Dragon and Judge

CHAPTER 20

Two days after his trip to the mine, Jack emerged from his apartment for the morning's schedule to find that Bolo had returned.

"Good morning, Judge-Paladin," the other said politely from the foot of the stone bridge. "I see you're an early riser."

"Comes with the job," Jack told him, looking over Bolo's shoulder to where Thonsifi and the two escorts were waiting. None of them looked very happy. "Speaking of jobs, how's yours going?"

"Almost finished," Bolo said. "A few more hours of actual surveying, and I'll be ready to start working up my report." He waved a hand, the gesture taking in the entire canyon. "So I thought I'd drop by and see if that dinner invitation was still open."

"I'm sure something can be arranged," Jack said as he reached the ground. "Is any of this last bit of work going to be in the area?"

"Actually, all of it is," Bolo said. "In fact—and you might find this interesting—the first thing I'm going to do is take a look in that abandoned mine out there."

Jack suppressed a grimace. Why, he wondered, wasn't he surprised?

Be careful, Jack, Draycos's warning whispered through his mind.

Bet on it, symby, Jack assured him. "You think there might still be something worthwhile in there?" he asked.

"No idea," Bolo said. "But according to the records, Triost still owns the rights to it."

"Really," Jack said. "I understood the ownership was still in dispute."

A flicker of something crossed Bolo's face, gone again almost too fast to see.

But Jack saw it. More to the point, he recognized it.

Jack had already known that Bolo wasn't who he pretended to be. Now, Bolo knew that Jack wasn't, either.

"Interesting," Bolo said, his voice under easy control. Definitely a professional. "Could be my information's out-of-date. Still, as long as I'm here anyway I might as well check it out."

He cocked an eyebrow. "I don't suppose you'd like to come with me? Just in case the rights aren't completely ours?"

"You mean to make sure you don't stuff your pockets with rocks on the way out?"

Bolo smiled faintly. "Something like that." He looked at Thonsifi. "You think you can spare your Judge-Paladin for a couple of hours?"

"Yes, they can spare me," Jack said before Thonsifi could answer. "Let me go back and change and I'll be right with you."

Bolo was sitting in his aircar when Jack emerged from the apartment again, this time in shirt and jeans. "I hope you know what you're doing," Draycos murmured from his shoulder.

"I don't like it, either," Jack conceded. Getting in a vehicle with a known enemy was not usually considered a smart thing to do. "But we need answers, and he's probably the best source we're going to find anywhere around here."

"And overconfident people tend to talk too much?"

"Exactly," Jack said as he headed toward the aircar.

A few minutes later they were rising through the chilly early-morning air. "This place is a real obstacle course, isn't it?" Bolo commented as he maneuvered them through the arches and guy wires. "No wonder most Judge-Paladins who come to Semaline never make it down there."

"No wonder," Jack agreed. "Though I understand there were two who made it in a few years back. Eleven years, to be exact."

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the other's sideways glance. "I wouldn't know anything about that," Bolo said casually. "All I know is that the Judge-Paladin on this circuit usually just sets up shop near the NorthCentral Spaceport and invites people to come to him."

"Sounds rather lazy," Jack suggested. "You miss a lot if you don't look at the crime scene."

"Crime scenes can be messy," Bolo pointed out. "Even dangerous."

Jack shrugged. "Part of a Judge-Paladin's job."

"Some Judge-Paladins think so," Bolo agreed. "Others are maybe a little smarter."

Jack felt his throat tighten. Bolo was offering him one last chance to look the other way. "No one's ever accused me of being smart," he said. "So what exactly is the history of this mine?"

"Triost started work on it about fifteen years ago," Bolo said, his voice subtly changed. He'd offered Jack a chance and been refused. Now it was on to business. "They were making good progress when some lawyer got his claws into the Golvins and started making a fuss about it."

"It's on their land, isn't it?"

"That was one of the questions," Bolo said. They were free of the canyon now, and he turned the aircar toward the mine. "The other was whether the Golvins owned the mineral rights even if they did own the land."

"So the Golvins appealed to the Judge-Paladins?"

"Apparently," Bolo said as he set them down smoothly on the sand near the mine entrance. "I looked it up while you were getting changed, and you were right—some Judge-Paladin did look into it. But there's no record of him rendering any decision, either for or against us."

"Possibly because the Judge-Paladin died during the investigation."

"Really?" Bolo asked, sounding dutifully surprised. "There wasn't anything about that. Anyway, the case apparently was dropped, and after the standard seven years without activity the clearance court reverted the rights back to us. Hmm—looks pretty dark in there. I've got a couple of flashlights in the back."

He got them out, gave one to Jack, and they headed inside.

Stray wind currents around the opening had mostly erased the footsteps Jack and the two Golvins had made in the sand two days previously. Still, Jack could see the subtle furrows where those footsteps had been.

And only their footsteps. If Bolo had entered the mine recently, he hadn't gone in very far. That, Jack decided, could work to his advantage.

"Walls and ceiling look to be in good shape," Bolo commented as they headed down the entry tunnel. "Hasn't picked up much fill, either."

"Doesn't smell as musty as I'd expect, either," Jack added.

"Musty?"

"From all the water," Jack explained. "Triost claimed the lower levels were flooded."

They had reached the large assembly area before Bolo spoke again. "So what exactly were you expecting to find in here?" he asked as Jack turned toward the left-hand tunnel he and Draycos had visited on their last trip.

"I don't know," Jack said. "A little truth, maybe."

"Any particular truth you had in mind?"

Jack shrugged as he stepped into the tunnel. "Whatever the flavor of the day is, I suppose. Watch your step—the floor's a little rough here."

They started down, their feet making little shuffling sounds in the dust. Occasionally there was a clunk as one of them kicked one of the many rocks scattered around. "I gather you've been here before," Bolo said.

"What makes you say that?" Jack asked.

"The marks in the dust," Bolo said, shining his light past Jack's shoulder at the floor ahead. "The wind cleared out most of the tracks in the entryway, but it doesn't reach down here."

"Ah," Jack said, as if that was complete news to him. Somewhere along in here, he knew, Bolo would decide they were far enough down that Jack's body wouldn't be easily found. He'll be pulling a knife or gun soon, he thought toward Draycos. Let me know when you hear him doing that, but stay hidden.

Are you sure? Draycos's thought came back.

Not really, Jack admitted. But making him think he's holding all the cards is the only way we'll get him to talk.

They were within sight of the first branch point, where the tunnel split to right and left, when Jack felt the warning touch of K'da claws against his side. "Here's the really interesting part," Jack said. He dropped into a crouch as if trying to give Bolo a better look and pointed his flashlight down the right-hand branch.

And as he did so, he scooped up a handful of dust from one of the depressions in the tunnel floor and threw it over his shoulder into Bolo's face.

The other bellowed, his shout almost covering up the soft crack as a shot whistled past Jack's ear and shattered bits of rock from the tunnel floor. Jack was already on the move, sprinting forward and ducking down the left-hand tunnel, the one he and Draycos had taken on their last visit. Another shot smashed into the wall at the intersection as he passed, dusting him with rock powder.

Clenching his teeth, Jack kept going. The next intersection turn was only fifty feet away, and he got into the left-hand tunnel and out of Bolo's line of fire before any more shots came. Now what? Draycos's words came in his mind.

"We try to find a defensible spot where we can talk to him," Jack muttered back, his mind too busy with thoughts of tactics and survival to focus on this new telepathy thing. "Suggestions welcome."

There. Out of the corner of his eye Jack saw the K'da's tongue rise from his shoulder and point at a small curve in the tunnel just ahead. "Not much room back there," Jack warned.

There is enough, Draycos promised. I will hold the tunnel. Continue ahead and find me more rocks to throw.

Jack ducked around the curve, and with a surge of weight Draycos leaped up through the back of his collar.

Jack slowed, shining his light on the floor. There were some rocks down there, but only a few big enough to make good weapons. He half turned, opening his mouth to point that out.

And flinched back as the K'da slashed his claws into the side wall, cutting out a shower of rocks and slivers and dust. "Go," he murmured to Jack as he picked up one of the larger rocks and curved his tail around it. Glancing out around the edge of the curve, he whipped his tail like a sling, hurling the rock back down the tunnel.

There was a thud, a snarled curse, and another shot blew a pit in the opposite wall. "I'll hold him here," Draycos murmured to Jack, scooping up another rock. "Go gather more ammunition."

Jack nodded and continued down the tunnel, hoping Bolo wouldn't hear his footsteps and wonder just who it was who was holding him off. Though between the shots and the thudding of the stones, that didn't seem likely.

He'd gone only twenty feet when he came upon a section where part of the tunnel wall had splintered beneath the slurry pipe. Along the floor by the break were a dozen of the kind of rocks Draycos needed. Pulling the front of his shirt out of his jeans, Jack held it like a basket and loaded in the stones.

The leisurely battle was still going on when he returned. "How's it going?" he whispered as he unloaded his prizes onto the floor where Draycos could reach them.

"He's taken shelter in the right-hand tunnel," Draycos murmured back as he whipped another rock around the corner. "At the moment, we're in something of a stalemate."

"At least we're not in a quick slaughter." Jack filled his lungs with dusty air. "Hey, Bolo," he called. "How's it going?"

"It's going okay," Bolo's voice came back. "You got a good arm there, boy."

"Thanks," Jack said. "You do realize, don't you, that killing a Judge-Paladin is a death-sentence offense?"

"What, you?" the other said contemptuously. "Don't make me laugh."

"I didn't mean me," Jack corrected. "I was talking about my parents. You know—Stuart and Ariel?"

For a moment Bolo didn't speak. "I'll be frunged," he said at last, his tone oddly changed. "You're the Palmers' kid?"

"That's right," Jack said, a shiver running through him. Palmer. So that was his real last name. "I take it you're the one who murdered them?"

"Hey, I offered them a chance to be smart," Bolo said. The strangeness in his voice was gone, and he was all business again. "Just like I did for you a minute ago. They didn't take me up on it, either."

"I guess it runs in the family," Jack gritted out, forcing back a sudden flood of rage. He couldn't afford to let his emotions color his thinking. Not now. "Maybe you should have put it as a percentage of the mine. Is there really enough stuff in here to take that kind of risk?"

"I have no idea," Bolo said. "But it must have been worth it to someone in the Triost boardroom. Or maybe to one of the bidders. No one told me, and I didn't ask."

Jack frowned. "What bidders?"

"The companies trying to buy us up," Bolo said. "I suppose you want to know which one won?"

"Unless you want to let me out for a couple of hours to do my own research."

Bolo gave a low chuckle. "Sorry. Maybe you should just wait and ask your parents. You'll be joining them soon enough."

A painful knot formed in the pit of Jack's stomach. "Maybe; maybe not," he said as calmly as he could. "I figure you'll run out of bullets before I run out of rocks. And don't forget the Golvins know where I am."

Bolo snorted. "I wouldn't count on them if I were you."

"Why not?" Jack asked. "Do they understand bribes better than I do?"

"They understand fear," Bolo said darkly. "I made it very clear to them the last time what would happen if they told anyone what had happened, or came anywhere near this mine, or made any other sort of trouble."

"I take it I fit into that third category?" Jack suggested.

"You don't even rank that high," Bolo said. "You're just a little follow-up work I should have taken care of eleven years ago. If you don't mind my asking, how exactly did I miss you?"

"I had help," Jack said. "I suppose fear's a good enough motivator. But you really should have spread it around a little more instead of just threatening the leaders. And Foeinatw, too, of course."

"Who?"

"Four-Eight-Naught-Two," Jack said. "The one who called a couple of weeks ago and told you I was here."

"Oh, right," Bolo said. "Him."

"Yes, him," Jack said, feeling a trickle of contempt. The man couldn't even remember the names of the people he'd bribed or bullied or threatened into helping him. "Too bad he wasn't the one flying the day they ran into me at the spaceport."

"Yes, it was," Bolo agreed, his voice darkening. "Mostly too bad for you."

"We'll see," Jack said. "Who ended up buying up Triost?"

"We back to that again?" Bolo said. "You're awfully nosy— you know that?"

"What do you care?" Jack countered. "I'm already dead, right?"

"You're making a recording, aren't you?" Bolo asked. "Getting all this nice confession on perm. You don't really think anything like that's going to survive the morning, do you?"

"You'll find out at your trial," Jack said. "Who bought Triost?"

Bolo chuckled. "Good one, kid. At my trial. You've got spirit—gotta give you that."

"Thanks," Jack said. "Who bought up Triost?"

"The rich get richer, kid," Bolo said. "First law of the universe. Braxton Universis."

Jack caught his breath. Braxton Universis. The megacorporation owned and operated by Cornelius Braxton.

The man whose life Jack and Draycos had saved only four months ago. If he'd hired Bolo eleven years ago to murder Jack's parents . . .

"Well, it's been nice talking to you," Bolo went on. "But I've got places to go and things to do. You got two choices here: come out of hiding and make it quick and painless, or stay where you are and make it a lot harder on yourself."

Jack frowned, trying to wrench his mind away from Braxton and Braxton Universis. "Thanks, but I kind of like it here."

"That's good," Bolo said. " 'Cause this is where you're going to spend what's left of your life. So long, kid."

From around the corner came the sound of running footsteps. Draycos whipped his tail, hurling a stone blindly around the curve.

And suddenly the whole tunnel exploded in a flash of light and an earsplitting thunderclap.