accompanied by an occasional flash of laser fire.
And at the focus of all that fury, firing gamely back at their attackers, was the rest of Technical Squad Tango Five Zulu.
Jommy and Li were crouched in the open hatchway, Jommy with some kind of machine gun, Li firing blasts with a Gompers flash rifle. Below them, lying flat on the ground behind one of the transport's landing skids, were Rogan and Brinkster, also with machine guns.
Alison was nowhere in sight, but it wasn't hard to guess where she was. Ten to one she was already inside the transport, trying to get it started.
Jack shook his head, half amazed, half annoyed. Here he'd come all this way back to rescue them, and they'd already gotten out on their own.
'You must give covering fire,' Draycos called from the cockpit.
Jack took another look. The dragon was right. The squad was fighting back well enough, but unless Alison could get the Flying Turtle started real soon, they were going to run out of ammunition long before the Shamshir gave up and went away. 'Right,' he called back between clenched teeth. 'What do I do?'
A second later he was thrown back inside as the dragon swung them around in a tight circle. Just in time; even as he grabbed for a strap to steady himself, a burst of gunfire raked across the side of the transport, some of the rounds chewing up the ceiling and far wall. 'Stay clear!' Draycos shouted.
'You bet,' Jack ground out, suddenly remembering what exacdy it was he had gotten himself into. This wasn't some practice drill, and those Shamshir soldiers out there weren't firing marker lasers.
Draycos straightened the Lynx out, and Jack pulled himself cautiously back to the door. They had overshot the scene of the battle, he saw, and were coming back around behind the buildings. Apparently Draycos meant for him to shoot at the Shamshir from behind.
That was fine with him. He'd just as soon fire from a direction the other guys' guns weren't pointed at. He flipped the firing lever like the Whinyard's Edge manual had showed, pointed the gun in the general direction of the buildings, and pulled the trigger.
If it hadn't been for the harness holding him up, he would have instantly found himself flat on his back. As it was, he nearly wound up there anyway. The MP-50 had a kick like an angry Brummga, a hundred times more powerful than the simple little tangler gun he was used to.
The weapon also had a definite mind of its own. Even as he staggered backward, the muzzle seemed to jump upward, and before he could get his finger off the trigger his burst had chewed up a little more of the transport's ceiling.
'Jack!'
'I'm okay,' Jack called back, struggling back to his feet and trying to salvage some shreds of dignity. 'I've never fired one of these things, that's all.'
'Come up here,' Draycos ordered. 'You will fly. I will shoot.'
So much for dignity. So much, too, for any possible career as a soldier. Just in case he'd been interested in one. 'Sure,' Jack muttered, untangling himself from his harness and running forward.
They were nearly back to the edge of the forest now, Jack saw as Draycos hopped out of the pilot's seat and he hopped in. 'What do you want me to do?' he asked.
'Take us behind the Shamshir buildings,' Draycos instructed. Snatching the MP-50 from Jack's hands, he headed aft, loping along on three legs as he hugged the machine gun to his belly with the other.
'Pvight,' Jack said, sending the transport around again in a smooth curve. He caught a glimpse of the darkened mine buildings as he swung past, and then they were sweeping back toward the firefight.
There was a fresh sound of wind behind him. He glanced back, saw that Draycos had opened the left-hand hatchway door and was crouching beside it. 'Better use the safety harness,' Jack called.
'I will be all right,' the dragon replied. 'Just keep your flight movements smooth.'
Jack turned back to his flying, feeling his stomach trying hard to turn itself inside out. Now that the element of surprise was gone, the Shamshir weren't going to just sit there and let the intruder take potshots at them.
And indeed, the transport's bow and windscreen were already starting to crackle with the impact of bullets. Biting down hard on his lip, trying to remember Draycos's optimistic assumptions about the Lynx's armor, he forced himself to ignore the deadly hail and to keep his head high enough to see where he was going. From the rear he could hear the chatter of Draycos's gun as they buzzed past the building.
And then, even as he cautiously lifted his head, the landscape ahead of him suddenly flared with light.
For that first awful second, he thought the Shamshir had blown up the Flying Turtle, killing the rest of his squad. Heart pounding in his ears, he swung the Lynx around.
It hadn't been the Flying Turtle that had blown up. Instead, it was one of the Agri hardened-mud huts that was now blazing furiously away. The very hut, in fact, that he'd been locked into after his little chat with Lieutenant Cue Ball.
The hut that had contained, among other things, grenades and spare ammunition.
'Did it work?' Draycos asked. He was at Jack's side now, peering over his shoulder.
'I don't know,' Jack said. 'How exactly was it supposed to work?'
The dragon's tongue flicked out. 'Like so.'
To Jack's amazement, the Shamshir soldiers were on the move. Not toward the transport, like they had decided to rush it, but away.
All of them. Running away from the two buildings like the whole Whinyard's Edge was after them.
Jack cleared his throat. 'You think they're running because of the risk of burning explosives next door?' he asked carefully.
'Of course,' Draycos said, a distinct note of satisfaction in his voice.
'Not maybe because there might be something else in the hut?' Jack went on. 'Something maybe a little nastier than grenades?'
'I—' Draycos broke off. 'I do not know.'
'Me, neither,' Jack said grimly. 'What do you say we get the squad aboard and get out of here?'
'Agreed,' Draycos said. Setting his gun onto the deck, he leaped up and vanished down the back of Jack's shirt. 'And Jack?'
'Yes?'
The dragon's head rose a little from his shoulder. 'Do not land us too close to the fire. Just in case.'
