"You would never make such a threat in public, Star Colonel," Varnoff said. "All that you have is poor match for all that I have."
"I did make that declaration in public, Varnoff Fetla- dral," Xera answered. "You are on the command channel, but our conversation is being simulcast on every frequency of the Steel Wolves. Every MechWarrior, Elemental, aerospace pilot, ship's crew, infantry trooper, and technician with a radio can hear our every word.
"I suspect many more are listening now than when we first began."
There was a pause. Xera was impressed. She had expected him to dissolve into bluster and curses.
"And what is the purpose of this general broadcast, Xera," he asked at last, "if you do not intend to challenge me for leadership of the Steel Wolves?"
"We are seven days from the zenith jump point," Xera said. "In eight days the Steel Wolves will leave the New Canton system. Those not with us—and that will include you, Varnoff—are no longer Steel Wolves."
She looked to the communications officer.
"End transmission."
"Aff, Galaxy Commander."
DropShip Coeur du Loup
En route, nadir jump point
New Canton system
Former Prefecture VI
Murchison found Anastasia in one of the viewing lounges. He knew she was there, though he could not see her in the shadows. She had a scent and a presence he could never miss, never ignore.
He stood inside the light-tight revolving door, held firmly to the deck by the Coeur du Loup's steady one- gravity push. The Irian supplies they had expected to last for years had been put to good use. Every control panel and circuit had been replaced from crated stores— a pull-and-plug process that had taken a fraction of the time repairs would have.
Beyond the ferroglass was darkness pierced with uncounted points of cold and distant light. As his eyes adjusted, he picked out her silhouette, a shadow on shadows occluding the stars. She was unmoving.
"This was not part of the plan." he said at last.
"What do you know of the plan?"
"Nothing," Murchison said. "But you always have one."
The silence stretched.
"I've been thinking about Carter," Murchison said.
Anastasia stirred, but said nothing. Because of Carter, every command circuit on every piece of equipment the Wolf Hunters possessed was being tested and double- checked.
"He was so terrified of you, the sight of you threw his heart into arrhythmia—confronting you directly stopped his heart." He paused, but she did not comment. "Yet he came after you with everything he had. He was, in his way, indefatigable.
"Was that Wolf?"
Anastasia chuckled—a dry, bitter sound. From a change in her shadow he knew she had turned to face him. but he could not make out her features.
"Ian Murchison. I knew you were Wolf when I first saw you, fighting to save the life of a woman I had killed," she said. "And you do not understand what Wolf is?"
Murchison said nothing.
"Carter had courage," Anastasia said. Murchison raised an eyebrow at the rare praise. "But courage is not Wolf. His motive was too small."
Murchison considered how much of human history had been motivated by love and vengeance, but decided not to pursue the point.
"So Wolf is motive?" he asked instead.
"Purpose," Anastasia corrected. "Our purpose makes us Wolf."
Her shadow shifted and her back was to him again, her eyes on the stars.
"And our purpose has not changed."
About the Author
Kevin Killiany has been the husband of Valerie for a quarter of a century and, for various shorter periods of time, the father of Alethea, Anson, and Daya. Over the years he has worked as an actor, a college instructor, a drill rig operator, a teacher of exceptional children, a high-risk intervention counselor, a middle manager, and a paper boy. He currently works for an agency that supports people with special needs living independently, and is an associate pastor with the Soul Saving Station of Wilmington, NC. Kevin's short stories have appeared in three Star Trek: Strange New Worlds anthologies, and he has written two Starfleet Corps of Engineers e-books (Orphans and Honor). He has contributed articles, write-ups, and stories to several CBT sourcebooks and technical readouts. Kevin's Classic BattleTech™ stories are available from BattleCorps (www.BattleCorps.com) and his MechWarrior™: Dark Age fiction can be found at WizKids Games (www.wizkidsgames.com/publishing).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Epilogue
About the Author
Wolf Hunters Page 32
