Dragonback 01 Dragon and Thief (15 page)

There were yips of protest from the whelps. "No, no, I've made up
my mind," Jack told them. "Draycos can no longer be my assistant. And
when a magician fires an assistant, where do you suppose that assistant
goes?"

He let the whelps shout a few possibilities. As they did so,
Draycos slid his right front paw along the top of the jacket to rest on
Jack's hand. He was onto the plan, all right. "Nope," Jack said shaking
his head at the whelps. "As a matter of fact, when a magician fires his
assistant, he goes into thin air!"

With a twist of his wrist, he flipped the coat over the top of
Draycos's head. There was a brief surge of weight on his right forearm—

He let go of the jacket, letting it drop empty to the floor.

The whelps gasped. For another second there was stunned silence;
and then, to Jack's relief, came the loudest burst of Wistawki applause
yet. "Once again, my friends, I thank you," Jack said over the
finger-snapping, bowing low three times. On his third bow, he retrieved
the jacket from the floor.

Preenoffneoff was waiting for him at the door leading from the
room. "An impressive show," the Wistawk said quietly. "Fully as
impressive as if you had been invited."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, trying to sound puzzled, his heart
starting to speed up. After knocking himself out for an hour up there,
surely Preenoffneoff wasn't going to make trouble for him. Was he?

"You came to our balcony to hide," Preenoffneoff said. "Don't deny
it. Randorneoff told me."

Jack felt his heart sink. He'd seen the drunk Wistawk come in from
the balcony half an hour ago, but he hadn't realized he'd talked to
anyone. He was in trouble, all right. "Well . . ." he stalled,
searching frantically for something to say.

"I trust you are safe now?"

It took Jack a moment to change mental gears. "I hope so, yes. And
I apologize for breaking into your home."

The Wistawk waved the words away. "An impressive show," he said
again, pressing a small velvet pouch into Jack's hand. "Go in peace and
merriment."

"Thank you," Jack said, bowing again as he fingered the pouch. It
was heavy, and the contents clinked slightly as he shifted them.
High-value coins, he hoped. "May your family rest in joy and
contentment."

The evening mealtime had passed while they were inside
entertaining the Wistawki, and more pedestrians had now appeared
strolling the streets. Not surprisingly, most of them were Wistawki,
chattering together as they enjoyed the night air. Picking a direction
leading away from the spaceport, Jack headed out, keeping to the
shadows as much as he could without looking obvious about it.

"Where are we going?" Draycos asked softly from his shoulder.

"There's a small airfield south of the city," Jack said.
"Hopefully, we now have enough money to hire a plane."

"Where will the
Essenay
will be waiting?"

"At a regional spaceport about half a continent away," Jack told
him. "If Uncle Virge wasn't able to sneak back in under a different ID,
he'll have gone on to a planet called Aldershot. In that case, I'll
have to find a job somewhere until I can make enough money to get us
there."

"Perhaps you should continue as a performer," Draycos suggested.
"I was quite impressed by your skill."

"Thanks, but I'll stick with something simpler," Jack said dryly.
"Like maybe heavy load lifting. Keeping an audience on the hook that
way is a little too much like what I used to do."

He glanced down at his shoulder. "Speaking of which, you did
pretty good yourself. Especially the juggling. When did you learn to do
that?"

"When I was young," Draycos said. "It was a skill my older brother
had, and which I very much wanted to master.

"No kidding," Jack said, feeling a twinge of the emptiness he'd
always felt when someone mentioned brothers or sisters. "How many
brothers do you have?"

"I had just the one brother," Draycos said. "I also have three
sisters."

"Big family," Jack said. "Me, I was an only child. So he taught
you how to juggle, huh?"

"He assisted, but I mainly taught myself," the dragon said. "I
wished to surprise and impress him."

"I'll bet you did," Jack said. "You're darn good at it."

"Thank you," Draycos said. "It is odd, though, for I have always
thought of it merely as a private amusement. I would never have
expected it to prove a useful skill."

"Sort of backwards from me," Jack said. "Everything I did back
there I learned for scamming or stealing or conning.
I
never
thought it would be a way to just amuse people."

They walked in silence for another block. "It does not seem to me
that your people have much of a childhood," Draycos said at last.

Jack sighed. "My people do all right," he said. "It's me who
hasn't had much of a childhood. My parents died when I was three. Some
sort of mining accident, I guess."

"You guess? You do not know?"

"I was only three," Jack repeated patiently. "I remember them
wearing some kind of funny hats, and I remember that there was a big
explosion. But that's about it. I wouldn't even know they'd been miners
if Uncle Virgil hadn't told me."

"He told you this after he had adopted you?"

"Sort of adopted me, anyway," Jack corrected. "As far as I know,
there was never anything formal about it. He came in after the accident
and brought me to live aboard his ship."

"As his assistant in dishonesty."

"Mostly," Jack admitted. "Don't get me wrong. He was all the
family I had, and he took care of me. And I do mostly miss him. But . .
. yeah, mostly I was just his assistant."

"I am sorry for your misfortune."

"Save it," Jack bit out. He wasn't used to apologies, and he sure
wasn't used to people feeling sorry for him. "I don't need your
sympathy."

"And you also do not need anyone else?"

"I did all right before you got here," Jack said stubbornly. "I'll
do all right long after you're gone, too."

"When I am gone?"

"Skip it," Jack growled. Now that they'd solved the problem of the
missing cargo, Uncle Virge would probably push for him to dump Draycos
off on someone else for this Valahgua hunting expedition of his. But he
hadn't intended to let that slip to Draycos. "So where's this brother
of yours? Coming in with that big fleet?"

"My sisters are with the fleet," Draycos said quietly. "But my
brother is gone. He died in battle against the Valahgua."

Jack grimaced. "Oh. Sorry."

"There is no need to apologize," Draycos assured him. "It was long
ago, and he was properly mourned."

"Mm," Jack said, not knowing what else to say. "So I guess you
wanting to save the fleet isn't just your job as a warrior. It's also
something personal."

The dragon shifted slightly against his skin. "The K'da and
Shontine are my people," he said, "and I would willingly die in the
defense of any one of them. But yes, it is also personal."

Jack grimaced. And would he also willingly give his current
companion's life to defend these umpteen million people of his? That
was something he really ought to get nailed down before they went much
farther with this whole thing.

He was trying to think of a polite way to phrase the question when
a shadow detached itself from a nearby wall and jammed a gun into the
side of his neck.

"Nice and cool, now, Morgan," a familiar voice breathed in his ear.

Jack felt his throat go rigid. Oh,
no
. "Why, Lieutenant
Raven," he said as casually as he could manage. "Nice to see you again."

"The feeling is mutual," Raven said. "Now. We can do this the easy
way, or we can do it the hard way. Your choice."

Under his shirt, Jack could feel Draycos sliding into position for
a leap. "Uh-uh," Jack warned under his breath.

"Uh-uh what?" Raven demanded. "Uh-uh to the easy way?"

"No, just plain uh-uh," Jack said. Draycos subsided; clearly, he'd
gotten the message. Though on second thought, maybe he should just let
the dragon deal with it his own way.

A second later, he was glad he'd held Draycos back. Halfway down
the block, two more shadows pushed away from different walls, one of
them the wide bulk of Raven's pet Brummga. Even Draycos couldn't have
taken all three of them, not with them spread out that way.

"So the little blinker
did
find a hole to hide in, huh?"
Drabs sneered as they converged on Jack and Raven. "Good little
blinker."

"You're in a mess of trouble, Morgan," Raven said, reaching around
Jack's left side and removing the tangler from its holster. "You know
that?"

"Grand theft," Drabs said, still sneering. "That molecular
stress-gauge transducer you stole was worth three million dollars."

"Wow," Jack said, letting his mouth drop open in feigned
astonishment. "That old white stuff's
really
getting expensive."

Drabs frowned. "What old white stuff?"

"Dry ice," Jack said blandly. "Imagine ninety pounds being worth a
whole three million."

The expression that spread across Drabs's face was priceless.
"Hey," he said. "Lieutenant?"

"He has solved it," the Brummga rumbled in disgust. "I said that
he would."

"Yes, yes, you were brilliant," Raven said, sounding as disgusted
as the Brummga. He jabbed his gun again into Jack's neck. "Clever
little blinker, aren't you?"

"I try," Jack said modestly.

"And the uncle's gone," Drabs pointed out, starting to sound
worried. "What do we do now?"

"What do we do now?" Raven echoed. "We find something else to pin
him to the floor with, that's what."

"Such as?"

Raven stepped close behind Jack and looped his left arm around
Jack's throat. He turned around, forcing Jack to turn with him.

Coming toward them on the street, chattering together and paying
no attention to the strangers in front of them, were a pair of
Wistawki. Tightening his left arm, Raven took his gun away from Jack's
neck.

Resting his arm on Jack's shoulder, he leveled the weapon at the
approaching aliens.

Jack inhaled sharply, suddenly realizing what Raven intended.
Ignoring the pressure on his throat, he grabbed for the gun with both
hands.

But he was a split-second eternity too late. Raven's gun spat a
flash of laser fire, shifted aim slightly, and spat another one.

Without a sound, not even a final yelp, the two Wistawki crumpled
to the ground.

"Like maybe a murder," Raven said calmly.

"Are you
insane?
" Jack gasped, staring in horror at the
dead Wistawki. "What—why did you—?"

"What's the problem?" Raven said, waving the laser casually beside
Jack's face. The barrel radiated heat, and the slight smell of ozone
crinkled his nose. "A couple of aliens. No big deal."

"You're insane," Jack breathed. His whole body was starting to
shake now, tears were welling up in his eyes, and his stomach wanted
desperately to be sick. Never, ever, in all his years of stealing and
cheating people had he ever seen someone gunned down in cold blood that
way.

"Not me, friend," Raven said. "You're the one who shot them.
Right, Drabs?"

"Right," Drabs agreed. He stepped in front of Jack, back to
sneering again. "Typical alien-hating human, I guess."

Jack blinked the tears out of his eyes. He would not let these
thugs see him cry. He would
not
.

"But we'll talk about all that later," Raven said. "Meanwhile,
pleasant dreams."

Something cold touched Jack's neck just above where Raven was
still holding him. There was a whiff of something unpleasant . . ..

The last thing he saw was Drabs's face. Still sneering.

The Brummga took charge of Jack, holding the sleeping boy upright
with one of his massive arms around his waist. Raven went through his
pockets, taking the comm clip, the multitool, and the police EvGa
scanner. Then, with Raven walking ahead at point and Drabs lagging
behind in rearguard position, they headed back toward the spaceport.

Leaving Draycos still resting unnoticed against Jack's skin,
fuming quietly to himself.

He should have acted sooner. He should have acted, period. He
should have ignored Jack's warning to remain quiet when Raven first
appeared on the scene. A leap from the shoulder would have knocked
Raven's gun away from Jack's neck, and it would have been the work of
half a second to deal with the human.

But then Raven's two companions would have opened fire from their
concealment. Could he have neutralized both of them, as well?

Draycos let his claws stretch out of their sheaths against Jack's
chest in frustration. Even with the enemy's advantage in numbers and
positioning, he felt sure he could have defeated all three of them.

Or at least, he could have if he had been on his own. But he
wasn't on his own. Jack wasn't trained, either in combat or in evasion.
If Draycos had made a move, the boy would most likely have been killed.

Should he have moved before Raven murdered the Wistawki citizens,
then? Should he have leaped out and stopped that from happening? Or
should he have done something afterward, perhaps, before they put Jack
to sleep?

But no. With Raven's arm pressed around Jack's throat Draycos
hadn't been able to see properly, but his hearing hadn't been blocked.
Never at any time had all three of the enemy been within range for a
quick one-one-one attack, and anything else would again have been
risking Jack's life.

Risking it for nothing, too, since it seemed clear that they
didn't plan to kill him. At least not right away.

Now, of course, it was too late for action of any sort. Jack was
fast asleep, drugged by the chemical Raven had injected into his skin.
It was one thing to grab the boy in mid-leap and carry him up onto a
balcony. It was a different matter entirely to try to run with him
balanced across his back.