Thinking about having to go up against them in combat unsettled him a lot.
"It doesn't matter what a man is called," Kelly mumbled. "Either a man is honorable, or he is not."
"So you do not find being branded a war criminal diminishes your honor?"
"I don't like it. It doesn't change who I am."
"Exactly." Namihito bowed. "We have a basis for understanding."
The Kuritan's obtuseness was starting to make Kelly a little crazy. "Look. I didn't come here to philosophize about honor or the lack of it. I came here to take and hold this ship and the 'Mechs it carried. It's what I— what we are going to do. Those are our orders. That's something a samurai should understand."
"The burden of orders is something that I understand quite well, Commander. Did you find what you came here to find?"
"And if I say yes, you forget about the surrender stuff and wipe us out so we can't tell anyone about Presider Price's dirty little secret."
Namihito shrugged. "You have orders. I have orders."
"Then I guess we'll be fighting."
"We can fight. Many will die. You will lose."
"Maybe so. But you'll know you've been in a fight."
"Valiant MechWarriors will die. You will still lose."
Namihito's absolute conviction shook Kelly. He tried to put similar conviction in his own voice. "I'll take you with me."
"Perhaps." Namihito shrugged. "Death, as they say, is a feather."
"I'm not afraid to die."
"Someday you will believe that."
"It's true."
"Perhaps it is. Do you wish to continue boasting, or would you consent to listen to what I propose?"
The sudden shift caught Kelly off guard. "Propose?"
"Perhaps I put that too strongly. Let me say that there are matters about which we may speak." Namihito put a hand to the commo button in his ear. "Come. Matsumoto has finished preparing the room. It is quiet and private. We will drink tea."
One of Namihito's MechWarriors had dismounted in the middle of a confrontation and found a place to serve tea? "You're pretty sure of yourself."
"Of myself I am certain. It is with you that the question remains open." Namihito took in their surroundings with a wave. "Open spaces are rarely the best places for open discussions, yes?"
Kelly agreed with that. "Where is this room?"
"Midway between the positions of your lance and mine. One of my soldiers will be nearby, and you may bring one of yours. That is the etiquette, yes?"
"Near enough. I'll listen." He still wanted to believe that time was on their side and talking with Namihito was better than fighting him. But if it came to fighting, the Vigilantes couldn't afford to be down two warriors, especially if they were jumped while out of their 'Mechs. "But I'll come alone if that's all right. Call it a gesture of trust."
Namihito bowed acceptance.
He led Kelly to a building that, not surprisingly, had a tea shop at street level. Apparently not even traditional Kuritans carried tea ceremony gear with them in their 'Mechs. The shop had been cleared and a single table set. An exquisite ceramic cup sat at either place, and the scent of brewing tea drifted from behind the closed curtain to the back room. When they were settled, Namihito spoke.
"Let me begin by stating a fact. Any unsurrendered County Shu forces on palatine territory after a cease-fire is declared would be allowed free passage back to County Shu. The lone exceptions to this would be forces who violate the cease-fire and those who might attempt to transport 'state property' over the traditional borders. Such forces would be eliminated."
"You're saying we're only going home if we don't do what we came to do."
Namihito inclined his head. "Another fact is that, by the rules of war, a surrender still in negotiation at the time of a cease-fire is no surrender."
"You're talking in riddles again."
Namihito closed his eyes for a moment. "Consider. I might guess that you have evidence that the Duvic Palatine has undermined, if not completely betrayed, the common interests of the people of Epsilon Eridani. I know that I have orders to retake or destroy certain things that could conceivably be potential evidence of such activity should I find them in the hands of comital forces. If such theoretical evidence was in my possession, I would not need to destroy it. Thus, it would still exist and, by existing, it would remain a threat to the guilty."
"What are you saying?"
"I say what I say. Is it well known that guilty parties seek to hide all evidence of their guilt, yes? But who can say how successful they will be? Will they find it all? If copies of documents are made without their knowledge, will such things be found? Also, history tells us that the more people who are aware of the existence of a hidden thing, the less likely that thing is to stay hidden. It may be that what was sought and seized in war may only be possessed and used in a time when the guns are silent."
"Are you saying you want me to turn the evidence over to you so that you can preserve it, bringing it out later to use against Price and her cabal?"
"I could not say such words without violating my oaths."
Suddenly all the double-talk made sense. Namihito had begun by testing Kelly, trying to find out if he was the sort of man who would be amenable to the scheme. Then Namihito sought to bring Kelly around to understanding the proposal without saying such words as would compromise his own personal honor. Maybe some things could only be spoken in riddles.
Kelly studied the man who sat across from him. Namihito had demonstrated a mastery of the art of the MechWarrior and, for centuries, hadn't people said that the true master warrior was by nature a master strategist? Master strategist or not, Namihito had a subtle and devious mind. Kelly believed that the Kuritan could pull off this sleight of hand with the evidence if he wanted to. Certainly he'd do a better job than Kelly could. But did Namihito really want to?
Kelly looked the man in the eyes. He sought some hint of duplicity, but instead found calm, certitude, and, surprisingly, respect. There was also a sense of expectation.
"You're asking me to trust you, but Price pays your bills."
"I have no love for those without honor."
Kelly pondered. What was on the table could be called collusion with the enemy. It could also be called prudence. It might be the only way he could keep his people alive. And he'd learned the value of life in a way only death can teach. What would a Warrior House soldier do?
"A question, Major Namihito. What makes you think I believe you?"
The Kuritan sat silent for several moments. When he spoke, it was softly, in the voice of a man sharing a secret. "There are few men of honor in these latter days. Fewer still can tell the difference between a truth and a lie when they hear it. Far fewer yet when the speaker stands on the opposite side of a battlefield. You, Tybalt Kelly, wearing lies, know truth. Some fights are best saved for another day, yes?"
"The Warrior Houses used to say that a warrior does not fight a battle he cannot win."
"So ka. There is wisdom in that saying. Will you do as a House warrior would?"
Once Kelly would have answered that question instantly in the affirmative. But now?
What did it matter what a House warrior might do? There wasn't one here. Just Kelly. Just a man who was beginning to realize that there were some limits beyond which it was wise not to push. There were times when a man could not simply rely on himself and maybe a few close friends, times when you had to take a chance. And times to place your trust in another man, even if that man stood on the other side of a battlefield.
"Surrender," he said, "is often difficult to reconcile with honor."
"It can be, yes? But we may talk of it, yes?"
"While somewhere else a war grinds to a halt?"
"Yes."
"We can talk," said Kelly.
There was a discrete scratching at the back curtain.
"Ah, the tea is ready," said Namihito.
They sat and they drank. They talked. Namihito
spoke of honor and how an honorable man would have no part in murder plots, and so Kelly came to understand at last why the Panther had fled from clearly inferior green MechWarriors in Dori. His last doubts about Namihito's honor faded away. The path they were about to embark on would not be easy, but if taken, it would mean that no more Vigilantes would die today. And today, that was enough for Kelly.
They talked some more. Then word came of the cease-fire.
The conflict between the Duvic Palatine and County Shu had come to an end. Empty-handed Vigilantes would be going home. Certain state property would be in sympathetic, honorable hands. The truth would come out.
Kelly savored the tea.
Some fights were best saved for another day.
About the Author
Robert N. Charrette was born, raised, and educated in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Upon graduating from Brown University with a cross-departmental degree in biology and geology, (prepaleontology actually), he moved to the Washington, D.C. area and worked as a graphic artist. He has worked as a game designer, art director, and commercial sculptor before taking up the word processor to write novels. He has contributed novels to the BattleTech® universe and the Shadowrun® universe, the latter of which he had a hand in creating. He has developed other fictional settings, including tales set in another universe of revenant magic as chronicled in A Prince Among Men, A King Beneath the Mountain, and A Knight Among Knaves, and in a fantasy world as The Chronicles of Aelwyn.
Robert currently resides in Herndon, Virginia with his wife, Elizabeth, who must listen to his constant complaints of insufficient time while he continues to write as well as occasionally sculpt. He also has a strong interest in medieval living history, being a principal in La Belle Compagnie, a reenactment group portraying English life in the late fourteenth century. In between, he tries to keep current on a variety of eclectic interests including dinosaurian paleontology and pre-Tokugawa Japanese history.
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