Dragonback 04 Dragon and Herdsman (21 page)

They came in pairs, the first two soldiers moving swiftly but
quietly through the trees, their guns swinging back and forth and up
and down as they searched for their quarry. Twice one of them looked up
into Jack's tree, his gun lifting as he did so to point in the same
direction. But Jack had moved to the far side of the trunk, and there
apparently wasn't enough of him showing through the branches for them
to spot.

The two soldiers headed toward the man Draycos had captured. As
they did so, Jack saw two more pairs coming in behind them and to
either side, staying back and watching for trouble.

Unfortunately for them, trouble was already watching them. Smiling
tightly, he lined up the muzzle of his borrowed tangler on the first of
the closest pair and squeezed the trigger.

The mercenaries were good, all right. Even before the cartridge
hit, both men reacted to the sound of the shot, swinging their guns
upward and firing in unison. But the branches that had hidden Jack from
their sight now also protected him from their fire. As his shot hit its
target and dropped the soldier to the ground, their own cartridges
exploded into a snarled mess in the branches.

But only one of the soldiers was down, and the other now knew
exactly where Jack was. With a hoarse shout to his comrades, he opened
fire, plastering the tree with tangler threads. Still shooting, he
began to circle, trying to get a clear shot. Two of the other soldiers
rushed up to join him, and now there were three tanglers firing at Jack
instead of just one. The last pair stayed well back, where they could
cover the rest of the group.

And with nowhere to run. Jack was now the proverbial sitting duck.

"Come on, dragon, move it," he muttered, wincing back from the
soldiers' shots as he tried to fire back. But the one clear shot he'd
had was long gone, and all he succeeded in doing was plastering the
nearest branches with tangler threads of his own.

Which might not be such a bad thing, he realized suddenly. If he
could make himself a nice little cage of tangler threads, he would be
more or less safe. At least until they gave up on taking him alive and
switched to machine-gun mode.

He fired a few more rounds into the branches around him, shifting
his aim to keep up with the circling soldiers. Between his shots and
theirs, it was getting increasingly difficult to see what was going on
down there. He could only hope that Draycos would spot the two soldiers
standing distant guard, their eyes on the trees and ground-hugging
bushes.

And with Jack's own thoughts and attention on those same trees and
bushes, he and the soldiers were all looking in the wrong direction
when the K'da made his move.

He appeared behind the three soldiers still shooting into Jack's
tree, boiling up without warning from a drift of dead leaves that had
hidden him from both eyes and infrared detectors. Before they could
even react, his forepaws took out two of them, slapping against the
sides of their heads hard enough to send them cartwheeling in opposite
directions.

The third was faster than the others. He swung around and dropped
to one knee, trying to swing his gun around to this new threat. But
Draycos was already in motion, leaping over the soldier's gun and past
his shoulder. The dragon's tail whipped around the man's neck as he
passed, gagging him as it slapped across his windpipe and yanked him
backward off-balance. The action also brought Draycos's own momentum to
a sudden halt, dropping him to the ground behind the man.

Draycos had just hit the matted leaves when the two remaining
soldiers opened fire with their tanglers. The first shot, aimed where
Draycos would have been if he'd continued his arcing leap, missed
completely, zipping past to explode its netting over one of the distant
bushes.

The second shot, instead of missing, clipped the corner of the
kneeling soldier's arm. Some of the threads whipped around his face and
chest, Draycos managing to snatch his tail out of the way just in time.
The rest of the threads spread out harmlessly though the air over the
K'da's head.

Not enough of the threads were wrapped around the soldier for the
shock capacitor to knock him out. But it didn't matter. Draycos had
already twisted around, slapping the side of the man's neck with one
paw as he snatched the tangler from his hands with the other. As the
stunned soldier toppled over, Draycos dived to the side, staying behind
him so as to use his body as a shield against the two remaining
gunners. Flipping the barrel of the tangler up over the other's ribs,
Draycos fired.

But the two soldiers weren't there anymore. They had ducked to
either side, taking cover behind nearby bushes as Draycos's shots went
harmlessly past.

They were fiddling with their weapons, probably switching to
machine-gun mode, when Jack maneuvered the barrel of his own weapon
through the mass of tangler threads around him and nailed them both.

It took a while for Jack to work his way through the masses of
tangler threads and get back down the tree. Long enough, in fact, for
Draycos to go examine the two more distant soldiers and then return to
the four he and Jack had first taken out. "That was fun," Jack puffed
as he unslung his gun again and peered in the direction of the creek.
"Where are the ones who were up in the trees?"

Draycos twisted his neck back toward the creek. "They don't appear
to be approaching," he said. "I do not understand why not."

"Maybe we can find out," Jack suggested. Crouching down, he
unfastened the nearest soldier's helmet and slipped it over his own
head.

"—not move," a familiar voice growled. Familiar, yet unexpected.

It was Colonel Frost. The man they thought they'd heard leaving
the planet.

"The others aren't responding," another voice protested.

"And you think getting yourselves waxed along with them will do
them any good?" Frost shot back.

Jack cleared his throat. "Oh, come on, Frost, be a sport," he said
into the helmet's microphone. "Let them try their luck. We don't mind.
Besides, it's got to be pretty uncomfortable sitting up there in those
trees."

There was a brief silence. "Very good, Morgan," Frost said, his
voice three shades darker than the night around them. "You and the K'da
both. I don't suppose you sustained any injuries?"

"Nothing worth mentioning," Jack assured him. "A few more of your
men are a little worse for wear, though. I thought you'd left us."

"I'm not going anywhere," Frost promised coldly. "This K'da of
yours is tougher than I expected. Certainly tougher than I was told.
I'm beginning to understand why the Valahgua want them wiped out."

"You're probably also beginning to understand why they're sitting
behind the lines and letting you and Neverlin and the Chookoock family
do all the work and take all the risks," Jack said. "Not to mention
absorbing all the damage. You've got to be asking yourself right now
whether or not it's really worth it."

Frost gave a soft chuckle. "Believe me, boy, it's worth it," he
said. "New technology is the golden ring these days, especially when
you have a company like Braxton Universis standing ready to market it."

"Only you haven't
got
Braxton Universis," Jack reminded
him.

"We will," Frost said confidently. "And from what I saw on those
Shontine advance ships, we all stand to make a very tidy profit on this
operation."

"Your soldiers here on the ground might have a different opinion."

"Soldiers are expendable," Frost said bluntly. "That's their job.
Besides, most of them will recover just fine. Your K'da doesn't seem to
have the stomach for killing."

Jack looked at Draycos. The dragon's tail was swishing almost
gently through the air, but there was a look in his eyes that sent a
shiver down Jack's back. "I wouldn't count on that if I were you," he
warned Frost.

"Maybe," the colonel said offhandedly. "All I know is that people
who hide in the middle of civilians and herd animals are cowards."

Jack grinned tightly. So Frost had completely missed the point of
why they'd brought the Erassvas and Phookas along. "Look who's
talking," he countered. "You want to come out here personally so we can
have this out man-to-man?"

"Don't be absurd," Frost scoffed. "Duels went out with flintlock
pistols, and they were never anything but stupid to begin with. But
let's talk about you. Aren't you tired yet of running and living off
ration bars?"

"Oh no, I love forests," Jack assured him. "More than that, I love
taking out mercenaries. You must be running pretty low on them by now.
Is that where your ship went? To scare up a few replacements?"

"You'll see," Frost promised. "But I'll grant you that this is
taking far more of my time and energy than I'd planned. So what exactly
do you want? Maybe we can come to some agreement."

"What I
want
is to be left alone," Jack said. "But for
now, I'll settle for you clearing your tree-sitters out of our way.
They can come collect this bunch, and you can fly them back to your
base camp to get patched up."

"As I said, no stomach for killing," Frost said contemptuously.

"As
I
said, don't count on Draycos's kind heart," Jack
said, putting some darkness of his own into his voice. "We're getting
tired of playing tag out here, and we now have a couple of nicely
lethal weapons of our own. So get your men out of our way, and keep
them out."

"Or you'll commit cold-blooded murder?"

"I'll commit cold-blooded self-defense," Jack countered. "And
don't forget, Neverlin wants me alive."

"For now," Frost said icily. "But that may change. Either way, I
certainly don't need to keep those Erassvas or their herd animals
alive. Or that girl you have with you, either. Who is she, by the way?"

"Just a hitchhiker," Jack said. "Speaking of hitchhikers, how did
you get that tracking transmitter into my ship?"

"What makes you think there was a transmitter aboard?" Frost
countered blandly.

"I gather it worked off the ECHO drive," Jack continued. "What did
it do, use the drop-power to boost out some kind of signal as soon as
we popped back into normal space?"

"Actually, the gadget sends a sort of ripple across hyperspace
itself," Frost said. "A nearby ship with the right equipment can pick
it up and follow you straight in."

"Cute," Jack said. "Cutting-edge technology, no doubt."

"Not even on the market yet," Frost said smugly. "And when it is,
it'll go exclusively to StarForce and the Internos Police. Had I
mentioned the advantages of having Braxton Universis in your pocket?"

"Maybe once or twice," Jack said. "So are you going to send
someone to pick up your trash? Or are Draycos and I going to have to
start clearing the table ourselves?"

"We'll get them," Frost said quietly. "And then we'll get out of
your way. For now."

"Good enough," Jack said, an unpleasant sensation at the back of
his neck. There'd been something in Frost's voice just then, something
he didn't like at all. "And tell Neverlin that the next time he wants
to talk, he should just drop me a message on the net."

"The next time Mr. Neverlin speaks to you, it'll be face-to-face,"
Frost promised darkly. "Good night, Jack."

There was a click, and the comm went dead. "What do you think?" he
asked, pulling off the helmet.

Draycos flicked his tongue out a few times. "They don't appear to
be coming closer," he said. "I believe he means to do as he says."

"Which should definitely worry us," Jack said, grimacing. "Someone
like Frost only pulls back when he's got something else already
planned."

"Any idea what that could be?"

"Not a clue," Jack admitted. "Maybe we'll find out tomorrow
morning when we try to get through here."

"I was thinking we might want to veer a little ways east or west
of this particular spot," Draycos suggested.

"Oh, definitely," Jack agreed. "I didn't mean we'd go through
here
."
He shook his head. "I just wish I knew what he sent the transport to
get. More men or more equipment, probably. Either way, we're not going
to like it."

"Sufficient unto the day, Jack," Draycos said. "Is that correct?"

" 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,' yeah," Jack
confirmed. "Uncle Virgil used to quote that one a lot. Usually when
he'd messed up on a job and needed some time to figure out what to do
next."

"Interesting how many truthful sayings he seemed to adapt to his
own purposes," Draycos said. "Perhaps he had more education than he let
on."

"Or he just picked it up as he went," Jack said, resettling the
strap of the machine gun more comfortably over his shoulder. "Let me
grab a couple spare tangler clips for this thing, and then we'd better
get back. I just hope Frost didn't hit the camp while we were out here
playing soldier."

The camp, to Draycos's quiet relief, was just as they'd left it.
The Erassvas were sleeping soundly, with the Phookas either dozing,
searching for food, or waiting their turn to spend an hour on their
blubbery hosts. If Frost's men had been there, they hadn't left any
traces behind, not even any scent.

Draycos was mildly surprised to find Alison still sound asleep as
well. Up to now the girl had slept lightly, ready to snap awake at the
slightest hint of trouble. Perhaps the long days of travel and tension
had finally caught up with her. Certainly after tonight's activities
Jack was also asleep practically before he hit the ground.

But with Alison, Draycos wondered if it might be more than simple
fatigue. Perhaps Taneem's presence on her body was doing something to
her.

He gazed down at the sleeping girl, his tail lashing with
frustration and concern. When they'd begun this experiment, they'd all
assumed it was the Erassvas' sluggishness that was affecting the
Phookas. Could it be that it was actually the other way around?