Dragon and Liberator

And he was done. That's it, he told Draycos. I flip the switch, and the hyperdrive controls fry. That ought to hold their attention awhile.

Let's hope it's long enough, Draycos said. Moving carefully in the cramped space, he slid out of Jack's sleeve. "I'll signal you when I'm in position," he murmured.

"Watch yourself," Jack warned.

The K'da flicked his tail in acknowledgment as he set off across the crawl space.

Jack watched him go, feeling a frustration that was edging toward despair. Every plan the boy had come up with over the past six days, every scheme he'd hoped to pull, had fallen apart in his hands.

His plan to drug the ship's water supply had come to nothing. There simply weren't enough of the proper chemicals aboard.

His backup plan, to fire a surge through the Death weapons' power lines, had merely ended up popping circuit breakers and getting them chased away again. The Valahgua had responded to that one by taking a bunch of their security cameras from other areas and installing them in the tween gap. By the time the Valahgua finished, all approaches to the two Death weapons were covered.

Draycos's plans hadn't fared much better. He'd tried using the ventilation ducts to approach the weapons, only to discover the Valahgua had tripled the guard. Many of the Brummgas were stationed outside in the corridors, and Draycos had concluded that a surprise attack from the duct would almost certainly succeed.

But with the tween gap now virtually closed to him and Jack, the ventilation system was their only means of traveling invisibly through the ship. With cameras still mounted in the weapons rooms, any attack from the ducts would give that secret away, leaving them nothing. Jack and Draycos had discussed the situation, and decided not to risk that until and unless they were desperate.

Now, with less than an hour before the Foxwolf reached Point Three, they were.

And so Draycos was going to go and try to take out the starboard Death, the one they knew was still operational.

Leaving the one Jack had tried to gimmick when they'd first come aboard. Which, by now. Jack knew, was probably also back to being operational.

He took a careful breath, trying to focus on the positive points. The Valahgua had had four Death weapons to use against the K'da and Shontine refugees. In a few minutes they would have only one. Surely that counted for something.

"Jack?" Draycos's voice came softy from Jack's comm clip. "I'm in the duct. Ten minutes and I should be there."

"Right," Jack said. "Just let me know when you're ready for me to turn their hyperdrive console into toast."

"I will." Draycos paused, and Jack could imagine his jaws cracking open in a grin. "Butter side down, of course."

Despite his gloom, Jack had to smile. "Butter side down," he confirmed.

"And then get out as quickly as you can," Draycos added, going serious again. "I'll meet you back in the recycling room."

"Sure," Jack murmured, his smile fading. Toast, butter side down, had been one of Uncle Virgil's favorite catchphrases.

Uncle Virgil. Virgil Morgan, professional thief, con man, and safecracker. Who had somehow ended up in possession of both Jack and the Essenay after Jack's parents were murdered eleven years ago.

How in the world had that happened?

Jack didn't know. It was possible he would never know. Uncle Virge, the copy of his personality that Uncle Virgil had planted in the Essenay's computer, claimed he had no information about that part of Jack's life.

But Uncle Virge was in control of the Essenay. And despite Jack's instructions, the Essenay had apparently followed him to Point Two and rendezvoused with Neverlin's Advocatus Diaboli.

Neverlin, whose attempted frame-up of Jack for theft and murder had gotten him into this whole thing in the first place. Neverlin, who Jack had only recently discovered had been directly involved with the murder of Jack's parents.

Coincidence? Jack didn't know that, either.

He swallowed against a lump that had suddenly appeared in his throat. It was possible Uncle Virge had betrayed him. Maybe Alison had betrayed him, too. Certainly she wasn't someone he could completely trust.

But he had Draycos.

He could only hope that he could still say that fifteen minutes from now.

As part of their overall plan for the Gatekeeper's air ducts to double as back-door access routes, the ship's designers had made sure that the ventilation grilles would be difficult to see through from inside the rooms. Draycos was therefore able to move silently and invisibly toward his goal.