Dragonback 06 Dragon and Liberator

  He smiled tightly. And what none of them know is that you can fall over that wall any time you want to.

  Yes, Draycos agreed thoughtfully. So Alison is indeed still on our side.

  Never doubted it for a minute, Jack said. The only question now is when exactly we want to make our move.

  Not soon, I'm afraid, Draycos said. We don't know how many crew are aboard, or the deck plan, or what sort of flight and combat capabilities the ship has.

  And we're not likely to get any of that, either, Jack said with a grimace. Unless you go on a little search on your own. But there's no way you'd be able to get back in here without them knowing something had happened.

  Then I'm afraid our best strategy will be to wait until the operation has begun, Draycos said. That may mean some of my people will die, but we'll need the chaos and distraction to take over the ship.

  And if it turns out the blasted thing can't fight, we won't be able to do anyone any good, Jack said heavily. But I suppose you're right. I just hope we'll know when—

  Shh! Draycos cut him off. Do you feel that?

  Jack frowned. There was an odd vibration rumbling through the deck beneath his feet. He cocked his head, trying to listen.

  And suddenly, he got it. It's a dual-stage ECHO system coming up to speed, he told Draycos. That's the kind that's used in some larger military ships.

  I see, Draycos said, suddenly thoughtful. So that's why Neverlin didn't seem worried about us escaping on the flight from the Gatekeeper to the Advocatus Diaboli.

  Because we weren't actually at the rendezvous point, Jack said, nodding as he understood. Guy's full of tricks, isn't he?

  Circles within circles, wheels within wheels, Draycos agreed. Still, it's often the case that a clever man outsmarts himself.

  Let's hope Neverlin's one of those, Jack agreed. So what do we do until your people arrive?

  We do what surveillance we can, Draycos said. Your back to the wall please. I'd like to spend some time studying the preparation room behind us.

  CHAPTER 24

  The latest trip had been made, this one much shorter than the previous ones. Though there were two men on duty on the bridge, most of the rest of the Advocatus Diaboli's crew and passengers seemed to have retired to their staterooms for ship's night.

  But not Neverlin, Frost, or Alison. The three of them were still in Neverlin's office. The two men seemed to still have a lot of questions for Alison concerning her father, General Davi, and his work.

  Watching them through the ventilation grille, Taneem wondered what it would be like to die.

  She didn't know. But she would soon find out. The end of her time limit was rapidly approaching, when she needed to go two-dimensional on a host's body or disappear into death.

  But she had no host. Jack had been taken off somewhere and hadn't returned. Langston had been refused permission to come aboard the Advocatus Diaboli to pick up some specialized tools.

  And Alison was with Neverlin and Frost, with no sign that their conversation would be ending any time soon.

  Silently, Taneem backed away from the grille and set off through the Advocatus Diaboli's maze of air ducts. She did't really have any place to go, but she couldn't bear to stay by Neverlin's office any longer.

  She didn't want to die within sight of her host, the human girl she'd grown to know and love over the two short months they'd been together.

  The ducts were vibrant with an ever-shifting mix of aromas. The smell of human and Valahguan bodies combined with a blend of cooking and engine lubricant and a dozen other scents. She sniffed at the air as she worked her way through the ducts, wondering if it all smelled richer now than it had earlier. Draycos had told her of legends that said K'da senses grew sharper as death approached. But she couldn't tell if that was happening or not.

  And then, suddenly, one particular aroma seemed to leap out at her from the mixture. A very individual, very familiar human scent.

  Harper.

  She frowned, looking around her. Sure enough, her aimless wanderings had brought her to the part of the ship where Harper had been locked up. With nowhere else to go, she headed for the duct that would take her by his stateroom. Reaching the junction, she turned the corner.

  And stopped short. Five paces ahead was the opening that led into Harper's room.

  Only the grille was no longer fastened the way it was supposed to be. It was instead hanging at an angle, held in place by a single corner bolt.

  Cautiously, Taneem moved forward. Had he been putting more items into the duct and been caught? But he was still in the room—the scent whispering past her snout and tongue showed that much. She reached the duct and eased an eye around the corner.

  Harper was there, all right. He was lying on his side in his bed, the blanket pulled up to his shoulders, his right arm half tucked beneath his pillow.

  His bare right arm . . .

  It was insane, Taneem knew. Completely insane. Even if Harper managed to sleep through it, he would spot her as soon as he opened his eyes.

  But if she waited here, she was dead.

  She had nothing at all to lose.

  Keeping her eyes on Harper, she eased around the edge of the hanging grille and dropped into the room. There was no reaction. Padding over to the bed, she gingerly touched his forearm and slid up onto his skin.

  It was like the first sip of cold water from a mountain-fed stream after hours of wandering through the forest with nothing but warm and stagnant tree stump water to drink. Taneem closed her eyes, feeling the tension and fear and hopelessness draining out of her as peace and strength flowed in to take its place.

  Yes, this would work. An hour on Harper's skin and she could go back for another six hours in the ducts. Surely before those hours were up Neverlin and Frost would tire of asking their questions and send Alison off to her own room to sleep.

  She would just have to make sure she was gone before Harper woke up. Easy enough to do. Readjusting herself on the man's skin, she settled down to wait.

  Ten minutes later, she was fast asleep.

  She awoke with a start, her heart thudding with the awful feeling that something was wrong.

  It was dark, for one thing. Darker than it had been when she'd come into Harper's room.

  And then, to her relief, she understood. While she'd been asleep Harper had merely pulled the blankets all the way up over his shoulders. Carefully, stealthily, she shifted around on his skin, trying t0 find a place where she could see the clock by the side of the bed.

  "Good morning," Harper said softly.

  Taneem froze. Had he been talking to her? Or was there someone else in the room?

  She flicked her tongue out a bit. Aside from her and Harper, the room was empty.

  "Come on; I know you're awake," Harper went on in the same quiet voice. "Cat got your tongue?" With a sweep of his arm, he flung back the blankets.

  And to her horror, Taneem found herself looking up at his fully awake face.

  She reacted instantly, hurling herself backward off his skin and landing in a crouch on the deck past the end of the bed. She glanced up at the grille, preparing to leap into the opening and escape.

  Only the grille was no longer hanging by a single bolt. It was back in its proper place, secured at all four corners.

  "You must really have been tired," Harper commented. He'd made no move to follow her, but was still lying in bed propped up on one elbow. "You didn't even wake up when I put the grille back."

  With an effort, Taneem found her voice. "What do you want?" she asked. She had hoped to sound as strong and commanding as Draycos, but the words came out sounding merely weak and scared.

  "I want to help you," Harper said. "Why do you think I left the back door open for you in the first place?"

  Taneem flicked another glance at the grille. "Was it a back door? Or was it a trap?"

  "You've been here for over five hours," Harper pointed out. "If I wanted to turn you over to Neverlin, I could have done so lo
ng before now."

  It all seemed reasonable, Taneem had to admit. But there was still something odd about it. "Why do you care what happens to me at all?"

  "Lots of reasons," Harper said. "You ever hear the expression 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?"

  "No."

  "Basically, it means that if Neverlin is fighting against both of us, we have some common ground to join forces against him," Harper explained.

  "And against Alison, too?" Taneem asked.

  "You still trust Alison?" Harper countered.

  "She didn't betray me to Neverlin," Taneem said. "I don't know who she is anymore, but I know she's still my friend."

  "Good enough," Harper said, nodding. "And by that same logic, I'm your friend, too."

  Taneem flicked her tongue out, wishing again that she knew how to read human emotions from the changes in their scents. "But you lied to Neverlin," she said. "How do I know you're not lying now?"

  "I don't know how to answer that, Taneem," Harper said, his voice low and earnest. "I can't prove anything I'm telling you. All you have is the fact I didn't turn you over to Neverlin and Frost."

  "That's not very much," Taneem said. "You could just be protecting me so that you can take me back to Braxton Universis with you and learn how to turn my abilities into a weapon. Just like General Davi wants to do."

  "That's not what I want," Harper assured her. "But even if I did, you'd still do better to stay with me. Mr. Braxton is a much better person to deal with than General Davi."

  Taneem flicked her tail in frustration. "I don't know what to do," she whispered. "I don't understand any of this."

  "I know," Harper said sympathetically. "It's a crazy business, keeping up with us humans. All you can do is hold on to the fact that Alison's still your friend, and that I'm your friend, and trust us to protect you as best we can."

  Taneem looked back at the grille. "Maybe I should go and see if Alison's all right."

  "I wouldn't," Harper said. "In fact, I'd stay away from her completely for the next few days. Neverlin's going to be keeping her close from now until the refugee fleet arrives. We don't want him or any of the others spotting you."

  "Whereas no one's going to look at you?"

  Harper smiled. "Exactly," he said. "Sometimes it pays to be a prisoner."

  He pointed toward the small bathroom. "But you should probably go hide in the bathroom for a bit," he said. "They'll be delivering my breakfast soon, and we don't want the delivery boy to see you."

  "Very well," Taneem said, padding toward the door. Suddenly, she realized how long it had been since her last meal. "Is there any chance I might be able to take a little of your food?"

  "Every chance in the galaxy," Harper assured her. "From now on, what's mine is yours."

  He smiled again. "And while we eat," he added, "perhaps you'll tell me more about yourself. And about Jack, and Alison, and Draycos."

  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.

  CHAPTER 25

  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."