Dragonback 06 Dragon and Liberator (7 page)

We have no choice
, Draycos said firmly.
They're too
widely separated for an attack. Stay calm and watch for an opportunity
.

Jack had been trying to keep his swirl of emotion out of his face.
But Harper wasn't fooled. "Relax," he said, smiling faintly. "There's
still a chance you can walk away from this with your life. I understand
you know a young lady named Alison Kayna."

For a split second Jack thought about denying it. But there didn't
seem to be much point to that. "We've chatted once or twice," he
admitted.

"That's good," Harper said. "Because the Patri Chookoock is even
more annoyed with her than he is with you."

"Yeah, I'm not surprised," Jack said. The comm clip pressed
against the waistband of his jeans, and he pulled in his stomach a
little to let Draycos keep it moving.

"Ah, so you know about her little rampage through his estate,"
Harper said. "Excellent. That means you've been in contact with her
since then. Tell us where she is and you can go free."

Briefly, Jack wondered what Harper's reaction would be if he told
him Alison was settled in somewhere aboard the
Advocatus Diaboli
.
"Hard to say," Jack told him instead. "The girl's always on the move."

Harper's smile hardened a little. "But you
would
be
willing to help us find her?"

"Well, she's not in
here
," Jack said, half-turning both
directions as if checking the room's corners behind him. The movement,
he hoped, would hide the slight rippling of his shirt as Draycos slid
the comm clip the rest of the way to his neck and attached it to the
inside of his collar. "Afraid I can't help you look anywhere else just
now."

"I think we can fix that," Harper assured him. "In about fifteen
minutes a private shuttle will land on the roof of this building. You,
I, and our three friends will take the elevator up there, get in, and
take a ride to the Chookoock estate."

His face hardened. "Where you'll tell us everything the Patri
Chookoock wants to know. One way or another. Guaranteed."
Stay
calm, Jack
, Draycos said again.

Jack took a deep breath. He'd had all he could take from the
Chookoock family during the month he'd been their slave. And most of
that
had been just their casual day-to-day cruelty, the sort they would
inflict on any of the helpless beings under their control. The thought
of the kind of focused torture Harper was hinting at chilled him
straight to the bone.

But Draycos was right. Panic would gain him nothing but a frozen
brain.

Besides, even if Harper knew about Draycos, he'd never seen just
what a poet-warrior of the K'da could do. That might give them the edge
they would need.

In the meantime, Jack had fifteen minutes before the shuttle
arrived. Maybe he could put the time to some use. "I'm sure we can come
to some arrangement," he told Harper. "So tell me. How long have you
been working for Mr. Neverlin?"

"Let's talk about you instead," Harper said. "How long have you—?"

"Because I'd have thought that after the
Star of Wonder
fiasco Braxton would go over his whole staff with a laser slicer," Jack
interrupted. "How did you get missed? Or are we talking a brand-new
alliance?"

"We know you were on Iota Klestis during the attack on the
K'da/Shontine advance force," Harper said, ignoring the question. "What
we
don't
know is how you learned about it far enough in
advance—"

"What new alliance?" one of the Brummgas rumbled.

Harper frowned up at him. "What?"

"It said there was new alliance," the Brummga said, gesturing
toward Jack with his gun. "What did it mean?"

"He was talking nonsense," Harper said. "The only alliance is the
one we're already part of."

"It also spoke of Braxton," one of the other Brummgas said.

And suddenly two of the three guns that had been pointed at Jack
were pointed at Harper instead.

"Are you
insane
?" Harper demanded, his voice low and
ominous as he looked up at them. "Do you have any idea who I am?"

"We know who you claim," the first Brummga said. From Jack's comm
clip came a soft murmur, too soft for Jack to understand. "Maybe you
should be more closely asked at."

Jack, get ready to roll off the chair to your right
,
Draycos's thought came urgently.
Steady
. . . now!

Jack fell to his right, dropping sideways to land flat on the
floor. He caught a glimpse of Harper and the Brummgas turning sharply
to look at him.

And with a thunderous explosion, the window disintegrated.

Go
!

Jack climbed unsteadily back to his feet, blinking back the
swirling dust now filling the room. Through the ringing in his ears, he
could hear Uncle Virge's voice shouting faintly from inside his shirt.
"Come on, lad! Hurry!"

Jack looked toward the side wall. Where the window had been was
now a gaping hole. Beyond the hole, hovering on its lifters with its
ramp gesturing invitingly, was the
Essenay
.

"Hurry, lad," Uncle Virge said again. "They'll be on us anytime."

"Right," Jack muttered, and he headed toward the ruined wall. He
was halfway there when he heard the flat crack of a gunshot.

He spun half-around, dropping reflexively into a crouch. Harper
was still seated at the desk, with two of the Brummgas still standing
over him. The aliens were waving their guns wildly, their pea-sized
brains probably still trying to sort out whether they should be
pointing the weapons at Jack, Harper, or the new threat that had
suddenly appeared outside.

And then, as Jack watched, there was another pair of gunshots. The
two remaining Brummgas jerked and toppled backward out of sight behind
the desk.

It was only then that Jack saw the small gun in Harper's hand.

There was a sudden surge of weight on Jack's shoulders, and
Draycos leaped out of his collar.

But Harper was faster. Instantly, he lifted both hands, pointing
his gun at the ceiling. "Truce," he called.

The word was barely out of his mouth before Draycos reached him.
Jack caught his breath, but the K'da hadn't missed the signs of
surrender. He leaped up onto the desk but instead of delivering a
killing or stunning blow merely slapped the gun out of Harper's hand
with his paw.

"Jack, lad, come
on
!" Uncle Virge snapped. "They're
scrambling pursuit fighters."

"On our way," Jack called back, starting again toward the ramp.
"Come on, Draycos."

Draycos flicked his tail and hopped backward off the desk, his
eyes still on Harper. "Take me with you," Harper called, his hands
still in the air. "We may be on the same side."

"You've got your own shuttle coming," Jack reminded him. "You can
take that one."

"With three dead Brummgas behind me?" Harper countered. "Don't be
ridiculous."

Jack hesitated. Harper was probably right about that.

Question was, could Jack and Draycos trust the man? Jack looked at
Draycos, but the K'da was looking back at him. Waiting for
him
to make the decision.

And as he gazed at those glowing green eyes, a memory popped back
into Jack's mind: he and Draycos on Sunright, with Jack unwilling to go
charging back into danger to rescue Alison and some of their fellow
Whinyard's Edge soldiers.
A warrior does that which is right
,
Draycos had told him.
Not because he may profit from it. Because it
is right
.

If they left Harper here, the man was dead. Pure and simple.
Either by the hand of the Brummgan legal system or by the far more
personal hand of the Patri Chookoock.

And there was always a chance he and Harper
were
on the
same side. "Come on, then," Jack told him.

Turning back to the ruined wall, he steeled himself and leaped the
two feet across to the end of the ramp. Draycos was right behind him,
with Harper a close third. "We're in," Jack called toward the airlock's
camera/speaker/microphone module. "Close up and head to the roof."

"Right," Uncle Virge said.

"Wait a second," Harper protested as the ramp slid back into place
and the outer hatch closed. He started toward Jack, stopping abruptly
as Draycos stepped warningly into his path. "The
roof
?"

"They'll be looking for someone running," Jack called back over
his shoulder as he headed for the cockpit. "So instead we go to ground."

The
Essenay
was already settling onto the roof beside the
police station's set of big relay dishes when Jack reached the cockpit.
"Hull-wrap on, everything else power crash-down," Jack ordered the
computer as he slid into the pilot's seat.

"Got it," Uncle Virge said, the cockpit's lights and power
indicators already winking out. "Jack, lad, bringing on another
passenger—"

"Save it," Jack said. He turned as Harper came up behind him,
Draycos close on his heels. "Just relax, Mr. Harper. It's under
control."

He saw Harper's eyes flick to the single part of the board still
showing indicators. "Chameleon hull-wrap?" he asked.

"That's right," Jack confirmed. "A very good one, too."

"It still won't fool them forever," Harper warned. "We may look
like a section of roof from above, but there's no way to hide the
ship's actual bulge from anyone looking straight across the rooftops at
us."

"We aren't going to stay here forever," Jack assured him. "As soon
as those fighters and police aircars get far enough away, we'll be
making a break for it."

"And at night a sideways look isn't going to do anyone much good
anyway," Uncle Virge added. "Trust me, we've done this before."

"I'll take your word for it," Harper said, glancing around. "I
give up. Where are you?"

"Uncle Virgil's not actually here right now," Jack said, tensing a
little as he always did whenever someone asked about his dead uncle.
"He just added a personality simulation to the computer so I wouldn't
get lonely when he was away."

"Interesting." Harper leaned over Jack's shoulder toward the P/S/8
designation plate on the computer-interface board. "That kind of
personality simulation usually requires at least a P/S11. You must have
upgraded your system somewhere along the line."

"Actually, I think the ship came already equipped with a P/S/11,"
Jack said. "I think what Uncle Virgil did was
down
grade the
designation plate."

"We've got a shuttle incoming from the northeast," Uncle Virge
reported. "The police are moving to intercept."

"That'll be mine," Harper said. "Or, rather, the one the Patri was
sending for me."

Jack sent him a sideways look. "Awfully nice of him."

"Relax; I'm not with them," Harper said. "Really. I just spun them
that yarn to get myself into the police station."

"Ah," Jack said, wondering whether to actually believe that. "He's
going to be furious when he finds out you killed three of his soldiers,
you know."

"No more furious than he'll be when he finds out I lied to him
about being one of Neverlin's associates." Harper consulted his watch.
"Which should be any time now, depending on when the answer to his
query gets back from the
Advocatus Diaboli
."

Jack frowned at him. "You
knew
he would check up on you?"

"Of course," Harper said. "But I also know how long it typically
takes messages to transfer back and forth between underlings and
superiors. I figured I had enough time, especially given how eager the
Patri was to let me sneak you out of jail and into his hands."

A shiver ran up Jack's back. "You play dangerous games."

"
You
should talk," Harper countered. "From where I sit, it
looks like you're involved with Neverlin up to your lower lip."

"Jack's involvement is purely accidental," Draycos put in.

"And then we have you," Harper went on, looking over his shoulder
at Draycos. "I can't wait to hear
your
story."

"Jack, I believe it's time," Uncle Virge spoke up. "They're all
far enough away."

Jack nodded. "Rev us up."

The board lit up again as the computer reactivated the
Essenay
's
systems. Jack gave everything a quick look, then got a grip on the
control yoke. "You might want to hang on to something," he advised
Harper. "This could get a little bumpy."

"Keep it slow and casual as long as you can," Harper cautioned.
"The more you look like someone out on an innocent late-night errand,
the longer it'll take them to notice you."

"Thanks, I know the drill," Jack told him. "Here goes."

He eased the
Essenay
away from the roof, turning off the
chameleon hull-wrap as he did so, and headed at a leisurely pace at
right angles to the current focus of the searchers' attention.

For the first thirty seconds he thought they were actually going
to pull it off. Then, three of the fighters turned away from their
confrontation with the Chookoock shuttle and swung onto an intercept
course. "That's it," Jack said, grabbing the thruster control. "Hang
on, everyone." Mentally crossing his fingers, he jammed it to full
power.

He needn't have worried. The fighters' pilots had apparently been
motivated by little more than curiosity about the unidentified craft's
presence over the city. By the time Jack's burst of speed turned their
idle questions to sharp-edged certainty, the
Essenay
had too
much of a lead.

Six minutes later, with the fighters still trying to play
catch-up, Jack keyed in the ECHO. The starry sky in front of them
flashed with the usual brief rainbow, and became the blue of hyperspace.

And they were safe. For now.

"Nicely done," Harper said. "Now what?"

"We find someplace to drop you off and get on with our lives,"
Jack said, frowning at the navigation display. With the data diamonds
holding the refugee rendezvous information still aboard the
Advocatus
Diaboli
, the new plan had been for him and Draycos to go to
Driftline, where Alison had deduced Frost had been heading when he'd
been ordered to Semaline to pick her up.