Dragonback 05 Dragon and Judge (22 page)

But nothing did. Alison stood as still as she could, holding her
hand against Taneem's head and praying that the K'da would stay put.

And then, finally, Gazen lowered the muzzle of his weapon. "So he
really
isn't
here," he muttered, looking around openly
now.

"Who isn't here?" Alison asked.

Reluctantly, it seemed, Gazen dragged his attention back to her.
"Jack Morgan, of course," he said, his voice going even darker. "He's
coming back to free the rest of the slaves. Didn't you know?"

Alison felt her lip twitch. Jack had never mentioned
that
part of his plan. "He is?"

Gazen nodded toward the north end of the grounds. "That's what
they say out there," he told her. "They say Morgan's coming back
someday. Him and that—" His voice cracked, and even in the faint light
Alison could see the sudden intensity in his eyes. "Crampatch and the
Patri Chookoock don't believe it," he said, dragging his voice back
under control. "But I know better. Morgan
is
coming back. And
when he does—" He hefted the laser. "Some of us, at least, will be
ready."

Alison swallowed. "I'm sure you will," she said. "Well, then. If
you don't mind—"

"Go back to the house, little girl," Gazen said. Backing up a
step, he settled himself again on a low bench between the two bushes,
laying his laser across his knees. "Go back to sleep."

"Yes, sir," Alison said. Keeping an eye on him as long as she
could, she made her escape.

Neither she nor Taneem spoke again until they were safely back in
bed. "Draycos told me stories about this Gazen human," Taneem said
softly.

"So did Jack," Alison said, shivering. In some ways, she knew,
Gazen was no more evil or vicious than men like Frost and Neverlin.
Neverlin, after all, had ordered the destruction of Draycos's advance
team. Gazen, as far as she knew, hadn't even been present during that
attack.

But Frost and Neverlin were also smart and calculating. They were
in this for profit and power. Men like that Alison could understand,
and could deal with.

Gazen, in contrast, was just plain crazy. She could see it in his
eyes, and hear it in his voice. And she wasn't used to dealing with men
like that. They scared her, right down to her core.

Distantly, she wished Draycos were here.

"Is there anything I can do?" Taneem asked anxiously, lifting her
head a little from Alison's shoulder.

With a smile, Alison reached up to stroke her companion's smooth
gray scales. No, Taneem was no poet-warrior of the K'da. But she was
loyal, and she was willing, and she was doing the best she could. "No,
that's all right," Alison assured her. "I'm fine."

She took a deep breath and tried to push Gazen from her mind.
"Better get some sleep," she said, pulling the blankets a little
tighter around her chin. "Tomorrow's going to be a busy day."

Two days after his trip to the mine, Jack emerged from his
apartment for the morning's schedule to find that Bolo had returned.

"Good morning, Judge-Paladin," the other said politely from the
foot of the stone bridge. "I see you're an early riser."

"Comes with the job," Jack told him, looking over Bolo's shoulder
to where Thonsifi and the two escorts were waiting. None of them looked
very happy. "Speaking of jobs, how's yours going?"

"Almost finished," Bolo said. "A few more hours of actual
surveying, and I'll be ready to start working up my report." He waved a
hand, the gesture taking in the entire canyon. "So I thought I'd drop
by and see if that dinner invitation was still open."

"I'm sure something can be arranged," Jack said as he reached the
ground. "Is any of this last bit of work going to be in the area?"

"Actually, all of it is," Bolo said. "In fact—and you might find
this interesting—the first thing I'm going to do is take a look in that
abandoned mine out there."

Jack suppressed a grimace. Why, he wondered, wasn't he surprised?

Be careful, Jack
, Draycos's warning whispered through his
mind.

Bet on it, symby
, Jack assured him. "You think there might
still be something worthwhile in there?" he asked.

"No idea," Bolo said. "But according to the records, Triost still
owns the rights to it."

"Really," Jack said. "I understood the ownership was still in
dispute."

A flicker of something crossed Bolo's face, gone again almost too
fast to see.

But Jack saw it. More to the point, he recognized it.

Jack had already known that Bolo wasn't who he pretended to be.
Now, Bolo knew that Jack wasn't, either.

"Interesting," Bolo said, his voice under easy control. Definitely
a professional. "Could be my information's out-of-date. Still, as long
as I'm here anyway I might as well check it out."

He cocked an eyebrow. "I don't suppose you'd like to come with me?
Just in case the rights
aren't
completely ours?"

"You mean to make sure you don't stuff your pockets with rocks on
the way out?"

Bolo smiled faintly. "Something like that." He looked at Thonsifi.
"You think you can spare your Judge-Paladin for a couple of hours?"

"Yes, they can spare me," Jack said before Thonsifi could answer.
"Let me go back and change and I'll be right with you."

Bolo was sitting in his aircar when Jack emerged from the
apartment again, this time in shirt and jeans. "I hope you know what
you're doing," Draycos murmured from his shoulder.

"I don't like it, either," Jack conceded. Getting in a vehicle
with a known enemy was not usually considered a smart thing to do. "But
we need answers, and he's probably the best source we're going to find
anywhere around here."

"And overconfident people tend to talk too much?"

"Exactly," Jack said as he headed toward the aircar.

A few minutes later they were rising through the chilly
early-morning air. "This place is a real obstacle course, isn't it?"
Bolo commented as he maneuvered them through the arches and guy wires.
"No wonder most Judge-Paladins who come to Semaline never make it down
there."

"No wonder," Jack agreed. "Though I understand there
were
two who made it in a few years back. Eleven years, to be exact."

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the other's sideways
glance. "I wouldn't know anything about that," Bolo said casually. "All
I know is that the Judge-Paladin on this circuit usually just sets up
shop near the NorthCentral Spaceport and invites people to come to him."

"Sounds rather lazy," Jack suggested. "You miss a lot if you don't
look at the crime scene."

"Crime scenes can be messy," Bolo pointed out. "Even dangerous."

Jack shrugged. "Part of a Judge-Paladin's job."

"Some Judge-Paladins think so," Bolo agreed. "Others are maybe a
little smarter."

Jack felt his throat tighten. Bolo was offering him one last
chance to look the other way. "No one's ever accused me of being
smart," he said. "So what exactly is the history of this mine?"

"Triost started work on it about fifteen years ago," Bolo said,
his voice subtly changed. He'd offered Jack a chance and been refused.
Now it was on to business. "They were making good progress when some
lawyer got his claws into the Golvins and started making a fuss about
it."

"It's on their land, isn't it?"

"That was one of the questions," Bolo said. They were free of the
canyon now, and he turned the aircar toward the mine. "The other was
whether the Golvins owned the mineral rights even if they
did
own the land."

"So the Golvins appealed to the Judge-Paladins?"

"Apparently," Bolo said as he set them down smoothly on the sand
near the mine entrance. "I looked it up while you were getting changed,
and you were right—some Judge-Paladin did look into it. But there's no
record of him rendering any decision, either for or against us."

"Possibly because the Judge-Paladin died during the investigation."

"Really?" Bolo asked, sounding dutifully surprised. "There wasn't
anything about that. Anyway, the case apparently was dropped, and after
the standard seven years without activity the clearance court reverted
the rights back to us. Hmm—looks pretty dark in there. I've got a
couple of flashlights in the back."

He got them out, gave one to Jack, and they headed inside.

Stray wind currents around the opening had mostly erased the
footsteps Jack and the two Golvins had made in the sand two days
previously. Still, Jack could see the subtle furrows where those
footsteps had been.

And
only
their footsteps. If Bolo had entered the mine
recently, he hadn't gone in very far. That, Jack decided, could work to
his advantage.

"Walls and ceiling look to be in good shape," Bolo commented as
they headed down the entry tunnel. "Hasn't picked up much fill, either."

"Doesn't smell as musty as I'd expect, either," Jack added.

"Musty?"

"From all the water," Jack explained. "Triost claimed the lower
levels were flooded."

They had reached the large assembly area before Bolo spoke again.
"So what exactly were you expecting to find in here?" he asked as Jack
turned toward the left-hand tunnel he and Draycos had visited on their
last trip.

"I don't know," Jack said. "A little truth, maybe."

"Any particular truth you had in mind?"

Jack shrugged as he stepped into the tunnel. "Whatever the flavor
of the day is, I suppose. Watch your step—the floor's a little rough
here."

They started down, their feet making little shuffling sounds in
the dust. Occasionally there was a clunk as one of them kicked one of
the many rocks scattered around. "I gather you've been here before,"
Bolo said.

"What makes you say that?" Jack asked.

"The marks in the dust," Bolo said, shining his light past Jack's
shoulder at the floor ahead. "The wind cleared out most of the tracks
in the entryway, but it doesn't reach down here."

"Ah," Jack said, as if that was complete news to him. Somewhere
along in here, he knew, Bolo would decide they were far enough down
that Jack's body wouldn't be easily found.
He'll be pulling a knife
or gun soon
, he thought toward Draycos.
Let me know when you
hear him doing that, but stay hidden
.

Are you sure
? Draycos's thought came back.

Not really
, Jack admitted.
But making him think he's
holding all the cards is the only way we'll get him to talk
.

They were within sight of the first branch point, where the tunnel
split to right and left, when Jack felt the warning touch of K'da claws
against his side. "Here's the really interesting part," Jack said. He
dropped into a crouch as if trying to give Bolo a better look and
pointed his flashlight down the right-hand branch.

And as he did so, he scooped up a handful of dust from one of the
depressions in the tunnel floor and threw it over his shoulder into
Bolo's face.

The other bellowed, his shout almost covering up the soft crack as
a shot whistled past Jack's ear and shattered bits of rock from the
tunnel floor. Jack was already on the move, sprinting forward and
ducking down the left-hand tunnel, the one he and Draycos had taken on
their last visit. Another shot smashed into the wall at the
intersection as he passed, dusting him with rock powder.

Clenching his teeth, Jack kept going. The next intersection turn
was only fifty feet away, and he got into the left-hand tunnel and out
of Bolo's line of fire before any more shots came.
Now what
?
Draycos's words came in his mind.

"We try to find a defensible spot where we can talk to him," Jack
muttered back, his mind too busy with thoughts of tactics and survival
to focus on this new telepathy thing. "Suggestions welcome."

There
. Out of the corner of his eye Jack saw the K'da's
tongue rise from his shoulder and point at a small curve in the tunnel
just ahead. "Not much room back there," Jack warned.

There is enough
, Draycos promised.
I will hold the
tunnel. Continue ahead and find me more rocks to throw
.

Jack ducked around the curve, and with a surge of weight Draycos
leaped up through the back of his collar.

Jack slowed, shining his light on the floor. There were some rocks
down there, but only a few big enough to make good weapons. He half
turned, opening his mouth to point that out.

And flinched back as the K'da slashed his claws into the side
wall, cutting out a shower of rocks and slivers and dust. "Go," he
murmured to Jack as he picked up one of the larger rocks and curved his
tail around it. Glancing out around the edge of the curve, he whipped
his tail like a sling, hurling the rock back down the tunnel.

There was a thud, a snarled curse, and another shot blew a pit in
the opposite wall. "I'll hold him here," Draycos murmured to Jack,
scooping up another rock. "Go gather more ammunition."

Jack nodded and continued down the tunnel, hoping Bolo wouldn't
hear his footsteps and wonder just who it was who was holding him off.
Though between the shots and the thudding of the stones, that didn't
seem likely.

He'd gone only twenty feet when he came upon a section where part
of the tunnel wall had splintered beneath the slurry pipe. Along the
floor by the break were a dozen of the kind of rocks Draycos needed.
Pulling the front of his shirt out of his jeans, Jack held it like a
basket and loaded in the stones.

The leisurely battle was still going on when he returned. "How's
it going?" he whispered as he unloaded his prizes onto the floor where
Draycos could reach them.

"He's taken shelter in the right-hand tunnel," Draycos murmured
back as he whipped another rock around the corner. "At the moment,
we're in something of a stalemate."