Read Dragonback 01 Dragon and Thief for Free Online Page A

troubles of his own. The
last thing he could afford right now was to take on passengers.
    Especially a passenger who looked like a bright gold dragon. That
was definitely not the way to keep a low profile. "Look,
Draycos—"
    "Before you decide, I must add one other piece of information,"
the dragon said. "The reason we are standing amid the wreckage of my
ship is that my people were attacked. Moreover, we were attacked by the
ultimate weapon of the Valahgua, our mortal enemies."
    Jack shook his head. "Never heard of them. Uncle Virge?"
    "No reference on the books," the other said.
    "I would not expect you to know of them," Draycos said.
    "Like us, they live a long way from here. Our voyage took nearly
two years, human measure, and carried us across a great void of space."
    "You mean like from another spiral arm?" Jack hazarded, trying to
visualize the map of the Milky Way galaxy from the limited and highly
informal schooling Uncle Virgil had given him between jobs. All of
explored space, both the human-colonized regions as well as all the
other known alien species and planets, lay along the broad band of
stars called the Orion Arm. To get here from outside that band would be
quite a trip.
    "That is correct," Draycos confirmed. "We came in hopes of fleeing
the Valahgua and their terrible weapon. Yet the weapon was here waiting
for us."
    "They must have followed you."
    "Impossible," Draycos said. "As I said, their weapon was here
ahead of us."
    "And on human-designed ships, too," Uncle Virge pointed out.
"Unless your Valahgua fly Djinn-90s."
    "The only explanation was that we were betrayed," Draycos said.
"You have to help me find those responsible."
    "Oh, no I don't," Jack retorted. "Look, I'm sorry your people got
nailed. But this isn't any of my business."
    "You are wrong," Draycos said firmly. "The Death chooses no
favorites, be they Shontine or K'da or human. There is no defense
against it, and there is no bargaining with the Valahgua. If they have
formed a secret alliance with one of the species in this region, all of
your people are in deadly danger."
    "What do you mean, no defense?" Uncle Virge asked.
    "There is no material that can block the weapon," Draycos said.
"Its range is short, but all within that range die. We must bring
warning to your people."
    Jack made a face. "Yes, well, that might be a little difficult,"
he said. "You see—"
    "Quiet!" Draycos cut him off suddenly.
    "What?" Jack whispered.
    "Footsteps," Draycos whispered back. "Someone is coming."

CHAPTER 5

    Jack was still holding the alien data reader. Flipping up his
shirttail, he stuffed the gadget into one of the back pockets of his
jeans. "How many?" he whispered.
    "Only one set of footsteps," Draycos murmured back. The dragon
head had again lifted out of Jack's shoulder, the long snout poking out
under the edge of the shirt. "He moves cautiously, like a warrior."
    "Or a cop," Jack muttered, crossing as silently as he could to the
chair where he'd hung his jacket. He couldn't hear the footsteps
himself, but he didn't doubt the dragon's pointy little ears for a
minute. "Any other way out of here?"
    "There is the bubble," Draycos said. The snout lifted to point
toward the ceiling. "But the ladder is no longer secure."
    Jack looked up as he got his arms into his jacket sleeves. It was
a good twenty feet up to the first landing, plus another ten feet to a
second landing and then the broken glass of the bubble. And the ladder
did indeed look pretty rickety.
    But the chance of a two-story fall was still better than tangling
with a trained soldier. Or with a cop. "I'll risk it," he said,
shifting direction toward the ladder. He reached it, got a grip on the
uprights—
    "Solidify!" a hard, flat voice snapped from the doorway behind him.
    Jack froze in place, wincing. Caught like a rat in a box; and he
still hadn't heard any footsteps. Whoever this guy was, he was way too
good for Jack's liking. "Don't shoot," he called, putting some
near-panic into his