Dragonback 06 Dragon and Liberator (11 page)

The twelve KK-29 patrol ships were set out in neat rows, four rows
of three each, all of them facing south toward the hangar's main doors.
Two of the mercenaries were walking slowly through the rear two rows,
doing a visual check of drive nozzles and missile tubes. Occasionally
one of them leaned over to peer at the underside between the landing
skids.

Four more men, including the two who'd walked along Jack's side of
the hangar, were standing at the open north-end door, facing outward
with weapons at the ready. The shuttle itself, Draycos noted, with its
own weapons turned outward, would do an adequate job of guarding the
southern end.

Under most circumstances, the arrangement would have created a
proper and logical defensive perimeter. In this case, unfortunately for
them, they were all facing the wrong way.

All six ships in the first two rows were giving off the low rumble
of spacecraft being readied to fly. Waiting until the two roving men
were out of sight, Draycos crossed the empty space to the nearest of
the third-row patrol ships. With a final look around to make sure he
hadn't been spotted, he dropped to his belly and crawled beneath it.

The Flying Turtle 505 transports Jack had flown in during his
brief time with the Whinyard's Edge mercenaries had been designed to
carry troops over battlefields. Those ships had thus been equipped with
heavy armor plating on their undersides.

The KK-29s, in contrast, were designed to chase smugglers and
marauders. Since they were expected to face their enemies during
battle, their armor was concentrated instead in the nose sections.

And since weight considerations meant a fast-attack ship couldn't
be invulnerable everywhere, Draycos found himself lying beneath a full
collection of conduits, tubes, access ports, and vents. Protecting the
whole thing was a single three-inch armor plate bolted over the maze,
set off with long spacers to allow access to the equipment.

Perfect

He didn't know what sort of fluids, hazardous or otherwise, the
various conduits might be carrying. Fortunately, he didn't need to try
his luck with any of them. Extending a single claw, he slipped it
between a pair of tubes and pressed it against the inner hull of the
ship itself. Quickly but quietly, he started cutting through it.

The metal was thicker than he'd expected, and he had to widen the
cut twice before he finally felt his claw pierce the hull into the
ship's crew compartment. He enlarged the hole a bit more, then rolled
back onto his stomach and made his way to the front of the landing
skids.

The first row of ships had already disappeared, and the second row
had risen on their lifters and were preparing to follow. The guards at
the rear door, he noted, had also disappeared, presumably preparing
their own ships for lift.

The pilots of the three hovering ships started forward, their
low-power drives kicking up a swirling cloud of dust. Taking advantage
of the cover, Draycos ducked out from between the landing skids and
sprinted back to the protection of his tool cabinet.

There he watched as the rest of the patrol ships flew away into
the afternoon sky. The shuttle followed, and Draycos headed for the
main hangar door.

He was nearly there when Jack appeared in the opening. "You all
right?" the boy asked anxiously.

"I'm fine," Draycos assured him. "Is Uncle Virge monitoring their
conversation?"

"Yes, he's on it," Jack said, holding out a hand. Draycos leaped
toward him, catching the hand in midair and sliding up the boy's
sleeve.
Everything's encrypted, but it's a simple cross-stitch and
he says he can break it
, Jack added, switching back to telepathic
communication now that Draycos was in contact with his skin.
What
exactly did you do in there
?

You'll see in a few minutes
, Draycos said.
We need to
return to the ship right away
.

They reached the
Essenay
to find that Uncle Virge had
started their own engine prep. "Where are they?" Jack asked as he
headed for the cockpit.

"About a hundred miles up," Uncle Virge said tartly. "If we're
going to catch them, we need to get going right now. In fact, we might
already be too late."

Out of the corner of his eye Draycos saw Jack look down at the
opening in his shirt collar. "We're okay," the boy said. "What are they
talking about?"

"Nothing much," Uncle Virge said, the urgency in his tone starting
to blend into the annoyance Draycos knew so well. "They're doing their
final running checks and systems tweaking. If our noble poet-warrior
has anything to offer in the way of—hold it."

There was a click from the board as Jack dropped into the pilot's
seat. "—bit of trouble," a new voice came from the cockpit speaker.
"Looks like I've got a slow air leak."

"You told me the pre-lift diagnostic came back negative," a second
voice said accusingly.

"It did," the first voice retorted. "The leak's not in the air
system. Must be in the cabin itself."

The second voice swore. "Blast it all, Chiggers."

"Lighten up, Sarge," Chiggers scolded. "Like I said, it's real
slow. I can probably patch it with sealant and the torch from the
onboard tool kit."

"
If
you can find it," Sarge warned.

"He can probably do that just with his breath," a third voice put
in.

"Stow it, Driscol," Sarge snapped. "You think Colonel Frost is
going to make jokes about us having to put down again?"

"Who said anything about
us
having to put down?" Chiggers
asked. "There's an outpost town right on my glide path. You go ahead
and I'll drop down and get this fixed. Shouldn't be more than an hour
or two behind you." He snorted. "Fact is, the way Driscol flies, I
might even beat you there."

"I don't like this," Sarge growled.

"Would you rather go back to Frost and tell him we left one of the
29s behind because you were afraid I might get lost?"

Sarge hissed an irritated sigh. "All right, fine. Just make it
quick. Driscol, you stay with him."

"I don't need him," Chiggers put in before Driscol could respond.
"Besides, he might run into my
breath
and hurt himself."

"Chiggers—"

"See you, Sarge," Chiggers said. "When I get to Point Two I'll
tell Frost you're on your way."

There was a soft click as Chiggers shut off his transmission, and
another as Uncle Virge closed down the speaker. "One of the ships is
breaking formation," he reported. "He's heading back down."

Draycos lifted his head from Jack's shoulder for a better look at
the display. The patrol ship was definitely curving back toward the
surface. More important, none of the others seemed to be following.
"Can you locate his landing point?" Draycos asked.

"He said there was a town on his flight path, and there are only
two settlements of any real size along that vector," Uncle Virge said.

"Make for the first one," Jack told him. He looked down at Draycos
again. "We
are
planning to meet him, aren't we?"

"Absolutely," Draycos confirmed, feeling a sense of relief. So
far, this was working exactly the way he'd planned.

"And once we do that?" Uncle Virge prompted.

"He should have this Point Two already programmed into his ship's
computer," Draycos said. "If we can retrieve that information, we can
find them."

"And then what?" Uncle Virge countered. "Harper seemed to think
Neverlin would put a couple of midway points into his schedule."

"And I'm sure he was right," Jack said. "Neverlin and Frost
probably won't give anyone else the actual rendezvous point until the
last minute."

"So I repeat: then what?"

"We'll figure out something," Jack assured him. "Let's just first
make sure we get to Chiggers before he fixes Draycos's leak."

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
?