Read Dragonback 03 Dragon and Slave for Free Online

garden,
then past the open sports field they'd seen earlier from the air.
Beyond the field a ten-foot-tall hedge stretched across the grounds, as
far to both sides as Jack could see in the backwash from the
headlights. The road led them through a narrow gap in the hedge, just
barely wide enough for the car.
    Beyond the hedge, the landscape was rougher and wilder, with none
of the careful maintenance he'd seen in the grounds near the house. The
fancy stone road ended at the hedge, too, turning into a more ordinary
stone-embedded blacktop.
    They had left the Chookoock family's personal compound. Now, they
were in the working areas of the estate.
    The slave areas.
    Jack stared out into the glow of the headlights, trying to
remember the layout he'd seen from the Essenay . But it was all
rather vague in his mind. His plan had always been to get into the main
house, and once it was clear he wasn't going to get there by going over
the wall he'd mostly lost interest in the grounds themselves.
    But Draycos would have paid attention, he knew. The K'da warrior
was very good at details like that. That would help.
    He only hoped it would help enough.
    They were coming up on the edge of a forest when the headlights
finally picked up a group of buildings ahead. At first glance, the
setup reminded Jack of the Whinyard's Edge training camp, with a couple
of long barracks-style buildings mixed in with a few other structures
of different shapes and sizes.
    But at second glance, it was clear this was a very different sort
of place. The paint on the buildings was peeling badly, and in many of
those spots the bare wood was discolored and rotting. The steps leading
up to the various doors were rough and unfinished, some of them with
the bark still attached to the wood.
    The overall construction was poorly done, too. Not all the boards
seemed to fit right, and there were gaps in places where the boards had
been too short, or else had rotted away.
    The car turned a little to the left as they approached the cluster
of buildings. Its headlights swept across and then steadied on a group
of what looked like three metal packing crates set out in the middle of
a wide circle of sand.
    One of the Brummgas sitting behind Jack tapped his shoulder with a
finger the size and weight of a wrench. "Pick a number," he said.
    Jack frowned. "Two hundred seventeen."
    The Brummga made a disgusted sound. "Pick a number from one to
three."
    In the privacy of the darkness, Jack made a face. Like he was
supposed to have known that. "Three."
    "Number three," the Brummga told the driver.
    The car angled a couple more degrees, and a moment later came to
rest with its headlights centered on the packing crate on the far left.
"Get out," the first Brummga ordered.
    Jack obeyed, the aliens piling out alongside him. While the other
two stood guard, the driver stepped to the box and crouched down. There
was a large handle near the bottom of the crate, just above a narrow
horizontal slit, with a keyhole at one end.
    The Brummga fumbled a key into place and turned it. Getting a grip
on the handle, he straightened up again, swinging the whole front of
the box upward. "Get in," he ordered, gesturing inside with his free
hand.
    Steeling himself, Jack did so.
    From the outside, the box had seemed pretty small. From the
inside, it seemed even smaller. He had to duck low to keep from
whacking his head on the ceiling as he stepped in, and if he'd tried
waving his arms around he would have dislocated both elbows. There was
a small pan in one corner; from its lingering aroma, it probably served
as the toilet facilities.
    The driver didn't give him much chance to study his new quarters.
Jack was barely inside when the wall swung shut behind him, throwing a
brief gust of air at the back of his neck and plunging him into
darkness. There was another click from the lock, the sound of plodding
footsteps in the sand, and the hum of the car as it pulled away and
headed for home.
    Leaving him alone in