Dragon and Judge

  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."

  "At least we're not in a quick slaughter." Jack filled his lungs with dusty air. "Hey, Bolo," he called. "How's it going?"

  "It's going okay," Bolo's voice came back. "You got a good arm there, boy."

  "Thanks," Jack said. "You do realize, don't you, that killing a Judge-Paladin is a death-sentence offense?"

  "What, you?" the other said contemptuously. "Don't make me laugh."

  "I didn't mean me," Jack corrected. "I was talking about my parents. You know—Stuart and Ariel?"

  For a moment Bolo didn't speak. "I'll be frunged," he said at last, his tone oddly changed. "You're the Palmers' kid?"

  "That's right," Jack said, a shiver running through him. Palmer. So that was his real last name. "I take it you're the one who murdered them?"

  "Hey, I offered them a chance to be smart," Bolo said. The strangeness in his voice was gone, and he was all business again. "Just like I did for you a minute ago. They didn't take me up on it, either."

  "I guess it runs in the family," Jack gritted out, forcing back a sudden flood of rage. He couldn't afford to let his emotions color his thinking. Not now. "Maybe you should have put it as a percentage of the mine. Is there really enough stuff in here to take that kind of risk?"

  "I have no idea," Bolo said. "But it must have been worth it to someone in the Triost boardroom. Or maybe to one of the bidders. No one told me, and I didn't ask."

  Jack frowned. "What bidders?"

  "The companies trying to buy us up," Bolo said. "I suppose you want to know which one won?"

  "Unless you want to let me out for a couple of hours to do my own research."

  Bolo gave a low chuckle. "Sorry. Maybe you should just wait and ask your parents. You'll be joining them soon enough."

  A painful knot formed in the pit of Jack's stomach. "Maybe; maybe not," he said as calmly as he could. "I figure you'll run out of bullets before I run out of rocks. And don't forget the Golvins know where I am."

  Bolo snorted. "I wouldn't count on them if I were you."

  "Why not?" Jack asked. "Do they understand bribes better than I do?"

  "They understand fear," Bolo said darkly. "I made it very clear to them the last time what would happen if they told anyone what had happened, or came anywhere near this mine, or made any other sort of trouble."

  "I take it I fit into that third category?" Jack suggested.

  "You don't even rank that high," Bolo said. "You're just a little follow-up work I should have taken care of eleven years ago. If you don't mind my asking, how exactly did I miss you?"

  "I had help," Jack said. "I suppose fear's a good enough motivator. But you really should have spread it around a little more instead of just threatening the leaders. And Foeinatw, too, of course."

  "Who?"

  "Four-Eight-Naught-Two," Jack said. "The one who called a couple of weeks ago and told you I was here."

  "Oh, right," Bolo said. "Him."

  "Yes, him," Jack said, feeling a trickle of contempt. The man couldn't even remember the names of the people he'd bribed or bullied or threatened into helping him. "Too bad he wasn't the one flying the day they ran into me at the spaceport."

  "Yes, it was," Bolo agreed, his voice darkening. "Mostly too bad for you."

  "We'll see," Jack said. "Who ended up buying up Triost?"

  "We back to that again?" Bolo said. "You're awfully nosy— you know that?"

  "What do you care?" Jack countered. "I'm already dead, right?"

  "You're making a recording, aren't you?" Bolo asked. "Getting all this nice confession on perm. You don't really think anything like that's going to survive the morning, do you?"

  "You'll find out at your trial," Jack said. "Who bought Triost?"

  Bolo chuckled. "Good one, kid. At my trial. You've got spirit—gotta give you that."

  "Thanks," Jack said. "Who bought up Triost?"

  "The rich get richer, kid," Bolo said. "First law of the universe. Braxton Universis."

  Jack caught his breath. Braxton Universis. The megacorporation owned and operated by Cornelius Braxton.

  The man whose life Jack and Draycos had saved only four months ago. If he'd hired Bolo eleven years ago to murder Jack's parents . . .

  "Well, it's been nice talking to you," Bolo went on. "But I've got places to go and things to do. You got two choices here: come out of hiding and make it quick and painless, or stay where you are and make it a lot harder on yourself."

  Jack frowned, trying to wrench his mind away from Braxton and Braxton Universis. "Thanks, but I kind of like it here."

  "That's good," Bolo said. " 'Cause this is where you're going to spend what's left of your life. So long, kid."

  From around the corner came the sound of running footsteps. Draycos whipped his tail, hurling a stone blindly around the curve.

  And suddenly the whole tunnel exploded in a flash of light and an earsplitting thunderclap.

  * * *

  Chapter 21

  A massive shock wave caught Jack across the face and chest like a full-body slap, hurling him backward down the tunnel.

  But even as he dropped toward the rocky floor, he sensed Draycos leaping past him. A fraction of a second later, he slammed into the K'da as they both hit the floor. They rolled over a couple of times and came to a halt.

  "You all right?" Jack asked, wiping dust and grit off his face as he scrambled to his feet. For a second his knees wobbled, and he had to grab the slurry pipe for support.

  The K'da said something, but Jack's ears were still ringing too hard from the explosion to hear it. "What?" he asked. "No— come here." Brushing at his shirt with one hand, he held out the other toward Draycos.

  Draycos put a paw on his hand and slithered up his sleeve onto his back. I am unhurt, the K'da's reassurance came into Jack's mind, bypassing his dazed hearing. You?

  "I'm okay," Jack said, blinking a few times. The tunnel was filled with dust that was only slowly starting to settle. "The guy's consistent, anyway. He used a bomb on my parents, and now he tried to use one on me."

  Draycos's snout rose from Jack's shoulder and his ton
gue flicked out twice. I do not sense any airflow, Jack. We may be trapped in here.

  Jack smiled tightly. "I'll bet that's what Bolo thinks, too. Let's take a look."

  His flashlight was a few feet farther down the tunnel, glowing faintly through the pile of rock chips that had partially buried it. Jack retrieved it, then backtracked to the site of the explosion.

  Bolo had done a good job. The tunnel near the intersection was completely blocked by a pile of shattered rock. "Probably a shaped charge set against the ceiling," Draycos said as Jack played his light over the top of the pile.

  "Had it all ready to go, too," Jack agreed. "I wonder what he would have done if I'd refused to come to the mine with him."

  "Perhaps there would now be no Great Assembly Hall, either," Draycos said.

  Jack grimaced. "Yeah." Taking a deep breath—and instantly regretting it as the floating dust set off a coughing fit—he turned around. "I guess we'd better get started."

  "Will you need help?" Draycos asked.

  "No, I can handle it," Jack assured him. "You stay here and keep an ear out for any other tricks Bolo might have up his sleeve."

  It took a few minutes for Jack to reach the end of the tunnel. It took another minute for him to cut away the protective plastic from one of the two diggers with his multitool. His one fear, that the diggers' power cells ■would have drained over the past eleven years, proved unfounded. A minute of trial and error as he figured out the controls, and he and the machine were on their way back up the tunnel.

  He arrived at the blockage to find Draycos digging carefully at one edge of the rock pile. Beside the K'da, the slurry pipe against the wall had been freshly sliced open. "All set," Jack announced. He pointed at the pipe. "Getting bored?"

  "I was concerned the air might fail before we finish," Draycos explained. "Fortunately, the collapse doesn't seem to have damaged the pipe."

  "Good," Jack said, holding out a hand. "Come on aboard— there's not enough room here for all of us."

  A minute later Draycos was on his back, and Jack plowed his new toy into the rock pile.

  The job went surprisingly quickly, though as Jack thought about it he realized that a machine designed to eat into a solid rock face would have little trouble with what were basically just very large chunks of gravel. The toothed roller on the front end dug into the pile, taking in the rocks and sending them back into a set of grinders where they were chewed up still further before being ejected out the machine's back end.

  Every couple of minutes the pile would shift, scattering the rocks and sending more dust into the air. But the fresh breeze from the slurry pipe helped blow it clear. Fifteen minutes into the task, Jack could already see a gap at the top of the pile. Five minutes after that, the pile was low enough that he could see the huge dome Bolo's explosive had blasted in the ceiling.

  And ten minutes after that, he was able to shut down the digger and crawl carefully over what was left of the pile to freedom.

  "I suppose the next question is what we do next," Jack muttered to Draycos as he trudged back up the tunnel. "Bolo and his aircar will be long gone by now, and from here to anywhere is going to be a really long walk."

  Why not go back to the canyon?

  Jack rolled his eyes. With their ears recovered from the blast there was no longer any reason not to just talk to each other. Clearly, Draycos was delighted with this new parlor game he'd learned and was determined to practice it every chance he got.

  Personally, Jack found it a lot harder and more distracting to focus his thoughts that way. But he supposed the K'da was right. / have no problem with that, he said, concentrating hard on forming each word in his mind. The problem's going to be getting someone's attention from up on the rim. Unless you were thinking of climbing down with me hanging on to your tail.

  He had a quick mental image of the K'da giving one of his crack-jawed smiles. I think that would be a bit more than the Golvins are ready for just now.

  Ahead, Jack could see a faint glow as the beam from his flashlight reflected off the white ceramic ceiling of the assembly area. They were almost home. So again, what do we do? he asked. Wait for Thonsifi to start wondering what happened to me and get Eithon to fly her up here?

  That is certainly a possibility, Draycos said. We may need to spend the day here, but surely she will not allow the sun to set without coming to see if you need assistance.

  I don't know, Jack replied doubtfully. Now that we know why the One wasn't happy to see me in the first place, I don't think he'd be all that heartbroken if I never came back.

  They had reached the end of the tunnel now. With a sense of relief, Jack stepped into the big assembly room.

  And without warning, a hand lanced out from just inside the room and grabbed his shirt collar. Before he could do more than gasp, he was yanked sideways off his feet, the arm shifting around to catch him around the throat.

  "Cute, kid," Bolo's voice grated in his ear. The arm tightened around Jack's throat, and he felt the muzzle of a gun press up against the back of his head. "Just tell me everything, huh? I'm already dead, huh? Where was your friend hiding, the end of the tunnel?"

  "I ... don't know . . . what—" Jack tried to say, pulling at Bolo's arm as he fought desperately to get air into his lungs.

  "Save it," Bolo snarled, squeezing his arm even tighter. "This slurry pipe here, the one you cut or broke open to get some fresh air? It's really good at conducting sound, too."

  Lifting Jack half off his feet by his neck, Bolo dragged him around the corner to stand in front of the tunnel entrance. "You—down in the mine!" he shouted. "I've got your friend. Come out or I'll blow his head open."

  There was no answer. Jack could feel Draycos moving around on his skin, and could sense that the K'da was trying to talk to him.

  But he couldn't understand. He couldn't feel or hear or concentrate on anything except the arm choking the life out of him. White sparkles were starting to dance across his vision, and he could feel his knees starting to wobble as the strength drained out of his legs. His hands, clutching uselessly at Bolo's arm, were going numb.

  "You hear me?" Bolo's voice came distantly in his ears. "Come out!"

  The jabbing pressure on the back of Jack's head disappeared. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Bolo's other hand appear over his shoulder, pointing his gun down the tunnel.

  And suddenly Jack was shoved violently forward against Bolo's arm as Draycos burst from the back of Jack's shirt between the two of them, breaking Bolo's grip on Jack's throat.

  Someone screamed, but whether it was Draycos or Bolo Jack couldn't tell in his daze. He staggered forward away from the sudden clattering noises behind him, one hand clutching his aching throat. The side of the tunnel loomed ahead of him, and he barely got his other hand up in time to keep himself from running face-first into the rough stone.

  From behind him came a sudden loud thud, and then an equally sudden silence. Still gasping in air, he turned himself around.

  Draycos was crouched on the assembly room floor, his neck arched, his jaws partially open. His glowing green eyes were on Bolo, sprawled on the floor beneath him. Bolo's gun was also on the floor, lying in the dust a couple of feet from the man's limp hand. "Uh-oh," Jack murmured.

  "I'm sorry," Draycos said, looking at Jack. "I was only trying to disable him."

  "It's okay," Jack said. It hurt his throat to talk, and his voice was unexpectedly raspy in his ears. "Hard floor in here."

  "Harder than I realized," Draycos said ruefully, looking Jack up and down. "What about you?"

  Jack shook his head. "I'll be okay. You?"

  "I'm unhurt," Draycos said. He looked back down at Bolo. "What do we do now?"

  Jack gazed down at the dead man, a strange mixture of emotions swirling through him. Uncle Virgil, criminal though he was, had consistently hammered into Jack that he was never, ever to kill anyone.

  Of course, that hadn't been so much from respect for life as it was the fact that killin
g during one of their jobs could bring huge penalties down on top of them. Still, the training was there, and it had taken firm hold over Jack's heart and soul. So much so, in fact, that when he and Draycos had first linked up he'd made a point of explaining to his new partner that K'da warrior rules about summary justice didn't apply here in the Orion Arm.

  And yet, despite all that, Jack couldn't help but feel a dark satisfaction at Bolo's death. After eleven years, justice had finally been done for his parents.

  Resolutely, he turned his eyes away. "What we do," he told Draycos, "is get in that aircar and get the blazes out of here."

  "What about Jonathan Langston?" Draycos asked.

  Jack grimaced. He'd forgotten all about the Golvins' secret prisoner. "What about him?"

  Draycos cocked his head slightly to the side, and Jack grimaced again. "You're right," he conceded with a sigh. "Fine. We'll go back and get him out."

  "We must at least try to determine whether or not his story is true," Draycos said, stepping away from Bolo and padding to Jack's side. "You must find a way to convince the One to allow a hearing."

  "Not necessary," Jack assured him. "Langston's telling the truth."

  Draycos's neck arched with surprise. "How do you know?"

  "Simple logic," Jack said, rubbing at his throat. "Tell you later."

  They went out to the aircar and Jack climbed into the pilot's seat. He glanced around, checking the controls—"Uh-oh," he muttered.

  "What is it?" Draycos said, lifting his head from Jack's shoulder.

  "That," Jack said, pointing at a small flat box half hidden beneath the instrument display panel. "It's a UniLink, a gadget for patching through to the nearest InterWorld transmitter and sending direct messages." He pulled it out on its attached cable and peered at the display. "And I'd say it's just been used."

  "Do you think Bolo sent out word of your death?"

  "Let's hope that's all the message said," Jack said, tucking it back away out of sight and turning on the main engines.

  "Wait a moment," Draycos said. "Can we use that to contact the Essenay?"