Dragonback 06 Dragon and Liberator (5 page)

She'd already opened the safe once, which theoretically meant she
already had the combination. But there was always the chance that
Neverlin had changed it since then.

Anyway, it wasn't as if she didn't have a few minutes to spare.
Pulling out her burglar's tools, she got to work.

It was just as well she'd checked. Neverlin had indeed changed the
combination. Using her MixStar computer to track down the new sequence,
she got the safe open.

Inside was a two-inch-thick stack of papers, plus half a dozen
data tubes. Setting the data tubes aside, knowing they were probably
encrypted, Alison pulled out the papers and set them on her lap. With
her light clipped to her shirt collar, she started going through them,
wondering which one had caught Frost's attention.

Five pages from the top, she found it.

She had finished looking at the papers, and was going through the
desk's drawers, when Taneem returned.

"The ship is very quiet," the K'da said after Alison had helped
her back through the opening. "I saw only two humans seated in the main
control rooms."

"The bridge," Alison identified it. "Probably Neverlin's
night-shift crew. Any passengers out and about?"

"The ducts carry the smell of many Brummgas," Taneem said, a brief
shiver running through her. "I think there are also a few other humans."

"Frost and some of his men," Alison said. "At least now we know
where we stand. Which is more than Frost can say right now."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I found out why he was almost on my side for a while
during our little vacation on Brum-a-dum." Alison held up the
interesting paper she'd found. "I helped him find out that Neverlin's
trying to do an end run around him."

"What's an end run?"

"Actually, in this case it's more of a double cross," Alison said.
"Remember that we figured out earlier how Neverlin was going to get the
ships he needed for his attack? That Frost was going to steal them from
one of the planets where the Malison Ring is fighting one of their
wars?"

"Yes," Taneem said. "Only it was
you
who figured that out,
not
us
."

"Oh," Alison said, momentarily thrown off-track. "Yes, I suppose
it was. But it doesn't really matter who came up with the idea."

"Yes, it does," Taneem said, a bit primly. "Draycos says a person
must always give proper credit for cleverness and resourceful thinking.
Especially if that same person is equally quick to assign blame."

Alison grimaced. "Let me guess. Jack was grousing again about me
opening the other safe for Neverlin?"

"Actually, at the time I believe they were discussing your plan
for getting through Frost's security cordon into the Chookoock hangar
back at the Ponocce Spaceport," Taneem said. "Jack thought your Trojan
Horse idea was very clever."

Alison felt her eyebrows crawling up her forehead. "
Jack
actually paid me a
compliment
?"

"And Draycos agreed." Taneem twitched her tail. "Is that so hard
to believe?"

"From Draycos, no," Alison said. "From Jack, yes. But never mind
that." She tapped the paper. "The point is that Neverlin has contracted
with a Compfrin company to buy a dozen surplus KK-29 system patrol
ships."

"Those are fighting craft?"

"Very much so," Alison said. "Probably not as powerful as the
ships Frost could get from a Malison Ring base. But they'll be plenty
good enough."

"Draycos has told me that the refugee ships are well armed."

"Which won't matter a twig against the Valahgua's Death weapon,
will it?" Alison countered. "Which is why Neverlin can get away with a
relatively small attack force. All he needs is to keep the defenders
busy while the ships carrying the Death slip inside the perimeter and
start killing everyone."

Taneem's eyes flicked around the room. "Do you think any of the
Death weapons might be aboard this ship?"

"I'd sure keep one close to hand if
I
was Neverlin,"
Alison said. "You didn't happen to smell anything besides humans and
Brummgas, did you?"

"I don't think so," Taneem said. "But there were cooking aromas
that might have disguised other scents."

"And of course, you don't know what a Valahgua smells like,"
Alison pointed out. "Well, we can look into that later. In the
meantime, we've got work to do."

"Finding a way out of here?"

"Actually, that shouldn't be a problem," Alison assured her. "I
was referring to the need to share this little news flash with Jack and
Draycos."

"How do we do that?"

"You'll see." Putting the papers and data tubes back in the safe,
Alison resealed the door. "Come on—the link's in the other room."

The
Advocatus Diaboli
's InterWorld transmitter, she found
as she settled into the nook's comfortable armchair, was already set on
standby. Either someone had been sending or receiving messages earlier
or else someone was planning to do so in the near future.

Either could mean there was someone paying attention to the
bridge's InterWorld control station. If so, that someone might notice a
transmission coming from a supposedly empty office, and wonder about it.

But they would just have to risk that. The longer she and Taneem
sat here in Neverlin's office, the greater the chance someone would
accidentally stumble over them.

It was the work of only a minute to key in the
Essenay
's
own InterWorld frequency and pattern information. Mentally crossing her
fingers, she tapped the microphone switch. "Jack?" she called softly.
"Come on, kiddo; look alive."

"Alison?" Uncle Virge's voice came back. "This is a relief, lass.
Where are you?"

"Aboard the
Advocatus Diaboli
," Alison said. "And we don't
really have time for chitchat."

"Understood," Uncle Virge said. "First things first. Did you get
the rendezvous location?"

"I have the data diamonds," Alison said. "Unfortunately, the K'da
reader Jack brought back from the
Havenseeker
is still on your
side of the universe."

"Neverlin must have one of his own."

"Which isn't anywhere in his office," Alison said. "Either it's in
one of the other shipboard safes or else he's carrying it with him.
I'll try to get my hands on it, but I'm not too hopeful."

Uncle Virge muttered something under his breath. "In other words,
we've got to find a way to get you out of there."

"You don't have to sound so unhappy about it," Alison said archly.
"But that's not why I called. Tell Jack to haul his carcass out of
bed—I need to talk to him."

"Jack's not here," Uncle Virge said grimly. "He wrecked his car
getting back to my part of the spaceport."

Taneem gave a little gasp, her breath briefly warming the back of
Alison's neck. "Are they all right?" Alison asked.

"They're fine," Uncle Virge said. "But before they could get away
from the scene, Jack was arrested for car theft."

Alison wrinkled her nose in disgust. She'd begged Jack to simply
buy the stupid vehicle in the first place and be done with it. But he'd
said that would be too expensive, and that the paperwork would take too
long anyway.

She should have argued harder. Too late now. "Can you get him out?"

"I can't exactly show up at the jail with bail money," Uncle Virge
said huffily. "And he hasn't tried to contact me."

"Probably doesn't have enough privacy to get to his spare comm
clip," Alison said. "I guess he and Draycos will have to figure it out
on their own. In the meantime, take a message for him."

She relayed the information about Neverlin's private collection of
patrol ships. "I don't know when he's planning to send crews to pick
them up," she finished. "But if Jack can get to the depot on Bentre
before that, maybe he can do something."

"Such as?"

"Such as making sure Neverlin doesn't get them," Alison said
patiently. "Now that the Malison Ring has been alerted to the fact that
something fishy is going on with Frost, he shouldn't be able to just
waltz into one of their bases and commandeer a large number of their
ships. If we can also deep-six these KK-29s, Neverlin should find
himself in a bind."

"He'll still have the Valahgua and their weapons."

"Sure, but the fewer ships he has to throw at the refugee fleet,
the better the chances the K'da and Shontine will be able to paste all
of them before they get close enough to use the Death."

"I don't know," Uncle Virge said doubtfully. "I'm thinking about
the three hundred Brummgas Neverlin's already shipped off Brum-a-dum.
Even fully crewed, a dozen KK-29s won't carry more than seventy-two of
them. Either he's
very
confident that Frost can grab more ships
or else he has those extra ships already stashed away somewhere."

"We
do
know he's got several Djinn-90s," Alison pointed
out.

"Which are single-seat fighters," Uncle Virge countered.
"Three-seaters if you throw in the optional gunner and observer. He
can't
have enough of those to need three hundred Brummgas."

Alison scratched her cheek. Unfortunately, he had a point. "I'll
see what I can find out about that," she said. "In the meantime, you
and Jack see what you can do about those KK-29s, all right?"

"I'll give him the message," Uncle Virge said heavily. "Provided
he gets out of jail before they fly."

"If he doesn't, Taneem and I will just have to deal with them,"
Alison said. "I've got to go.
Don't
try to call me here."

"Thanks, I
had
figured that part out," Uncle Virge said
sardonically. "Take care of yourself, lass. You
and
Taneem."

"I will. Good luck."

She keyed off the microphone. "Do you truly believe you and I can
handle all this by ourselves?" Taneem asked.

"What, you mean that thing at the end?" Alison asked. "No, of
course not. That was just for Jack's benefit. Sometimes the best way to
get someone on the job is to hint that he can't do it."

"That seems rather . . . I don't know the word."

Alison sighed. "The word is
cynical
," she said. "Or maybe
manipulative
."

"You
can
change," Taneem reminded her quietly. "All people
have that capability."

"I know." Reaching down, Alison scratched Taneem briefly behind
her ears. "But to tell you the truth, I kind of like myself just the
way I am. Go back out to the main office and listen at the door, will
you, while I close down here?"

Taneem nodded and trotted back out of the nook. Alison leaned over
to close the door between them, then quickly reset the transmitter's
frequency.

The man waiting at the other end of the connection picked up
instantly. With the word
manipulative
running through her mind,
Alison launched into the report she hadn't wanted Taneem to hear.

Fortunately, this one was much shorter than the conversation with
Uncle Virge had been. Within a minute she was finished and had signed
off. Resetting the controls to their original positions, she rejoined
Taneem in the main office.

The K'da was by the door, her ear leaned against it. "Any change?"
Alison called softy as she sat down at Neverlin's desk.

Taneem shook her head as she moved away from the door. "Both
guards are still there," she said, coming to Alison's side. "You have a
plan?"

"I do," Alison said as she keyed on the desk computer terminal.
The system was code-locked, of course, but Alison had her own version
of Jack's sewer-rat technique for getting into uncooperative computers.
"The trick with military organizations like this is to know how things
get done," she continued. "The key is that every order goes through at
least two levels of command before it gets where it's supposed to go."

"Even in a group this small?"

"Even here," Alison assured her. The mole program did its work,
and the menu came up. Scrolling down the assignment roster, she found
that the two guards currently standing outside the office door were a
human named Rennie and a Brummga named Grisfel.

"What I'm doing now is issuing a new set of orders to the night
duty officer," she explained as she typed. "I'm telling him to send our
guards out there to the main conference room for a brief consultation
with Colonel Frost."

Taneem was silent a moment. "But surely they'll quickly discover
the orders are false."

"Of course they will," Alison said. "But they won't be able to
trace which of the ship's computers sent the message." She smiled
grimly as she added a second order to the list. "And you might be
surprised how easily suspicious minds like Neverlin's and Frost's can
be nudged in the wrong direction."

She logged both orders and shut down the computer. "Come on
aboard," she said, holding out her hand. "One last job and we'll be
ready to go."

Selecting the largest and longest-range needle transmitter from
her sewing kit, she slid it into the carpet beside one of the desk
legs, out of the normal traffic pattern, the way her father had taught
her. The carpet wasn't thick enough to hide the needle completely, but
no one was likely to see it unless he was specifically looking for it.

Then, making sure she hadn't left behind any other trace of her
presence, she stepped to the door and set her burglar's pickup
microphone against the panel.

Frost's mercenaries were nothing if not efficient. Barely two
minutes later she heard a faint comm clip voice from outside the
office. There was a short, half-heard conversation, followed by a quiet
order to the guard's companion.

Followed by the sound of two sets of footsteps moving away down
the corridor.

"Is that it?" Taneem murmured from Alison's shoulder when the
footsteps had faded into silence.

"That's it," Alison said. Steeling herself, she opened the door.