"As you wish." Gazen threw a dark look at the Brummgas. "What are you waiting for? I told you what to do. Do it."

"Yes, Panjan Gazen," one of them said. "Come, humans."

The Brummgas led the way back across the entryway chamber. "And here we go,"

Jack commented, glancing part way over his shoulder. The bodyguard was following behind him, staying a cautious three steps back. Too far away for Draycos to get to, at least not without being seen. "It might not be a bad idea for you to think about which side you're on, either," he suggested.

"I'm on the right side," the bodyguard countered calmly. "You will be, too, in a

couple of minutes."

They reached the far side of the chamber and headed into a deserted corridor Jack had never been down. "I just thought you might want to reconsider," he went on, glancing over his shoulder again. Aside from their little group, he couldn't see anyone else in either direction. This was probably the best chance he and Draycos would have. "You too, of course," he added, turning around to look at the Brummgas on either side of him. "Lucky for you, the Chookoock family isn't the only one hiring on Brum-a-dum."

"He's a talky one, isn't he?" the bodyguard grunted.

"All you humans are talky," one of the Brummgas growled. "He is one of you.

You keep him quiet."

"You hear that?" the bodyguard said. Jack held his breath; from the sound of the voice, he could tell the man was moving forward, closing the gap between them.

"Shut it off, or we'll do it for you."

"Oh, come on," Jack argued. "Freedom of speech comes right after the preamble in the Internos Constitution—"

"I said shut up," the bodyguard snarled. He stepped up behind Jack and gave him a hard slap across the side of the head for emphasis—

And Jack was shoved forward as Draycos boiled up out of the back of his shirt.

Even as he tried to catch his balance there was a crack of K'da scales against human skin from behind him. An instant later, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the dragon arcing overhead toward the two Brummgas.

And as the bodyguard landed on the floor with a thud, Draycos caught the Brummgas' heads between his forepaws and slammed them together. The two aliens collapsed, sprawling into an untidy heap.

"Easy," Jack warned, glancing quickly around. Just ahead on the right was a door marked Storage. "Those helmets of theirs aren't all that strong."

"I needed to make certain they were unconscious," Draycos said grimly, crouching low to the floor. "Besides, one of them helped whip the other slaves. I could smell Wistawki blood on him."

"Ah," Jack said, trying the storage room door. It was unlocked. "Is revenge part of the K'da warrior ethic?"

"We are authorized to deliver justice," Draycos said, hooking one of the Brummgas by the tunic and dragging him into the storage room.

"I know that," Jack said, crouching beside the Brummga and starting to unfasten his jacket. "So was this one justice or revenge?"

"Perhaps a combination of both," Draycos conceded, going back for the other Brummga. "Odd. I have never felt the desire for revenge before."

Jack frowned as he dumped the Brummga alongside his companion. "Not even with the Valahgua slaughtering your people?"

"I have felt fear, and courage, and resolve," Draycos said, the tip of his tail making slow circles in the air as he added the bodyguard to the pile of unconscious bodies. "But I have never acted so strongly from revenge before."

"Probably too much time spent with us emotionally impulsive humans," Jack grunted, pulling off the first Brummga's jacket. It was heavier than it looked.

"Or with Uncle Virge. Revenge and profit were Uncle Virgil's two main reasons for doing anything. Help me get this on, will you?"

"Wearing this will not allow you to masquerade as a Brummga," Draycos warned as he took most of the weight of the jacket on his forepaws.

"Not in here, no," Jack said. "But outside in the dark it might be good enough.

Especially while I'm sitting in one of those cars they use to move slaves around."

"We do not need a car," Draycos pointed out. "Remember the military transports.

We can send one to crash into the gate, then follow in a second."

"Sounds like a plan," Jack agreed, unfastening the Brummga's helmet and pulling it off. "But first I want to check and see if Noy's all right."

"I see," Draycos said, his voice carefully neutral.

"You think that's a bad idea?" Jack challenged.

"On the contrary," the dragon said softly. "It is a very courageous idea. One that is worthy of a K'da warrior."

"In other words, recklessly stupid," Jack grunted, trying the helmet on for size. It was way too big, of course, but in the dark it should do. "I've been spending too much time with you, I guess. Come on, let's get out of here."

CHAPTER 30

There were no guards watching the cars. Jack helped himself to one, and they headed across the Chookoock family grounds.

No one challenged them, either from the house or from the hidden guard posts, and soon they were through the gap in the thorn hedge. With Draycos directing, they arrived at Noy's isolation hut.

It was empty.

"He has not been gone long," the dragon said, sniffing at the air and the cot.

"Four hours, perhaps five."

"The empty juice bottles are still here," Jack said, peering under the cot.

"If the Brummgas had hauled him away, they'd probably have taken those along to try to figure out where they came from."

"Agreed," Draycos said. "Perhaps Noy decided he was recovered enough to return to the others."

"Maybe," Jack said. "As long as we're out here anyway, we might as well check."

The meal hall was brightly lit as they arrived at the edge of the slave colony.

The evening meal, clearly, was in full swing.

"Okay," Jack said, shedding his borrowed Brummgan armor and dumping it in the back seat. "We do this nice and cool. As far as any of them knows, there's no reason why I shouldn't be back." Crossing the empty ground, he walked into the meal hall.

It was like stepping back into a bad dream. Or, more accurately, like stepping from one part of a bad dream into another. The sights, the sounds, the smells—all of it came rushing back like a multiple slap in the face.

Even in the few days he'd been away, he'd managed to forget the squalor these slaves lived in. The squalor, and the filth, and the hunger.

And the hopelessness.

"To your left, one table back," Draycos murmured in his ear. "Seated beside Maerlynn."

"I see him," Jack murmured back. Noy was there, all right, looking tired but otherwise mostly recovered. Ready to go back to picking rainbow berries and making money for the Chookoock family.

For the rest of his life.

And as Jack thought about that, he felt something stirring inside him. A

strange sort of anger, of a kind he'd never felt before.

This was no place for a child. No place at all.

"You will go see if he is all right?" Draycos prompted.

"Sure," Jack said, heading that direction. The Jantri twins were there, too, sitting across from Noy and Maerlynn. They looked too tired to even talk. One of them—Grib—had a slapstick welt across his forehead.

And the stirring anger inside Jack started to burn with a white-hot glow.

"Yeah, we'll check him out," he told Draycos. "And then we're going to get him out."

"What?" the dragon asked, sounding startled. "Are you saying—?"

"Jack!" Maerlynn exclaimed as she caught sight of him. "Welcome back. We've been wondering where you were." "Sorry," Jack said, stepping to a spot between the twins. Greb had a fresh slapstick welt too, he saw now, angled across his shoulder. Fleck, or the Brummgas, must have been in especially good form today. "I got delayed. How are you feeling, Noy?"