This time, though, Uncle Virge was right. They found nothing interesting, or at least nothing that didn't belong in a spaceport. A whole army had apparently walked past the locker.
'At least we've got the fingerprints,' Jack said, putting the EvGa away and pulling out his multitool. 'Now for the door, I guess. You said there was another way to get in, Draycos?'
'To look in,' Draycos corrected. Crouching down, he bounded at Jack's chest and melted onto his skin. 'Will you stand with your back pressed against the door?' he added from Jack's shoulder.
Jack frowned sideways down at him. 'Tell me first what you've got in mind,' he said warily. 'You've already torn one of my shirts and nearly broken my wrist.'
'There will be no damage,' Draycos assured him. 'Do you recall my picture of how the K'da can seem to become two-dimensional?'
'That data reader thing you showed me on the Havenseeker?' Jack asked. 'Sure. Not that I really understand it.'
'It is not an easy concept,' Draycos conceded. 'But think back to that picture now. This time, imagine that the data reader can bend.'
'Hold it,' Jack said. 'You lost me.'
'Use your hand,' Draycos suggested. 'Hold it flat against your arm.'
'Okay,' Jack said, holding up his right arm and laying his left hand flat along the forearm. 'That's two- dimensional.' He angled the hand like a drawbridge going up, leaving the heel of his hand against the arm. 'And now it's one-dimensional. Right?'
'Correct,' Draycos said, the top of his head poking up off Jack's shoulder again. 'Now leave your hand up, but curl your fingers back down to touch your arm.'
'Uh-huh,' Jack said as he did so. 'So if there was something between the fingers and the palm—'
'Such as a wall,' Uncle Virge put in.
'—such as a wall,' Jack agreed, 'you'd be leaning over it.'
'I'll be dipped in butter and rolled in bread crumbs,' Uncle Virge murmured. 'You can see through walls.'
'Provided the barrier is narrow enough,' Draycos said. 'Though Jack is correct; we refer to it as seeing 'over' a barrier.'
'You can call it orange marmalade if you want to,' Uncle Virge said, sounding genuinely enthusiastic for the first time since they'd met Draycos. 'Well, well. Now that's a talent worth exploring.'
'Uncle Virge,' Jack warned.
'I know, I know—you're reformed,' Uncle Virge soothed him. 'But if you weren't, imagine the kind of team you two would make.'
'We do not use our abilities to steal,' Draycos said, sounding offended by the very suggestion.
'Maybe you don't,' Uncle Virge said. 'But I'll bet plenty of your people have. Or are all K'da so lily-pure that the thought of doing something illegal never even crosses their minds?'
'Of course we are not perfect beings,' Draycos said. 'But—'
'Can we get on with this?' Jack interrupted, turning his back to the locker and pressing hard against it. 'Draycos, do I need to take off my jacket?'
His only answer was another sliding sensation against his skin. He concentrated on the feeling, but couldn't distinguish it from any other time Draycos moved around on him. Maybe sorting out the dragon's moves would come with practice.
For a few seconds nothing happened. Jack kept his back pressed against the locker, fingering his multitool and trying to imagine the kind of jobs Uncle Virgil would have put Draycos to if he'd had the chance.
Of course, convincing a noble K'da warrior to help him break into bank vaults would have been a sizable job all by itself. Certainly would have been an interesting conversation to sit in on.
Maybe he'd still get the chance. There was a lot of Uncle Virgil in Uncle Virge, after all. And if there was one thing Uncle Virgil had always loved, it was a challenge.
'There is a single item in here.' Draycos's voice sounded muffled and distant, yet at the same time oddly close. Was the sound transmitting along Jack's back, perhaps? 'It is a large cylindrical container, perhaps half your height, with tubing and smaller square boxes attached to its base.'
Jack made a face. From that description, it could be practically anything. 'Any writing on it?' he asked. 'Manufacturer, model name—anything?'
'There are several groups of word-symbols,' the near-far answer came. 'However, as I have said, I do not know how to read them.'
There was another skin-slide, and out of the corner of his eye Jack saw Draycos's head reappear on his shoulder. 'However, I could attempt to reproduce it for you, figure by figure,' he offered.
Jack shook his head as he stepped away from the locker. 'That would take time. And it might still not tell us anything.'
He lifted his multitool. 'So. I guess we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way.'
Chapter 11
After Uncle Virge's comment about breaking and entering, he expected Draycos to object to the procedure. But the dragon remained silent as Jack knelt down beside the lock. Maybe this wasn't something a noble K'da warrior wouldn't do.
Though only if necessary, of course.
