Drake was on edge for the next set of jumps. Despite what he’d said he worried that the pirate ships would work out where the Dagger was going and come up with a plan to thwart the escape attempt.
Jump after jump followed the same pattern, with Drake trying to catch the pirate ships out with no success. After making the penultimate jump Drake had the Dagger head towards a different jump point, one which would avoid the asteroids.
Halfway to it they changed course and turned for their real target. It wasn’t the height of subtlety but it did avoid telegraphing his plans too early.
As the Dagger drew nearer to the jump point the pirates behaved differently. Rather than nine ships accelerating ahead and going through the jump point, as had happened repeatedly, fifteen went through leaving
