Dragonback 06 Dragon and Liberator (16 page)

"Agreed," Neverlin said. "Besides, I'd rather have your men
instead of the Brummgas on hand here to watch him. Get the
Essenay
docked and then bring Morgan to my office." He raised his eyebrows.
"Make sure you check him
very
carefully."

"Don't worry," Frost said softly. "We will."

Inclining his head to the Valahgua, Neverlin headed for the bridge
door. Carefully, Taneem eased her way backward down the duct. "Did you
hear all that?" she whispered when she was far enough away from the
grille.

"Yes," Alison whispered back. "Can you find your way to Neverlin's
office?"

"I think so," Taneem said. She reached a cross-duct and backed
around the corner into it. "But can't you listen through the needle?"

"Yes, but it probably won't be loud enough for you to hear via
comm clip," Alison said. "Besides, I'm curious to find out what this
fake Virgil Morgan looks like."

"I understand," Taneem said, turning back into the main duct. "I'm
on my way."

The
Foxwolf
, as expected, was loaded to the gills with
Brummgas.

They were everywhere. Some were lounging at consoles in various
rooms, their wide bulks squeezed into chairs a couple of sizes too
small for them. Others were running power cables along the corridor
ceilings, apparently setting up special equipment. Others were simply
milling around, or watching everyone else work.

Sure not working very hard, are they
? Jack commented as he
passed yet another group of idling aliens.

Time's probably no need
, Draycos said.
In an emergency,
the ship could be handled by a mere thirty crew members. Even in full
combat mode, it would require only another hundred and fifty
.

So why were there so many in your advance team
?

Partly for companionship on the long journey
, Draycos said.
Also, part of our job was to begin preparing areas of Iota Klestis
for colonization
.

Which means Neverlin probably
could
have gotten away
with fewer people aboard
, Jack pointed out.
Brummgas
or
men.
All the Valahgua would have to say was that everyone else was back on
Iota Klestis, digging wells or whatever
.

A good point
, Draycos agreed.
I wonder if the fleet
will wonder about that, as well
.

Anything that looks odd to them works in our favor
, Jack
said.
But whether they wonder about it or not, it definitely works
in our favor right now. The more big, dumb Brummgas there are wandering
the halls, the harder it'll be for any of Frost's men to spot me in the
crowd. A little luck and we may just get away with this
.

They had reached the center of the ship, and were passing a long
room that Draycos said contained the K'da/Shontine version of the ECHO
hyperdrive, when their luck ran out.

"Hey!" a human voice boomed just as Jack cleared the doorway.
"You—is that Chiggers? Get in here."

"I'm busy," Jack called back in his Chiggers voice.

"You're gonna be busy mopping the deck with your face," the other
retorted. "Come on; help me configure this frunging thing. We're
heading out."

Jack felt his stomach tighten. They were going on ECHO
now
?
Before Frost's raiding party even returned with their stolen Malison
Bang ships?
Something's wrong
, he told Draycos.

I agree
, the K'da replied.
But we have no choice but to
play it through. Open your flight suit a bit more
.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," Jack called, reversing direction and
heading back to the room. As he did so, he slid a finger under the
sealing seam at his flight suit's neck and slid it open to just above
his stomach.

The mercenary was sitting at a console halfway across the room,
his right side toward the door. He was scowling down at the displays as
he worked at his control board. "What's the problem?" Jack asked,
glancing around as he walked toward the other. There were four Brummgas
in the room, too, making little snuffling noises of concentration as
they worked at their own controls.

"Whole frunging alien frunging thing is the problem," the man
growled back. "We were supposed to have had a real ECHO system put in
before we had to go anywhere else."

"Yeah," Jack said, forcing himself to maintain a steady stride. So
far the other man hadn't actually focused on him, but the second he did
it would all be over. Jack had to be within striking distance when that
happened. "What do you want me to do?"

"Help me sort out this chicken scratching," the man said, flicking
a finger toward a set of papers taped to the front of the console.

Almost there. "Sure," Jack said, picking up his pace a little.
Almost there.

He was two steps away when the man finally looked up.

Keep going
, Draycos urged.

For that first fraction of a second the man's expression went
blank, his brain apparently slip-skidding like an amusement park bump
car. Then, abruptly, his wheels seemed to catch traction again. His
eyes widened; and as Jack closed the final step, he opened his mouth.

The warning shout never came. Through the opening in Jack's flight
suit, looking for all the world like some shock-movie alien larva
emerging from its reluctant host, Draycos's foreleg lanced out . . .

. . . the paw catching the man solidly around his throat.

The mercenary jerked backward, his wide eyes going even wider. Or,
rather, he tried to jerk backward. But Draycos had him in a solid grip,
and there was no escape.

He grabbed at the K'da's paw, trying to pry it loose. But Draycos
had cut off the man's air supply, and as Jack watched tensely the
clutching hands went weak and limp. Belatedly, he seemed to remember he
was armed, and dropped his right hand to the gun holstered at his belt.

But it was too late. The hand scrabbled for a second at the gun,
then went still. The man's eyelids sagged, the eyes behind them rolled
upward, and he was out of the fight.

The controls
, Draycos's thought whispered through Jack's
mind.

Jack glanced around. The attack had been so quick and quiet that
none of the Brummgas seemed to have noticed that anything had happened.
Even now, with Jack standing close to the unconscious man and Draycos's
half-hidden foreleg keeping the other from collapsing to the floor,
there was little for them to notice.
What do I do
? Jack asked.

Move around behind him
, the K'da instructed.
I first
need to see if he finished programming in the target system
.

It was quickly apparent that the man had only gotten halfway
through that part of the task. Fortunately, he'd written the
coordinates on a small mark board taped beside the cheat sheets Jack
had already noticed. With Draycos giving him step-by-step instructions,
he got the rest of the destination programmed in.

The center section runs the countdown sequence
, Draycos
continued when Jack had finished.
Activate it with the two keys
beneath the leftmost display
.

Got it
. Jack touched the keys.

"Williams, what's the holdup?" a voice called from a speaker
across the room. "Come on; get your butt off standby."

"Off standby and shaking," Jack called back. "Sequence is going."

"Who's that, Chiggers?" the voice demanded. "What are you doing in
there?"

"Williams needed help; I'm helping," Jack told him. "What's going
on, anyway?"

"Who the frunge knows?" the voice growled. "We're suddenly doing a
six-day evasive to Point Three instead of going straight there.
Something to do with that Pergnoir-7 that blew in a few minutes ago, I
think."

Jack felt his throat tighten. Wasn't that the class of ship Alison
had said the
Essenay
was? "I suppose someone'll tell us when
they figure we need to know," he managed.

"Sure they will," the voice said. "You said the timer's going?"

Jack looked helplessly around for the proper display. He had no
idea which one it was.

Three minutes to fall charge
, Draycos told him.

"Three minutes," Jack said.

There was a grunt, and the other voice fell silent.

Do you think the ship he mentioned could be the
Essenay?
Draycos asked.

You know any other Pergnoir-7s that might be wandering around
the area
? Jack retorted, looking around. There didn't seem to be
any external displays in the room.
We've got to find out what's
going on out there
.

There's a monitor station out the door to the left
, Draycos
said.
They may have it activated
.

Good. Let me have his head
.

The K'da foreleg stretching out through Jack's flight suit
released its grip on Williams's neck. Jack eased the man's head against
the chair's headrest, balancing it to stay as upright as he could.

The result wasn't very convincing, he knew. Especially since
Williams's eyes were closed and his mouth hung slightly open.

But the Brummgas in the room didn't seem particularly attentive.
Hopefully, the deception would last long enough. Stepping away from the
slumped figure, Jack headed for the door.

Three Brummgas were in the monitor station, standing beside the
too-small chairs and gazing at the wall of displays. Most of the
screens showed views of the
Foxwolf'
s interior, but Jack
spotted three that were linked to exterior cameras. One of them showed
a telescopic view of the
Advocatus Diaboli
.

And docked beside it, looking like a baby whale nuzzling up to its
mother, was the
Essenay
.

Before Jack could get more than that one quick look, there was a
single warning hoot from somewhere, and the view dissolved into the
blue of hyperspace.

Was it the
Essenay? Draycos asked.
I couldn't tell
.

It was
, Jack said grimly.
What in space is Uncle Virge
up to
?

Draycos was silent a moment.
If it
is
Uncle Virge
,
he said at last.

No
, Jack said firmly.
Harper and Chiggers couldn't have
gotten loose
.

We will hope not
, Draycos said.
In the meantime, we
have a job to do
.

Abruptly, Jack realized he was still standing in the monitor room
doorway.
Right
, he said, trying to shake away the image of
Harper or Chiggers running loose on his ship.
Where do we go
?

Look at the two monitors at the left end of the second row
,
Draycos said.

Jack did so. The two displays seemed to be showing different
angles of the same room. Aside from a single large machine in the
center, the room was mostly empty, though he could see the places where
other equipment or chairs had once been bolted to the floor.

He focused on the machine. It was roughly cylindrical in shape,
about six feet long, with rounded ends and a slight bend in the center.
The surface was dark brown and covered with tiny black spots. At one
end were a set of handgrips and a small square pattern of muted blue
lights. The whole thing was mounted on a pedestal swivel arrangement.
Looks
like a giant Polish sausage
, Jack commented.
What is it
?

Draycos's tone seemed to darken.
It is the Death
. Jack
swallowed hard. The device looked so innocent. Comical, even, for
something that had caused so much destruction and misery.

He glanced across the other monitors. Now that he knew what to
look for, and adjusting for the multiple views, it looked as if there
were three more of the weapons elsewhere aboard.
Got it
, he
said, backing out of the room.
How do I get there
?

Out the door and to your left
, Draycos said.

Okay
, Jack said grimly.
Let's go have us an
old-fashioned wienie roast
.

He'd made it past one more doorway when there was a sudden hoot
like the one he'd heard just before the
Foxwolf
went into
hyperspace. "Medical unit to ECHO room," a Brummgan voice bellowed over
hidden loudspeakers.

Looks like someone finally noticed Williams
, Jack said.

There's a door up here on the left
, Draycos said urgently.
Hurry—we
need to get out of sight
.

Easy
, Jack soothed him. Ahead, Brummgas were starting to
stream into sight as they left their bored lounging and headed aft to
see what was happening.
Hurrying people make other people wonder
why they're hurrying
.

But you're going the wrong direction
, Draycos objected.
You
should be heading back to the ECHO room
.

Why
? Jack countered.
I'm a fighter pilot, not a medic
.

But
—

Trust me
, Jack said.
First of all, there shouldn't be
any bruises on Williams's neck yet, so they'll just think he's fainted
or something. Nothing to get excited about. Second, there was no
mention that it was a human who needed help. With the number of
Brummgas aboard, Chiggers would naturally assume it was one of them
.

Even so, wouldn't Chiggers at least want to know what the
problem was
?

Not Chiggers
, Jack said.
I get the feeling he doesn't
much care about anyone. And vice versa
.

Sure enough, none of the Brummgas gave Jack so much as a second
glance as they lumbered past. Jack continued forward, keeping an ear
cocked for the sound of any of Chiggers's fellow humans.

But to his surprise, he saw no one. It was as if Neverlin had
simply turned the
Foxwolf
over to the Brummgas and Valahgua.
This
doesn't make any sense at all
, Jack commented as Draycos directed
him into another corridor.
The way Alison was talking, it didn't
sound like Neverlin trusted the Patri Chookoock any farther than he
could push him uphill