Dragon and Liberator

"I was thinking the same thing," Frost agreed slowly. "On the other hand, those false orders definitely came from somewhere inside the Advocatus Diaboli. Langston isn't here. Mrishpaw is."

"Mrishpaw and eleven other Chookoock family Brummgas," Neverlin rumbled. "By the way, speaking of Morgan, it seems he's slipped through our fingers again."

"What?" Frost demanded. "You said the police had picked him up."

"They did, and were holding him as ordered," Neverlin said grimly. "Unfortunately, someone calling himself Springer showed up at the Chookoock estate claiming to be one of my men. He convinced the Patri that Morgan and the K'da were already working on escape and volunteered to take a couple of Brummgas to the station and get them out."

Frost swore under his breath. "Idiot. Why didn't he check with you first?"

"Springer apparently had him convinced that Morgan was already halfway to the jail block door and there wasn't time," Neverlin said. "The Patri decided instead he could check with me while the others went off to fetch the prisoners."

"And?"

"Suffice it to say the police station now has a brand-new hole in the tenth-floor wall, three dead Chookoock soldiers, and one prisoner and one visitor unaccounted for."

"How convenient for Morgan," Frost said. "You think the Patri might have deliberately helped him to escape?"

"One would hope the Patri is smart enough to know what it would mean to try changing sides at this late date," Neverlin said contemptuously. "No, I think he simply got conned by this Springer character. I'm leaning toward him being someone sent by your friend General Davi to retest the waters."

"One would hope General Davi is smart enough to leave well enough alone," Frost growled. But Alison could hear the half-hidden discomfort in his voice. "More likely he's one of Braxton's people, still trying to track you down. That, or else the Internos government has finally started to take notice of all this."

"Fortunately, whoever he is, he's hitting the curve too late to stop us," Neverlin said. "And whatever he wants with Morgan, getting three of the Patri's soldiers dead in the process will now have bought him a great deal of additional trouble."

"Unless it was the K'da who killed them, not Springer," Frost pointed out.

"I doubt the Patri will really care about such details," Neverlin pointed out. "Besides, as I said, he's far too late to stop us."

"Maybe Springer can't," Frost warned. "I'm not so sure about the Patri. If he gets it into his slow-motion brain that Springer was one of us, there to pull some kind of bizarre double cross, he might decide to retaliate."

"With his men already here and out of communication with him?" Neverlin countered scornfully. "That would be a neat trick."

"On the other hand, double crosses can come in all sorts of odd flavors," Frost said, a subtle change in his voice. "They might even involve, oh, say, a set of twelve Compfrin KK-29 patrol ships."

There was a short, dark silence. "Very good, Colonel," Neverlin said at last. The words were calm enough, but there was something in his tone that sent a shiver up Alison's back. "But let's not overstep the dramatics. Ever since the raid on the Chookoock estate you're no longer flying beneath the Malison Ring's radar. I felt it might be unacceptably dangerous for your men to go to Driftline as originally planned for those Rhino-10s. I therefore went ahead and set up a backup plan, just in case."

"Nice speech," Frost complimented him. "Very believable. Unfortunately for you, I happen to know that this particular backup plan was made long before the Malison Ring had ever even heard of the Chookoock family."

There was another short silence. "I see," Neverlin said, his voice still calm. "So you gave Kayna a little safecracking practice on the way to Brum-a-dum."

"I thought it would be a good idea to give her skills a real test before I brought her in front of you and the Patri," Frost said. "Imagine my surprise when I discovered that bill of sale among your private papers."

"Imagine," Neverlin agreed politely. "But as I said, it was a backup plan."

"Was it?" Frost countered. "Or was the plan to abandon me and my men on Driftline and do the job on the refugee fleet without us? Leaving us to face General Davi's tender mercies?"

"You're here for your tactical abilities, Colonel," Neverlin said coldly. "I suggest you start proving you have some. Do you really think I'm foolish enough to tackle an armed fleet with nothing but a handful of KK-29s and a ship full of Brummgas?"

"And your tame Valahgua and their Death weapons."

"Even with them we need everything we have, and everything more that we can get," Neverlin assured him. "I trust you'll remember that."

"I remember it just fine," Frost said. "I just wanted to make sure you did, too. What was your plan for retrieving the 29s?"