Dragon and Herdsman

But that didn't mean she was safe. From the pattern of fire, it was clear the mercenaries were using their machine guns to pin her in place while they waited for the main force to sweep in on both sides and surround her. Once that happened, all they had to do was work someone in close enough to get a clear shot, and the battle would be over.

Or worse, they might realize it wasn't Jack in there and decide they didn't need her alive. The tree roots might block tangler cartridges, but they wouldn't protect her from the mercenaries' machine guns. Draycos had to take them out before what was left of the main force arrived.

Problem was, there were five soldiers pinning Alison down, and he had only three shots left in his tangler.

Which meant he would have to do this the hard way. Maneuvering around the side of the tree, he picked out the soldier farthest back from the others. If he took out that one first, then did the same to the next in line, he could use his remaining tangler cartridges on the other three.

He was bracing himself to leap when, without warning, a line of shots tore into the tree just below him.

He twisted back around the other side, barely making it before the slugs shattered the spot where he'd been crouching. Tucking his legs in close to his body, he pressed himself against the trunk, wincing as the edges of the tree disintegrated around him. The soldiers below had spotted him.

And unless he did something fast, he was going to die.

"Stay here," Draycos whispered, his voice barely audible over the distant gunfire. "I will return for you."

And with that, he was gone. Jack pressed his back against his tree, watching as the K'da's shadowy form headed upward and then disappeared to the right. A minute later, from that same direction, Jack thought he saw the flicker of a tangler charge. A few seconds after that, he caught a glimpse of another flicker a little farther away.

There was a whisper of movement to his left, and Jack turned just as more shadowy figures hurried past. He pressed harder into his tree, but as far as he could tell, none of the mercenaries even turned around.

And then they were gone.

Jack took a deep breath, feeling his heart pounding in his ears. Stay here, the dragon had said. Stay here where it was safe, while he and Alison dealt with the attack.

Like heck he would.

He found the first group of four soldiers barely ten feet away, sprawled unconscious on the ground. Draycos had nearly missed one of them, he noted: the tangler webbing only covered him from shoulders to hips.

That could prove useful. Unstrapping the soldier's helmet, Jack lifted it off and put it on.

"—not moving, and there's no response from any of them," Colonel Frost's voice came tardy from the helmet's comm. "Morgan must have gotten them."

"Copy," another clipped voice said. "What about the girl?"

"Caprizini has her pinned," Frost said. "We can take her any time we want. The important thing is to find Morgan."

"Copy," the other said. "Circling back now."

"Make sure he's in the bag before you move," Frost warned. "And remember: tanglers only. I want him alive and unharmed."

"Copy."

Jack grimaced. So they knew he was back here, and they were on their way to get him. Meanwhile, Draycos had scampered off with his only weapon.

But that was okay. It was time to trade up anyway.

The soldier had a small pistol belted at his right and a pair of concussion grenades ready at his left. His main weapon, still cradled in his slack grip, was a compact over/under weapon with a machine gun on top and a long-barreled tangler underneath.

It took Jack a few seconds to dig the gun out from under the tangler mesh. Folding its collapsible metal shoulder stock out of his way, he headed back toward the tree where Draycos had left him.

He was halfway there when the background chatter on his helmet comm abruptly changed tone. "Dumbarton, looks like Morgan's got Hammerstein's gun," Frost said sharply. "We've got movement on it—heading west."

Jack looked down at the weapon in his hands, his stomach suddenly knotting. So there were trackers in the guns. Frost had been trickier than he'd expected.

But if Frost had been clever enough to put in trackers, maybe he'd been clever enough for something else, too.

Experimentally, Jack swung the weapon in a horizontal arc. As he did so, a small red light just below the sight winked on and then off. He'd guessed right: along with the trackers, Frost had also included a friend/foe system to warn his soldiers if they were pointing their weapons at one another.

On the surface, the arrangement made a lot of sense. Even with night-sight goggles, vision in the middle of a forest was pretty limited. And with these lopsided odds. Jack and Alison could shoot at pretty much anything that moved, while their opponents had to be careful not to shoot one another in the confusion of battle.