Dragonback 06 Dragon and Liberator (31 page)

The next three days went by slowly for Taneem. Slowly, but in some
ways far too fast.

She spent a fair amount of her time roaming the
Advocatus
Diaboli
's ventilation ducts, keeping an eye on Alison and watching
Neverlin and Frost at their various activities.

For much of that time, watching the latter two meant crouching by
the bridge air duct. Taneem couldn't tell what exactly was happening
with the attack force, but they seemed to be moving their various ships
in strange ways.

Harper, when she brought back the news of these events, concluded
they were doing something he called maneuvers. Those were practice
sessions, he told her, to make sure all the ships' crews knew what they
were supposed to do when the refugee fleet arrived.

He was eager to learn the details of the maneuvers, and Taneem
tried her best. But many of the words Neverlin and Frost used were ones
she didn't know and because of that were difficult to memorize. She
could only remember bits and pieces, not nearly enough for Harper to
put together into a clear picture.

She could tell he was frustrated by her fumbled words and
half-remembered phrases. But he never complained. Nor did he criticize
Taneem for her shortcomings.

Taneem was grateful for that. She was grateful to him for many
other things, too. She still missed Alison, missed her terribly, in
fact. But though Harper was a different sort of friend, at the end of
those three days Taneem knew that he really
was
a friend. Like
Jack and Draycos, she was slowly coming to realize, friends came in
different forms.

Oddly, though, in many ways Harper reminded Taneem more of Alison
than he did of either Jack or Draycos. She wasn't sure why.

She was still pondering that puzzle when their friendship came to
its end.

Taneem knew something important was happening the minute she eased
her head around the edge of the grille and peered down into the
Advocatus
Diaboli
's bridge. Not only were Neverlin and Frost present, but so
were Alison and the chief Valahgua, the one they called the Lordhighest.

And all of them had the same sense of tension and alertness about
them.

Had the refugee fleet arrived?

Taneem listened closely, trying hard to sort through all the
strange terms and phrases. Harper had taught her some of them, so it
was a little less confusing than it had been in the beginning. But
there were so many of them, and all this was still so very new to her.

Once, she saw Alison glance directly up at the grille she was
hiding behind. Taneem tensed, but the girl looked away again without
any reaction or comment.

And then, Taneem heard the word Harper had told her specifically
to listen for. "Hammerfall One, deploy," Frost ordered toward the radio
microphone. "Hammerfall Two, prepare to deploy on my command.
Hammerfall Three, continue to hold position."

Deploy
. Taneem flicked her tail. Harper had made it clear
what she was to do when she heard that word. Letting her eyes linger
for a moment on Alison, Taneem backed away from the grille and headed
back for Harper's stateroom prison.

He was lying facedown on the floor in his underwear when she
arrived, doing an exercise he had told her was called pushups.
"Harper?" she called softly from the grille.

"Yeah," he grunted, hopping back to his feet and stepping to the
grille. Lately they'd been leaving the grille in place, lest one of the
Malison Ring mercenaries catch it open.

But only the top two screws were fastened, and those only loosely.
Harper pulled up the bottom of the grille, angling it up far enough to
get a hand in. Taneem touched the hand and slid onto his skin.

And then right back off onto the deck. "They said the word," she
reported. "Frost said, 'Hammerfall One, deploy' Then he said for
Hammerfall Two to get ready to deploy when he told them to, and that
Hammerfall Three was to hold position."

"I see," Harper said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. His
manner had gone suddenly quiet and dark. "Did you take the long way
around and go by Neverlin's office like I asked you to?"

"Yes," Taneem confirmed. "There were three men standing guard
outside the door."

"Were they bunched up?" he asked. "Standing in a close group, I
mean?"

"Not really," Taneem said. "There were two right by the door and
one a few steps away from them."

Harper hissed between his teeth. "Frost shows his ability to
learn," he murmured.

"I don't understand," Taneem said, swishing her tail back and
forth as she gazed into his face. There was something about this new
Harper that frightened her.

"Either he doesn't completely trust Alison or he isn't convinced
that I'm as far out of circulation as he'd like," Harper explained.
"Either way, he doesn't want anyone skulking around and using his
InterWorld transmitter without permission. The two access points are
the bridge, where he's got lots of people to watch for trouble, and his
office, where he doesn't. Only now he does."

"You want to call someone?" Taneem asked, grabbing onto the part
of that she understood.

"I
need
to call someone, yes," Harper said grimly.
"Unfortunately . . . well, there's always another way, isn't there?"

"Do you want me to help you?" Taneem asked hesitantly. "I can
fight, a little."

He smiled. "I have no doubt you can," he said. "But even with your
help, there are too many of them."

"I also have the special needles you put into the duct when you
first came aboard," Taneem reminded him. "Alison gave them to me to
hide."

"That would work if I didn't have to cross half the ship to get
there," Harper said. "From here, though, I'd never make it that far
without someone spotting me."

"Then maybe I could do it for you," Taneem offered. "I could get
to the office through the ducts. If you could teach me how to work the
controls, maybe I could make the call for you."

For a moment Harper gazed into space, his expression tight and
thoughtful. But then he shook his head. "No good," he said. "It's too
complicated for me to explain, and any fumbling would tip off the
people on the bridge that someone was in there. Then they'd shut down
the system, maybe even dismantle it."

He forced another smile. "Besides, you could hardly get in and out
alone without leaving a trail. A lot of sliced ductwork, if nothing
else."

And once Neverlin knew about her, Taneem knew, he and Frost would
hunt her down and kill her. "I don't care," she said, trying hard to be
brave. "If it's that important, I'm willing to risk my life."

"I know you are," Harper said gently. Reaching over, he stroked
the top of her head, scratching his fingertips briefly against the
scales behind her ears. "But I
do
care, and I'm not willing to
risk you. Not just yet."

"Then when?"

"I don't know," he said. "But the longer you stay hidden—the
longer they don't know about you—the better the chance that you can
help Alison later on. Perhaps for something even more important than
this."

Standing up, he held out his hand to her. "You'd better get back
to the bridge and see what they're up to," he said, his tone suddenly
brisk and businesslike.

"What about you?" Taneem asked, ignoring the hand.

"I'm going to do what has to be done," he said. "I've enjoyed our
time together, Taneem. I wish it could have been longer. But in life
you take what you can get."

"Are you going to attack those men by yourself?" Taneem persisted.

"And thank you especially for trusting me," he added. Come on,
now—up and at 'em. We've got work to do."

Reluctantly, Taneem touched his hand and slid up onto his skin. He
stepped back to the grille and slipped his hand into the duct, and
Taneem slid off again into the narrow space. "Thank You for protecting
me," Taneem said.

"My pleasure," Harper said quietly. "
And
my honor." He
wiggled his fingertips at her. "Now scoot." Pulling his hand out, he
closed the grille.

For another minute Taneem stayed where she was, watching as he sat
back down on the bed and began scratching at the inside of his upper
right thigh. Exactly the same way, she remembered that he'd scratched
at his forearms just before he pulled away those pieces of pretend skin.

And sure enough, as she watched he pulled away an identical flap
from his leg.

She waited until he'd pulled a similar flap from his other leg.
Then, as he gathered his clothing and began to get dressed, she finally
moved away down the duct, her heart heavy.

Something bad was about to happen. Something very bad.

And somewhere deep inside her, Taneem knew she'd never see him
again.

"Jack?"

Jack jerked awake, blinking his eyes violently. In that first
confused moment he tried to bring his hands up to rub his eyes and
wondered why he couldn't.

Then his brain cleared a bit, and he remembered. He was in a vac
suit, hung up on a bulkhead like a slab of fresh meat, locked inside a
half-wrecked troop carrier with a bunch of Brummgas. Had been all that,
in fact, for the past three days.

"Jack, can you hear me?"

He tensed, this time coming fully awake. It wasn't Draycos's voice
speaking directly to his mind, as he'd first thought.

It was Langston's voice, coming from the comm clip on his collar.

"Langston?" he croaked back, his mouth dry from his sleep. For a
second he had a flash of fear, wondering if Langston's voice was even
now being transmitted straight to Neverlin via the radio in Jack's suit.

But no. Neverlin had shut off his radio, and none of the Brummgas
who'd been changing his oxygen tanks over the past three days had
bothered to turn it back on.

"Yes," Langston confirmed. "I just wanted to take a moment to
thank you and Draycos for everything you did for me on Semaline."

"No big deal," Jack said, frowning. Why was Langston doing this?
More important, why was he doing it now?

"It most certainly was," Langston said. "Draycos nearly got
himself killed in the process. So did you, for that matter. Anyway, I
wasn't sure I'd ever thanked you properly. So this is it."

"You're welcome," Jack said. At the edges of his mind he could
feel Draycos listening silently but alertly. "What's going on out
there?"

"Our group's about to be deployed," Langston said. "That means
that Neverlin's false starts are over, which means we're finally at the
real rendezvous point."

Something cold closed around Jack's heart. "And?" he asked
carefully.

"Someone has to stop these people," Langston said, his voice hard
and determined. "But we're going to need help. I'm going to try to call
that help."

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked. "Langston?"

"He's talking about sending a message," a new voice put in
quietly. "In the only way any of us can."

Jack blinked. Was that—? "
Harper
?" he demanded.

"But you're too late, Langston," Harper went on, a touch of grim
humor coloring his voice. "You hear me? You be a good boy, and play it
cool, and stay in formation. I've got this one."

"Now, what are the
two
of you talking about?" Jack
demanded. "Come on—someone talk to me."

"I appreciate the offer, Harper," Langston said. "But this isn't
your fight."

"It's very much my fight," Harper said softly. "Besides, I've
already burned all my bridges behind me. I can't be of any more use in
this war. But there's a chance you can be."

"But—"

"No buts, soldier," Harper said firmly. "You're still a StarForce
officer. Consider this an order."

There was a faint hissing sound as one of the two men exhaled at
the comm clip. "Understood, sir," Langston said, his voice stiff and
formal and unhappy. "Good luck, sir."

There was a double click as both comm clips shut off. "What the
blaze was
that
all about?" Jack snarled, fear and uncertainty
and helplessness rising in his throat and threatening to choke him.
"Draycos? What was that all about?"

I don't know
, the K'da's voice came grimly in his mind.
But
nothing good. I'm afraid, Jack, that the battle has begun
.

"Hammerfall groups have reached their positions," Frost reported,
half-turning to face Neverlin and Alison. "Backstop ready to deploy."

"I trust you approve of our tactical landscape?" Neverlin asked
Alison.

He was half-joking, Alison knew. But only half. He and Frost and
the Valahgua had clearly worked out all this in advance, probably
months ago.

But the opinion of General Davi's daughter was apparently still
worth something. Even if only for amusement value. "Looks reasonable
enough," she said. "Your three main forces—the Hammerfalls—are set in a
wide triangle formation behind you, perfect for herding you toward the
refugee fleet. They're also positioned far enough back that they won't
overtake you before you get there. That's the tricky part,
really—making it look like they're trying to get to you when they
really aren't."

"True," Neverlin said. "On the other hand, the K'da and Shontine
aren't going to know how fast Djinn-90s, KK-29s, and Rhino-10s can fly"

"Point," Alison conceded. "At the same time, you don't want them
so far back that they'll overtake you too slowly. That might give the
K'da and Shontine too much time to stop and think while you're
barreling toward them."

"Which is the reason for the five Djinn-90s of the Backstop
group," Neverlin said, clearly pleased that he and Frost had
anticipated that question and had an answer ready for it. "As our
supposed rear guard, they can move up toward us if we need the
Hammerfall groups to speed up, or else fall back if we need them to
slow down."