Dragon and Liberator

CHAPTER 9

The patrol ship was nowhere to be seen when the Essenay reached the settlement Uncle Virge had mentioned. "Wonderful," Uncle Virge growled. "Now what?"

"Calm yourself," Draycos said. "He must have found someplace out of sight to make his repairs."

"I only see two buildings big enough," Jack said, pointing out the canopy at the town stretching out in front of them. "Looks like both of them have doors big enough for the 29, too."

"Odd," Uncle Virge muttered. "I wonder what they want with hangars that big out here in the middle of nowhere."

"Don't know," Jack said. "Don't really care, either. Either of you have any preference as to which one we look at first?"

Jack felt some weight come onto his shoulder as Draycos lifted up his head for a better look. "He's in the farther of the two," the K'da said.

Jack frowned down at him. "How do you know?"

"There are swirl marks in the dust on the near side of that building," Draycos said. "The other has no such marks."

"Meaning something has just flown in there," Jack said, nodding agreement. Turning the control yoke a few degrees, he angled the Essenay toward the building Draycos had indicated.

"I don't know," Uncle Virge said doubtfully. "If it was me, I'd have come in strictly on lifters with no drive at all."

"That takes more time, and Chiggers is in a hurry," Jack reminded him. "Besides, he doesn't know anyone else even knows about this little patrol ship deal."

"It's still sloppy," Uncle Virge declared. "So what's the plan?"

Jack looked down at Draycos again. "Over to you, symby," he invited.

"The leak is near the rear of the cabin," Draycos said. "If he's found it and is in the process of sealing it, we should be able to slip in through the forward hatchway without being seen."

"And then we clobber him?"

"Basically," Draycos said. "Once we have the coordinates, it may be time for another talk with Harper."

Jack grimaced. Harper, handcuffed to the bunk in the Essenay's second cabin, had so far been behaving himself. But that didn't mean Jack was ready to trust him. Far from it. "Let's first get the coordinates," he said. "Draycos, go grab me a tangler and holster from the storage room while I put us down."

He landed the Essenay four blocks away, shielded from view by the second of the town's two large buildings. With Draycos riding his skin, he headed out.

A few of the townspeople, all of them Compfrins, were out and about. Two or three of them gave Jack curious glances as he passed.

But no one asked him any questions or complained about his choice of parking spaces. Probably, Jack thought, they figured he was with the other human who had unexpectedly dropped in on them.

Hopefully, none of them would try to be helpful and tell Chiggers his friend had arrived.

There was a small, person-sized entrance on the wall around the corner from the building's main hangar-style doors. It was locked, but Jack had his burglar tools with him and it took him less than a minute to get it open. Holding his tangler ready, he slipped inside.

The building's walls were lined with fine-mesh panels that reached three-quarters of the way up the sides. The floor was heavy concrete, with a crosshatch of grooves that looked like wheel tracks of some kind. Several stacks of small boxes were lined up against the far wall.

The patrol ship filled most of the remaining space. It was sitting nose-in, its entry hatch open and the ramp lowered.

Aha, Draycos's thought came.

Aha what? Jack, asked, looking around. There was no sign of Chiggers anywhere that he could see.

Uncle Virge wondered earlier why a distant settlement like this would have a full-sized hangar, Draycos explained. You can see now that this is in fact a crop storage facility.

Jack looked around. He could see no such thing. I can?

Of course, Draycos said. Those mesh bins folded against the walls can be opened outward to create compartments for grain or vegetables.

With their vertical supports on wheels rolling out along the tracks in the floor, Jack said, nodding as he finally saw it. Well, that's one mystery solved. Good. Clan we get back to the main subject at hand?

He felt a bit of weight on his shoulder as Draycos lifted his jaws and flicked out his tongue. He's definitely here, the K'da said. I can taste his scent.

Jack took a deep breath and readjusted his grip on his tangler. Okay, he said. Let's go get him.

He crossed to the boarding ramp. As he reached the bottom, he heard a faint sound of clinking metal coming from somewhere deep inside the ship. Not only home, but hard at work, he commented, starting up the ramp. You want to hop off now, or wait a little longer?

I think I should wait until we're inside.

Jack stopped just outside the hatch. There'd been something odd in the K'da's tone just then. What's wrong?

I don't know, Draycos replied. That metallic sound seems strange.

Strange how?

I don't know. Too rhythmic, perhaps.

Jack peered into the hatchway. Directly ahead of him was the open inner airlock door, which opened into a narrow corridor leading to the cockpit at the bow and the gun bays and the rest of the ship farther aft. So what do we do?

We go in, the K'da said. Just be careful.

Grimacing, Jack stepped into the airlock. Nothing happened. He took two more steps to the inner airlock door, pausing there to look in both directions down the corridor. No one was visible. You're sure that's Chiggers you're smelling?

I'm positive, Draycos said. The metallic sound seems to be coming from the left.

Carefully, Jack took a step into the corridor and started to turn that direction—

"Move and you're dead," Chiggers said quietly from somewhere behind him.

Jack froze. Draycos?

He's too far back, the K'da said, his tone grim.

Just chill it, then. "I'm not moving," Jack assured the other. "Take it easy, okay?"

"Oh, I'll take it easy," Chiggers said. "I'll take it plenty easy. Drop the weapon and kick it down the corridor to your right."

Jack obeyed. "Now put your hands on top of your head," Chiggers ordered. "Fingers laced together."

"Yeah, yeah, I know the drill," Jack said, again doing as he was told. "I don't suppose we might be able to come to some agreement?"

"The only agreement I'm interested in is you dead and me rich," Chiggers said. "Where's that frunging dragon? Dragon? Show yourself—right now—or I kill him."

"I'm here," Draycos said, lifting the top of his head over the back of Jack's collar. "Don't shoot."

"I would if I had any sense," Chiggers muttered. "All right. Keep going—straight ahead—face to the wall. Back on his skin, dragon. All the way on. I so much as see your nose and he's dead."

Move all the way to the wall, Draycos's thought whispered into Jack's mind.

Way ahead of you, buddy, Jack assured him. He took two long steps forward to the far side of the corridor and leaned against the wall, pressing his chest firmly to the cold metal.

And with a flicker of sensation, Draycos leaned off his skin and fell over the wall.

"This ought to look really good on your service record," Jack commented, speaking loudly enough to cover any sound the K'da might make as he landed on the concrete floor below. "Neverlin and Frost have both tried to nail me and neither of them even came close."

"Yeah, and I'll bet you tried to talk them to death, too," Chiggers growled. The patrol ship vibrated slightly with the other's footsteps as he strode the rest of the way up the ramp and stepped through the hatchway. "What we're going to do—"

Abruptly, there was a hollow-sounding thud, followed by a sort of crumpling sound. "All right, Jack," Draycos said.

Jack turned around. Chiggers was sprawled half inside the airlock, unconscious. He was wearing a Malison Ring flight suit, though with the helmet still off. A large and unpleasant-looking gun lay on the deck near his right hand. "Nice job, symby," Jack said, stepping over and retrieving the weapon. "Too bad, though. I was looking forward to hearing how he thought he could put a K'da poet-warrior out of action without killing him."

"Perhaps keeping me alive was never part of his plan," Draycos said.

"Probably not," Jack conceded. Stuffing Chiggers's gun into his belt, he retrieved his tangler and peered aft down the corridor. "So if that noise isn't him working on the leak, what is it?"

"Obviously, some sort of bait," Draycos said. "Hence the unusual rhythm I noticed earlier. He must have become suspicious of my sabotage and decided to lie in wait to see if anyone came calling."

"And we walked right into it," Jack said, feeling his cheeks warming. Uncle Virgil had warned him over and over about both sloppiness and overconfidence. "If it hadn't been for your jump-the-wall trick, we'd have been up the creek for sure."

"We wouldn't have been there for long," Draycos said, his voice dark. "Still, without the trick I would probably have been forced to kill him."

"Lucky Chiggers," Jack murmured. Draycos was so civilized and pleasant most of the time that the boy sometimes forgot the sheer raw power that lay beneath those red-edged golden scales. "Let's get to the cockpit and see if all this was worth the effort."

It was.

"Here we go," Jack said, peering at the navigational display. "It's even called Point Two, in fact. It's out past Trintonias, about a two-day trip from your new home on Iota Klestis."

"If that will, in fact, be our new home," Draycos said.

Jack grimaced. Iota Klestis was probably still owned by the Triost Mining Group, which was itself owned by Braxton Universis. If Harper's appearance on Brum-a-dum meant that Braxton had now become a part of Neverlin's conspiracy, the K'da and Shontine would probably have to hunt up a new place to move into.

Assuming the refugees even survived that long. "We'll make it work," Jack told Draycos firmly. "Anyway, it's about a four-day trip from here. We'd better grab some supplies and get moving."

"Supplies?" Draycos asked, his tail curving in a frown.

"Didn't I tell you?" Jack asked. "We're taking the ship and heading to Point Two."

Draycos's neck arched. "We're what?"

"Well, we're sure not taking the Essenay into Neverlin's hornet's nest," Jack pointed out. "How did you think we were going to get there?"

"I assumed we would now try to make a deal with Harper and Braxton."

"I don't trust Harper," Jack said flatly. "Or Braxton."

"I believe Braxton to be trustworthy," Draycos said, a bit hesitantly. "From comments Alison has made, I gather she also has no reason to distrust him."

"Well, cheers for Alison," Jack said. "If it comes to that, I don't necessarily trust her, either. She and I might be on the same side at the moment, but she's not leveling with us. Not completely."

"Probably not," Draycos conceded. "On the other hand, the only people we'll find at Point Two will definitely not be on our side."

"Leave that to me, symby," Jack told him. Reaching to his collar, he turned on his comm clip. "Uncle Virge?"

"Right here, Jack lad," the computerized voice came back instantly. "You all right?"

"We're fine," Jack said. "You want to bring the Essenay over? We've got another passenger for you, and I don't feel like lugging him through the streets."

There was a short silence. "Another passenger?"

"Don't worry; I'm sure he and Harper will get along like a house on fire," Jack said. "Now, move it. We're on a schedule here."

Harper, as it turned out, was not at all pleased with his new roommate. "This is ridiculous," he fumed as Jack secured Chiggers to a thick metal cable fastened to one of the pipes on the far side of the cabin.

"I know," Jack said. "But what can I say? The Essenay hasn't got a proper brig."

Chiggers muttered something nasty sounding, his breath a puff of warmth against Jack's cheek as the boy double-checked the mercenary's handcuffs. The man was seething, but there wasn't a thing he could do about his situation. Not with Draycos standing watchful guard at his side.

"I've already told you I'm on your side," Harper said. "I can help you."

"And all who believe that raise their hands," Jack said, backing away from Chiggers. "Okay. You can both get to the food and water supply and the bathroom. But there's nothing either of you can use to cut your tethers or unlock your cuffs."

"You got something to keep me from killing him while he sleeps?" Chiggers demanded, glaring across at Harper. Without his fancy Malison Ring flight suit, Jack reflected, Chiggers looked and sounded more like a street punk than a big bad mercenary soldier.

Harper apparently thought so, too. "I'd be real careful about trying something like that, sonny boy," he said, his voice sending a shiver up Jack's back. "Half-asleep, I could still take you."

"I guess maybe we'll find out about that," Chiggers retorted.

"I guess maybe we won't," Jack put in. "Because Uncle Virge is going to be keeping an eye on you. Say hello to the nice men, Uncle Virge."

"I don't think you've really thought this through, Jack lad," Uncle Virge said darkly. "What if they do make trouble? For me or each other?"

"Then you crack open one of the sopor mist canisters from Alison's collection that I've hooked into the air system," Jack said. "There are three of them, wired separately, in case you feel like giving them more than one chance."

"And what happens when I've used up all the canisters?" Uncle Virge persisted.

"Then they'll really be sorry they made trouble," Jack said, watching both men carefully. "Because if and when you have to crack the third one, you're to fly them to Roarke's Mill on Cavendish while they're sleeping."

Harper frowned. Clearly, the name meant nothing to him.

Chiggers's reaction was far more interesting. There was a catch in his breath, and his eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare," he said.

"Oh yes, I would," Jack assured him.

"What's Roarke's Mill?" Harper asked.

"It's a hangout for killers and thugs," Chiggers growled. "The Internos has tried a dozen times to clear it out, including hiring the Malison Ring and a couple of other merc groups to handle the grunt work. But the scum just keep coming back."

"It's also a hangout for less violent people, like con artists and safecrackers," Jack said. "Uncle Virgil and I visited the place a couple of times, and he still has acquaintances there. I'm sure that once Uncle Virge explains the situation they'll take good care of you until I come back."

"You send us there and we're dead," Chiggers said flatly.

"Very possibly," Jack agreed. "Reason enough for you to behave yourselves."

Harper shifted his shoulders. "Jack—"

"Have a nice time," Jack said, backing out of the room.

Draycos didn't speak again until they were loading their supplies aboard the patrol ship. "I still don't know what you're planning, Jack," he said. "But I have to agree with Uncle Virge. You may not have thought this through."

"I'm not all that crazy about it myself," Jack admitted. "But I actually have thought it through. Remember, I was brought up to be a con man. I know how people think."

"I appreciate your talents in that area," Draycos said. "But none of that will matter once they see you're not Chiggers."

"There are ways around that," Jack assured him. "Or at least ways to delay the magic moment. The bottom line is that Neverlin's group is on the move and this may be our only chance to hook up with them. If you've got a better idea, I'm all ears.

"You've already heard my idea: to make a deal with Harper and Braxton," Draycos said. "You've already rejected it."

"Though not without some regret," Jack said. "I'd love to show up at the rendezvous with a wedge of Braxton Universis Security ships behind me. But I don't trust Harper or Braxton."

"So you've said." Draycos gave a quiet sigh. "Very well. If we're going to do this, we'd best be on our way."

Jack took a deep breath. "Yeah."