"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.