by Timothy Zahn
"Do such discussions make you uncomfortable?"
Jack shook his head impatiently. "Can we just skip this?"
"Of course," Draycos said, as if he hadn't been the one who'd brought it up in the first place. "Shall I give you my report on the nighttime patrols?"
"Yeah, sure," Jack said. "Go ahead."
"There are four separate teams," Draycos said. "Two soldiers in each. They pass within view of the main headquarters' entrance approximately once every twenty minutes."
"How regular is that twenty minutes?" Jack asked.
"Close, but not exact," Draycos said. "The period has ranged from eighteen to twenty-five minutes."
"Do they always come from the same directions each time?"
"Again, approximately," the dragon said. "I have noted slight differences in the direction of approach, but nothing significant."
"A regular patrol pattern, then," Jack decided, his annoyance at the dragon forgotten. Draycos might be the local expert on morals and ethics, but putting puzzle pieces together was where Jack got to shine. "If there's one thing Uncle Virgil taught me to love, it's regular patterns."
"There may still be alarms on the doors," Draycos warned.
"I'm sure there are," Jack agreed. "And on the computer, too. But I know how to handle those. My biggest worry was getting shot on the way there."
"Do we then make our attempt tonight?" Jack fired his last two rounds while he considered. "Let's give it one more night," he said. "If the patrol pattern is still the same, we'll go tomorrow."
"And if we are successful?"
"Well, we're sure not going to hang around any longer than we have to," Jack told him, slinging his rifle and starting to back up. As before, the technique felt a lot more awkward than Alison had made it look. "If Uncle Virge is on the ball, he'll have the Essenay stashed somewhere nearby. Once we've pulled everything the Edge has on Djinn-90 fighters, we'll whistle him up and get out of here."
"And if we do not find what we need?"
"If they've got it, we'll find it," Jack said confidently. "If not . . . well, we'll worry about that when it happens."
He reached the cover of the trees and stood up. "Come on. Let's go see how I did."
"Not very well, I am afraid," Draycos said. "But do not be discouraged. Long-range shooting is difficult to master."
"It could have been a lot harder," Jack pointed out. "A machine gun, or even a semiautomatic projectile rifle . . ." He trailed off, a strange thought striking him.
"Is there trouble?" Draycos asked.
"I was just thinking," Jack said slowly. "A flash rifle doesn't have any kick. No recoil. You understand?"
"Yes."
"That makes it a lot easier to learn," Jack went on. "But it's also a whole lot more expensive to shoot. Does that sound like the kind of weapon you'd want beginners to start with?"
Draycos was silent a moment. "You are being taught to march and stand in formation," he said. "From your books you are being taught the words and expressions soldiers use, and a great deal of technical information. Now you are learning how to shoot the easiest of possible weapons."
"And, if you believe Alison's numbers, all of this is happening in a quarter of the time regular soldiers need for their training," Jack finished for him. "This is starting to feel a little creepy."
"Yet as you yourself said, you are only being trained as garrison assistants," Draycos reminded him. "Perhaps this is adequate for such duty."
"Maybe," Jack said. "But like Alison said, you can get just as dead in a garrison as you can out in the field."
Still, he reminded himself as he continued through the trees, he wouldn't be staying for that part of the operation. Tomorrow night he and Draycos would pull the information they needed, and then they would be out of here. "Anyway, I'll bet I did better than you think," he added.
"You have a tendency to shoot high," Draycos told him.
"I do not," Jack insisted. "You wait and see. You'll be eating those words for your dinner."
"Pardon?"
Jack sighed. "Skip it."
Alison and Jommy, to Jack's complete lack of surprise, came out first and second in the final tally.
To his rather annoyed surprise, he found that Draycos's evaluation of his own shooting skills had been correct. He himself had finished a less than glorious eighty-seventh.
But at least he'd only collected three sniper hits. Most of the others, blissfully unaware of their true position in Grisko's shooting gallery, had up to two dozen of the little marks.
Alison, naturally, had only one.
Dinner that night was grumpier than usual. Most of the recruits seemed to think it had been a highly unfair trick to play on them, and the majority seemed to blame Sergeant Grisko personally for it. Jommy in particular was highly indignant, apparently feeling that his twenty-one hits took a lot away from his otherwise impressive second-place score.
Jack stayed out of the debate as best he could. There was no need to get them thinking about his own low sniper hit rate. It might lead to the unpleasant suspicion that he had been in on the scam from the start.
After dinner there was a twilight marching drill, using real Gompers flash rifles this time instead of the candy canes. Unloaded, fortunately. Then came more study time, bedtime preparations, and finally lights-out. Jack waited until the rest of the barracks was asleep, then gave Draycos his meager meal and sent him to his washroom window to watch.
It was somewhere in the middle of the night when he suddenly awoke.
For a minute he lay motionless in bed, trying to figure out what had awakened him. Then, suddenly, he got it.
There was a rush of cool air rippling over him from the washroom area where Draycos was supposed to be watching. Not the usual light breeze that came from having the window open a crack while the dragon peered out, but something stronger.
Silently, he climbed out of bed and padded barefoot across the cold floor to the washroom. If this was nothing but a matter of the wind having shifted direction during the night, he promised himself darkly, he was going to be very annoyed.
The wind hadn't shifted direction. The breeze was stronger because the window had been propped wide open. And Draycos was gone.
CHAPTER 7
All right, Jack told himself urgently. Don't panic. Draycos wasn't lost, after all. He was just misplaced a little.
All right. First off, it was for sure that none of the roving patrols could have gotten him. Certainly not without making a lot of noise in the process. Wherever Draycos had gotten to, he'd gotten there voluntarily.
Could he have decided to tackle the HQ building on his own? Ridiculous. Draycos might be a first-class warrior, but he didn't know the first thing about human-designed locks and alarms. He wouldn't have gone there without Jack.
And then the obvious answer struck him. Of course: Draycos was hungry. After nearly a week of the starvation diet Jack had put him on, the dragon had finally given up and gone hunting.
Jack felt his face warm with shame. He should have tried better to bring Draycos more food. Tried, nothing—he should have done better. But with all those kids bustling around, and Grisko and the other drill instructors likely to drop in without warning—
He shook his head firmly. Those were cheap excuses. And as Uncle Virgil would have said, yesterday's cheap excuses were tomorrow's fish wrap. As of tomorrow, he would starting bringing a decent meal home to his partner.
Partner. He frowned at the word. Uncle Virge didn't want him to have any partners. Uncle Virge especially didn't want him having a partner with Draycos's rigid, self-sacrificing K'da warrior ethic. Uncle Virge would be very unhappy if he knew Jack was starting to think of Draycos in that way.
The open window was next to the low wall of the washroom's big shower area. Carefully, trying not to make any noise, Jack pulled himself up onto the wall. He steadied himself with a grip on the edge of the window and looked out.
The camp was actually rather pretty by starl
ight. To look on it now you wouldn't think there was so much grunting and sweating and agony out there during the day. He looked through the trees toward the dark windows of the headquarters building, trying to imagine what kind of security they might have there.
And then, he caught a flicker of movement from his right. Something that looked like a black shadow was moving swiftly and silently along the ground toward the barracks.
It was Draycos. It had to be. And the fact that the dragon's golden scales had turned to combat black meant there was trouble.
He slid off the wall onto the shower area's tile floor. If Draycos was moving that fast down there, he wasn't likely to slow down much coming through the window.
He didn't. Without any hint of warning, the dragon was suddenly there, leaping with bull's-eye accuracy straight through the center of the opening. His tail caught the edge of the window with a soft slap as he passed, slowing him down and deflecting his arc just enough to drop him soundlessly into the center of the shower area.
"What's the matter?" Jack hissed.
Draycos did a startled spin, twisting around like a cat on a hot charcoal grill. The sudden arching of his neck crest relaxed as he saw it was Jack. "I went out to better study the movements of the patrols," the dragon said, his tail twitching restlessly. "I am sorry, but I may have been seen."
Jack glanced up at the window. "Where?"
"To the north," Draycos said. "I heard movement nearby and went up into the trees."
"What happened then?"
"I eluded the patrols without difficulty," Draycos said. "I do not think they really know what they are looking for. But they may still be searching for me. I am sorry."
"Wait a second," Jack said as a sudden thought struck him. "The patrols are off chasing each other's tails up north?"
"They have gone all directions," Draycos said. "From the movements of lights, it would seem they are searching the entire perimeter of the camp."
"Are they, now," Jack said, scratching his cheek. "All of them, you think?"
The tail twitching suddenly stopped. "What are you suggesting?" Draycos asked cautiously.
Jack nodded toward the window. "I'm thinking this might be a good time to go crash the party."
Draycos's neck crest stiffened a little. "But the patrols are on alert."
"Right," Jack agreed. "But they're on alert somewhere else. Give me a second to get dressed."
Two minutes later he was back. Draycos had closed the window down to a crack again and was crouched on top of the shower wall peering out. With the immediate excitement over, his scales had returned to their usual red-edged gold. "I see and hear no evidence of movement," he reported. "But I am not convinced this is a wise move."
"The worst that can happen is that we have to dodge the patrols," Jack pointed out as he pulled on the thin plastic camouflage gloves that had come with his field kit. No point leaving fingerprints or traces of sweat where someone could find them. "If we wait until tomorrow, we'll have to do that anyway. At least here we start with an open playing field."
"Tomorrow the patrols will be on a known schedule," Draycos countered. But nevertheless he pushed open the window and slid through.
Climbing up onto the shower wall, Jack got his legs through the opening and followed. The window was pretty high, and as he lowered himself he wondered briefly about his chances of twisting an ankle as he hit the ground.
He needn't have worried. Draycos had taken up position beneath the window, stretching up on his hind legs with his front paws braced against the wall. Jack's feet found spots on the dragon's shoulders, and a second later he was safely on the ground.
"Looks clear," Jack whispered as they crouched together beside the barracks. "Let's go."
Draycos put a paw on Jack's outstretched hand and disappeared up the sleeve. Jack waited until he had slithered along his skin to his usual position with his head at Jack's right shoulder. Then, with one final look around, he headed off toward the headquarters building at a quick trot.
He had paced off the distance two days ago on his way to the mess hall and knew it to be about a hundred yards. Sneaking through the trees in the dead of night, senses alert for trouble, it seemed a lot farther.
There were no shouts of discovery as they reached the front corner of the headquarters building. "Do we enter through the main door?" Draycos murmured.
"Probably not," Jack puffed. "But I'll check."
One glance was all it took. "Not a chance," he told the dragon, slipping around the side of the building. "The lock's armed six ways from August. We're not going to pop it without a set of tools."
"What then?" Draycos asked.
"We find a likely window," Jack said, pausing at the first window and giving its edge a quick examination. "Maybe on the second floor where they might not be so careful."
"Or perhaps the third?" Draycos's head lifted out of Jack's shoulder, pushing aside the shirt material. His tongue flicked out, pointing toward the stars.
Jack looked up. Directly above them, two windows up, was a darkened third floor window. Even in the dim light, he could see it was open a few inches. "Looks promising," he agreed doubtfully. "Can you jump that high?"
"Brace yourself," Draycos said in reply. "What do I do when I am inside?"
"Find a way down here," Jack told him, pointing at the first-floor window in front of them. "Doesn't look like there's too much of an alarm here. I should be able to talk you through the disarming procedure."
"Very well. Are you ready?"
Jack planted his feet firmly against the ground and loosened his shirt at the back. "Ready."
An instant later he was nearly knocked off his feet as the dragon leaped upward from his back, his front paws shoving down hard on Jack's shoulders for momentum as they passed. Before Jack could even flail for balance the dragon's rear paws thudded down in the same spots, giving himself an extra push upward. Jack grabbed for the edge of the window in front of him, nearly putting his hand through the plastic in the process, and looked up.
Draycos was hanging by his front paws from the third-floor window ledge. For a moment he peered inside, his tongue flicking through the gap to taste the air. Then, working his snout into the opening, he pushed upward, levering the window all the way open. A quick pull, a lunge of golden scales, and he was inside.
Jack turned and looked at the silent woods and the darkened buildings half-seen through them. With Draycos gone, he suddenly felt a lot more exposed out here. He hoped the dragon would hurry.
Too late, he also hoped the Edge hadn't loaded their headquarters with hidden security cameras. Getting Draycos recorded on videotube would be all they needed.
The light touch that brushed across his shoulder was like a high-voltage electric shock. He twitched violently, nearly wrenching his back as he twisted around, half expecting to see Sergeant Grisko grinning at him over the muzzle of a gun.
It wasn't Grisko. It wasn't a gun, either. It was, instead, the plug end of an electrical extension cord.
He looked up. Draycos had reappeared in the window, the cord dangling from between his front paws. "A change of plan," he whispered down at Jack. "It may be safer to stay on this floor."
Jack took a deep breath, sternly ordering his heart to start beating again. "Right," he muttered. Getting a grip on the cord, he started to climb.
Between his climbing and Draycos's pulling, he made it up and through the window in record time. "It appears to be an assembly area," the dragon suggested as Jack peered around at the long tables stacked with electronics gear.
"Probably maintenance," Jack said, his nose wrinkling at the faint stench of burned insulation. The smell was probably why whoever worked here had decided to leave the window open overnight. "I don't see any computers, though," he added, closing the window back down to its original crack.
The dragon's ears twitched toward the closed door. "I hear no movement outside."
"Good," Jack said, heading toward the door. A gray plastic
bag caught his eye as he passed, and he scooped it up. "Hold it a second," he added as Draycos reached for the door handle. "They may have cameras out there."
He slid his hands into the bag, stretching the heavy plastic taut. "Here—you've got the claws in the family," he said. "Cut me a couple of eye holes, will you?"
Draycos's neck arched and he extended a claw. A couple of quick slashes, and he had a neat slit visor carved into the plastic. "Will that do?"
"Let's see," Jack said, wincing a little as he slid the bag over his head. He'd seen those claws slice grooves in solid metal, and they'd come a little too close to his hands just now. The positioning was perfect. The bag settled onto the top of his head with the slit directly in front of his eyes. And unlike the eye holes he'd asked for, the slit even allowed him some peripheral vision. "Perfect," he told the dragon. "Get aboard and let's go."
The hallway outside was dark and silent. Jack stayed close to the wall, trying to ignore the rustling of the plastic bag in his ears. The main offices would probably be on the first and second floors, but with luck one of the rooms up here would have the computer link he needed.
He struck gold with the second room he tried. Not only were there three terminals in the center of the room, but two of the walls were lined with file cabinets.
"Bingo," Jack murmured as he closed the door behind him. "Looks like we've found the main file room."
Draycos's head rose from Jack's shoulder, his green eyes glittering in the dim starlight filtering in through the window. "We have found old records," he corrected. "The labels on the cabinets indicate the information is over five years old."
Jack felt his lip twist. So much for hunting down the right tube and studying it later in the safety and convenience of the barracks. "Well, we can't expect them to just hand it to us," he said philosophically, closing the door and heading for the computers. "You want to keep watch?"
Draycos dropped to the floor from his sleeve. He opened the door a crack and pressed his ear to the opening. "Do not take too long," he warned.
"Thanks," Jack said dryly, turning on the computer. "I wouldn't have thought of that."