Dragon and Liberator

"And then we clobber him?"

"Basically," Draycos said. "Once we have the coordinates, it may be time for another talk with Harper."

Jack grimaced. Harper, handcuffed to the bunk in the Essenay's second cabin, had so far been behaving himself. But that didn't mean Jack was ready to trust him. Far from it. "Let's first get the coordinates," he said. "Draycos, go grab me a tangler and holster from the storage room while I put us down."

He landed the Essenay four blocks away, shielded from view by the second of the town's two large buildings. With Draycos riding his skin, he headed out.

A few of the townspeople, all of them Compfrins, were out and about. Two or three of them gave Jack curious glances as he passed.

But no one asked him any questions or complained about his choice of parking spaces. Probably, Jack thought, they figured he was with the other human who had unexpectedly dropped in on them.

Hopefully, none of them would try to be helpful and tell Chiggers his friend had arrived.

There was a small, person-sized entrance on the wall around the corner from the building's main hangar-style doors. It was locked, but Jack had his burglar tools with him and it took him less than a minute to get it open. Holding his tangler ready, he slipped inside.

The building's walls were lined with fine-mesh panels that reached three-quarters of the way up the sides. The floor was heavy concrete, with a crosshatch of grooves that looked like wheel tracks of some kind. Several stacks of small boxes were lined up against the far wall.

The patrol ship filled most of the remaining space. It was sitting nose-in, its entry hatch open and the ramp lowered.

Aha, Draycos's thought came.

Aha what? Jack, asked, looking around. There was no sign of Chiggers anywhere that he could see.

Uncle Virge wondered earlier why a distant settlement like this would have a full-sized hangar, Draycos explained. You can see now that this is in fact a crop storage facility.

Jack looked around. He could see no such thing. I can?

Of course, Draycos said. Those mesh bins folded against the walls can be opened outward to create compartments for grain or vegetables.

With their vertical supports on wheels rolling out along the tracks in the floor, Jack said, nodding as he finally saw it. Well, that's one mystery solved. Good. Clan we get back to the main subject at hand?

He felt a bit of weight on his shoulder as Draycos lifted his jaws and flicked out his tongue. He's definitely here, the K'da said. I can taste his scent.

Jack took a deep breath and readjusted his grip on his tangler. Okay, he said. Let's go get him.

He crossed to the boarding ramp. As he reached the bottom, he heard a faint sound of clinking metal coming from somewhere deep inside the ship. Not only home, but hard at work, he commented, starting up the ramp. You want to hop off now, or wait a little longer?

I think I should wait until we're inside.

Jack stopped just outside the hatch. There'd been something odd in the K'da's tone just then. What's wrong?

I don't know, Draycos replied. That metallic sound seems strange.

Strange how?

I don't know. Too rhythmic, perhaps.

Jack peered into the hatchway. Directly ahead of him was the open inner airlock door, which opened into a narrow corridor leading to the cockpit at the bow and the gun bays and the rest of the ship farther aft. So what do we do?

We go in, the K'da said. Just be careful.

Grimacing, Jack stepped into the airlock. Nothing happened. He took two more steps to the inner airlock door, pausing there to look in both directions down the corridor. No one was visible. You're sure that's Chiggers you're smelling?

I'm positive, Draycos said. The metallic sound seems to be coming from the left.

Carefully, Jack took a step into the corridor and started to turn that direction—

"Move and you're dead," Chiggers said quietly from somewhere behind him.

Jack froze. Draycos?

He's too far back, the K'da said, his tone grim.

Just chill it, then. "I'm not moving," Jack assured the other. "Take it easy, okay?"