Dragonback 06 Dragon and Liberator

by Timothy Zahn

  "What if I simply go over the door?" Taneem suggested. "Or what if I went into an air duct? I think I remember seeing one running along the upper part of the corridor."

  Alison looked at the top of the door. The K'da was right, come to think of it. There was a large duct running along both sides of the ship, designed to flood the lifepod boarding areas with air in a hull-breach emergency. "Problem with that is that once you're out there's no way to get in again," she pointed out.

  "We have time to think of something," Taneem said firmly. "Right now, we need to find out who this man is and what he wants."

  Alison chewed at her lip. It was risky, and they both knew it. Still, even if worst came to worst, it should merely mean moving her private timetable up by a few days. "All right," she said. "If you're game, let's try it."

  "I am," Taneem said. "You'll need to get higher up against the wall."

  "First things first." Alison pulled out the comm clip that Taneem had been wearing during their hangar raid on Brum-a-dum and clipped it to the K'da's ear. "Just so I don't feel left out," she said. "No, wait a minute," she went on, frowning. "That won't work, will it? You have to go two-dimensional to get over the wall."

  "Why not try putting it in my mouth?" Taneem suggested.

  "Oka-a-y," Alison said slowly, pulling the comm clip off Taneem's ear. The K'da opened her jaws, and Alison set the device inside between the rows of sharp teeth. "Be careful you don't swallow it."

  Taneem nodded and flattened herself again across Alison's skin.

  The comm clip didn't reappear. Apparently, it was indeed going along for the ride.

  Something even Jack probably doesn't know, she thought as she pulled over one of the lifepod's chairs. Climbing up on it, she pressed her back against the wall above the door, twisting at the waist to give as much connection as she could to the area of the air duct.

  She felt a flicker of sensation, and Taneem was gone.

  Alison hopped off the chair, praying silently as she turned on her own comm clip. Even Draycos had never tried falling off into such an enclosed space before. If Taneem had miscalculated even a little . . .

  "I'm in," Taneem's voice came softy from the comm clip. "Heading forward."

  Alison exhaled silently. "Be careful," she murmured.

  "Don't worry," Taneem said. "I will."

  It was the third time Taneem had been inside the Advocatus Diaboli's ventilation system. The first time, she remembered, she'd been nervous and confused and more than a little frightened. The second time, just a few days ago, she'd been only a little nervous, but very quiet and cautious.

  This time, she found the ductwork felt almost like a second home.

  Which wasn't to say she could abandon caution. Far from it. The ship had suddenly come alive, with crew members and Malison Ring mercenaries moving quickly through the corridors or settling themselves into various rooms. Whoever this person was who was pretending to be Jack's uncle Virgil, he'd stirred up a stingbug's nest.

  By now the alarm had been silenced. Fortunately, there was enough commotion and conversation around her that she didn't have to worry too much about being heard. Still, she made sure to peek through each grille before she passed.

  The bridge on a seagoing vessel, she remembered from the Essenay's encyclopedia, was typically on the upper part of the deck. The Advocates Diaboli's bridge, in contrast, was buried away in almost the very center of the ship. It was on the middle deck, a little ways forward of the computer and ECHO room.

  She reached the room to find that Neverlin had already arrived. "So far, he hasn't tried anything fancy," Frost was telling the other as Taneem eased her way to the edge of the nearest grille. From her position she could just see Neverlin and Frost, standing behind a pair of men in white uniforms seated at a control board. "He definitely hasn't activated any of his weapons."

  "And you're sure it's really Virgil Morgan?" Neverlin asked.

  Frost snorted. "I'm not sure about anything," he said. "It could be the Tooth Fairy for all I know. But he is alone out there."

  "Are we sure about that?" Neverlin countered. "We don't know what K'da look like on an IR scan when they're plastered across a human body."

  "We know," a whispery voice replied. A very alien voice, of a type Taneem had never heard before. "I have studied the readings. The human is alone."

  Neverlin turned around. "I see," he said, his voice subtly changed.

  Carefully, Taneem moved forward a few more inches, trying to see the being who had spoken.

  There, standing behind Neverlin and Frost, was a Valahgua.

  There was no doubt in Taneem's mind that that was what this creature was. His head was wide and flat and bony, like a sphere that had been squashed down from above into a flattened disk. Dark eyes peered from beneath a brow ridge, and short tentacles writhed at both corners of his wide mouth. His body was wide and long but oddly slender from front to back.

  The upper arm she could see was thick, splitting at the elbow into a much thinner forearm plus a muscular tentacle about the same length as the forearm. The hand at the end of the forearm was clenched into a fist, preventing her from seeing how many fingers he had. His legs were short and considerably thicker than even his upper arms.

  The overall effect was as if someone had taken a legless crab and attached it to a wide door, then added limbs salvaged from an elephant, a human, and an octopus. It was a strange and rather ridiculous combination, and under other circumstances Taneem might have been tempted to laugh at it.

  But these were the people who had made war against the K'da and Shontine. The people who, not content with driving them from their homes, were plotting with Neverlin and Frost to utterly destroy them.

  There was no reason to laugh. No reason whatsoever.

  "Fine; so he's alone," Frost said impatiently. Apparently, he wasn't as impressed or intimidated by the Valahgua as Neverlin was. "Can we get on with this before the entire StarForce comes roaring down on us?"

  "Calm yourself, Colonel," Neverlin said. He gestured to one of the men at the control board. "Go ahead, Captain."

  The other man nodded and tapped a switch. "This is Arthur Neverlin," Neverlin called. "Who is this?"

  "Hello, Mr. Neverlin," a voice came over the bridge speaker. "This is Virgil Morgan. I understand you need me."

  Taneem felt her crest stiffen. It was Uncle Virge's voice, all right. Which meant that the person they'd detected aboard had to be Jack.

  But what in the whole rainbow did he think he was doing, marching up to Neverlin's front door this way? And if the Valahgua was right about Draycos not being in there with him, where was he?

  The last time she and Alison had heard from Uncle Virge, Jack had been in jail on Brum-a-dum. Had something happened during their prison break?

  Was Draycos dead?

  The thought sent an icy flood of fear and horror through her. If Draycos was gone—if it was just her and Alison and Jack now—

  She took a careful breath. Panic freezes the will, Draycos's words whispered through her mind.

  She would not panic. Whatever happened, whatever had happened, she would not panic. Draycos would want it that way.

  "Your information is a bit out-of-date, Mr. Morgan," Neverlin said. "Your safecracking skills are no longer required."

  "I didn't say you needed my safecracking skills," Uncle Virge said. "I said you needed me. Tell me, how secure is this transmission?"

  Neverlin glanced at Frost. "Secure enough. Why?"

  "Obviously, because what I have to say is highly private," Uncle Virge said. "Let me lay it out for you. You've come into possession of one or more safes previously owned by a pair of symbiotic species. For convenience, let's call them, oh, the K'da and Shontine. Inside that safe or safes are supposed to be coordinates showing where a fleet of these beings will be coming into the Orion Arm. You with me so far?"

  "Very much so," Neverlin assured him, his voice gone cool. "And not supposed to be. The coordinates are inside
."

  "What's inside are a set of numbers," Uncle Virge corrected. "No one said they were the actual coordinates."

  The Valahgua made a strange gurgling sound. The tentacles around his mouth were writhing like startled stumpgrubs suddenly brought into the sunlight. "In fact, our friends here do say that," Neverlin countered. "Are you suggesting they're wrong?"

  "I'm saying, not suggesting, that the K'da and Shontine were smarter than you realized," Uncle Virge said. "Turns out there's a modifier that has to be factored into the coordinates you found."

  "An interesting story," Neverlin said. "Where exactly did it come from?"

  "A little bird told me," Uncle Virge said. "A gold-plated, sharp-toothed bird named Draycos."

  "And you came all this way just to give us this information?"

  "I came all this way to sell you the information," Uncle Virge corrected. "More precisely, I came to sell you the location of the modifier data."

  "Which is where?"

  "Don't worry, it's close at hand," Uncle Virge said. "It's hidden in that impressive-looking ship you've got lying off your port-side bow."

  "Of course it is," Neverlin said. "And you'd like us to all go aboard so you can show us?"

  "You don't have to go if you don't want to," Uncle Virge said. "Give me an escort and I'll find it myself."

  "Very generous of you," Neverlin said. "Tell me something, Mr. Morgan. After six months of dodging us, why are you suddenly being so cooperative?"

  "Because I've come to the conclusion that you're going to win," Uncle Virge said. "I like being on the winning side."

  "It pays better?"

  "Absolutely," Uncle Virge agreed. "On the other hand, you're only going to win if you actually locate the fleet."

  "Of course," Neverlin said. "Would you care to tell us how you found us?"

  "And where exactly your nephew and his K'da friend are?" Frost put in.

  "Who's that, Colonel Frost?" Uncle Virge asked. "Hello, Colonel. Don't worry about Jack and Draycos. I've sent them off on a wild-goose chase that should keep them out of the way until it's all over. As for telling you how I knew about Point Two, I'd be happy to. But only face-to-face."

  "You can speak freely," Neverlin assured him. "I trust my associates completely."

  "That's nice," Uncle Virge said. "Unfortunately, I don't. So do I get an audience with the new soon-to-be Master of the Universe? Or do I turn around and fly home?"

  "Leaving us to wait for the refugees at the wrong spot?"

  "Something like that."

  Neverlin's lip twisted. "One moment."

  He gestured, and the uniformed man touched the comm switch. "Colonel?" Neverlin invited.

  "It's a trick," Frost said flatly. "He's up to something."

  "I agree," Neverlin said. "The question is, what?"

  "He wishes access to the K'da/Shontine vessel," the Valahgua said in his whispery voice. "That is obviously the motive behind this so-called modifier he claims knowledge of. You will not permit that to happen."

  "Don't worry, Lordhighest; he's not getting anywhere near it," Neverlin assured him. "But I will admit to being intrigued. Colonel, instruct the fleet to prepare for immediate departure. We'll leave as soon as Mr. Morgan is aboard."

  "We're taking him with us?" Frost asked, frowning.

  "Him and the Essenay both," Neverlin said. "You have a problem with that?"

  "Transporting a suspicious ship to Point Three?" Frost retorted. "Yes, I have a problem with it."

  "Would you rather we negotiate with him here at Point Two?" Neverlin countered. "Giving anyone he may have talked to time to catch up with him?"

  "I'd rather blow him out of the sky and be done with it," Frost said.

  "That would be the wisest move," the Valahgua said.

  "Perhaps," Neverlin said. "But as I say, I'm intrigued. Captain, signal all ships to prepare evasive patterns to Point Three. Each commander is to lay out his own course, with arrival six days from now."

  The Valahgua alien rumbled somewhere inside his wide head. "I protest this plan most strongly," he declared. "We now take six days to reach Point Three? You had said it would take only four."

  "It would," Neverlin confirmed. "But I think a couple of extra days of being undetectable by anyone else in the universe wouldn't be a bad thing right now."

  "It could be a very foolish thing," the Valahgua retorted. "The K'da and Shontine could reach the rendezvous in as few as nine days."

  "Which will still give us plenty of time," Neverlin assured him. "It's only a couple of hours from Point Three to the rendezvous."

  "Is it truly?" the Valahgua asked. "What if this human has heard truly from the K'da?"

  "He has a point," Frost said. "Once we're on ECHO we'll be out of communication with the rest of the fleet. If Morgan isn't lying, and if the rendezvous point actually turns out to be more than three days away from Point Three, we won't make it in time."

  "Then they'll just have to wait for us, won't they?" Neverlin said tartly. "But they won't, because Morgan is blowing smoke. I'm sure of it."

  "Then destroy him as the officer suggested," the Valahgua said.

  "Not until I find out what flavor smoke he's blowing," Neverlin said. "Colonel—"

  "You risk this mission for mere curiosity?" the Valahgua interrupted.

  "I risk nothing, and this is far more than mere curiosity," Neverlin said coldly. "This man knew where Point Two was. I need to find out what else he knows. Before he dies. Colonel, have two of your Djinn-90s escort the Essenay here. While they do that, contact the team on Driftline and tell them to skip Point Two and head directly to Point Three once they've collected the Rhino-10s."

  "Yes, sir," Frost said. "What about the Foxwolf?"

  "What about it?"

  "We still have only the single shift of my men aboard," Frost reminded him. "Do you want to swap the other two shifts back in?"

  "What's your recommendation?" Neverlin asked.

  For a few seconds Frost stared at the displays. "I'd say no," he said. "If Morgan has some trick planned, I don't want to be in the middle of a personnel change when he springs it."

  "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."

  CHAPTER 12

  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 colonizatio
n.

  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?"