Dragonback 04 Dragon and Herdsman

  One approach would be to download a list of worlds where the Malison Ring had troops and equipment, particularly the Djinn-90 starfighters they'd used against Draycos's advance team. With that information, he and Draycos could travel to the most likely jump-off points for the attack and search the local squads' computers for the rendezvous data. Or Jack could try loading a dump-tap into the system that would pull any messages to or from Neverlin and send copies to another computer where Uncle Virge could access it.

  However he found the rendezvous point, he and Draycos would then have two choices. They could either try to beat the Malison Ring there and warn the refugee fleet or else turn everything over to StarForce and let them handle it.

  And with thoughts and plans sifting themselves through Jack's mind, he was caught completely by surprise when the door across the room was abruptly slammed open.

  He leaped to his feet. But it was far too late. Men in Malison Ring uniforms were pouring into the office, guns drawn and ready. "Don't shoot!" Jack called, holding his hands wide open, his heart pounding in his chest. Once before, he'd seen Draycos take out a room full of opponents. If he'd done it once, surely he could do it again.

  But that time his opponents had been stupid enough to bunch up where the dragon's speed and agility gave him the advantage. This group, unfortunately, wasn't playing it that way. Instead of heading straight toward him, they spread out in both directions along the walls, staying well back.

  "Jack?" Draycos whispered, his voice too soft for anyone but Jack to hear.

  "No," Jack whispered back, keeping his lips motionless. "Uncle Virge, lock down."

  The flood of mercenaries finally ended, leaving nine of them facing him. For a moment they stood motionless, staring at Jack in silence as if he were some kind of museum exhibit. Then, still without a word, the middle three men handed their weapons to those beside them and strode forward.

  Quickly, efficiently, silently, they patted Jack down, relieving him of his comm clip, his key, his burglar equipment, his multitool, his belt, and his boots. One of the men, a sergeant, produced a handheld scanner from a belt pouch and ran it systematically over Jack's body. The second man had a set of handcuffs, and he and the third fastened Jack's hands securely behind his back.

  The sergeant returned the scanner to its pouch and jerked his head over his shoulder. "Let's go."

  The other two grabbed Jack's arms and marched him toward the door. The guards along the walls began to file out, adjusting their exit so that three of them ended up walking in front of Jack and his keepers while the other three walked behind them. Even with their prisoner in handcuffs, they kept their guns handy.

  There was a tall man standing alone in the middle of the large room when Jack emerged from the office. His Malison Ring uniform was a lot flashier than those of the rest of the soldiers, with two rows of colored bars across his upper chest. "He's clean?" he asked as Jack and his three keepers approached.

  "Yes, Commandant," the sergeant said. "Looks like he was trying to break into your computer."

  The commandant turned cold fish eyes on Jack. "So desertion wasn't enough for you, eh?" he demanded.

  Jack blinked. Desertion? "I'm not a deserter," he protested.

  "No, of course not," the other said darkly. "Colonel Frost put out a blanket alert on a perfect stranger just for the fun of it. Sergeant, put him in the tombs while I call the colonel and see what he wants me to do with him."

  "Yes, sir." The sergeant gestured, the two soldiers holding Jack's arms gave him a shove, and the whole group continued on across the room to an unmarked double door.

  The double door led to a long corridor with another set of double doors at the far end. The sergeant unlocked one of them and led the way through, and Jack found himself in a smaller version of the big room they'd just left. Most of the doors here were the normal wooden variety, but the one all the way across the room from the double doors was made instead of thin, crisscrossed metal bars. The sergeant walked the group over to the latter door and swung it open. "In here," he said.

  Jack obeyed. The sergeant stopped him at the door, removed his handcuffs, and gave him a final shove into the cell. With a solid-sounding thunk the door slammed shut behind him. "Smit, Gargan—you're on watch," the sergeant said, gesturing the rest of the group back to the double doors. They filed back out, leaving two of the mercenaries standing guard on opposite sides of the exit where they could watch Jack's every move.

  Taking a deep breath, feeling thoroughly disgusted with himself. Jack walked to the cot at the back of the cell and sat down.

  Secret plots being what they were, he'd been pretty sure that Neverlin and his fellow conspirators wouldn't have shared the details of their scheme with the entire Malison Ring. But he really should have expected them to come up with a cover story that would get everyone in the group hunting for him.

  Jack Morgan, Malison Ring deserter. So obvious.

  "Jack?" Draycos murmured from his shoulder.

  "Just a second," Jack murmured back, giving the cell a quick check. No obvious cameras or microphones, and the guards were too far away to eavesdrop. "Clear enough," he said. "Sorry, Draycos. After what happened on Brum-a-dum, I should have expected Neverlin to turn the whole hornets' nest loose on us."

  "No apology needed," Draycos assured him. "Do you want me to eliminate the guards?"

  Jack measured the distance across the room with his eyes. "I don't know," he said doubtfully. "There's an awful lot of ground to cover. We need a diversion of some sort."

  "What do you suggest?"

  Jack chewed the inside of his cheek. It would be dangerous, he knew. But then, what wasn't dangerous these days? "The room next door seems to be just a normal office," he said. "If you were able to slide off my back through the wall, you could maybe make some noise and see if they would come close enough for you to jump them."

  Draycos didn't reply. "I know it's dangerous," Jack went on. "But right now I can't think of anything else to try. If you'd rather, I'm willing to wait a bit and see if we come up with something else."

  "No," the dragon said. "If we are to make our escape, we must do so at once. Neverlin already knows about me, though it would appear he hasn't passed that knowledge on to the rest of the Malison Ring."

  "But if they contact him and he spills the beans, it's all over," Jack agreed grimly. "First thing they'd do is move us someplace where none of these tricks would work."

  "So let us do it," Draycos decided. "Put your back against the wall."

  Jack shifted around and pressed his back against the side of the cell. He felt the dragon shift around on his skin, lifting his two-dimensional form through the extra dimension and leaning over the barrier.

  For a moment nothing happened. Then, all at once, there was a sudden movement against Jack's back, and Draycos was gone.

  Jack took a careful breath. There was no way of knowing whether or not the trick had been successful. Still, it had felt about the same as the time it had happened accidentally. He hoped that meant Draycos was all right.

  Jack had just moved away from the wall when, across the room, the two guards quietly collapsed onto the floor.

  Jack stared at them in disbelief. Draycos hadn't even made it out of the office yet. How could he have—?

  And then, as Jack's suddenly sluggish brain tried to figure it out, he caught a hint of a familiar odor wafting toward him.

  Someone was pumping sopor mist into the room.

  Jack twisted back around, holding his breath as he pounded three quick times against the sidewall. If he and Draycos fell asleep before they could get back together, the commandant wouldn't need Neverlin or anyone else to tell him something strange was going on.

  Jack had lifted his hand to hit the wall again when the universe went dark.

  CHAPTER 3

  The room beside Jack's cell was a cramped junior staffers' office, with desks and chairs for three people and a single window opening out the rear of the building. Dra
ycos had only just started looking for something to attract the guards' attention when he heard Jack's pounding on the wall.

  He leaped across the room and pressed one ear against the door. Had the mercenaries decided to begin the interrogation?

  And then, seeping in under the door, he caught a whiff of something he'd smelled once back at the Whinyard's Edge training camp. It was sopor gas, a weapon used to put enemies to sleep.

  Quickly, he took a deep breath, filling his lungs to full capacity before the gas could become thick enough to affect him. Then, carefully, he eased the door open a crack.

  The two guards across the outer room were already asleep, lying crumpled on the floor. No one else was visible. Frowning, he pulled the door the rest of the way open and slipped around the corner to look into the cell. Jack was alone, and fast asleep.

  There was no time now to try to figure out what was going on. He had to get Jack out of here, and the sleeping guards across the outer room were his best chance of doing that. If one of them had a key, he could perhaps get Jack out through the office window before he himself ran out of air.

  He was crouching for a leap across the room when there was a click and the outer double doors began to swing open.

  Draycos twisted around, darting instead back into the office. He flicked his tail at the edge of the door as he passed, trying to swing it closed.

  But he missed, and then it was too late. He felt the subtle air currents as the far door swung all the way open, and heard the soft sounds of someone jogging quickly toward Jack's cell.

  For a moment the footsteps seemed to falter. Then, they continued on.

  Only now they seemed to be coming straight toward the half-open office door.

  There was no time for anything clever. Draycos leaped to the far side of one of the desks, landing as silently as he could. He wormed his body past the chair and ducked out of sight.

  He was barely in time. The steps paused, and the office door swung all the way open.

  Draycos froze in place. Now, too late, he wondered if the intruder might have an infrared scanner that would penetrate the material of the desk. The other stood in the doorway for perhaps five seconds, and Draycos caught the slightly sinister hiss of a full-helmet gas mask. Then, to his relief, the footsteps headed away toward Jack's cell.

  Silently, Draycos rose from his hiding place and padded back to the door. With the other's full attention on Jack, it was time for him to make his move. He eased one eye around the edge of the door—

  And felt his tail stiffen in stunned surprise.

  It wasn't Arthur Neverlin or one of his Brummgan thugs, as he'd first feared. Nor was it some local Malison Ring soldier who'd decided to go ahead and start Jack's interrogation on his own. It was, instead, possibly the last person Draycos would ever have expected to see again.

  It was Alison Kayna.

  A kaleidoscope of memories rippled through his mind as he ducked back out of sight. Alison had been the very best of the teenaged recruits whom Jack had joined in his infiltration of the Whinyard's Edge. She'd been smart, resourceful, and far more skilled than a raw recruit should have been. Especially one who was no older than Jack himself.

  She and Jack had also been among the handful of those recruits who'd been marked for death. Only by working together had they managed to escape.

  Now, against all odds, here she was in the middle of a Malison Ring office.

  And for some reason she was trying to get to Jack.

  The cell door snicked open. Draycos cased forward for another look, his brain and muscles frozen with indecision. He didn't have nearly enough air left for a long fight. But if Alison intended to harm his host, it was Draycos's duty to do whatever he could to prevent that.

  Yet why would Alison want to hurt Jack?

  There was another rustle of cloth, and Alison emerged from the cell, Jack's sleeping form slung over her shoulder in a variant of a Shontine hunter's lift. Staggering a little under his weight, she hurried toward the exit.

  There was no way Draycos could follow them out, at least not without Alison spotting him. Fortunately, it also didn't look as if she intended Jack any immediate harm. That she could have done right there in the cell.

  Which suggested that she'd come in here to help him escape.

  There were a lot of questions Draycos didn't have answers for. But the ache in his lungs was an urgent reminder that he wouldn't be answering questions or doing anything else if he didn't get himself to fresh air.

  A quick slash of his claws shredded the lock mechanism on the office window. It probably also set off a dozen alarms, but he doubted now that anyone in the building was in any condition to hear them. A tug on the sash and he was outside. Hitting the ground, he spun around and leaped upward onto the roof.

  He paused there a moment to gasp in a few lungfuls of air. Then he set off toward the front of the building, wondering if there were other security cameras up here besides the four he'd dealt with.

  But whether there were or not, he had no time to look for them. If Alison got Jack to a vehicle before he could overtake her, he might never see the boy again. Certainly not before his six-hour time limit ended and he died.

  Fortunately, a burdened fourteen-year-old girl was considerably slower than an unburdened K'da. Draycos was at the parapet, searching the street and nearby buildings for signs of trouble, when Alison and Jack emerged through the front door.

  There was a car parked in front of the building, a vehicle that hadn't been there when he and Jack had broken in. Alison hurried over to it, opened the back door, and rolled Jack off her shoulder onto the backseat. One of his legs twitched a couple of times, then kicked out to flop limply over the edge of the seat. Alison maneuvered it back inside and closed the door, then went around behind the car to the driver's side. With one last look around, she got in and reached for her door handle.

  And Draycos leaped.

  The timing had to be perfect, he knew, and once he was in the air there was nothing he could do to alter that timing. But warrior's luck was with him. Precisely as Alison slammed her door, he landed on top of the car, absorbing as much of the impact with his legs as he could.

  He froze, muscles tensed, waiting for her to realize that the door had slammed with far more sound and vibration than usual. But with her full-helmet gas mask still in place, she apparently didn't notice. There was a hum as she activated the engine, and the car sped off into the night.

  Draycos flattened himself against the roof, closing his eyes to slits to protect them from the wind rushing against his face. Digging his claws into the roof as deep as he dared, he held on. If any of Avrans City's citizens were wandering the streets at this hour, they were in for a remarkable sight.

  Even if they weren't, he was already running out of time. Alison was driving straight toward the spaceport, and even at this hour the port would be bustling with people.

  He had until they arrived to get out of sight.

  Easing the tip of his tail over the edge of the roof beside the rear window, he rubbed it across the plastic. Those leg twitches he'd seen had suggested that Jack was starting to wake up. If so, this should work.

  If not, they were in trouble.

  Something soft slammed up against Jack's back, and with a rather foggy jolt he woke up.

  He opened his eyes to find himself staring in partial darkness at an even darker curved surface no more than three feet from his face. He tried to move his legs, and got a second shock as someone grabbed one of them and pushed it toward him. There was a slamming sound from that direction.

  And then, all the blurry strangeness came into focus. He was lying on his back on the rear scat of a car, his knees pushed up toward his chest. Someone had apparently taken him out of the Malison Ring cell, and they were about to make a run for it.

  Without Draycos?

  Jack caught his breath, his hand darting into the opening of his shirt. The last thing he remembered was dropping the dragon through the cell wall
into the office. Then the sopor mist had come in. . . .

  Jack swiveled around onto his side, trying to force numb muscles to push himself into a sitting position. If he could get the door open, he might be able to get back in there and find his partner.

  Too late. A shadowy figure opened the driver's door and climbed in behind the wheel, slamming the door hard enough to shake the whole vehicle. "Wait!" Jack said, his hand fumbling for the handle.

  "Relax," a girl's voice came from the front seat. She pulled off a full-helmet gas mask and tossed it onto the seat beside her.

  And Jack felt his mouth drop open. "Alison?"

  "You were expecting the tooth fairy?" Alison Kayna countered. "Hang on."

  She keyed the engine, and with a lurch they were off. "Wait a second," Jack protested, trying to get his brain working. If they left Draycos behind, the K'da would be dead in six hours. "We have to—I mean, I wasn't done in there."

  "Trust me—you were done," Alison countered. "Or do you really want to be in there when their air system finishes cleaning out the sopor mist?"

  "No, but—" Jack broke off as something flicked past the corner of his eye. He turned to look just as the end of a whiplike K'da tail brushed against the top of the plastic.

  So that was why the car door had slammed so hard. Most of the sound and vibration had actually been that of a K'da poet-warrior landing on the roof.

  Clever. Now it was time for Jack to be equally clever and get the dragon inside.

  Fortunately, this one was a no-brainer. "Oh, geez," Jack said, fumbling at the window release. "Open the window—quick."

  "What's the matter?" Alison asked, frowning back over her shoulder.

  "I don't feel so good," he said, putting a little grunt on the last word. "Just get it open."

  "Yeah, yeah, right," she said, her shoulder moving as she hit the control.