plastic smile remained in place long enough for the nobles to realize they had been dismissed, then it melted into a more genuine expression as he turned back to the Sanderlins.

Renny let a low chuckle rumble from his chest as Ciro and his parents withdrew. "I wonder what Ciro the Hero told his folks, Vic. Do you think he mentioned how you took his forces apart in the tactical simulations we did last year?"

Victor composed his face into a fair imitation of the recently departed cadet and let his voice rise up to match Ciro's. "Si, Mummy, the Duke and I engaged our forces against each other in class last fall. I wouldn't say I embarrassed Victor, but the outcome was most unexpected." Letting his voice return to normal, Victor added. "It's true. He didn't embarrass me and I never expected to win that quickly."

Rebecca looked back over her shoulder at Ciro, then frowned. "He sounds dangerous. What unit will he be assigned to?"

Victor and Renny shared a private smile. "We're negotiating on his behalf to get him a position with Romano Liao's personal bodyguard unit or a Periphery pirate gang," Victor laughed.

Renny elbowed his roommate. "Spooks, 1130 and closing."

Victor looked over toward the room's main entrance. Several men and women, moving singly and in pairs, entered the room. They smiled cordially and drifted through the crowd with seeming purposelessness, but their wary eyes continuously scanned the room. Renny tagged it perfectly. That's the advance team.

Victor saw the puzzled looks on the faces of Renny's guests. "Not to worry, Mrs. Sanderlin. Renny and I have spent a certain amount of time eluding the CID agents assigned to safeguard me. He's even better at spotting them than I am." He glanced back at the doorway. "This many infesting the party means my parents cannot be too far behind."

Some of the color drained from Albert Sanderlin's face. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Victor." He turned to his son. "Come on, Renard, we should, ah, circulate some more."

Victor held up his hand. "No. Please don't go." Nadine shook her head slightly. "Highness, we are simple quillar farmers from Rijeka ..." She looked over at Ciro

Oquendo and his parents huddled nearby. "We're no one special ..."

A heartbeat's worth of anger shot through Victor's eyes. "You're wrong in that, Mrs. Sanderlin. Youare the parents of someone I am very proud to call a friend, and that makes you special, indeed. Between friends, and by extension, between their families, there are no ranks.

"You've come all this way to see your son graduate and to see something of the rest of the Inner Sphere. You've endured a long trip, and I know well the physical strain caused by jumping from star system to star system. You called this a once-in-a-lifetime trip, so let's make it even more memorable." Victor dropped his eyes and his voice. "Please do me the honor of letting me introduce you to my parents."

Albert Sanderlin gave his wife's hand a reassuring squeeze, then nodded at Victor in silent assent. As Davion turned his attention back to the doorway, a buzzing whisper filled the room. He felt his own heart beating faster and the ache of a lump in his throat.

His mother appeared first, on the arm of the Nagelring's Kommandant. Tall and girlishly slender, Melissa Steiner Davion showed her age only in the mature grace of her movements. The blue gown she wore, a shade darker than the blue trim on the Cadets' uniforms, was cut in a stylishly youthful fashion. The silken material had been slashed diagonally to her left knee, exposing a shapely calf, and again at the right shoulder, baring her right arm. The diamond and sapphire necklace and drop earrings matched the gown's hue. Her blond hair, worn up, was encircled by a simple platinum coronet.

Behind her, escorting the Kommandant's wife, came Prince Hanse Davion. Wearing the navy-blue dress uniform of the Davion Heavy Guards, Hahse Davion stood tall and proud. Age had leeched some of the ruddy color from his hair, especially at the sides and back, and had given his face a few seams, but no one would ever mistake that for a sign of weakness. The Prince, his blue eyes bright, exuded a confidence and power that crackled through the gathering like static electricity.

Victor felt the ache in his throat drain and his smile broaden. It's been far too long since I last saw you.He tugged at the hem of his dress jacket. I hope I've made you proud.

Melissa freed herself from the Kommandant's arm and made her way across the room to her son. As she came toward him, Victor was reminded of his late grandmother, Katrina Steiner. The way my mother carries herself, and those gray eyes, she is so much like her mother.The memory of his grandmother faded as Melissa came nearer, and he smiled with the pleasure of seeing her again. Then again, my mother is like no one else.

Victor opened his arms and took her into a warm embrace. "Hello, Mother," he said, planting a kiss on her cheek, and giving her another squeeze. Still with one arm around her, he turned to greet his father. Their hands met in a firm grip, then Melissa stepped aside as father and son pulled each other into a backslapping hug.

Victor turned to Renny and his family. "Father, Mother, it is my great pleasure to introduce Cadet Renard Sanderlin, his parents Albert and Nadine, and his special friend, Rebecca Waldeck." Victor smiled as he avoided Renny's earlier mistake. "These are my parents, Prince Hanse Davion and Archon Melissa Steiner Davion."

Hanse immediately kissed Nadine Sanderlin's hand. "I understand we have your son to thank for Victor's successes in the more difficult mathematical subjects taught here." Hanse smiled warmly. "Would that Renard had been at Albion when I was there. Then I might have graduated at the top of my class."

Nadine, mute with terror, nodded and smiled, but no one noticed her silence in the round of exchanged greetings. Renny snapped a smart salute to the Prince, which Hanse returned equally crisply before shaking Renny's hand. Melissa immediately won over Rebecca and Nadine by complimenting them on their dresses, and that unfroze Nadine's tongue enough that she could return the compliment.

The informal curtain of bodyguards that drifted between the royal family and the rest of the party held Ciro Oquendo and his kin at bay, but did not prevent three other people from joining Victor and his parents. The first was a tall, broad-shouldered man, whose coppery hair was worn long enough to hide the golden Marshal's epaulets on his black uniform and to half-obscure the dozens of campaign ribbons on his left breast. The woman on his arm wore a black and gold gown that contrasted dramatically with her fair hair.

Victor greeted both with a smile, then turned to introduce them to the others. "Renny, this is your new commanding officer, Marshal of the Armies Morgan Hasek-Davion, and his wife, Duchess Kym Hasek-Davion." Victor left it to Renny to introduce his parents as he turned toward the third newcomer.

Standing closer to what Victor considered a reasonable height, the slender man smiled warmly at the Prince. The laugh lines at the corners of his almond-shaped eyes and the occasional snowy strand showing through his coal-black hair were the only hints of the man's true age. He extended his right hand to Victor, allowing his glove-sheathed left hand to remain hidden at his side. "Congratulations, Highness, on your graduation with honors."

Victor shook the visitor's hand firmly. "Thank you, Secretary Allard."

Justin Allard narrowed his brown eyes. "You are aware, I believe, that no one has ever beat the La Mancha simulator scenario before."

Victor raised an eyebrow. "But I've heard rumors that your son salvaged a victory from it in his final New Avalon Military Academy tests. In fact, news of Kai's success prompted me to try my solution."

A mild look of surprise spread over Justin's face before he brought his expression under control. "Your intelligencegathering network is good, Victor. I'll have to look into the leaks in NAMA security."

The younger man shook his head. "No crisis, I assure you. Just don't let my brother Peter near a diplomatic Hermes bundle again." Victor hesitated for a moment. "Isn't Kai graduating this week as well? I mean, the ceremonies run concurrently, don't they?"

Justin nodded, unable to totally mask his feelings. "Yes, they do. I wanted to be there, but duty called and so I am here."

Victor heard no animosity in Justin's voice, only the matter-of-fact reporting of a situation. "Will Kai's mother be able to attend?"

Pain shot through the Intelligence Secretary's dark eyes. "I'm afraid affairs of state delayed her departure from the St. Ives Compact. But after he gets settled in his new posting, we will see him. I probably won't head back to New Avalon until next fall, but the detour will be easy to arrange."

Victor raised an eyebrow. "What detour? I thought Kai was joining the Heavy Guards, and they're stationed on New Avalon. Anyway, those were his plans during the year I spent as a transfer at NAMA. I know he had good enough grades to make it."

Hanse Davion's spymaster smiled with fatherly pride at Victor's last comment. "His grades were good enough, but he changed his mind. He told me of his decision two weeks ago when I met with him just before leaving to come here. He's been assigned to the Tenth Lyran Guards. Kai asked me to congratulate you on his behalf and to express his gratitude for your half of the work you did together during your time at NAMA."

Victor nodded, smiling as he remembered Kai Allard. "Before this week is over, I'll record a holodisc message and we can arrange to have it waiting for Kai when he arrives at his unit." Victor turned and brought Justin into the circle, introducing him to everyone. Then, along with the others, he accepted a glass of champagne from a waiter's silver tray.

Conversation in the room died as Prince Hanse Davion turned to the crowd and lifted his glass high. "I would like to offer a toast to our assembled sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and companions." With pride in his eyes, he glanced at Victor and Renny, then faced the crowd again. "They are the future of the Successor States and we are blessed that so able a group is ready to fulfill such a mighty responsibility."

Victor sipped the champagne, but tasted none of it. Deep down inside, Father, I know you 're right. I am ready for the burdens an accident of birth will thrust upon me.He swallowed hard. Still, I must dread the coming of that day, for it will mean billions of lives depend on my judgment—and a mistake made then will be irreversible.

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Starglass Beach , Emerald Ocean , New Avalon