Dragon and Liberator

We have no choice, Draycos said firmly. They're too widely separated for an attack. Stay calm and watch for an opportunity.

Jack had been trying to keep his swirl of emotion out of his face. But Harper wasn't fooled. "Relax," he said, smiling faintly. "There's still a chance you can walk away from this with your life. I understand you know a young lady named Alison Kayna."

For a split second Jack thought about denying it. But there didn't seem to be much point to that. "We've chatted once or twice," he admitted.

"That's good," Harper said. "Because the Patri Chookoock is even more annoyed with her than he is with you."

"Yeah, I'm not surprised," Jack said. The comm clip pressed against the waistband of his jeans, and he pulled in his stomach a little to let Draycos keep it moving.

"Ah, so you know about her little rampage through his estate," Harper said. "Excellent. That means you've been in contact with her since then. Tell us where she is and you can go free."

Briefly, Jack wondered what Harper's reaction would be if he told him Alison was settled in somewhere aboard the Advocatus Diaboli. "Hard to say," Jack told him instead. "The girl's always on the move."

Harper's smile hardened a little. "But you would be willing to help us find her?"

"Well, she's not in here," Jack said, half-turning both directions as if checking the room's corners behind him. The movement, he hoped, would hide the slight rippling of his shirt as Draycos slid the comm clip the rest of the way to his neck and attached it to the inside of his collar. "Afraid I can't help you look anywhere else just now."

"I think we can fix that," Harper assured him. "In about fifteen minutes a private shuttle will land on the roof of this building. You, I, and our three friends will take the elevator up there, get in, and take a ride to the Chookoock estate."

His face hardened. "Where you'll tell us everything the Patri Chookoock wants to know. One way or another. Guaranteed." Stay calm, Jack, Draycos said again.

Jack took a deep breath. He'd had all he could take from the Chookoock family during the month he'd been their slave. And most of that had been just their casual day-to-day cruelty, the sort they would inflict on any of the helpless beings under their control. The thought of the kind of focused torture Harper was hinting at chilled him straight to the bone.

But Draycos was right. Panic would gain him nothing but a frozen brain.

Besides, even if Harper knew about Draycos, he'd never seen just what a poet-warrior of the K'da could do. That might give them the edge they would need.

In the meantime, Jack had fifteen minutes before the shuttle arrived. Maybe he could put the time to some use. "I'm sure we can come to some arrangement," he told Harper. "So tell me. How long have you been working for Mr. Neverlin?"

"Let's talk about you instead," Harper said. "How long have you—?"

"Because I'd have thought that after the Star of Wonder fiasco Braxton would go over his whole staff with a laser slicer," Jack interrupted. "How did you get missed? Or are we talking a brand-new alliance?"

"We know you were on Iota Klestis during the attack on the K'da/Shontine advance force," Harper said, ignoring the question. "What we don't know is how you learned about it far enough in advance—"

"What new alliance?" one of the Brummgas rumbled.

Harper frowned up at him. "What?"

"It said there was new alliance," the Brummga said, gesturing toward Jack with his gun. "What did it mean?"

"He was talking nonsense," Harper said. "The only alliance is the one we're already part of."

"It also spoke of Braxton," one of the other Brummgas said.

And suddenly two of the three guns that had been pointed at Jack were pointed at Harper instead.

"Are you insane?" Harper demanded, his voice low and ominous as he looked up at them. "Do you have any idea who I am?"

"We know who you claim," the first Brummga said. From Jack's comm clip came a soft murmur, too soft for Jack to understand. "Maybe you should be more closely asked at."

Jack, get ready to roll off the chair to your right, Draycos's thought came urgently. Steady . . . now!

Jack fell to his right, dropping sideways to land flat on the floor. He caught a glimpse of Harper and the Brummgas turning sharply to look at him.

And with a thunderous explosion, the window disintegrated.

Go!

Jack climbed unsteadily back to his feet, blinking back the swirling dust now filling the room. Through the ringing in his ears, he could hear Uncle Virge's voice shouting faintly from inside his shirt. "Come on, lad! Hurry!"

Jack looked toward the side wall. Where the window had been was now a gaping hole. Beyond the hole, hovering on its lifters with its ramp gesturing invitingly, was the Essenay.

"Hurry, lad," Uncle Virge said again. "They'll be on us anytime."