attack, a Brummga was just the sort of boneheaded hatchetman to cheerfully clean the plate for them. Jack's only hope was to convince the Brummga that he knew absolutely nothing about what was going on.
'Who are you?' the Brummga demanded. 'What are you doing here?'
'I didn't mean anything,' Jack pleaded, using the frightened-child whine that Uncle Virgil had found so useful on so many jobs. 'I saw the ship and just wanted to see if there was anything I could use. I didn't mean anything.'
'How did you see the ship?' the Brummga asked. 'Where did you come from?'
'Right over there,' Jack said, waving vaguely off to the side. 'We've got a little place off in the forest.'
The alien made a sound like a bass drum being attacked by a gang of chipmunks. 'How many of you are there?' he demanded, starting across the room toward Jack. 'What did you see?'
'What do you mean?' Jack asked, trying to sound bewildered. It wasn't easy to out-stupid a Brummga, but he was determined to give it his best shot. 'We saw this ship. I told you that.'
'Before you saw the ship,' the Brummga growled. He was close enough now for Jack to see that his fatigues carried no military rank badges or insignia. 'What happened before?'
'Well, there was a lot of noise,' Jack huffed, as if that should be obvious, still keeping his right shoulder toward the Brummga as the other approached. The tangler was no longer an option, not with that gun pointed at his chest. But his shirt and jacket were still open in front, and the last thing he wanted was to let the other get a clear view of Draycos wrapped around his chest. 'What do you mean, what happened?'
'Did you see anything up in space?' the Brummga asked. 'Were you watching up into space?'
Jack blinked. 'Into space?' he asked. Along the left side of his rib cage, the side away from the Brummga, he could again feel the flowing-paint sensation as Draycos stealthily changed position.
If the dragon was getting restless with the conversation, he wasn't the only one. 'You ask many questions,' the Brummga rumbled, his ugly face turning even uglier. 'But you don't answer any. Maybe you need help with your mouth.'
'Look, I didn't mean anything,' Jack said, putting a little more whine into his voice as he tried desperately to come up with a good story. The Brummga was only four steps away. Another few seconds, and Jack was probably going to find that big ugly gun pressed up against his cheek. If he didn't come up with something before then—
Without warning, a horrible scream pierced the air. It was a sound like Jack had never heard before, and in that single terrifying second he hoped he would never hear it again. It was like the cry of a screech owl twisted together with the howl of a hunting wolf, with the wail of a banshee from Uncle Virgil's old Irish legends thrown into the mix. It seemed to come from everywhere and from nowhere, bouncing around the room and threatening to bring down the rest of the glass from the broken bubble above them.
The Brummga reacted instantly, dropping into a crouch and swinging his gun around to point at the doorway behind him.
And as he turned away from Jack, there was a sudden surge of movement and weight at Jack's back, and a twitching at his holster. The weight disappeared as something fell from beneath his shirt. Jack twisted his head around, just in time to see Draycos land silently on the deck behind him...
With Jack's tangler clutched in his front paws.
There was a soft chuff; and an instant later the tangler cartridge burst against the Brummga's upper back, sending hundreds of thick, milky-white threads bursting outward. The threads whipped around him, wrapping themselves around his torso, head, and arms like an instant spiderweb.
He howled, staggering off balance as he tried to turn around. But he was way too late. Even as he spun back, his gun pointing mostly upward where the tangle of threads had trapped it, the cocoon completed itself. With a brief flash, the capacitor built into the cartridge discharged, sending a jolt of stunning electric current through its captive. The Brummga gave a pitiful doglike yelp, toppled over onto the deck, and lay still.
Draycos was already in motion, bounding over to the fallen mercenary and giving him a quick examination. 'An interesting weapon,' he commented, turning back to Jack. 'We had best get moving.'
It took Jack two tries to find his voice. 'Right,' he managed. 'That was... was that you?'
'A K'da battle cry,' Draycos said, flipping the tangler to Jack. 'It seemed a reasonable diversion. Are you ready?'
'I'm three blocks past ready,' Jack said, dropping the weapon back into its holster.
'Pardon?'
'Skip it,' Jack said. 'The ladder?'
'Yes,' Draycos confirmed, turning his glittering green eyes upward toward the bubble. 'When I say.' Crouching down, he leaped.
Jack followed him with his eyes, feeling his mouth drop open. Twenty feet straight up, and the dragon made it with a foot or two to spare. Twisting around, catlike, on the narrow landing, he got his front paws firmly wrapped around the upper part of the ladder. 'Now; come,' he said.
'Hang on,' Jack said, kneeling down beside the unconscious Brummga as a sudden thought struck him.
'What are you doing?' Draycos demanded.
'Trying to get this thing out,' Jack told him, digging into the tangler webbing over the long holstered wand lying along the mercenary's left leg.
'An unknown weapon is dangerous to use,' Draycos warned.
'You mean like my tangler?' Jack retorted. 'You seemed to handle that just fine.'
'I am a K'da warrior,' Draycos said stiffly. 'The understanding and use of weapons is my profession.'
'You're still lucky I hadn't put the safety catch back on,' Jack grunted. 'Don't worry, a slapstick's the easiest
