Dragonback 06 Dragon and Liberator (8 page)

Of course, that had been a month ago. Frost and Neverlin could
easily have changed their plans since then. But Driftline was the only
lead they had.

But Uncle Virge had already laid in an ECHO course. Not for
Driftline, but some obscure planet named Bentre at the edge of Compfrin
space. "Uncle Virge?" Jack asked.

"We'll talk later, Jack lad," the computerized personality said
firmly.

"Whatever," Jack said, catching the cue. Apparently, whatever was
going on, it wasn't something Uncle Virge wanted to discuss in front of
company.

"Meanwhile, we'd be more comfortable in the dayroom," Draycos put
in.

"Good idea," Harper said, turning and working his way out of the
cockpit. "I'm looking forward to hearing your story."

"I'm sure you are," Jack said, following him out. "Almost as much
as we're looking forward to hearing yours."

Alison had just unwrapped a pair of ration bars when the receiver
she'd set in her ear picked up the sound of a door opening and an
indistinct murmur of human voices. "Hold it," she said softly,
gesturing to Taneem. "We've got company."

The K'da stepped to her side, pressing her ear to Alison's just as
the muttering voices began to resolve into words. "—
hell
were
they thinking?" Neverlin was snarling.

"What do you want me to say?" Frost bit back, sounding every bit
as angry as Neverlin. "This isn't a field operation with enemies just
across the mortar zone, where you double- and triple-check everything.
This is supposed to be a secure operations base. You get an order, you
assume it's legit."

"An order to abandon your post?" Neverlin countered acidly. "An
order to leave a guard station unmanned? Maybe your troops need to hear
a lecture on basic security technique."

"Trust me," Frost said darkly. "They'll
definitely
be
hearing a lecture."

There was a soft thump, the sound of flesh slapping against metal.
"Well, at least he didn't get it open," Neverlin muttered.

"How do you know?" Frost countered. "Kayna got
hers
open
without blowing off the door. How do you know Mrishpaw didn't use the
same trick she did?"

"I
don't
know," Neverlin said. "But I intend to find out."

The voices fell silent. "Mrishpaw?" Taneem asked quietly.

"That was the other order I logged from Neverlin's office," Alison
told her. "I sent a message to Mrishpaw to report to Frost at the aft
sensor room. Naturally, Frost wasn't there."

"But why do they suspect him of trying to get into the safe?"
Taneem asked. "They must realize both orders were false."

"And they also realize both were for the same purpose," Alison
agreed. "But their assumption will be that someone wanted to sneak
into
the office, not out of it."

"But Mrishpaw went to the aft sensor room, not the office," Taneem
said, clearly still confused.

"Yes, he did," Alison agreed. "But since most of the rest of the
ship was asleep, probably no one saw him. That makes it his word
against Neverlin's suspicions."

"Suspicions of one who is an ally."

"True, but remember these people are allies purely from common
interest," Alison reminded her. "They don't especially even like each
other. They certainly don't trust each other."

"Ah—Mrishpaw," Neverlin said. "Come in. No, no—over here, by the
safe."

The hidden needle picked up the thud of Brummgan footsteps
crossing the room. "I must congratulate you," Neverlin went on. "You
and the Patri Chookoock both. You must have seen something Kayna did
when she opened that other safe. Something the rest of us missed."

"Sir?" Mrishpaw asked. Brummgan voices were hard to read, but
Alison had no trouble hearing the bewilderment in this one.

"The safe, Mrishpaw," Neverlin said. Another slapping of flesh on
metal. "Tell me, how exactly did you get it open?"

"Sir?" Mrishpaw asked again. With his molasses mind in a swirl of
confusion, he was clearly having trouble coming up with anything new to
say.

"You can drop the innocent act, Private," Frost said tartly. "You
know, Mr. Neverlin, it's just occurred to me that the only really solid
report we have of Morgan's K'da being on the Chookoock estate also came
from Private Mrishpaw. Yet we know now that both Morgan
and
his
K'da were actually on Semaline at the time."

"No," Mrishpaw protested, finally finding his tongue or his brain
or both. "It was on the estate. It attacked Sergeant Dumbarton and me."

"So you reported," Frost said. "However, Sergeant Dumbarton
himself doesn't remember seeing anything but a blur."

"It attacked other guards, too," Mrishpaw said, sounding puzzled.
"The ones who fought the slave riot. They saw it, too."

"Oh yes—the big impressive K'da warrior attack," Neverlin said
contemptuously. "Leaving—let me see—three Brummgas knocked unconscious,
none dead, and the rest escaped without so much as a scratch. Must have
been his day off."

"
Panjan
Gazen was also killed," Mrishpaw said. His
confusion was starting to edge into alarm now as he finally saw where
the conversation was going.

"By slaves armed with sticks," Neverlin said contemptuously. "The
fact is that every report of a K'da being on Brum-a-dum came from you
or one of the Patri Chookoock's other people."

"You're here, Private," Frost said. "The Patri Chookoock is a long
ways away, where he can't hear. If you have anything to say, this is
the time to say it."

"
Panjan
Gazen was also killed," Mrishpaw repeated, sounding
thoroughly miserable. He was being railroaded, and he knew it. But he
was all muscle and stamina, and he couldn't think of anything to say in
his defense.

Alison could almost feel sorry for him. But then she thought back
to the Chookoock estate, and how Mrishpaw had accepted without protest
Frost's order to kill her in cold blood, and her sympathy faded away.

"Very well," Frost said. "Pending further investigation, you're
confined to quarters. Dismissed."

Again there was the thud of Brummgan footsteps across the office
floor, followed by the sound of a closing door. "Unless you'd prefer I
have him executed?" Frost asked.

"I don't know," Neverlin said. During the confrontation there had
been no hint of hesitation in his voice. Now, though, Alison could
detect both doubt and suspicion. "In point of fact, we don't actually
know
the K'da was on Semaline with Morgan. We only have Langston's statement
on that."

"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?"

Neverlin snorted gently. "The original plan was to swing by Bentre
after I'd dropped you and your men off at Driftline and have the
Brummgas collect the ships and fly them to Point Two. Now, with this
Mrishpaw thing, I may not want all of your men leaving my ship just
now."

Alison pricked up her ears. Point Two. The ambush location?

"Don't worry, we won't need to use anyone from the
Advocates
Diaboli
," Frost said. "I've already sent a group of my fighter
pilots to Bentre in one of the other shuttles."

"Have you, now," Neverlin said, and there was a sudden edge of
caution in his voice. "And they're already on their way?"

"If not, they will be soon," Frost said. "They were to leave as
soon as the troop carrier signaled that it was safely on its way to
Point One. They should reach Bentre in four days, at which point
they'll pick up the 29s and fly them directly to Point Two."

"Yes," Neverlin murmured. "That should make everything so much
more convenient."

"Meanwhile, Sergeant Chapman and a team are on their way to
Driftline to see about those Rhino-10s," Frost continued. "By the time
we're ready to move to Point Three, we should have all the ships we
need."

Alison grimaced. So much for Point Two being the end of the line.

"Excellent," Neverlin murmured. "You do still mean
we
,
correct?"

Frost chuckled. "Relax, Mr. Neverlin," he said. "As you said, we
need all of us to make this work."

"I'm relieved to hear it," Neverlin said, back on balance again.
"Langston isn't with either raiding party, is he?"

"Don't worry," Frost assured him grimly. "He's at Point One
getting drilled in proper Malison Ring combat technique." He paused,
and Alison could imagine his thin smile. "And he's under the impression
that Point Two is the actual rendezvous point. If he
does
have
a knife up his sleeve, whoever he tries to call will show up in the
wrong place."

"Let's just make sure he doesn't have a chance to make any such
calls," Neverlin said.

"No problem," Frost said. "I've got him aboard the
Foxwolf
.
No InterWorld transmitter
there
."

Neverlin grunted. "As far as we know."

"The Valahgua supposedly know what their enemies' long-range
transmitters look like," Frost reminded him.