Dragonback 06 Dragon and Liberator (14 page)

"Understood," Draycos said. Turning, he headed aft.

"And hold your nose," Jack's voice wafted down the corridor after
him. "I wasn't kidding about the smell."

Five minutes later, with the stench of calozyne curling his
nostrils, Jack brought the patrol ship to a smooth docking alongside
the
Gatekeeper
.

Draycos was waiting for him at the hatch. "You were right about
the smell," the K'da said as he laid his paw on Jack's hand and
slithered up onto his skin.
What's our plan
?

We stay with the Chiggers story as long as possible
, Jack
told him. He started to take a deep breath, instantly changed his mind.
He straightened the collar of his flight suit, checked that his tangler
was riding loose in Chiggers's holster, and touched the hatch release.

The hatch slid open. Beyond the docking collar was a medium-sized
bay with the same light tan walls and deck Jack had seen in the
wreckage of the
Havenseeker
, back on that fateful day when he
and Draycos had first met. Squaring his shoulders, trying to act as if
he owned the place, he stepped through the hatchway into enemy
territory.

But for the moment, anyway, the enemy seemed to be unaware they'd
been invaded. The only other occupants of the bay were a pair of
Brummgas working at an open access panel, and their only reaction was a
curling of their own nostrils against the smell leaking out into their
world.

Like I own the place
, Jack reminded himself. "Hey—you," he
called toward them. "Get me a sealant tube, will you?"

One of the Brummgas half-turned, his cheeks wrinkling in disgust.
"Get it yourself," he said, pointing a thick finger at a tool chest
along the wall. Turning his back on the insolent human, he returned to
his work.

Smiling to himself, Jack headed for the toolbox.
Do we need to
take the time to fix the leak
? Draycos asked.

Unfortunately, yes
, Jack said.
The idea is that
Chiggers came aboard, did his repairs, and then made himself scarce
before anyone could find him and give him some other job to do.
Vanishing without fixing the leak would look suspicious
.

Understood
, Draycos replied. The K'da's tongue flicked
briefly through the air beneath Jack's chin.
But be careful. I can
taste a hint of human scent beneath the smell of the Brummgas
.

Plus a few Valahgua
?

He sensed a darkening of Draycos's mood.
Yes
.

No problem
, Jack said, trying to hide his sudden twinge of
fear. A people who had defeated K'da warriors weren't a group he really
wanted to run into. Even if their Death weapon
was
sort of
cheating.
We'll just have to be a little extra careful, that's all
.

The toolbox contained two different tubes of sealant. Jack wasn't
sure which would work better for a calozyne pipe, but for the length of
time the repair needed to hold it probably didn't matter. Selecting the
more expensive-looking tube, he headed back to the patrol ship.

The hole Draycos had sliced in the pipe was small and easy to get
to. Jack squeezed a generous portion of sealant across it and watched a
minute to make sure it was solidifying properly. Then, capping the
tube, he went back into the docking bay and returned it to the toolbox.
Which way
? he asked Draycos as he straightened up again.

Take the door to your left
, Draycos told him.
The Death
weapons will most likely be mounted in the bow. Probably in the weapons
bays, where they'll have an ample source of power
.

Sounds reasonable. Just point the way
.

He was halfway across the bay when a figure stepped through the
door ahead of him. It was a human figure, dressed in a Malison Ring
uniform, peering down at a notepad in his hand.

Only it wasn't just one of Frost's men, a man who would know
Chiggers at a glance. It was far worse . . . and it was the last person
Jack had expected to see here.

It was StarForce Wing Sergeant Jonathan Langston. The man who'd
helped him escape from Semaline.

A man Jack had thought was dead.

In that single frozen heartbeat. Jack felt his mental camouflage
being stripped away like the wrapper off a ration bar. Not only would
Langston know Chiggers by sight; he was possibly one of the few aboard
who would also instantly recognize Jack himself.

And with that, the quiet game Draycos had hoped for had come to an
abrupt end. The minute Langston spotted Jack and squawked his name, the
two Brummgas poking at their access panel would be on to him.

Jack and Draycos had to take all three of them out before that
happened.

Jack dropped his hand casually to his holstered tangler.
I may
not be able to get than all before someone yells
, he warned
Draycos.
As soon as I start shooting, you'd better head forward by
yourself to deal with the Death weapons
.

What about you
?

I'll be all right
, Jack told him, knowing full well it was
a lie. A single squawk out of any of the three would draw the whole
ship down on him. If they didn't kill him outright, they would haul him
back to the
Advocatus Diaboli
and give him to Neverlin, which
would pretty much amount to the same thing.

But that didn't matter. All that mattered was that he give Draycos
as much time as possible to find and destroy the Death weapons.
On
three
, he said.
One, two
—

Wait
, Draycos cut him off, an odd tone to the texture of
his thoughts.

Jack flicked his eyes around the room, wondering what had caught
the K'da's attention. There was nothing Jack could see that could
possibly help them. He looked back at Langston, bracing himself.

Only Langston wasn't staring at him, his eyes wide, his mouth
open, a shout of warning boiling out of his throat.

In fact, he wasn't looking at Jack at all. He was still gazing
intently down at his notepad.

And he wasn't walking straight toward Jack anymore, either.
Instead, he was angling across the bay toward the patrol ship. "Hey,
Chiggers," he called casually, still not looking up. "Good trip?"

Answer him
, Draycos prompted.

It took Jack another half second to put his Chiggers face and
voice back in place. "I lived through it," he growled. "What's been
happening here?"

"Not a thing," Langston said. He raised his eyes from his notepad,
but now they were focused on the hatchway leading into Jack's patrol
ship. "Looking forward to the big battle, though."

"
I'm
looking forward to the loot at the end of it," Jack
countered.

"That'll be nice, too," Langston agreed. "See you later."

With that, he stepped through the hatchway and disappeared into
the ship.
Move
, Draycos urged.

Abruptly, Jack realized he was standing still, staring at the
hatchway where Langston had disappeared.
Now
, that
was just
plain unreal
, he told Draycos as he got his feet moving again.

Not unreal
, Draycos said grimly.
Deliberate
.

What are you talking about
? Jack asked.
You saw the
uniform. He's gone over to Neverlin's side
.

He most certainly has not
, Draycos said, his tone leaving
no room for argument.
There's no possible way he could have failed
to see and recognize you. He deliberately gave you a pass. Gave
us
a
pass
.

Jack grimaced. The K'da was right. He had to be.

Which meant that, somehow, Langston had talked his way into
Frost's crew in order to help save the incoming refugees.

It also meant he was going to be in serious trouble when the
balloon went up. Very serious trouble indeed.

I know that
, Draycos said, answering Jack's unvoiced
thought.
So does he
.

A shiver ran up Jack's back as he stepped through the door into a
long corridor. Once before, he'd thought Langston had gone to his death
to protect Jack and Draycos. Now Jack knew the man had lived through
that particular ordeal.

Only to now be facing death for a second time. And again for Jack
and Draycos.

He is a true warrior
, Draycos said.
He has made his
decision, and his sacrifice. It's up to us to make sure that sacrifice
is not in vain
.

You got it, buddy
, Jack said grimly. It was, he decided,
about time he showed some of that determination and ruthlessness Uncle
Virgil had hammered into him over their long years together.
Let's
go find us some Death weapons
.

For the first few days of their time together in the lifepod,
Alison and Taneem had done little but talk.

Most of the talking at the beginning was on Alison's side as she
turned their forced idleness into an impromptu school. She taught
Taneem everything she knew about the
Advocatus Diaboli
, about
Neverlin and Frost and the Malison Ring, and more about Brummgas than
anyone in the Orion Arm probably wanted to know. The lifepod they were
in had some limited flight capability, and she spent one entire
afternoon drilling Taneem on the theory and practice of space flight.

After that had come lectures on skulking, information gathering,
and combat. Most of what Alison knew about the latter didn't directly
apply to K'da, but she'd seen Draycos in action enough times to have
some idea how he would deal with various combat situations.

Taneem didn't especially like that set of lessons. She didn't say
anything, but Alison could tell. Taneem didn't like fighting, and the
thought of possibly having to kill again made her sick.

But she also knew what was at stake. Whatever it took to save the
K'da and Shontine refugees, she would do it.

Around the sixth day the lessons had mostly ended. Alison couldn't
think of anything else to teach, and both of them were getting pretty
tired of the seminars anyway.

After that, their conversations shifted to more personal matters.
Alison told Taneem about her life growing up, while Taneem gave what
little she could remember about her life as a Phooka.

By the ninth day, they'd run out of even minor things to talk
about. Fortunately, the lifepod's equipment included a deck of cards,
and Alison spent several relaxing hours teaching Taneem some of the
games she and her parents and grandparents had enjoyed when she was a
girl.

It was on the tenth day, and she was trying to come up with a way
to modify the cards for some of the more specialized games she knew,
when she heard the faint warbling of the ship's emergency alarm.

"What's that?" Taneem asked, bounding to her feet.

"Emergency alarm," Alison said grimly, stepping to the door and
pressing her ear against the cold metal. She could hear the alarm
itself more clearly, but there was no sign of the automated
instructions that usually accompanied such an alert. "I don't hear any
abandon-ship announcements," she told Taneem, digging out her receiver
and turning it on. "Maybe Neverlin's got something to say on the
subject."

She stuck the receiver into her ear as Taneem slithered up her
sleeve onto her skin. "—want to get up here right away," Frost's voice
came, soft and distant. Probably coming from the intercom on Neverlin's
desk. "The
Essenay
has just come off ECHO outside our sentry
ring."

"
Morgan
?" Neverlin demanded. "How in blazes did he find us?"

"I don't know," Frost said grimly. "And it's not
Jack
Morgan. It's Virgil."

Alison frowned down at Taneem's head lying across her shoulder.
Jack had told them that his uncle Virgil was dead.

"Really," Neverlin said. "After all these months of looking for
him, he finally surfaces.
And
at the most awkward time and
place possible. Interesting. What does he want?"

"He wants to talk to you," Frost said. "Shall I blow him out of
the sky and be done with it?"

"By no means," Neverlin said, and Alison heard the soft creak of a
chair. "Certainly not until we know how he found us. I'll be right
there." There was the sound of a door opening and closing, and then
silence.

"Blast," Alison muttered, pulling the receiver out of her ear.
With the conversation shifting to the
Advocates Diaboli
's
bridge, she and Taneem were now out of it.

"It can't really be Virgil Morgan, can it?" Taneem asked
hesitantly.

"Not unless Jack lied to us," Alison said, gazing at the door.
"Which I'm sure he'd do in a heartbeat if he thought it was necessary."

Taneem lifted her head from Alison's shoulder. "We need to listen
in on that conversation."

"I dearly wish we could," Alison said. "Problem is, if we leave
the lifepod now we're not getting back in without everyone knowing
about it. Remember the seal on the door?"

"What if I simply go over the door?" Taneem suggested. "Or what if
I went into an air duct? I think I remember seeing one running along
the upper part of the corridor."

Alison looked at the top of the door. The K'da was right, come to
think of it. There was a large duct running along both sides of the
ship, designed to flood the lifepod boarding areas with air in a
hull-breach emergency. "Problem with
that
is that once you're
out there's no way to get in again," she pointed out.

"We have time to think of something," Taneem said firmly. "Right
now, we need to find out who this man is and what he wants."

Alison chewed at her lip. It was risky, and they both knew it.
Still, even if worst came to worst, it should merely mean moving her
private timetable up by a few days. "All right," she said. "If you're
game, let's try it."