Dragonback 05 Dragon and Judge by Timothy Zahn Read Free Book Online

contents. "And a couple of
data tubes. No money."
    "In that case, send it along," Sideburns said. "The boss might
like to see what Morgan's been hiding all these years."
    Mustache handed the bag to Alison. Looping the strap over her
shoulder, she scooped up the rest of her personal belongings from the
table and stuffed them back into her various pockets. She reached for
her comm clip—
    Mustache's hand got there first. "I'll take this," he said. He
started to put it in his pocket, then paused. "Let's check, shall we,
just for the fun of it?" Clicking it on, he held it to his own collar.
"Hello, Virgil?"
    Alison held her breath. But from the wry pucker of Mustache's lips
she could tell that Uncle Virge had anticipated this possibility. "I
see you like classical music," he said. "Beethoven, isn't it?"
    He handed the comm clip to her. Alison held it against her collar,
to find that Uncle Virge had piped in the feed from one of Semaline's music broadcasts. "Schubert, actually," she said, starting
to fasten it back on.
    "Don't bother," Mustache said, taking back the clip and shutting
it off again as he put it into his pocket. "There won't be any news or
music broadcasts for you to listen to along the way."
    "Come on, girl," Sideburns said, gesturing toward the door.
"You're in the big time now. Don't want to keep them waiting."
    Alison shivered. "No," she murmured. "Of course not."

CHAPTER 5

    The stone bridge was just steep enough that Jack decided he didn't
want to try walking down it face first. Instead, he backed his way
down, wondering whether this was the sort of thing a grand exalted Jupa
would do.
    By the time he reached the ground, a half-dozen Golvins had
gathered at the foot of the bridge. One of them, who Jack tentatively
identified as the one who had first accosted him at the spaceport, was
clutching a handful of small notebooks. "Jupa Jack," he said, his eyes
bright. "I bring you the lists."
    "Thanks," Jack said, eyeing the notebooks with a sinking feeling.
Specs and records from the mine Draycos had spotted upstairs? "Just,
uh, just put them in my apartment, will you?"
    "As you wish, Honored Jupa," the other said, selecting one of the
notebooks and handing it to him. "I thought you might wish to study the
list of uprights right away."
    "Good idea," Jack said, opening it to a page at random. There was
nothing but lists of numbers down the left-hand side of each page,
along with some sort of chicken scratchings beside them that was
probably the local writing.
    "We have not yet had time to translate them into Broad-speak," the
Golvin said apologetically. "But rest assured that all those listed are
uprights. And the lists themselves have all been done in Broadspeak, as
the Jupa Stuart taught us to do."
    "That's good," Jack said. He eyed the list of numbers again, a
sneaking suspicion beginning to tug at him. If the head man here was
called the One . . . "What's your name, by the way?"
    "I am One-Four-Seven Among Many," the Golvin said proudly. "But if
your wisdom shows the path, I may soon be raised to a higher—"
    "Onfose!" one of the others cut him off, clearly shocked. "How dare you suggest such a thing?"
    One-Four-Seven—Onfose?—cringed. "I meant nothing, Nionei," he said
hastily. "I merely meant—"
    "You will allow Jupa Jack to make his own decisions, at his own
time, in his own way," Nionei said firmly. " And not with you and
he alone, but with all present and sided."
    "Of course," Onfose said. "My most abject apologies, Jupa Jack."
    "He really does mean no harm," the critic said, still looking a
little cross as he glared at Onfose. "But you will note his name does not appear among the uprights."
    Jack flipped a few pages over. Sure enough, between 135 and 177
there were no entries. "I'll keep that in mind," he said. "If you'll
take the rest of the notes to my apartment as I asked, I'd like to walk
around a little. Get a feel for the place."
    "As you desire, Honored Jupa," Onfose said. "Do you wish