Dragon and Liberator

"Allow me then to greet you and welcome you to Bentre," the manager said. He pulled out a handful of papers and a stylus and pushed them across his counter toward Jack. "Here are the release-and-possession forms that must be completed. I trust you brought a pilot for each vessel? These craft cannot be slaved together as some ships can."

"Yes, I know," Jack said, gently pushing the papers back toward him. "Actually, Sidj Varn just asked me to stop by and make sure the ships were here and ready to go. Another group will be coming by later to actually take possession."

"You will save them valuable time if you complete the forms now," the Compfrin suggested, pushing the forms back again.

Compfrins weren't nosy, Jack reflected, but they could definitely be pushy. "The other group will do that," Jack said firmly, trying to imagine Neverlin's reaction to the news that someone had stopped by his secret-weapons stash and done his paperwork for him. "And I really must go."

He left the office before the manager could protest further. So we know now that Frost's men haven't already retrieved them, Draycos's thought whispered into Jack's mind.

Getting in ahead of the opposition is always a good start, Jack agreed, looking around. The spaceport had a dozen somewhat dilapidated hangars of various sizes scattered across the grounds, including the one where he'd parked the Essenay. Filling the space between the hangars were a variety of other vehicles. Most of them were light personal aircraft, anchored to the ground by thin wires to protect them against gusts of wind.

Should be that one over there, Jack said, nodding toward the westernmost of the hangars as he got into one of the rental carts lined up outside the office. He dropped some coins into the slot and got a grip on the steering lever. Let's go see what kind of bargain Neverlin got.

They had passed the last line of tethered aircraft between them and the hangar when the comm clip on Jack's collar suddenly came to life. "Jack lad, I'm picking up a shuttle with Brummgan markings, coming in from the west," Uncle Virge said tightly. "Could be Frost's pilots."

Jack shot a look over his shoulder at the sky. "How close?"

"Close enough," Uncle Virge said grimly. "You need to get under cover, right now."

Jack looked around. Problem was, there was no cover, at least nothing he could get to quickly.

But there was something he could use as camouflage. "Right," he said, shifting direction toward a group of airplanes about fifty yards from the east side of Neverlin's hangar. "Any idea how many Brummgas are aboard the shuttle?"

"My infrareds can't pick out individual bodies through that kind of hull," Uncle Virge said. "But if we assume twelve pilots plus the shuttle's own crew, the overall IR sum would say they're all human, not Brummgan."

Jack felt his throat tighten. He'd assumed Frost's buddies would be busy stealing Malison Ring ships, and that Neverlin would assign this particular duty to his tame Brummgas. None of that bunch was particularly clever, and most of them had probably never actually seen Jack.

But many of Frost's mercenaries had. Way too many of them.

So much for his chances of running some sort of scam on them.

What's our plan? Draycos asked.

Jack looked over his shoulder again. The fiery glow of the incoming shuttle's drive could now be seen against the cloud-speckled blue of the sky. There's no time to get to real cover, he told the K'da. So we're going to go with the classic technique of hiding in plain sight.

The shuttle was on its final approach as Jack pulled up to the group of aircraft and stopped. "Uncle Virge, I've got a Lightsparrow-66 here," he said, glancing at the nearest airplane's markings as he got out. "I need the location of any outside equipment bays."

"Right. Give me a minute."

Making sure to keep his face away from the incoming shuttle, Jack stepped around to the back of his cart and opened the storage compartment. It was mostly empty, but in one corner he spotted a forgotten screwdriver and a socket wrench. "Uncle Virge?" he prompted, scooping them up.

"Both wing engine pods have access ports on their inboard sides," Uncle Virge reported. "Three bolts along the top, then swing down the panel."

Jack looked at the nearest engine pod, spotted the three bolts. "Got it," he said, turning to it and setting to work with his borrowed screwdriver. He was facing the hangar now, which would be a little risky when Frost's men started piling out. On the other hand, once Jack got the panel open, it should block his face from anyone who looked in this direction.