Dragonback 02 Dragon and Soldier (21 page)

Swallowing hard, Jack got a firm grip on the tail. Without seeming
to even notice the extra weight, Draycos started to climb.

A minute later they had reached the branches. "This should conceal
you well," Draycos decided, pushing aside one of the leafy branches
with his forepaw.

"Yeah," Jack agreed. Actually, with the way the branches spread
out in layers from the trunk, each layer perhaps three feet higher up
on the trunk than the previous one, the setup was like a woody sort of
hammock with an overhead canopy. A lot cozier than some of the places
he'd hidden out over the years.

Provided, of course, you weren't afraid of heights. "Where are
you
going to be?"

Draycos turned head downward, again gripping the trunk with his
claws. "As I said, I will be setting a trap," he said. "Wait here until
I return."

He headed down. "Sure," Jack murmured. "Whatever you say."

Jack had been trying his best, Draycos knew. And he'd done a
remarkably good job, given his youth and inexperience. Draycos
appreciated that well, and once again was reminded that he could travel
far and long here in the Orion Arm without finding a better partner.

But for all his effort and willingness, the boy was not a warrior.
And to be honest, that meant he couldn't help but be a certain amount
of dead weight. Both for that reason, and of course for Jack's own
safety, Draycos was glad to have the boy out of the way for the moment.

Now, he thought grimly as he moved down the tree trunk, their
opponents would see what a poet-warrior of the K'da could do.

Or to be more precise, they
wouldn't
see it. If all went
well, they wouldn't see a thing.

The first advance team was long gone by now, heading downslope
toward the wreckage of the transport. But there were at least two more
groups within earshot making their way stealthily through the forest.
All of them human, Draycos decided as he tasted the air.

He didn't know why the Whinyard's Edge seemed to have few if any
nonhumans among their ranks. But that curious fact would make this
particular task easier. After nearly two months with Jack, human
physical capabilities were a known quantity to him, and fairly easy to
work into his strategy.

He made his way back to where he'd left the Argus sensor and
Jack's slapstick. The sensor was fastened solidly into the tree, but a
little digging with his claws and he soon had it free. Tucking the
sensor and slapstick under his forearms, he headed back in the
direction of the Kilo Seven outpost, trailing the sensor's twin cables
behind him.

He had to pause three times along the way, curling around himself
and freezing to complete motionlessness beneath a convenient bush or
thicket, as he ran into more trios of searchers. He studied each group
carefully as they passed, trying to decide if they were all merc foot
soldiers or whether one of them might be the line commander he was
seeking.

In each case, he concluded it was the former. Apparently, the
commander was still somewhere in the rear, allowing his men time to
neutralize any threats before moving out himself.

For their part, not surprisingly, none of the soldiers took any
notice of him, despite whatever sensor equipment and night-vision
devices they might be carrying. Intent upon locating a human fugitive,
they had no interest in a motionless creature of an unfamiliar type.

Even with the stops, it took only a few minutes for him to reach
the sentry cage Jack had been manning earlier that night. No one was
visible there, and for a few seconds he studied the area from cover,
mentally putting the final touches on his plans. Then, tasting the air
once more to confirm that no one was nearby, he set to work.

The first step was to replant the Argus sensor where it would be
partially visible from the sentry cage. He found a good spot about
fifty feet away to the south, half hidden beneath a bush. He wedged the
metal mounting rod into the ground, leaving the sensor itself free to
rotate. Then, leaving the slapstick beside it as bait, he began playing
out the cable toward the sentry cage.

But not directly toward it. Twenty feet to the east of the tree
that marked the cage was another of the puff-top trees like the one
where he'd left Jack. Dropping his end of the twin cables near the
base, he crossed to the cage and sliced the cables at that end. The two
cables, he had already noted, were held only loosely together by a
series of connector loops. Gripping the monitor end of both cables in
his jaws, he climbed up into the puff-top tree.

Earlier, he had cut the sensor cable where it entered the Argus
eye. Now, careful not to let it get hung up, he pulled the sensor cable
completely through the connectors, freeing it from the control cable
and coiling it up as it came. When the far end finally came free, he
had a coil of over two hundred fifty feet.

The other end of the control cable was still connected to the
sensor. He gave it a quick examination, confirming that he could
operate the mechanical linkage with his claws, then wrapped the end
around a branch for safekeeping. Hoisting the coil of sensor cable over
his shoulder, he leaped across to the sentry-cage tree, the one the
round Argus monitors were attached to. He worked his way around the
trunk, then jumped to the next tree over.

He'd noticed this type of tree earlier that evening during his
brief search for enemy soldiers. It had two very different types of
branches: one of them solid and unyielding, the other equally solid but
far more flexible and springy. Choosing one of the second type, he tied
one end of his sensor cable to it and threw the rest of the coil back
over to the Argus tree.

Leaping back to the Argus tree himself, he got a firm grip on the
trunk and began to pull on the cable, bending the springy branch back
toward him.

The farther he bent it, naturally, the more resistant it became to
being bent any farther. It took every bit of his strength, plus some
very fancy claw work, to finally work it all the way into position.

But finally he had it in place. Tying the center of the cable to
one of the Argus tree's thickest branches with a quick-release knot, he
gathered up the remainder of the coil and leaped back to the puff-top
tree on the other side. Climbing up to the third layer of branches, he
moved a few feet along one of the thicker limbs to a conveniently
placed fork. Looping his end of the cable around it, he returned the
coil to his shoulder and jumped back to the Argus tree.

He could hear the sound of footsteps now, several sets of them,
coming from the direction of the Kilo Seven outpost. Most were the
cautious movements of the patrol soldiers he'd evaded earlier, but one
was the slightly noisier tread of a senior officer who had perhaps
forgotten proper sneaking technique.

The line commander, it seemed, had finally decided to join his men
in the field. Fortunately, the trap was nearly set.

He climbed down the Argus tree with what remained of his coil,
taking care that the cable not get hung up on any of the branches. At
the lowest layer of branches—with this type of tree, they were no more
than eight feet above the ground— he pulled the cable taut and tied
another quick-release knot connecting it to a branch.

That left him perhaps ten feet of loose cable. He tied a slipknot
loop in the end, draped it out of sight across two branches, then
climbed back to his first quick-release, the one holding the springy
branch taut. A gentle pull released it, and there was a soft twanging
sound as the rest of the cable took up the tension.

For a moment he crouched there in the upper branches, tracing the
cable with his eyes, making sure he'd gotten everything exactly as he'd
planned. From the bent springy branch, through the edge of the Argus
tree to the puff-top tree. Looped around a third-level branch there,
back to the Argus tree, quick-release knot at the lowest branches, the
rest in a slipknotted loop.

Perfect.

Leaping once more to the puff-top, he retrieved the control cable
and returned one last time to the Argus tree. Moving down the trunk, he
set himself on the far side from his approaching opponents, hiding in a
thick clump of leaves.

And everything was now ready. Everything, that was, except for the
one unknown still in the equation. The question of whether the
commander and his men would behave as expected.

There was no way for him to know. No way even for him to guess,
really, at least not with any certainty. Human reflexes he understood;
human eyesight, too, and hearing and stamina and strength.

But in many ways, human ways of thinking were still foreign to
him. Their ways of thinking, and their behavior, and their basic
fundamental reactions.

And if he had guessed wrong, all his effort would have been for
nothing.

Still, he'd gone this far. He might as well see it through.
Besides, Jack surely understood his own species; and hadn't Jack agreed
that these people didn't act like true soldiers?

Peering around the side of the trunk, he could see the approaching
group as they moved cautiously through the trees toward him. There were
five in all: four patrol soldiers plus the one who didn't step as
cautiously as his companions.

Like the others, the latter's face was obscured by the half-helmet
he was wearing to support his night-vision equipment. From his build,
though, Draycos could see that it wasn't Sergeant Grisko.

Pity. After Grisko's part in the betrayal and attack on the
transport, he would rather have liked to deal with that one personally.

The group was nearly to the sentry cage now. Keeping his movements
small, Draycos dug his claws delicately into the meshed steel lines
inside the control cable and gently tugged.

There was no reaction from the Edgemen. Draycos tugged again, this
time risking a quick look over at the half-hidden sensor. It was
moving, all right, turning slowly back and forth.

Still no response. Draycos tried again, beginning to think unkind
thoughts about his opponents' competence.
He
could see the
faint reflection glinting from the sensor's face. Why couldn't they?

And then, just as he was wondering whether he should give up the
effort, one of the soldiers spotted it. He snapped his arm up, his
fingers rapidly tracing out hand signals Grisko had never bothered to
teach Jack and his fellow recruits.

The four patrol soldiers responded with all the smooth efficiency
of professionals. Without fuss or hesitation, they drifted to both
sides as they continued forward, moving to flank whoever it was
watching them from beneath the bush.

The fifth man did not join them. Instead, he eased into the sentry
cage and stopped, watching nervously from behind the Argus tree.

Draycos felt his jaws crack in an ironic smile. So he and Jack had
been right. A true warrior line commander would have gone with his men
into danger, taking the same risks they did so that he could issue
prompt and reasonable orders if it became necessary.

Instead, this commander was hiding from the danger. Sending his
men into the unknown was all right, but he wasn't willing to even get
his own scales dusty.

As a warrior, Draycos could feel only contempt for such behavior.
But as the man's opponent, he could feel an equally strong satisfaction.

Because in his effort to protect himself, the commander now stood
directly behind the very tree Draycos was clinging to.

Exactly where Draycos wanted him. The control cable had served its
purpose. Laying it aside, Draycos got a good grip with his left forepaw
on the slip-knotted loop of sensor cable. Beside him was the
quick-release knot that held the whole thing in place. Carefully, he
eased the tip of his tail into the release loop.

The patrol soldiers were closing on the sensor now. Draycos
waited; and abruptly, one of them snorted. "Cute," he murmured. "It's
one of our own Argus eyes, sir. No one there."

"But I saw it moving," one of the others insisted.

"So did I," the first confirmed, hefting his gun as he looked
around. "And the slapstick Barkin spotted on the scan is here, too.
Probably bait. Like I said, someone's being cute." "Trace the cable,"
the commander ordered in a hoarse whisper. "Find him."

"Yes, sir," the first soldier said, moving toward the Argus eye as
the others fanned out toward the surrounding trees.

The commander hesitated another moment. Then, cautiously, he
slipped out from behind the Argus tree. Either getting his courage
back, or else simply unwilling to get too far away from the protection
of his men and their weapons. Circling the trunk, he started toward
them.

And in that fraction of a second, as he passed beneath Draycos,
the K'da warrior struck.

Releasing his rear claws, he dropped to the same level as the
commander's head before grabbing hold of the tree again.

With his right forepaw he slashed the chin strap holding the man's
helmet in place, and in the same motion flicked the helmet up and off
his head.

Reflexively, the commander grabbed for the helmet as it spun away
into the night. Draycos was ready with the loop, dropping it over his
head and arms and giving it a quick tug to tighten the slipknot around
his ribs. At the same time, he slammed his right paw against the side
of the commander's head behind his ear, a spot that experience had
showed was a good place to knock out a human without too much risk of
serious damage.

And even as the commander sagged unconscious in the loop of cable,
Draycos flicked the quick-release with his tail and dropped to the
ground.

The quiet of the night was abruptly shattered. As the cable
tension was suddenly released, the springy tree branch off to Draycos's
right snapped back to its original position. It slapped and scattered
all the other branches in its way as it moved, sending a small shower
of leaves fluttering to the ground.