Dragonback 02 Dragon and Soldier by Timothy Zahn Read Free Book Online

things differently."
    "Stop," Draycos said suddenly.
    Jack froze, half concealed behind a particularly large tree.
"What?" he demanded, his eyes nicking around.
    "Beyond this tree is open ground," Draycos said. "You must go low
to cross it."
    "Oh, for—" Jack threw a glare down at his shirt. "It is only a
training exercise, you know."
    "Then let us properly train you," Draycos said. "Go low."
    Jack sighed. "Just what I've always wanted," he muttered, slinging
the Gompers over his back and getting down on his hands and knees. "My
own personal drill sergeant."
    "Use your center joints," Draycos advised. "You will stay lower
and be able to move more quickly."
    "My center—? Oh. Knees and elbows."
    "Correct. I am surprised they have not already taught you that."
    Jack frowned as he started across the patch of open ground toward
the rocks ahead. Come to think of it, why hadn't they?
    The knees-elbows waddle was easier than he would have expected. It
was still a lot more awkward than just walking, though. Reaching a
convenient notch in the rocks, he carefully eased his head up for a
look.
    He was at the edge of a large gravel pit that stretched out for
probably a hundred yards, maybe fifty feet deep at its lowest point. A
dozen electronic targets had been set up at various places in the pit.
    "Nothing like starting us off at long-range work," Jack muttered,
unlimbering his rifle and flipping off the safety. "Whatever happened
to 'Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes'?"
    "Pardon?"
    "Skip it." At least there was a conveniently shaped notch on top
of one of the rocks where he could brace the rifle. Setting the muzzle
into the notch, he started to get to his knees.
    "Keep your head down," a girl's voice ordered.
    Frowning, Jack rolled over onto his side and looked behind him.
    It was Alison Kayna.

CHAPTER 6

    She was coming from the trees behind him, wriggling across the
open ground using the same elbows-and-knees crawl Draycos had just
taught him. Naturally, she was doing it better. "What did you say?" he
asked.
    "I said keep your head down," she repeated, angling toward a
section of rock near Jack's. "They'll have snipers targeting us from
the far side of the gravel pit."
    Jack shrunk down a little behind the protection of the rocks.
"Snipers?"
    "You don't think this is just target practice, do you?" Alison
asked, puffing a little as she reached the rocks. "You've seen the
games Grisko likes to play. You think he'd pass up a golden opportunity
like this?"
    "A golden opportunity for what?" Jack demanded. Suddenly the rock
he was leaning against didn't feel nearly so solid and secure anymore.
"Blowing our heads off?"
    "Oh, get real," she scolded, unslinging her Gompers from across
her back. "They'll just be using marker lasers."
    "Never heard of them."
    "They cause a mild skin reaction. You don't even feel it, but the
mark shows up like a spot of sunburn."
    Jack began to breathe a little easier. "Temporary, I hope."
    "It lasts a day or two." Alison eased an eye up into a gap between
two rocks. "Shows where you got careless."
    "Nice of them to tell us about this," Jack grumbled, rolling back
onto his stomach and sidling his way over toward a lower and better
protected gap in the rocks. "Good thing you know your way around this
stuff."
    "I did some research," Alison said. "I gather you didn't."
    "Not really," Jack said. He lined up his sights on one of the
distant targets, wondering if someone across the way was lining up
sights on him. "I figured they'd be giving us all the training we
needed."
    "I wasn't talking about training," Alison said. "But that's
another point."
    Carefully, Jack squeezed the trigger. There was a brief flash of
laser light accompanied by a soft hiss, and the spent power cartridge
ejected from the chamber. It rolled across the grass, trailing the
stink of chemical reactant behind it. "What's another point?"
    "The training." There was a hiss from her direction as she
squeezed off a shot of her own.