Dragonback 05 Dragon and Judge (18 page)

Draycos felt his tail tip curve in a frown. Five
years
?
"That seems far out of balance for a simple accident."

"I agree," Naught said. "So would your Judge-Paladin, I'd guess.
But try telling that to the Golvins."

Draycos winced. Naught was right—the One's attitude had made it
abundantly clear that he had no interest in hearing anything more about
the case. "Where exactly did this crash happen?" he asked.

"Just outside the canyon, over on the east side," Naught said.

The side with the old mine Draycos had seen from the air. "Near
the mine?"

"You mean that old entrance building sort of thing?" Naught asked.
"A little north of it, actually. The four of them were poking around in
the sand, doing God only knows what. By the time I saw them, it was too
late. I had zero control left, and I just slammed into them. You
were
the one in the air shaft, weren't you?"

"The One didn't contact any of the Semaline authorities regarding
you after the crash?"

"If he did, I never heard about it," Naught said. "And thanks to
you and your noisemaker, it doesn't look like anyone's going to be
talking to them anytime soon, either. You have any idea how close I was
to getting out of there?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Draycos said. "What sort of vehicle
were you flying?"

"It was a long-range pursuit starfighter," Naught said. "A
Djinn-90, to be exact. If that means anything to you."

Draycos felt his crest stiffen. That was the same type of pursuit
fighter he and Jack had escaped from off Iota Klestis after the ambush
of Draycos's advance team.

But no. This couldn't possibly be one of Colonel Frost's Malison
Ring mercenaries.

Or could it? "What's your name?" he asked carefully. "Your
real
name?"

The other sighed. "Not that it seems to matter anymore, but I used
to be called Langston."

"Langston?"

"Yes," Langston said. "StarForce Wing Sergeant Jonathan Langston."
The cot creaked again as he waved an arm. "At your rather limited
service."

For a half-dozen heartbeats Draycos was completely at a loss for
words. For months he'd been hearing about StarForce, usually from Uncle
Virge insisting Jack turn Draycos over to them. Jack had always
insisted right back that Neverlin would surely have taken the
precaution of bribing or neutralizing some of the men and women in key
positions, and the subject had been dropped until the next time Uncle
Virge brought it up.

And now here Draycos was, actually speaking with one of those
warriors.

Maybe. "Can you prove that?" he asked.

"They left me my ID wallet," Langston said. "It's at the foot of
the bed with the rest of my clothes."

Draycos swiveled his neck and located the neat stack. "Turn to
face the back wall," he ordered. "Don't move."

There was another shifting of the cot as Langston obediently
rolled over. Draycos went over to the clothing pile, located the
wallet, and tucked it under his right foreleg. "I'll need to borrow it
for a time," he said as he returned to the side of the cot. "The
Judge-Paladin will want to examine it."

"Help yourself," Langston said. "I'm not likely to need it anytime
soon."

"Possibly sooner than you think," Draycos said. "If the event is
indeed as you described, you were wrongfully charged."

"And you and the Judge-Paladin will see that I'm released, I
suppose?"

"We will," Draycos said.

"Well, good luck to you," Langston said. "Whoever you are."

Draycos hesitated. Then, somewhat even to his own surprise, he
came to a decision. "Call me Draycos," he said. "I'll be back another
time."

Getting up, he padded to the cave entrance. "Just watch yourself,"
Langston warned from the cot. "You
and
the Judge-Paladin. These
Golvins may look silly and harmless, but they're not."

"Your presence here proves that," Draycos pointed out dryly.
"Don't worry. The Judge-Paladin and I have a long history together of
being careful." Gripping the stone at the side of the entrance, he
slipped out into the night.

Jack, he knew, was going to love this.

"And you're sure he didn't see you?" Jack asked, squinting at the
StarForce ID under the glow of the bedroom's light.

"I'm positive," Draycos assured him, pacing back and forth across
the bedroom. "I was listening carefully to his breathing as I left. I'm
coming to realize that no human could spot me for the first time
without some sort of reaction."

"You got that right, buddy." With a sigh, Jack flicked off the
light. "Well, if it's not a real StarForce ID, it's a really good fake.
And I mean a
really
good one."

"You've seen a genuine one?"

"I've seen a really good fake," Jack told him. "One of Uncle
Virgil's associates made a living off things like that. But this
doesn't make any sense."

"Why they should condemn him for a simple accident?"

"Why they should still have him here in the first place," Jack
said. "I mean, they've been putting up a prisoner for five years.
Feeding and clothing him—they
have
been feeding and clothing
him, haven't they?"

"From what I could see, he appeared adequately fed," Draycos said.
"Though I saw no clothing other than what he was wearing."

"Well, his own stuff probably hasn't worn out yet," Jack said. "My
point is that the whole thing costs resources the Golvins could surely
put to more productive use. They ought to be doing cartwheels at the
chance to turn him over to a Judge-Paladin and be rid of him."

Draycos's tail tip was making slow circles in the air. "Unless
there's a reason other than simple vengeance for keeping him here," the
K'da suggested slowly. "He said the Golvins he'd killed were working
not too far from the mine entrance."

"You think there's a connection?"

"It's an obvious direction to consider," Draycos pointed out.
"Especially if the mine is also the reason your parents were murdered."

Jack felt his stomach tighten. He'd been living with that idea for
over a week now, and it still sent shivers through him. "Draycos, we
have
got
to get a look at that mine," he said.

"I agree," Draycos said. "Tomorrow night I'll attempt to scale the
cliff and—"

"Listen to my words, symby," Jack interrupted. "
We
have got
to get a look at it."

"I don't know," Draycos said doubtfully. "If there's something
there the Golvins are hiding, I doubt the One will want you examining
it."

"That may be what he thinks
now
," Jack said. "But he's
never seen me in full persuasion mode, as Uncle Virgil used to call it.
Neither have you, for that matter."

"I'll look forward to the show," Draycos said dryly.

"And well you should," Jack said, pulling his feet into bed and
under the blankets. "Better get some sleep. With a little luck,
tomorrow could turn out to be a very interesting day."

There were a dozen different techniques for getting a person to
give you what you wanted, and Uncle Virgil had taught Jack every one of
them. Even so, it took a full hour and almost the complete set before
the One finally realized that he wanted to let Jack go look at the mine.

And even then he insisted that Thonsifi and the guard Sefiseni
accompany their Jupa on his field trip. Jack thanked him, switched back
into shirt and jeans before the other could change his mind, and
together the group piled into the shuttle and headed up.

The shuttle's pilot turned out to be the same one who had flown
Jack to the canyon after his kidnapping at the NorthCentral Spaceport.
His name turned out to be Eight-Three-One Among Many. "I don't believe
this is a wise idea, Jupa Jack," he warned as he once again threaded
the shuttle through the system of arching bridges and guy wires up into
the bright desert sunlight. "We were told there would be great danger
if anyone went into the mine."

"I'll be careful," Jack assured him, studying the area as the
shuttle moved toward it over the glistening sand.

The mine entrance was at the western edge of a long mound of sand
surrounded by a confused tumble of gray and black rock formations
cutting upward through the desert surface. Large plastic or ceramic
beams framed the actual opening, which was under the partial protection
of a thick rock overhang. Even from their distance it was obvious the
entrance itself had filled with drifting sand.

There—to the left
.

Jack winced as he turned his torso a little in that direction.
What in the world did Draycos think he was doing, talking again in a
crowded shuttle like that?

There—Langston's crash site
.

Jack peered in that direction as he gave his upper chest a warning
tap. He'd better set his partner straight about these slips, preferably
before they set off on the return trip.

But the K'da was right. Even amid the random sand drifts and
half-covered rock formations he could pick out the buried shape of
Langston's starfighter. It was about a hundred yards from the mine
entrance, in one of the few patches of sand that didn't have any large
rocks in it. Probably why Langston had chosen that spot to ditch in.

It was also no more than twenty yards from the eastern edge of the
canyon. The pilot was lucky, Jack reflected, that he hadn't missed the
edge and gone straight to the ground below.

"Where do you wish me to land?" Eithon asked.

"Right out front," Jack said, shifting his attention back to the
mine entrance. "Between those two big rock formations will do nicely."

A minute later Eithon set them down in the shade of the
easternmost of the rocks Jack had pointed out. "Looks like we've got
some digging ahead," Jack said as he climbed out. "I wish I'd thought
to bring some shovels."

"I brought two," Thonsifi said, her voice reluctant. "They are in
the storage area."

"Great," Jack said, stepping around the back of the shuttle and
popping the hatch. The shovels were small gardening tools, but at least
they'd work better than bare hands. "Let's get to it," he said, pulling
them out.

The others joined him, all three Golvins with the same hesitation
Jack had already heard in Thonsifi's voice.

But they tackled the job willingly enough. Thonsifi and Eithon
handled the shovels, scooping away the sand, while Jack and Sefiseni
moved larger stones and broken pieces of the entryway itself.

Within half an hour they had an opening big enough to get through.
"Great work," Jack complimented them, wiping sweat from his forehead.
"Let's go."

None of the Golvins moved. "It is not safe," Thonsifi said. "We
were warned to stay away."

"Who said it wasn't safe?"

"Those who built the mine," Thonsifi said. "After we were told
that the copper and iron were not ours."

At which point all the legal complications had set in. "No
problem," Jack said. "You can all wait here. I don't mind going in by
myself."

Thonsifi and Sefiseni exchanged looks. "The One Among Many told us
to stay with you," Thonsifi said with a sigh. "If you go, so must we."

"You don't have to," Jack insisted. "I'm a Judge-Paladin. I can
give orders, too."

"No, we will go," Thonsifi said in a slightly firmer voice.

"I was given no such instruction by the One Among Many," Eithon
spoke up. "Do you also wish me to come with you?"

"No, thanks," Jack said. "We need someone to stay out here and
watch the shuttle anyway." Though to watch it against what possible
danger he couldn't imagine. "Load the shovels back into the shuttle,
though, will you?"

"We do not have any carry lights," Thonsifi said.

"That's okay—I've got one," Jack told her, pulling out his
flashlight. "Well, come on. If we're going, let's go." He turned and
squeezed through the gap into the mine.

There was no immediate response from the others. Still, by the
time he reached the edge of the daylight Thonsifi and Sefiseni were
beside him. "Nice and easy," Jack said encouragingly, flicking on his
light. "Stay close, and watch your footing."

The tunnel extended straight back for about fifty feet, then began
a gradual slope downward. Jack's small light wasn't really up to the
task of guiding three sets of feet, but fortunately it didn't have to.
Midway down the slope they reached a section of tunnel where some dim
backup lights were still working.

"They are still lit?" Thonsifi asked, looking at them in awe.

"They're long-term emergency lights," Jack told her.
"Self-contained, with a twenty-year power source."

A minute later the tunnel came to an end at a large
assembly/staging area. Two smaller tunnels extended out from opposite
sides of the room, heading downward into darkness. "Those must lead to
the actual mines," Jack said, shining his light around the staging
area. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of the same white
ceramic as the main entrance tunnel. The floor was covered with a thin
layer of sand, all the surfaces stained with age and dust.

But even with all that, an explosion in here should have left
behind some very visible evidence. At the very least there should be
some powder burns, and probably some cracks and stress damage as well.
Only there wasn't anything.

Which meant the explosion that had killed his parents must have
been down in one of the lower tunnels.

He turned his light to shine into one of the entrances. The beam
faded away, swallowed up by distance and darkness.

"Do we go back now?" Thonsifi asked hopefully.

"Not quite yet," Jack told her. The thought of going deep
underground wasn't exactly filling him with bubbles, either. But this
whole trip would be for nothing if he didn't at least find some clues
as to what had happened to his parents. "Did the mine's owners ever say
why they shut down the operation?"