"What's your recommendation?" Neverlin asked.
For a few seconds Frost stared at the displays. "I'd say no," he said. "If Morgan has some trick planned, I don't want to be in the middle of a personnel change when he springs it."
"Agreed," Neverlin said. "Besides, I'd rather have your men instead of the Brummgas on hand here to watch him. Get the Essenay docked and then bring Morgan to my office." He raised his eyebrows. "Make sure you check him very carefully."
"Don't worry," Frost said softly. "We will."
Inclining his head to the Valahgua, Neverlin headed for the bridge door. Carefully, Taneem eased her way backward down the duct. "Did you hear all that?" she whispered when she was far enough away from the grille.
"Yes," Alison whispered back. "Can you find your way to Neverlin's office?"
"I think so," Taneem said. She reached a cross-duct and backed around the corner into it. "But can't you listen through the needle?"
"Yes, but it probably won't be loud enough for you to hear via comm clip," Alison said. "Besides, I'm curious to find out what this fake Virgil Morgan looks like."
"I understand," Taneem said, turning back into the main duct. "I'm on my way."
CHAPTER 12
The Foxwolf, as expected, was loaded to the gills with Brummgas.
They were everywhere. Some were lounging at consoles in various rooms, their wide bulks squeezed into chairs a couple of sizes too small for them. Others were running power cables along the corridor ceilings, apparently setting up special equipment. Others were simply milling around, or watching everyone else work.
Sure not working very hard, are they? Jack commented as he passed yet another group of idling aliens.
Time's probably no need, Draycos said. In an emergency, the ship could be handled by a mere thirty crew members. Even in full combat mode, it would require only another hundred and fifty.
So why were there so many in your advance team?
Partly for companionship on the long journey, Draycos said. Also, part of our job was to begin preparing areas of Iota Klestis for colonization.
Which means Neverlin probably could have gotten away with fewer people aboard, Jack pointed out. Brummgas or men. All the Valahgua would have to say was that everyone else was back on Iota Klestis, digging wells or whatever.
A good point, Draycos agreed. I wonder if the fleet will wonder about that, as well.
Anything that looks odd to them works in our favor, Jack said. But whether they wonder about it or not, it definitely works in our favor right now. The more big, dumb Brummgas there are wandering the halls, the harder it'll be for any of Frost's men to spot me in the crowd. A little luck and we may just get away with this.
They had reached the center of the ship, and were passing a long room that Draycos said contained the K'da/Shontine version of the ECHO hyperdrive, when their luck ran out.
"Hey!" a human voice boomed just as Jack cleared the doorway. "You—is that Chiggers? Get in here."
"I'm busy," Jack called back in his Chiggers voice.
"You're gonna be busy mopping the deck with your face," the other retorted. "Come on; help me configure this frunging thing. We're heading out."
Jack felt his stomach tighten. They were going on ECHO now? Before Frost's raiding party even returned with their stolen Malison Bang ships? Something's wrong, he told Draycos.
I agree, the K'da replied. But we have no choice but to play it through. Open your flight suit a bit more.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," Jack called, reversing direction and heading back to the room. As he did so, he slid a finger under the sealing seam at his flight suit's neck and slid it open to just above his stomach.
The mercenary was sitting at a console halfway across the room, his right side toward the door. He was scowling down at the displays as he worked at his control board. "What's the problem?" Jack asked, glancing around as he walked toward the other. There were four Brummgas in the room, too, making little snuffling noises of concentration as they worked at their own controls.
"Whole frunging alien frunging thing is the problem," the man growled back. "We were supposed to have had a real ECHO system put in before we had to go anywhere else."
"Yeah," Jack said, forcing himself to maintain a steady stride. So far the other man hadn't actually focused on him, but the second he did it would all be over. Jack had to be within striking distance when that happened. "What do you want me to do?"
"Help me sort out this chicken scratching," the man said, flicking a finger toward a set of papers taped to the front of the console.
Almost there. "Sure," Jack said, picking up his pace a little. Almost there.
He was two steps away when the man finally looked up.
Keep going, Draycos urged.
For that first fraction of a second the man's expression went blank, his brain apparently slip-skidding like an amusement park bump car. Then, abruptly, his wheels seemed to catch traction again. His eyes widened; and as Jack closed the final step, he opened his mouth.
The warning shout never came. Through the opening in Jack's flight suit, looking for all the world like some shock-movie alien larva emerging from its reluctant host, Draycos's foreleg lanced out . . .
. . . the paw catching the man solidly around his throat.
The mercenary jerked backward, his wide eyes going even wider. Or, rather, he tried to jerk backward. But Draycos had him in a solid grip, and there was no escape.
He grabbed at the K'da's paw, trying to pry it loose. But Draycos had cut off the man's air supply, and as Jack watched tensely the clutching hands went weak and limp. Belatedly, he seemed to remember he was armed, and dropped his right hand to the gun holstered at his belt.
But it was too late. The hand scrabbled for a second at the gun, then went still. The man's eyelids sagged, the eyes behind them rolled upward, and he was out of the fight.
The controls, Draycos's thought whispered through Jack's mind.
Jack glanced around. The attack had been so quick and quiet that none of the Brummgas seemed to have noticed that anything had happened. Even now, with Jack standing close to the unconscious man and Draycos's half-hidden foreleg keeping the other from collapsing to the floor, there was little for them to notice. What do I do? Jack asked.
Move around behind him, the K'da instructed. I first need to see if he finished programming in the target system.
It was quickly apparent that the man had only gotten halfway through that part of the task. Fortunately, he'd written the coordinates on a small mark board taped beside the cheat sheets Jack had already noticed. With Draycos giving him step-by-step instructions, he got the rest of the destination programmed in.
The center section runs the countdown sequence, Draycos continued when Jack had finished. Activate it with the two keys beneath the leftmost display.
Got it. Jack touched the keys.
"Williams, what's the holdup?" a voice called from a speaker across the room. "Come on; get your butt off standby."
"Off standby and shaking," Jack called back. "Sequence is going."
"Who's that, Chiggers?" the voice demanded. "What are you doing in there?"
"Williams needed help; I'm helping," Jack told him. "What's going on, anyway?"