Alison felt her eyebrows crawling up her forehead. "Jack actually paid me a compliment?"
"And Draycos agreed." Taneem twitched her tail. "Is that so hard to believe?"
"From Draycos, no," Alison said. "From Jack, yes. But never mind that." She tapped the paper. "The point is that Neverlin has contracted with a Compfrin company to buy a dozen surplus KK-29 system patrol ships."
"Those are fighting craft?"
"Very much so," Alison said. "Probably not as powerful as the ships Frost could get from a Malison Ring base. But they'll be plenty good enough."
"Draycos has told me that the refugee ships are well armed."
"Which won't matter a twig against the Valahgua's Death weapon, will it?" Alison countered. "Which is why Neverlin can get away with a relatively small attack force. All he needs is to keep the defenders busy while the ships carrying the Death slip inside the perimeter and start killing everyone."
Taneem's eyes flicked around the room. "Do you think any of the Death weapons might be aboard this ship?"
"I'd sure keep one close to hand if I was Neverlin," Alison said. "You didn't happen to smell anything besides humans and Brummgas, did you?"
"I don't think so," Taneem said. "But there were cooking aromas that might have disguised other scents."
"And of course, you don't know what a Valahgua smells like," Alison pointed out. "Well, we can look into that later. In the meantime, we've got work to do."
"Finding a way out of here?"
"Actually, that shouldn't be a problem," Alison assured her. "I was referring to the need to share this little news flash with Jack and Draycos."
"How do we do that?"
"You'll see." Putting the papers and data tubes back in the safe, Alison resealed the door. "Come on—the link's in the other room."
The Advocatus Diaboli's InterWorld transmitter, she found as she settled into the nook's comfortable armchair, was already set on standby. Either someone had been sending or receiving messages earlier or else someone was planning to do so in the near future.
Either could mean there was someone paying attention to the bridge's InterWorld control station. If so, that someone might notice a transmission coming from a supposedly empty office, and wonder about it.
But they would just have to risk that. The longer she and Taneem sat here in Neverlin's office, the greater the chance someone would accidentally stumble over them.
It was the work of only a minute to key in the Essenay's own InterWorld frequency and pattern information. Mentally crossing her fingers, she tapped the microphone switch. "Jack?" she called softly. "Come on, kiddo; look alive."
"Alison?" Uncle Virge's voice came back. "This is a relief, lass. Where are you?"
"Aboard the Advocatus Diaboli," Alison said. "And we don't really have time for chitchat."
"Understood," Uncle Virge said. "First things first. Did you get the rendezvous location?"
"I have the data diamonds," Alison said. "Unfortunately, the K'da reader Jack brought back from the Havenseeker is still on your side of the universe."
"Neverlin must have one of his own."
"Which isn't anywhere in his office," Alison said. "Either it's in one of the other shipboard safes or else he's carrying it with him. I'll try to get my hands on it, but I'm not too hopeful."
Uncle Virge muttered something under his breath. "In other words, we've got to find a way to get you out of there."
"You don't have to sound so unhappy about it," Alison said archly. "But that's not why I called. Tell Jack to haul his carcass out of bed—I need to talk to him."
"Jack's not here," Uncle Virge said grimly. "He wrecked his car getting back to my part of the spaceport."
Taneem gave a little gasp, her breath briefly warming the back of Alison's neck. "Are they all right?" Alison asked.
"They're fine," Uncle Virge said. "But before they could get away from the scene, Jack was arrested for car theft."
Alison wrinkled her nose in disgust. She'd begged Jack to simply buy the stupid vehicle in the first place and be done with it. But he'd said that would be too expensive, and that the paperwork would take too long anyway.
She should have argued harder. Too late now. "Can you get him out?"
"I can't exactly show up at the jail with bail money," Uncle Virge said huffily. "And he hasn't tried to contact me."
"Probably doesn't have enough privacy to get to his spare comm clip," Alison said. "I guess he and Draycos will have to figure it out on their own. In the meantime, take a message for him."
She relayed the information about Neverlin's private collection of patrol ships. "I don't know when he's planning to send crews to pick them up," she finished. "But if Jack can get to the depot on Bentre before that, maybe he can do something."
"Such as?"
"Such as making sure Neverlin doesn't get them," Alison said patiently. "Now that the Malison Ring has been alerted to the fact that something fishy is going on with Frost, he shouldn't be able to just waltz into one of their bases and commandeer a large number of their ships. If we can also deep-six these KK-29s, Neverlin should find himself in a bind."
"He'll still have the Valahgua and their weapons."
"Sure, but the fewer ships he has to throw at the refugee fleet, the better the chances the K'da and Shontine will be able to paste all of them before they get close enough to use the Death."
"I don't know," Uncle Virge said doubtfully. "I'm thinking about the three hundred Brummgas Neverlin's already shipped off Brum-a-dum. Even fully crewed, a dozen KK-29s won't carry more than seventy-two of them. Either he's very confident that Frost can grab more ships or else he has those extra ships already stashed away somewhere."
"We do know he's got several Djinn-90s," Alison pointed out.
"Which are single-seat fighters," Uncle Virge countered. "Three-seaters if you throw in the optional gunner and observer. He can't have enough of those to need three hundred Brummgas."
Alison scratched her cheek. Unfortunately, he had a point. "I'll see what I can find out about that," she said. "In the meantime, you and Jack see what you can do about those KK-29s, all right?"
"I'll give him the message," Uncle Virge said heavily. "Provided he gets out of jail before they fly."
"If he doesn't, Taneem and I will just have to deal with them," Alison said. "I've got to go. Don't try to call me here."
"Thanks, I had figured that part out," Uncle Virge said sardonically. "Take care of yourself, lass. You and Taneem."
"I will. Good luck."
She keyed off the microphone. "Do you truly believe you and I can handle all this by ourselves?" Taneem asked.
"What, you mean that thing at the end?" Alison asked. "No, of course not. That was just for Jack's benefit. Sometimes the best way to get someone on the job is to hint that he can't do it."
"That seems rather . . . I don't know the word."
Alison sighed. "The word is cynical," she said. "Or maybe manipulative."
"You can change," Taneem reminded her quietly. "All people have that capability."
"I know." Reaching down, Alison scratched Taneem briefly behind her ears. "But to tell you the truth, I kind of like myself just the way I am. Go back out to the main office and listen at the door, will you, while I close down here?"
Taneem nodded and trotted back out of the nook. Alison leaned over to close the door between them, then quickly reset the transmitter's frequency.