Dragon and Herdsman

CHAPTER 4

Jack prepped the ship while Alison talked to the control tower, and a few minutes later they were heading up into the faint glow of the pre-dawn sky. Twenty minutes later, Jack keyed in the ECHO stardrive, and they were on their way to Rho Scorvi.

Alison had been impressed enough by her first look at the Essenay's exterior. Jack's guided tour of the interior knocked her socks off.

"I don't believe this," she said for probably the fourth time as he took her into the dayroom. "A full-auto medic chair, a class-five food synthesizer, and a table repeater display. Your uncle poured a big bucket of cash into this thing."

"Like I said, he's good at what he does," Jack said.

"No kidding," Alison said. She turned the table on and off, watching as the wood-grain surface went transparent and then opaque again. "What sort of remote sensors do you have?"

"I'm not really sure," Jack said. "Computer?"

"We have a Calico 404 package," Uncle Virge answered. His voice was bland and emotionless, but there was a definite edge of quiet annoyance beneath the surface.

Jack heartily sympathized. Unfortunately, there wasn't a thing he could do about it. Even before they'd lifted, Alison had spotted the P/S/8 designation on the computer-interface board and recognized it as a model with personality simulation capabilities. At that point, Jack had had no choice but to allow—or rather, insist—that Uncle Virge talk to her.

He'd modified his normal voice, of course, going with something that sounded more like a standard P/S computer than the more colorful personality Uncle Virgil had left behind. But it was obvious that he wasn't happy with any of this.

It was equally obvious he was going to be having a long and unpleasant conversation with Jack the minute their new passenger was out of earshot.

"Extremely cool," Alison said, turning the table transparent one last time. "Can you access your InterWorld transmitter from here, too?"

Jack felt his breath catch in his throat. Ships this small, even luxury models, never had InterWorld transmitters aboard. How could Alison have guessed the Essenay had one? "What are you talking about?" he asked guardedly.

"Don't be cute," she said. "I saw the InterWorld directory tab on the list when you were pulling up Rho Scorvi's coordinates."

"A directory?" Jack repeated, thoroughly lost now. "What does a directory have to do with anything?"

"Because the InterWorld directory is part of the InterWorld access software," she explained patiently. "If you've got a directory, you've got the software. If you've got the software, you've got the transmitter."

"Or my uncle just wants to be able to look up numbers before he calls them," Jack countered. It was, he thought rather disgustedly, a pretty weak argument.

Alison apparently thought so, too. "Right," she said sarcastically. "Even though every spaceport and planet-based transmitter has its own directory. But fine. Let's ask. Computer—?"

"Never mind," Jack cut her off, half-lifting his hands in a gesture of surrender. The standard P/S/8 computer interface probably couldn't lie. Uncle Virge could, and in this case probably would, and the last thing Jack wanted was for Alison to catch him at it. "Yes, we've got a transmitter."

"Which is another five or six buckets of cash," Alison concluded, looking around the dayroom. "I hope you realize just how much money you're sitting on here, Jack Montana."

She brought her gaze back to him. "If that's your real name."

"Like 'Alison Kayna,' you mean?" Jack asked pointedly.

Her lip twitched. "Fine. None of my business. So where do I sleep?"

"You can use my uncle's cabin," Jack said. "It's down the hall on your left."

"You're sure he won't mind?" she asked. "I could just sleep here on the couch."

"He won't mind," Jack assured her. "Besides, I sometimes like to get up during the night and have a snack. I don't want to trip over you."

"Fair enough," Alison said. "If you don't mind, I'm going to go sack out for a while. It's been a long and fairly interesting night."

"Sounds like a plan," Jack agreed. "I think I'll catch some winks myself after I check the ECHO settings. Help yourself to anything you want—food or music or whatever. I'll get you some of my clothes, too."

"Okay," Alison said, heading for the door. "Thanks for the tour. And thanks for the ride. I appreciate it."

"I appreciate you getting me out of that cell," Jack said. "See you later."

He headed to the cockpit. "She still in her cabin?" he asked as he dropped into the pilot's chair.

"She's cleaning up in the bathroom," Uncle Virge said.

"Okay," Jack said, bracing himself. "Let's have it."

"Let us have what?" Draycos asked, lifting his head from Jack's shoulder.

"The objections, arguments, and how-dare-yous," Jack said. "Mouse got your tongue, Uncle Virge?"

"What are you expecting me to say, Jack lad?" Uncle Virge growled. "That this is as crazy a scheme as you've ever come up with? And given your record these past three months, that's a high standard for you to top."

"Number one," Jack said, holding up a finger, "she got me out of a tight jam."

"I thought getting you out of jams was what your tame K'da poet-warrior was for."

Draycos stirred against Jack's skin. "He could have gotten me out, yes," Jack said hurriedly before the dragon could speak. "Alison got there first. I owe her."

"So buy her a liner ticket to Rho Scorvi and send her on her way."

"Number two," Jack said, lifting another finger, "I never did find out what kind of game she was playing back at the Whinyard's Edge training camp. Given that whatever it was nearly got both of us killed, it might be nice to see if I can wheedle it out of her."

"She was running a scam, of course," Uncle Virge huffed. "Just like you were."

"And third," Jack said, lifting one final finger, "the people she was avoiding back at her ship were from Braxton Universis."

There was a short pause. "Are you sure?" Uncle Virge asked, his huffiness suddenly gone.

"Positive," Jack said. "I saw one of them back on the Star of Wonder. His name's Harper, and he's one of Cornelius Braxton's more trusted bodyguards."

"Are you suggesting Braxton is interested in this girl?" Uncle Virge asked.

"If not him, then it's someone else high up in the corporation."

"Or they could merely be interested in Alison's friends," Draycos suggested. "The ones she said she was riding with."

Jack shook his head. "There aren't any friends. That ship is hers."

"Are you certain?"

"Trust me, I know a lie when I hear it," Jack said. "The point is that if Braxton is interested in her, maybe we should be interested, too."

"Seems to me it's just one more reason to cut her loose at the first stop," Uncle Virge said darkly. "Or had it occurred to you that there's just one person at the top of Braxton's interest list right now?"

"Arthur Neverlin," Jack agreed. "But if Alison is working for him, why did she spring me just now?"

"Maybe he wants to give us some rope," Uncle Virge suggested. "A little running room to see how much we know. It just seems to me that the timing of this little rescue is awfully convenient."

"True," Jack had to admit. "Still, if she did overhear them yesterday, it wouldn't have taken her any time at all to put something like this together. We know she's partial to sopor mist—she probably had everything she needed already aboard her ship."

"I still think she's here to worm out your secrets," Uncle Virge insisted.

"Or perhaps she hopes you'll lead her to your uncle," Draycos put in thoughtfully. "Recall that on Brum-a-dum they were still trying to use you to get to him."

"They were, weren't they?" Jack said slowly, thinking back to that conversation. Unless they just wanted revenge . . . but Neverlin didn't seem the type to waste time with revenge. Not his own time, anyway. "Granted, Alison could be all of that. Even so, I think our best bet is to hold on to her, at least for a while. How does that saying go? Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer?"

"That's the one," Uncle Virge said with a sniff. "And if you ask me, it's a very stupid saying. I say keep your enemies as far away from you as you can."

"And your friends?" Draycos asked.

"Better to make do without them," Uncle Virge retorted.

Jack sighed. In Uncle Virgil's world, people had always fallen into one of two categories: the ones he could use, and the ones he couldn't. "Friendship," "affection," "trust"—those might as well have been alien words as far as he was concerned.

Maybe Jack himself had been an exception. Then again, maybe he hadn't.

But things were different now, he reminded himself firmly. He did have a friend—Draycos—and he was going to make that friendship work.

And part of that process was for him to earn the dragon's respect, which meant keeping his promises. "No one's suggesting we have to become Alison's best friends," he told Uncle Virge. "But we are going to take her to Rho Scorvi. Period."

"Whatever you say, Jack lad," Uncle Virge said with a theatrical sigh. "Would it strain the duties of a proper host if I at least kept an eye on her?"

"Of course not," Jack said.

"I agree," Draycos seconded. "Keeping a promise does not require one to abandon caution."

"Then we're in agreement," Uncle Virge said with false cheerfulness. "How wonderful for us all."

"Don't be snide," Jack admonished him, climbing out of the pilot's seat. "And while you're being all vigilant, I'm going to get some sleep."

"Fine," Uncle Virge said. "Incidentally, I trust you realize there's one other option."

"About . . .?"

"About those Braxton Universis men," Uncle Virge said, his voice going a bit darker. "It could be they were looking for you."

"Why would they seek him?" Draycos asked.

"Because he's crossed paths twice now with Arthur Neverlin," Uncle Virge reminded him.

"And both times Neverlin has come out the worse for the exchange," Draycos reminded him.

"True, but Braxton may not realize that," Uncle Virge said. "If I were him, and I saw two people keep running into each other, I'd wonder if there were dots that needed to be connected. At the very least, he might want to borrow Jack for a nice cozy chat somewhere."

"Which I really don't want to do right now," Jack said. "Actually, Uncle Virge, that had occurred to me. But I don't see much I can do about it."

"I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page," Uncle Virge said soothingly. "Good night, Jack. Sleep well."