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

defend
myself?"
    "Do such discussions make you uncomfortable?"
    Jack shook his head impatiently. "Can we just skip this?"
    "Of course," Draycos said, as if he hadn't been the one who'd
brought it up in the first place. "Shall I give you my report on the
nighttime patrols?"
    "Yeah, sure," Jack said. "Go ahead."
    "There are four separate teams," Draycos said. "Two soldiers in
each. They pass within view of the main headquarters' entrance
approximately once every twenty minutes."
    "How regular is that twenty minutes?" Jack asked.
    "Close, but not exact," Draycos said. "The period has ranged from
eighteen to twenty-five minutes."
    "Do they always come from the same directions each time?"
    "Again, approximately," the dragon said. "I have noted slight
differences in the direction of approach, but nothing significant."
    "A regular patrol pattern, then," Jack decided, his annoyance at
the dragon forgotten. Draycos might be the local expert on morals and
ethics, but putting puzzle pieces together was where Jack got to shine.
"If there's one thing Uncle Virgil taught me to love, it's regular
patterns."
    "There may still be alarms on the doors," Draycos warned.
    "I'm sure there are," Jack agreed. "And on the computer, too. But
I know how to handle those. My biggest worry was getting shot on the
way there."
    "Do we then make our attempt tonight?" Jack fired his last two
rounds while he considered. "Let's give it one more night," he said.
"If the patrol pattern is still the same, we'll go tomorrow."
    "And if we are successful?"
    "Well, we're sure not going to hang around any longer than we have
to," Jack told him, slinging his rifle and starting to back up. As
before, the technique felt a lot more awkward than Alison had made it
look. "If Uncle Virge is on the ball, he'll have the Essenay stashed somewhere nearby. Once we've pulled everything the Edge has on
Djinn-90 fighters, we'll whistle him up and get out of here."
    "And if we do not find what we need?"
    "If they've got it, we'll find it," Jack said confidently. "If not
. . . well, we'll worry about that when it happens."
    He reached the cover of the trees and stood up. "Come on. Let's go
see how I did."
    "Not very well, I am afraid," Draycos said. "But do not be
discouraged. Long-range shooting is difficult to master."
    "It could have been a lot harder," Jack pointed out. "A machine
gun, or even a semiautomatic projectile rifle . . ." He trailed off, a
strange thought striking him.
    "Is there trouble?" Draycos asked.
    "I was just thinking," Jack said slowly. "A flash rifle doesn't
have any kick. No recoil. You understand?"
    "Yes."
    "That makes it a lot easier to learn," Jack went on. "But it's
also a whole lot more expensive to shoot. Does that sound like the kind
of weapon you'd want beginners to start with?"
    Draycos was silent a moment. "You are being taught to march and
stand in formation," he said. "From your books you are being taught the
words and expressions soldiers use, and a great deal of technical
information. Now you are learning how to shoot the easiest of possible
weapons."
    " And , if you believe Alison's numbers, all of this is
happening in a quarter of the time regular soldiers need for their
training," Jack finished for him. "This is starting to feel a little
creepy."
    "Yet as you yourself said, you are only being trained as garrison
assistants," Draycos reminded him. "Perhaps this is adequate for such
duty."
    "Maybe," Jack said. "But like Alison said, you can get just as
dead in a garrison as you can out in the field."
    Still, he reminded himself as he continued through the trees, he
wouldn't be staying for that part of the operation. Tomorrow night he
and Draycos would pull the information they needed, and then they would
be out of here. "Anyway, I'll bet I did better than you think," he
added.
    "You have a tendency to shoot high," Draycos told him.
    "I do not," Jack insisted. "You wait and see. You'll be eating
those words for your dinner."
    "Pardon?"
    Jack