landed on the area around the sink and turned around, balancing himself there with apparent ease. 'It is important,' he promised. 'Do you remember the map we were shown of the area around November Six?'
Jack frowned. 'You woke me from a good nap for this? A geography quiz?'
'Please,' Draycos said earnestly. 'The Gray Hills flow from northeast to southwest, with Bear Mountain to the north of the base. Correct?'
'Right,' Jack said. 'Then the Gray Hills continue down toward Octrani Lake, with the Partanra River flowing out mostly west from there.'
'While a tributary of that same river is the water that flows through Mer'seb,' Draycos said. 'The Parprin town we have just left. Correct?'
'Sounds right,' Jack confirmed, stifling a yawn. 'So what?'
'So this,' Draycos said. 'The place we were shown on the map is not the place we are going.'
Chapter 14
Jack sat up straight, his tiredness suddenly gone. 'How do you know?'
'I am a poet-warrior of the K'da,' Draycos reminded him. 'The reading of maps is part of my profession. I have been watching the ground through the window.'
Jack's stomach was trying to do somersaults. 'How far off are we?'
'Our course from Mer'seb should have taken us at an angle slightly north of east,' Draycos said. 'We did indeed set out in that direction. But approximately one hour ago we changed gradually to a more northerly direction.'
Jack glanced at his watch. They'd been in the air about an hour and a half. Thirty more minutes until landing.
Or at least, that was what Grisko had told them. Maybe the sergeant didn't know something had gone weird, either.
Then again, maybe he did. 'So where are we headed?'
'If we are still to land in one half hour, I believe we will arrive near the western edge of the Gray Hills,' Draycos said. 'Perhaps three hundred miles north of November Six.
'And if we don't stop in half an hour?'
'All regions beyond that are either neutral or considered enemy-controlled.'
Jack chewed at his lip. Terrific. 'So what do we do?'
'There are two squads of fully armed soldiers aboard,' Draycos reminded him. 'They could be made aware of the situation.'
The dragon had a point. If the pilot was an enemy agent trying to take them to the wrong place, two squads of Edge-men ought to be able to argue the point with him. Surely none of them wanted to end their trip in enemy territory, either.
On the other hand, having a gun battle in the middle of a flying transport didn't sound like a very smart idea. 'I'd better talk to Grisko,' he decided. 'Come on, get aboard.'
Obediently, the dragon stepped onto Jack's outstretched hand and slithered up his sleeve. Sealing the neck of his shirt again, Jack headed out.
Grisko was sitting alone in the back, on the opposite side of the Lynx from Jack's seat. He'd probably picked that spot so he could watch the rest of the group.
Though at the moment he wasn't watching anything at all. His eyes were closed, his head sagging slightly against the headrest.
Jack pursed his lips. The sergeant was probably not going to like this. 'Sergeant Grisko?' he said quietly.
Grisko's eyes remained closed. 'What is it, Montana?'
'I think we're off course, sir.'
Grisko pried one eye open and squinted up at him. 'Excuse me?'
'We're not headed for November Six,' Jack told him. 'We seem to be going somewhere north of there.'
Grisko pried the other eye open, and for a long moment he seemed to be studying Jack's face. 'Good observation,' he said at last. 'As it happens, our orders have been changed. The Shamshir moved their transmitter yesterday to point Kilo Seven. We're moving with it.'
'Oh,' Jack said. So that was it. All nice and simple and reasonable. Certainly a lot less threatening than a daring midair hijacking.
Which left only one little problem. Uncle Virge was still heading for the area around November Six, which meant that Jack's plan for getting the Djinn-90 information was no longer going to work. Worse, when it came time to wrap this up and make a run for the tall grass, his primary escape route was going to be sitting on the ground three hundred miles away.
Grisko was still gazing up at him. 'Is this a problem for you?' he asked.
'No, sir,' Jack said, trying to sound as unconcerned as possible. 'Sorry to have wakened you.'
'Half an hour to the base,' Grisko said, closing his eyes again. 'Better get some rest. I've got a strange feeling you're going to be on sentry duty tonight.'
Jack grimaced. 'Yes, sir.'
He returned to his seat and curled up again beside the window. Even in the few minutes he'd been away the shadows of the trees had visibly lengthened along the ground. Sunset couldn't be too far away.
'I do not like it,' Draycos murmured from his shoulder as he slid open the neck of Jack's shirt again.
'Me, neither,' Jack agreed. He pulled his shirt open a little more and shifted in his seat so that the dragon would have a better view out the window. 'You first.'
'I am not familiar with your transmission science,' the dragon said. 'But with the K'da and Shontine, a device that can reach between stars is large and not easily moved. Certainly not in a single day.'
'That's mostly true here, too,' Jack agreed. 'The Esse-nay's got a compact InterWorld transmitter built into it, but Uncle Virgil was always setting up deals and scams across the Orion Arm. He couldn't risk having them traced back to him through a commercial InterWorld site.'
'Even our largest ships cannot carry such a transmitter,' Draycos said. 'Are such common here?'
'Not really,' Jack said, frowning. 'Actually, not at all. The biggest StarForce ships have them, I know, and I'm pretty sure a few starliners do, too. But now that I think about it, I can't remember anyone else in Uncle Virgil's circle having one aboard their ships. Whatever he paid for ours, the price must have been astronomical.' He snorted. 'Either that, or he stole it.'
'Then let us assume the Shamshir transmitter is not easily portable,' Draycos said. 'Moving it would cost them considerable time and effort. It would not be an operation they could hide.'
