Jack braced himself to follow Li down in flames. But even as he opened his mouth to tell Basht he didn't know, there were seven rapid pinpricks on the back of his forearm, the urgent tapping of a K'da claw. 'They have seven hundred, sir,' he said, hoping he was reading Draycos's signal right.
He held his breath. Basht's eyes flicked again to Li, as if silently pointing out that she was the only one not up to speed here. Then he turned and nodded curdy to the colonel.
tto- '
Sir.
He stepped back as the colonel came forward, and Jack let out a silent sigh of relief. He hadn't realized that during all those hours of study Draycos had actually been reading the manual over his shoulder. Lucky for him.
Over his shoulder. On top of his shoulder. Whatever.
'My name is Colonel Elkor,' the other introduced himself. 'Late yesterday we received word from Sunright that the Shamshir have made a major blunder. We've been nibbling around the edges of their main InterWorld transmission station, so they've set up a new one. It's in a mountainous area marked as November Six on our maps.'
He looked them all over, as if expecting them all to know where November Six was. Jack tried to remember if the Missions section had included a map of the Sunright area, but he couldn't.
'The convenient part about that is that we happen to have a forward observation outpost in that region,' Elkor went on. 'That means that if we put some specialized computer equipment in there, we'll be able to tap directly into all their off-planet transmissions.'
He jerked his head back at the boxes he'd been standing beside when the group came in. 'Those are the computers,' he said. 'You are now the computer operators. Any questions?'
There was a moment of uncertain silence. 'Why aren't there any questions?' Elkor demanded. 'You all already know everything?'
Jornmy lifted a hesitant hand. 'Sir? I don't know anything about communications work.'
'That's better,' Elkor rumbled. 'Fact is, none of you do. That's why you're here. Lieutenant Basht will be running you through three days of training that will include electronic eavesdropping, decoding, and some preliminary analysis techniques.'
'Plus giving you all the access codes you'll need to work our systems,' Basht added. 'By the time you're done, each of you will be a fully qualified Whinyard's Edge systems operator.'
'I presume none of you objects to a change in specialties?' Elkor said, lifting his eyebrows. 'If you do, say so now. Plenty of other recruits marching back and forth out there for us to choose from.'
The implications were obvious: stay here and do inside work, or go back outside and sweat. There was another silence from the group, this one a lot more positive than the last. 'Good,' Elkor said briskly. 'The six of you are now designated as Technical Squad Tango Five Zulu. Carry on, Lieutenant.'
He strode from the room. 'All right,' Basht said, gesturing toward the computer stations. 'Everyone pick a station, and let's get started.'
They took a short break for lunch, and an even shorter one for dinner. Throughout the day the noise outside rose and fell as the rest of the recruits were drilled and exercised, then taken away for more target practice, then brought back for more drills and exercise.
The noise inside the room, consisting mostly of Basht's steady drone of information, seemed to go on forever.
The sky was already darkening when they were finally turned loose. 'I guess that's what they mean by information overload,' Jack commented to Draycos as he trudged alone toward the barracks. 'My head is so full it hurts.'
'Perhaps the next two days will be easier,' Draycos suggested from his shoulder. 'You seem to have been given most of the necessary information.'
'Yeah, but the next thing will be drilling us in how to use it,' Jack pointed out. 'That's always a lot harder than just memorizing facts and figures.'
He glanced down at the dragon's head, just visible beneath his collar opening. 'Speaking of facts and figures, thanks for bailing me out when Basht started lobbing pan-fried rocks into our laps. I'm amazed you even bothered reading all that stuff, let alone memorized it.'
'I am a poet-warrior of the K'da,' Draycos reminded him. 'The gathering of military information is part of my profession.'
'Yeah, maybe,' Jack said suspiciously. 'Let me guess: you made up a little song about the Edge's expeditions. Right?'
There was a short pause, and then the dragon's voice rose in gentle melody from beneath his shirt. 'On Eagles' Rock two hundred strong, where humans fight a Trin-trang throng,' the dragon sang. 'Eight hundred fight at Sunright here:Agri and seven friend Shamshir.'
Jack rolled his eyes. 'Words fail me.'
'Thank you,' Draycos said dryly. 'There are thirty more verses if you would care to hear them.'
'Some other time.'
They walked in silence a few more steps. 'I trust you realize,' Draycos said at last, 'that this is a trap.'
'Oh, I know,' Jack assured him. 'Let's hear your take on it.'
'They know that someone tried to break into their system last night,' the dragon said. 'They suspect it was you, but are not certain. They therefore offer you the chance to learn their access codes, in the hope that you will try again tonight.'
'Not bad,' Jack said. 'You're getting better at this sneaky stuff.'
'I will take that as a compliment,' Draycos said gravely. 'Thank you.'
'You're welcome,' Jack said. 'Only one thing. Unless they also think I'm dumber than dirt soup, they know I won't try another midnight stroll. Not with them alerted like this.'
'What then do they expect?'
'I figure there are two possibilities,' Jack said. 'One, that I'll go straight off the chutzpah meter and try to break into the records while Basht is standing right there teaching me how to do it.'
'What is a chutzpah meter?'
'Chutzpah is sheer, blatant nerve,' Jack growled. Having to stop every third sentence to explain something was starting to get really old. The minute they were back on the Esse-nay, he promised himself, he was going to sit the dragon in front of a dictionary and not let him get up until he'd memorized it. 'The classic definition is a kid on trial for murdering both parents, who pleads for
