Dragon and Liberator

"Oh, I'll take it easy," Chiggers said. "I'll take it plenty easy. Drop the weapon and kick it down the corridor to your right."

Jack obeyed. "Now put your hands on top of your head," Chiggers ordered. "Fingers laced together."

"Yeah, yeah, I know the drill," Jack said, again doing as he was told. "I don't suppose we might be able to come to some agreement?"

"The only agreement I'm interested in is you dead and me rich," Chiggers said. "Where's that frunging dragon? Dragon? Show yourself—right now—or I kill him."

"I'm here," Draycos said, lifting the top of his head over the back of Jack's collar. "Don't shoot."

"I would if I had any sense," Chiggers muttered. "All right. Keep going—straight ahead—face to the wall. Back on his skin, dragon. All the way on. I so much as see your nose and he's dead."

Move all the way to the wall, Draycos's thought whispered into Jack's mind.

Way ahead of you, buddy, Jack assured him. He took two long steps forward to the far side of the corridor and leaned against the wall, pressing his chest firmly to the cold metal.

And with a flicker of sensation, Draycos leaned off his skin and fell over the wall.

"This ought to look really good on your service record," Jack commented, speaking loudly enough to cover any sound the K'da might make as he landed on the concrete floor below. "Neverlin and Frost have both tried to nail me and neither of them even came close."

"Yeah, and I'll bet you tried to talk them to death, too," Chiggers growled. The patrol ship vibrated slightly with the other's footsteps as he strode the rest of the way up the ramp and stepped through the hatchway. "What we're going to do—"

Abruptly, there was a hollow-sounding thud, followed by a sort of crumpling sound. "All right, Jack," Draycos said.

Jack turned around. Chiggers was sprawled half inside the airlock, unconscious. He was wearing a Malison Ring flight suit, though with the helmet still off. A large and unpleasant-looking gun lay on the deck near his right hand. "Nice job, symby," Jack said, stepping over and retrieving the weapon. "Too bad, though. I was looking forward to hearing how he thought he could put a K'da poet-warrior out of action without killing him."

"Perhaps keeping me alive was never part of his plan," Draycos said.

"Probably not," Jack conceded. Stuffing Chiggers's gun into his belt, he retrieved his tangler and peered aft down the corridor. "So if that noise isn't him working on the leak, what is it?"

"Obviously, some sort of bait," Draycos said. "Hence the unusual rhythm I noticed earlier. He must have become suspicious of my sabotage and decided to lie in wait to see if anyone came calling."

"And we walked right into it," Jack said, feeling his cheeks warming. Uncle Virgil had warned him over and over about both sloppiness and overconfidence. "If it hadn't been for your jump-the-wall trick, we'd have been up the creek for sure."

"We wouldn't have been there for long," Draycos said, his voice dark. "Still, without the trick I would probably have been forced to kill him."

"Lucky Chiggers," Jack murmured. Draycos was so civilized and pleasant most of the time that the boy sometimes forgot the sheer raw power that lay beneath those red-edged golden scales. "Let's get to the cockpit and see if all this was worth the effort."

It was.

"Here we go," Jack said, peering at the navigational display. "It's even called Point Two, in fact. It's out past Trintonias, about a two-day trip from your new home on Iota Klestis."

"If that will, in fact, be our new home," Draycos said.

Jack grimaced. Iota Klestis was probably still owned by the Triost Mining Group, which was itself owned by Braxton Universis. If Harper's appearance on Brum-a-dum meant that Braxton had now become a part of Neverlin's conspiracy, the K'da and Shontine would probably have to hunt up a new place to move into.

Assuming the refugees even survived that long. "We'll make it work," Jack told Draycos firmly. "Anyway, it's about a four-day trip from here. We'd better grab some supplies and get moving."

"Supplies?" Draycos asked, his tail curving in a frown.

"Didn't I tell you?" Jack asked. "We're taking the ship and heading to Point Two."

Draycos's neck arched. "We're what?"

"Well, we're sure not taking the Essenay into Neverlin's hornet's nest," Jack pointed out. "How did you think we were going to get there?"

"I assumed we would now try to make a deal with Harper and Braxton."

"I don't trust Harper," Jack said flatly. "Or Braxton."

"I believe Braxton to be trustworthy," Draycos said, a bit hesitantly. "From comments Alison has made, I gather she also has no reason to distrust him."

"Well, cheers for Alison," Jack said. "If it comes to that, I don't necessarily trust her, either. She and I might be on the same side at the moment, but she's not leveling with us. Not completely."