Draycos lifted his head from Jack's shoulder for a better look at the display. The patrol ship was definitely curving back toward the surface. More important, none of the others seemed to be following. "Can you locate his landing point?" Draycos asked.
"He said there was a town on his flight path, and there are only two settlements of any real size along that vector," Uncle Virge said.
"Make for the first one," Jack told him. He looked down at Draycos again. "We are planning to meet him, aren't we?"
"Absolutely," Draycos confirmed, feeling a sense of relief. So far, this was working exactly the way he'd planned.
"And once we do that?" Uncle Virge prompted.
"He should have this Point Two already programmed into his ship's computer," Draycos said. "If we can retrieve that information, we can find them."
"And then what?" Uncle Virge countered. "Harper seemed to think Neverlin would put a couple of midway points into his schedule."
"And I'm sure he was right," Jack said. "Neverlin and Frost probably won't give anyone else the actual rendezvous point until the last minute."
"So I repeat: then what?"
"We'll figure out something," Jack assured him. "Let's just first make sure we get to Chiggers before he fixes Draycos's leak."
CHAPTER 9
The patrol ship was nowhere to be seen when the Essenay reached the settlement Uncle Virge had mentioned. "Wonderful," Uncle Virge growled. "Now what?"
"Calm yourself," Draycos said. "He must have found someplace out of sight to make his repairs."
"I only see two buildings big enough," Jack said, pointing out the canopy at the town stretching out in front of them. "Looks like both of them have doors big enough for the 29, too."
"Odd," Uncle Virge muttered. "I wonder what they want with hangars that big out here in the middle of nowhere."
"Don't know," Jack said. "Don't really care, either. Either of you have any preference as to which one we look at first?"
Jack felt some weight come onto his shoulder as Draycos lifted up his head for a better look. "He's in the farther of the two," the K'da said.
Jack frowned down at him. "How do you know?"
"There are swirl marks in the dust on the near side of that building," Draycos said. "The other has no such marks."
"Meaning something has just flown in there," Jack said, nodding agreement. Turning the control yoke a few degrees, he angled the Essenay toward the building Draycos had indicated.
"I don't know," Uncle Virge said doubtfully. "If it was me, I'd have come in strictly on lifters with no drive at all."
"That takes more time, and Chiggers is in a hurry," Jack reminded him. "Besides, he doesn't know anyone else even knows about this little patrol ship deal."
"It's still sloppy," Uncle Virge declared. "So what's the plan?"
Jack looked down at Draycos again. "Over to you, symby," he invited.
"The leak is near the rear of the cabin," Draycos said. "If he's found it and is in the process of sealing it, we should be able to slip in through the forward hatchway without being seen."
"And then we clobber him?"
"Basically," Draycos said. "Once we have the coordinates, it may be time for another talk with Harper."
Jack grimaced. Harper, handcuffed to the bunk in the Essenay's second cabin, had so far been behaving himself. But that didn't mean Jack was ready to trust him. Far from it. "Let's first get the coordinates," he said. "Draycos, go grab me a tangler and holster from the storage room while I put us down."
He landed the Essenay four blocks away, shielded from view by the second of the town's two large buildings. With Draycos riding his skin, he headed out.
A few of the townspeople, all of them Compfrins, were out and about. Two or three of them gave Jack curious glances as he passed.
But no one asked him any questions or complained about his choice of parking spaces. Probably, Jack thought, they figured he was with the other human who had unexpectedly dropped in on them.
Hopefully, none of them would try to be helpful and tell Chiggers his friend had arrived.
There was a small, person-sized entrance on the wall around the corner from the building's main hangar-style doors. It was locked, but Jack had his burglar tools with him and it took him less than a minute to get it open. Holding his tangler ready, he slipped inside.
The building's walls were lined with fine-mesh panels that reached three-quarters of the way up the sides. The floor was heavy concrete, with a crosshatch of grooves that looked like wheel tracks of some kind. Several stacks of small boxes were lined up against the far wall.
The patrol ship filled most of the remaining space. It was sitting nose-in, its entry hatch open and the ramp lowered.
Aha, Draycos's thought came.
Aha what? Jack, asked, looking around. There was no sign of Chiggers anywhere that he could see.
Uncle Virge wondered earlier why a distant settlement like this would have a full-sized hangar, Draycos explained. You can see now that this is in fact a crop storage facility.
Jack looked around. He could see no such thing. I can?
Of course, Draycos said. Those mesh bins folded against the walls can be opened outward to create compartments for grain or vegetables.
With their vertical supports on wheels rolling out along the tracks in the floor, Jack said, nodding as he finally saw it. Well, that's one mystery solved. Good. Clan we get back to the main subject at hand?
He felt a bit of weight on his shoulder as Draycos lifted his jaws and flicked out his tongue. He's definitely here, the K'da said. I can taste his scent.
Jack took a deep breath and readjusted his grip on his tangler. Okay, he said. Let's go get him.
He crossed to the boarding ramp. As he reached the bottom, he heard a faint sound of clinking metal coming from somewhere deep inside the ship. Not only home, but hard at work, he commented, starting up the ramp. You want to hop off now, or wait a little longer?
I think I should wait until we're inside.
Jack stopped just outside the hatch. There'd been something odd in the K'da's tone just then. What's wrong?
I don't know, Draycos replied. That metallic sound seems strange.
Strange how?
I don't know. Too rhythmic, perhaps.
Jack peered into the hatchway. Directly ahead of him was the open inner airlock door, which opened into a narrow corridor leading to the cockpit at the bow and the gun bays and the rest of the ship farther aft. So what do we do?
We go in, the K'da said. Just be careful.
Grimacing, Jack stepped into the airlock. Nothing happened. He took two more steps to the inner airlock door, pausing there to look in both directions down the corridor. No one was visible. You're sure that's Chiggers you're smelling?
I'm positive, Draycos said. The metallic sound seems to be coming from the left.
Carefully, Jack took a step into the corridor and started to turn that direction—
"Move and you're dead," Chiggers said quietly from somewhere behind him.
Jack froze. Draycos?
He's too far back, the K'da said, his tone grim.
Just chill it, then. "I'm not moving," Jack assured the other. "Take it easy, okay?"