Dragonback 06 Dragon and Liberator (39 page)

She hoped Taneem had obeyed. She hoped even more that the K'da had
found a hiding place somewhere forward and in the lower deck where
Neverlin's planned sweep of the Death might miss her.

Jack found the displaced storage items on the third door he tried,
two doors aft of the Death room. Everything he'd hoped for was there.

Three minutes later, he was ready.

Okay
, he said, running a critical eye over his masterpiece:
a rolling cart with three oxygen tanks strapped to it, twenty feet back
from the Death room and lined up squarely on its door.
We're good
to go. You ready
?

Yes
. Draycos hesitated.
Jack . . . if this doesn't work
. . .

It's okay, symby
, Jack said, a lump coming to his throat.
We
already said our good-byes, remember
?

Yes
, Draycos said. The moment had passed, and he was all
business again.
Do you want me to take another look over the door
?

No time
, Jack said.
They looked like they might have
the Death free any second now. Besides, where could anyone possibly
have moved in there
?

Point
, Draycos agreed.
Then let's do it
.

He leaped out of Jack's collar and landed on the deck beside the
cart. Jack moved up to the door, his usual full-size tangler in his
right hand, Harper's tiny palm-grip tangler hidden in his left. Holding
the butt of his tangler an inch away from the door release, he looked
back at Draycos and nodded.

With a triple slash of his claws, Draycos sliced the ends off all
three oxygen tanks.

The cart surged forward, picking up speed as the escaping gas
drove it forward like a small, rolling rocket. Draycos loped along
beside it, picking up his pace as the cart sped up, nudging it back on
track whenever it started to drift off-target. Jack watched it come,
holding out his left hand toward Draycos as he judged his timing.

A second before the cart reached the door, Draycos leaped up and
forward, catching the back of Jack's hand and melting onto his arm. A
half second later, with the cart still picking up speed, Jack tapped
the butt of his tangler into the release.

The door opened, and Jack leaned around the edge. "Catch!" he
called, tossing his tangler in a high arc into the room. Several of the
mercenaries instinctively looked upward toward the flying weapon,
before suddenly spotting the cart roaring through the door toward them.

The soldiers directly in front of it scrambled to get out of its
way. As they did so, Jack lifted his left hand and fired both shots of
Harper's tangler.

The cartridges hit the side of one of the oxygen tanks and burst
open, their milky white threads snagging the nearest of the kneeling
mercenaries and anchoring him solidly to the careening cart. The sudden
drag sent the cart pivoting sharply to the side, changing its course
and bouncing it into and across more of the mercenaries.

And as it careened through their neat double line, Draycos leaped
out of Jack's sleeve.

He landed in front of the nearest mercenary just as the other got
clear of the cart and started to bring his gun back around toward his
attacker. The K'da got there first, slapping his paw against the man's
gun hand and deflecting it to the side.

But instead of leaping to the next soldier in line, the K'da
simply vanished up the first man's sleeve.

Someone gasped a curse. But before anyone could move, Draycos was
back, bounding out of the back of the man's collar toward the soldier
behind him. Again his outstretched paws caught the man's hand and he
slid out of sight up his sleeve, his tail managing to slap across the
head of the next man in line before he vanished.

"Now!" Neverlin bellowed over the chaos. "Shoot them!"

Draycos leaped out of the mercenary's collar, headed for a man a
couple of steps farther back on the right-hand side of the group.
Beyond him, a pair of Valahgua heaved the long Death weapon cylinder
off its mount and swiveled it around toward Jack.

And as it started its turn, the end erupted with the familiar
sickly yellow flash and the violet light of the Death. Cutting through
the soldiers to Jack's left, it swept ponderously toward him.

There was nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. Instinctively, Jack
leaped forward into the room, diving for the deck. His last glimpse
before the struggling soldiers blocked his view was that of Alison
breaking free from Neverlin's grip and throwing her body at the side of
the weapon in a desperate attempt to slow it down.

But it was a futile gesture, and Jack knew it. Even with her
interference, he had no more than a second before the beam would sweep
over him. Alison could do no more; Draycos was already an eternity too
far away. Jack hit the deck chest-first, the impact knocking half the
wind out of him, and prepared himself to die.

And then, the rest of the air was knocked out of him as something
hard and heavy slammed into his shoulders and the back of his neck. The
sudden weight vanished as suddenly as it had appeared—

The violet beam swept over him, and he felt the by now familiar
tingle. The tingle, and nothing else. He heard the hum of the weapon
change pitch slightly as it halted its swing and came back toward him
to try again.

And then, the hum was drowned out by the thunder of a pair of
gunshots.

The hum vanished, and the room fell abruptly silent. Cautiously,
Jack raised his head.

The mercenaries who had been standing in front of him were lying
crumpled on the deck. All dead. The Death weapon itself was lying on
the deck, too, as were the two Valahgua who had been holding it. A
third Valahgua was still standing, something that looked like a weapon
in his hand and pointed down at Alison, who was sprawled frozen on the
deck looking up at him.

To Jack's right, Draycos was crouched on the deck, poised to
spring. His green eyes glittered as he stared unblinkingly at the
Valahgua. Pressed against the curved bulkhead, as far back as they
could get, were Neverlin and six white-clad crewmen.

And standing between Draycos and the Valahgua, no more than a step
back out of their line of sight, was Frost. His gun was in his hand.

Pointed at the Valahgua.

"Lower the weapon," Frost told the alien. "You hear me?"

"They must die," the Valahgua insisted, his voice sounding utterly
alien. "They must all die."

"There's no point," Frost said. "It's over. It's all over.
Surrender, and you can still live."

The Valahgua snarled something in his own language. "Do not mock
me!"

"He isn't mocking you," Draycos said. His voice was low and bitter
and deadly. "If you surrender, you will be allowed to return with a
message."

"What message, K'da?" the Valahgua spat.

"That the power of the Valahgua is broken," Draycos said. "That if
you ever come again to this region of space, you will be destroyed."
His tail flicked. "But you will only live to carry that message if you
lower your weapon."

"Better take him up on the offer," Jack advised, standing up and
taking a couple of steps toward the standoff. A risky move, he knew,
but giving the Valahgua one more target to choose from might give
Draycos the opening he needed. "You don't want your people always
wondering what happened out here, do you?"

The Valahgua flashed Jack an unreadable look. "Come on," Jack
cajoled. "You don't want to die, do you?"

The Valahgua looked down at Alison. "Don't do it," Jack warned.

And with a scream that seemed to shake Jack's teeth, Taneem leaped
out of his collar. The Valahgua twisted his arm up and around, trying
to bring his weapon to bear on this sudden new threat.

He never made it. Before the gun was even halfway to its target,
Draycos leaped across the open gap and buried his claws in the
Valahgua's throat.

The gun went off, sizzling a blast of blue-white energy into the
ceiling, then dropped to the deck.

"
Now
," Draycos said, "it is over."

Jack took a deep breath. "I guess they'll never know what happened
now, will they?" he said.

"Perhaps not," Draycos said, turning to face Frost.

Frost, whose gun was still pointed at the dead Valahgua. Only now,
Jack realized suddenly, it was pointed at Draycos.

Neverlin spotted it, too. "Do it," he muttered urgently, taking a
step forward.

Without even looking at him, Frost swiveled his gun away from
Draycos and pointed it at Neverlin. "As he said, sir. It's over." He
looked at Jack. "Give Braxton a call," he said. "Tell him I want to
make a deal with him. And
only
with him."

"Sure, no problem," Jack said. Picking his way through the
sprawled Malison Ring bodies, he stopped in front of Frost and held out
his hand. The other hesitated, then turned the gun around and handed it
to Jack. "The keys to Alison's cuffs would be nice, too," Jack
suggested as Alison got awkwardly back to her feet.

Frost shook his head. "I don't have them. Not sure who does."

"Allow me," Draycos said. Inserting one claw into the handcuff
chain, he sliced through it.

"Thanks," Alison said, wincing as she brought her hands back
around again. "That's hard on the shoulders," she commented. "You all
right?"

"I'm fine," Jack assured her.

"Yes, I can see that," Alison said dryly. "I was talking to
Taneem."

"I'm also fine," Taneem said. Somewhat hesitantly, she moved
forward. "I know you told me to hide, but I couldn't leave you alone. I
hope I did all right."

"You did more than all right, Taneem," Alison assured her,
reaching over to stroke her head. "I'm sure Jack and Draycos agree."

"And then some," Jack agreed. "Thanks for saving my life."

"You did the same for me on Rho Scorvi," Taneem said simply. "I'm
glad I was able to repay you."

Jack cleared his throat. "Speaking of payments and paybacks, we'd
better get Braxton on the radio." He eyed Alison. "Did you know he came
all the way out here personally to find you?"

Alison shrugged. "I thought he might."

"I hope he hangs you," Neverlin said bitterly. "Whoever you really
stole that tracer for, I hope he well and truly hangs you."

"He
does
seem to want you pretty badly," Jack warned.

"Yes, I suppose he does," Alison agreed. She smiled at Neverlin.
"But then, grandfathers are like that."

"That's it," Alison announced, dropping one last folded shirt into
the carry bag laid out on her bunk in the
Essenay
's second
cabin. "You know, I'm really going to miss this place."

"Not that you ever spent much time in here," Jack pointed out.

"Oh, I don't mean the room," she said, looking around the cabin.
"Not even the ship, really."

"The company, then?" Draycos asked from the corner where he and
Taneem had stretched out on the deck to watch Alison's packing.

"Yes," Alison said. She gave Jack a wry look. "Strange though that
may sound."

"That's okay—it's been a day for strangeness," Jack assured her.
Oddly enough, he thought, he was going to miss her, too. "You're really
Mr. Braxton's granddaughter?"

She nodded. "On my mother's side," she said. "My dad, on the other
hand, is an Internos Intelligence agent."

"Must have made for an interesting childhood," Jack said. "So
you're an Internos agent. And I thought the Whinyard's Edge recruited
them young."

A shadow seemed to pass across Alison's face. "I'm a special
case," she said quietly. "Do you remember, after you got back from
Semaline, when you asked if I knew what it felt like to have people die
because of me?"

"Yes," Jack said, wincing at the memory of that day. He'd been
full of anger and pain and guilt, and had lashed out completely
unfairly at her.

"I was nine at the time," Alison went on, her eyes staring into
infinity. "My best friend's brother told me in secret that he was going
to run away from home and join a mercenary group."

"How old was he?" Draycos asked.

"He'd just turned twelve," Alison said. "Two years too young to
legally join. But he was tall for his age, and he really wanted to go."
She closed her eyes briefly. "Three months later, he was dead. Killed
in combat."

"I'm sorry," Jack said quietly. "But it was
his
decision,
not yours. What happened wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was," Alison said. Her voice was calm, but Jack could
hear old pain still lurking beneath it. "I could have told someone. I
should
have told someone. But I thought the whole thing was terribly grown-up
and too glamorous for words."

Jack nodded as he suddenly understood. "So
that's
what you
were doing in the Whinyard's Edge. You were looking for evidence of
underage recruitment."

She gave him a wry half smile. "You
are
pretty good at
this, aren't you? Yes, that was my mission in life. I'd already
infiltrated Weber's Hellions and the Malison Ring and pulled data on
them. This time, it was the Whinyard's Edge's turn."

"The whole thing your dad's idea, I suppose?"

"Actually, Dad was dead-set against it," she said, her smile
vanishing into memory again. "As were Mom, Grandfather, Grandmother,
and pretty much everyone else. But I had righteousness on my side. And
guilt."

"And you wore them down."

"More or less," Alison said. "Dad finally agreed, on the condition
that I go through a full five years of training first. He probably
figured I'd get tired of it and drop out."

"Only you didn't," Jack said.

"Like I said, righteousness and guilt." She cocked her head "And
then I met you, and a whole lot of really interesting questions came
tumbling out into the light. After we escaped from Sunright I contacted
Dad. We put two and two together, and figured out that you were the
same Jack who'd saved Grandfather's life on the
Star of Wonder
.
After a little discussion, we agreed I should change missions and
concentrate on you for a while."