do the Whinyard's Edge, if you believe Lieutenant Cue Ball. What do you suppose they'd do if the mine wasn't there anymore?'
Draycos pondered a moment. 'Those who care only for its wealth would leave this world.'
He twisted his head around to look squarely into Jack's eyes. 'But this is not your property, Jack,' he added. 'You have no right to choose its destruction.'
'Not even to save people caught in a war none of them want?' Jack countered. 'Come on, K'da warrior, let's hear those ethics of yours. Is the wealth from a mine more important than the people who own it?'
'The people are of course more important,' the dragon said, his voice oddly sad. 'But there must be another way.'
'There isn't,' Jack said firmly. 'Look, I trust you in warrior stuff. Trust me in this, okay?'
Draycos bounded from Jack's collar, landing on the deck behind him. 'Very well,' he said reluctantly. 'If there is no other way, then let us do it.'
Jack smiled tightly. The K'da poet-warrior had done his part of the job. Now it was time for the human con artist to do his. 'Just line up those grenades,' he said. 'I'll do the rest.'
The main doors were wide and tall, designed to let large ore-carrying vehicles in and out. They were also built pretty strong.
Fortunately, the Lynx was built even stronger. With a crash of breaking wood and the screech of torn metal, it broke through the doors and rumbled into the main building beyond.
'How are you doing?' Jack shouted over the crunch of demolished support beams and wall siding as he drove the Lynx inward toward the tall tower that stood over the mine opening itself.
'I am nearly ready,' Draycos called back.
'Good,' Jack said. 'Brace yourself.'
And with a final thunderous crash, he slammed the transport through the lower part of the tower and settled to the floor squarely on top of the shaft leading down into the ground.
'We're here,' Jack announced, shutting off the engines and sliding out of his seat. 'Let's make tracks.'
Draycos looked up from the neat row of grenades he had laid out from the rear of the compartment to just behind Jack's seat. 'Pardon?'
'Let's get out of here,' Jack clarified. 'Come aboard.'
With Draycos on his back, Jack picked his way through the splintered wood and other debris outside. The Essenay was waiting just outside the entrance, bobbing slighdy on its lifters with an air of worried impatience. 'Come on, lad, come on,' Uncle Virge urged as Jack ran up the ramp. 'Those other fighters will be here any minute.'
'Then let's give them something to light their way,' Jack said as he raced to the cockpit and slid into the pilot's seat. 'I want a quick laser burst straight in the hole we made.'
'Targeted where?' Uncle Virge asked.
'Targeted on the back of the transport we made the hole with,' Jack said, doing a quick check of the Essenay's weapons systems.
'The transport?' Uncle Virge asked, sounding confused. 'But—?'
'Never mind,' Jack said. 'You just aim. I'll fire.'
'We should move back,' Draycos murmured. 'The blast could be considerable.'
'Good point,' Jack agreed, keying the Essenay into a fast backward drift. 'Everyone ready?'
'I suppose,' Uncle Virge said. Draycos didn't answer.
'Good,' Jack said. 'Here goes.'
The lasers flickered, and he held his breath. If this didn't work ...
And then, from the entrance came a flash of return light, then the roiling flicker of fire. The rest of the Lynx's fuel had caught. 'That should do it,' Jack said, pulling the Essenay around and heading for the sky. 'Let's grab some distance before the grenades go.'
'The grenades?' Uncle Virge echoed. 'Jack, lad—'
And then, the grenades went.
It was even more spectacular than Jack had expected. The sides of the main building blew out as a ring of fire sliced horizontally outward in all directions. The tower, directly above the explosion, shot probably half a dozen feet straight up, then toppled over. It landed on one of the two side buildings, crashing through its roof.
A few seconds after it had begun, it was over. The buildings had collapsed into shattered ruin, with everything flammable in them burning furiously. It was like one of the triumphal bonfires Jack had read about, except that there was no one here celebrating anything.
Maybe the Agri who had worked so hard to create the mine would thank him. Eventually.
He took a deep breath. 'Well,' he said, to no one in particular. 'I guess that's that.'
'It is indeed,' Uncle Virge agreed, sounding rather awestruck himself. 'Never let it be said that you do things halfway, Jack lad.'
Jack pursed his lips. Maybe. Maybe not. For now, he could only hope he'd accomplished what he'd set out to do. 'We'd better get out of here before those fighters arrive,' he said, reaching for the controls. 'You with me, Draycos?'
'I am here,' the dragon said softly. 'Yes; let us go.'
Chapter 28
'Sorry, lad,' Uncle Virge said, his voice as quiet and apologetic and sincere as a professional fundraiser. 'I'm afraid the Shamshir Mercenaries keep pretty sloppy records on their competitors' aircraft. There isn't any way we're going to be able to trace those Djinn-90s from this.'
'Uh-huh,' Jack said, gazing across the table with a fascinated repugnance as he watched Draycos tearing into his fourth soup bowl full of hamburger, tuna fish, chocolate sauce, and motor oil.
It wasn't that he couldn't understand the dragon's hunger. After all, Draycos hadn't had much to eat for the past three weeks. But the thought of that particular food combination still sent Jack's own taste buds screaming for cover. 'So that's it, huh?'
'That's it,' Uncle Virge confirmed. 'And if I may say so, you might recall that I thought the idea was doomed idiocy from the start. So now we can get on with a proper job of saving Draycos's people?'
