by Jadyn Chase
A voice crackled over my headset. “I can’t see him. Where is he?”
“The SOU guys are all running around the other side of the clock tower. The target must be over there somewhere.”
“Oh, look,” someone else remarked. “The Army’s got tanks moving through the streets.”
A man to my left pressed his earpiece into his head. “The order just came over the SOU channel—capture alive.”
“How are they going to do that?” someone else asked. “They probably haven’t got enough tranquilizer in the whole bloody zoo for a creature that size.”
The chopper whizzed around the clock tower. Silence echoed down the comms system when we spotted a couple dozen SOU guys standing on a street corner. They pointed their weapons at the ground and conversed with each other. None of them even tried to hide.
“What’s going on?” someone asked.
“Looks to me like they lost him,” another person replied.
I waved to the pilot. “Set us down.”
He landed in the middle of the street. I cast a glance north and south, but no civilians dared poke their heads outside. I hopped out of the bird and hustled to the nearest SOU group. “What’s going on?”
“We had him in sight.” The guy pointed up at the clock. “He was perched up there, but when he spotted us, he took off. He flew around here and just…. well, he vanished.”
I frowned. “What do you mean—he vanished? A dragon that size couldn’t just vanish.”
The guy waved his hand. “Do you see him anywhere? He went poof. He disappeared right in front of us. One minute, he was there. The next minute, he wasn’t. If you spot him, by all means, you let us know. Until then, we’re returning to base. There’s nowt we can do out here.”
He spun on his heel and signaled to his men. They fell in line and walked away. I scanned the area, but he was right. The dragon was gone—poof, just like that.
I couldn’t stop looking around me. He had to be here somewhere. I couldn’t go back to Sweeney empty-handed, not after making such a stink about capturing this crazy being alive and testing him.
Still, what could I do? There was nothing to see here, nothing but the chopper sitting over there with the whole goddamned Acquisitions Team staring at me. Shit! I really stuck my foot in it this time. Sweeney would be furious. Even worse, Tristan would laugh at me. He would crow about how I better not lose my head over random news stories next time.
I sauntered back to the chopper kicking myself for my stupidity. Sweeney would be right to be angry. Tristan would be right to laugh. I should know better. I did know better. That was why I didn’t watch the fucking news in the first place.
I got to the chopper door and picked up my headset. I slid it over my ears and the pilot’s English accent echoed down the line. “What would you like to do, Mum?”
I almost said, “Take us back to base. We struck out,” when I happened to glance to one side. I couldn’t say exactly why I did it. I didn’t really hold out any hope for catching the dragon boy—if he ever existed in the first place. I just didn’t want to give the order. I didn’t want to admit to myself that I screwed up.
The minute I looked sideways, I spotted a human leg sticking out in an alley nearby. It was bare up to the knee and a cardboard box concealed the rest of it. That in itself shouldn’t have captured my notice, but at that moment, something knocked the box out of the way. It was a bare human arm. The box sailed a few feet off and I saw a very distinct pink body lying among the trash and rubbish bins. It was a man and he was stark, staring naked.
I blinked at him for a second. His arm kept flopping this way and that, but he didn’t seem to notice anything else around him. His head lolled my way. He had his eyes closed. In that instant, I recognized him from the video. It was the same guy who changed into the dragon.
I froze. The pilot called down the headset again. “Mum? Are you ready to return to base?”
I opened my mouth, but I had to gulp to get my voice working. That was him. That was the dragon lying there half-asleep in front of God and everyone. No wonder the SOU guys thought he disappeared. He must have shifted and fallen into that alley. Now he was semi-conscious and immobile.
One of my colleagues asked, “Paige? Is everything all right?”
I swallowed hard and almost whispered down the comms. “Deploy.”
The Team reacted in a split second. They launched out of the chopper and shouldered their weapons. The sight electrified me. I circled my forefinger over my head and they gathered around. I pointed to the alley and inched forward.
3
James
I drifted out of a dream to find the most beautiful girl gazing down at me. Curling red tresses cascaded over her slender shoulders and piercing green eyes burned out of a clear, ivory face. A delicate smile touched her lips and her pupils dilated. This must be Heaven and an angel must be coming to conduct me to Paradise. That was the first thought to cross my mind.
Beatific love flooded my heart. I raised my hands to clasp her to me when a helmeted man lurched into view. This was no bobby. He wore a mottled khaki uniform and he had blocky, brutish features.
He cut off my view of the woman and jabbed a rifle barrel in my face. “Don’t move! Raise your hands above your head and roll over. You’re under arrest.”
I blinked, but I couldn’t move. At that moment, another three uniformed soldiers appeared near the first. They all menaced me with their guns. They bellowed at me so fast I couldn’t understand a word they said. A hint of alarm rippled through me and triggered a torrent of memories.
Everything came back to me from the moment I set eyes on Buckingham Palace. I got into a fight with those bobbies. Then I…..Dear God! Did all that really happen? I took wing over the city of London. I landed a few times, only to get surrounded by armed men. I remembered exhaling fire on them and…..
I cringed when I remembered. I even saw my reflection in the glassy windows of a large bank. I really was that horrible creature. I think I killed all those people, though I never meant to.
The soldiers bombarded me with every conceivable order. Some contradicted each other. “Stand up!” “Roll over!” “Let me see your hands!” I couldn’t keep track of it all.
Just then, the woman reappeared. She shoved her head between the soldiers trying to talk to them. “Back off, guys! He’s harmless. Can’t you see that? Just let me handle this, all right?”
The men didn’t hear her—or maybe they just didn’t pay attention. They were all talking too fast and bumping their guns into my cheeks. I couldn’t see them. She occupied my whole attention. I could talk to her. I could make her understand.
I held up my hand to her. “Keep back. I don’t want to hurt anybody. I just want to….”
“Freeze, you fucking bastard!” one soldier thundered. “Freeze or we’ll shoot right now.”
The woman grabbed his shoulder. “Capture alive! Don’t you remember? Capture alive!”
The instant the words crossed her lips, something horrible and frightful hit me in the ribs. A god-awful jolt of pain and fire shot through me. My muscles seized in a devastating grip. The next moment, dead black descended over my eyes.
I woke up freezing cold and didn’t recognize where I was. I lay stark naked on a gleaming metal surface. A shiny box barely big enough to hold me confined me on all sides. I couldn’t uncurl my limbs. I could hardly move.
The glossy metal froze my skin. The instant I opened my eyes, I started shivering. I rubbed my arms with numb hands and my teeth chattered. Holy Mother of God, where was I? How did I get here?
I could remember virtually every detail of what happened to me outside, but I couldn’t understand it. Those soldiers must have captured me somehow. Would I ever see that angelic woman again? I didn’t hold out much hope of that.
At least the monster wouldn’t hurt her. As long as she stayed away from me, she would be safe. Still, I couldn’t imagine a more unpleasant situation in which to find myself tr
apped.
I kept searching the tiny enclosure, but of course, I saw more of nothing. My teeth chattered and my muscles trembled from the cold. I began to panic, but before I lost my mind entirely, the whole compartment tipped up at a gross angle.
At the same time, one wall flipped outward and the whole contraption dumped me out onto a cruel metal grate. I cried out in pain and alarm as the ruthless wire dug into my already raw skin.
When I careened to a stop, I discovered myself in an even larger enclosure. This time, one wall consisted of clear glass. Beyond the surface, I beheld that beautiful woman studying me with her head on one side.
I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn’t come up with anything sufficiently dashing to say to impress her. I recoiled in horror at my predicament, but she didn’t show any particular sign of surprise.
She turned aside to set a board of some kind on the nearby table. She returned to regarding me and stuck her hands into a long white coat. It draped to her knees and concealed her clothes underneath it. “My name is Paige Kelly. I’m the senior researcher here. I’m in charge of your case.”
I blinked up at her. “Miss Kelly. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, although I….”
I mumbled to a halt and looked around me. I cowered naked in the corner, but nothing could completely conceal my nakedness from her. Much as I would have preferred to preserve my dignity from a lady as appealing as she was, that consideration passed out of my reach long ago.
A faint smile touched her lips. “What is your name?”
“My name?” I scooted up the wall to straighten myself out. I would have gotten to my feet, but this enclosure made that impossible. “My name is James West Shelton.” I made a pathetic little bow from the chest. “At your service.”
Now she really did smile. She showed a row of perfectly straight, beautifully white teeth and her eyes sparkled. “Thank you very much. I hope we can get along well during your stay here. Can you explain how you changed into that dragon outside Buckingham Palace?”
I fidgeted in my seat. “I’m afraid not. The whole incident took me as much by surprise as anyone else.”
She cocked her head the other way. “You have a southern accent. Where are you from?”
“I?” I seemed to be repeating everything she said. “I am from Kent, of course. I come from Dover. You, on the other hand, are from America if your accent reveals anything. Am I right?”
She beamed down at me through the glass. “You’re absolutely right. I’m from Chicago.”
I frowned. “I have never heard of it.”
Her smile evaporated. “You’ve never heard of Chicago?”
“Sadly, no, but then again, I never visited America. The cost makes the trip prohibitive and I never found any reason to go there, I’m afraid. Is it nice there—in Chicago?”
“Not as nice as London.”
“Really?” I bent my head one way to inspect her. She really was absolutely ravishing to look upon, even if she did wear that ghastly coat. “What brings you to this side of the pond?”
She burst out laughing again. “I’ve lived in England for almost ten years. I work for the government. I’m a geneticist. That’s why I decided to take you alive—so we could test you to find out what made you change into that dragon. No one has ever seen anything like it.”
I furrowed my eyebrows at her. “A geneticist? I’m afraid I don’t understand what that means.”
“I find that hard to believe,” she returned. “You seem like a highly educated man.”
“And I find it hard to believe,” I countered, “that the government, as you call it, would imprison an innocent man for testing in this fashion. We have laws in this country against illegal confinement of this sort.”
She cast a sidelong glance toward the table. “Unfortunately, this particular department of the government operates outside the realm of civilian law. We operate under a different set of rules in order to protect the populace from certain threats…. threats such as yourself. You can hardly call yourself innocent. You killed quite a few people out there and injured several more, don’t you remember?”
I looked away. “It’s very hazy, but yes, I do remember. Although I don’t suppose you’ll believe me when I say I had no control over what I did. The…..the….”
She waited. “The dragon?”
“Quite.” I straightened up. “It appears to have a mind of its own. I can’t stop it from doing anything when I’m in that state.”
“Let’s assume you’re telling the truth.” She picked up the board and flipped several papers attached to it. “If you can’t control it, that’s all the more reason we need to test you to find out what made you change. We can’t exactly let you run around loose on the streets. We would be putting the public in danger.”
I shrugged, but I found it increasingly difficult to make eye contact with her. This conversation unnerved me. “I see your point.”
She pulled a stool toward her and took out a pen. “Tell me everything you remember about the incident. You were outside Buckingham Palace….”
Now that I got talking about familiar events, I loosened up to my subject. “I was outside Buckingham Palace. I could hardly recognize it as the same place. I got into a disagreement with a few local dumplings on the subject of Marble Arch.”
She cocked an eyebrow at me. “Marble Arch? You mean the one at Hyde Park?”
“It’s not at Hyde Park, Paige dear,” I sneered. “It’s at Buckingham Palace. At least, it should be.”
She let her hands fall into her lap. “Marble Arch was moved from Buckingham Palace in 1850. It was moved to Hyde Park. That’s where it’s been ever since.”
I jumped up staring at her—at least, I jumped up as well as I could in a three-foot box. “But that’s impossible! It’s only…..”
She sat there completely composed. She examined me with inscrutable calm and not a trace of a smile. “You were telling me about the argument you got into outside the Palace. What do you remember before that?”
“I was…. I was….” I searched the enclosure in which I found myself. The glistening metal walls told me absolutely nothing.
She put the board aside one more time. Every time she did that, she made me more disconcerted and more uncertain than ever. “Listen, James. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re going to be here for a while. Even if you don’t remember what happened before Buckingham Palace, this particular department of the government has a nasty habit of holding its subjects for a very long time—sometimes forever. You and I are going to be spending a long, long time getting to know each other so you might as well tell me everything.”
I gaped through the glass at her captivating beauty. Not even her remarks about getting to know each other so well could make this horrible nightmare any more pleasant to anticipate.
At last, I let my eyes sink shut. I concentrated hard to remember. “I was in the Great Armour Hall at Dover Castle. I was talking to my parents and brothers about…. something or other. It was nothing important, I can assure you.”
A scratching noise made me look up. She wiggled her pen over her board. “What year was that?”
“It was 1840, of course. That’s what it is now.”
She put the board down with exaggerated slowness. “It’s 2019 now, James. Under normal circumstances, I would say you were suffering under some mental delusion about being from nearly two hundred years ago. After the way you changed into that dragon, though, I wouldn’t be surprised even by that. So the question is how you got from Dover to London. No, wait. Don’t answer that. I can only assume you flew here. Is that correct?”
“I….” I looked around me, but the inhospitable surroundings offered me no help. “I don’t remember. I honestly don’t.”
“I need to take a sample of your blood for testing.” She stood up. “I need you to extend your arm through the trap, and when you do, do us both a favor by holding perfectly still. It won’t hurt much, but if you jerk aroun
d or try to struggle, I could do some real damage. Do you understand?”
I gulped. “If you must.”
She pushed a button on the wall. A small square of the blank wall snapped upward to reveal an opening just large enough for my arm. “Put your arm through, please.”
I shrank from it. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“Lie down on your side.”
I grimaced. “Is that strictly necessary.”
She shifted her weight to one foot and gave me a pointed glare. “Believe me when I tell you that the officials in this department have ways of making you cooperate. This has nothing to do with me. I’m a scientist. I work in the lab. That’s all. I can be as kind to you as possible, but if you get belligerent and uncooperative, they’ll send in people who will make you comply whether you want to or not. They want your blood tested and they’ll get it from you one way or the other. If I was in your place, I would do it peacefully and with a minimum of fuss. It will be the best way for you.”
“But if I have no chance of ever regaining my freedom, what’s the point of cooperating?” I asked. “What will they do to me in the end? They can’t exactly execute me.”
“They can do that and a lot worse. If you do get ornery and combative, they’ll take what they want by main force. If you’re lucky, they’ll kill you in the end. Otherwise, they’ll keep you locked up in here for the rest of your life. After the damage you did in town and considering that you’re an anomaly no one can explain by any rational logic, I would be very surprised if they ever let you go.”
I gaped at her in stunned shock. “That’s impossible.”
She shrugged and looked away. “I’ve seen it before. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but I wouldn’t be doing you any kindness by hiding the truth from you or sugar-coating it. This is an extremely dangerous department of the government and the people who run it don’t answer to any force before the law. They do what they want. You’re a dragon. You’re not human. That means the laws related to human rights don’t apply to you. I’m sorry, James. I know it sucks, but that’s the way it is.”