“Well, excuuuuuse me!” Lisa rolled her eyes. “I’ll try to do better the next time.”
“This is serious!” Martelli told her. “As of 10AM today, just before I left to come here, Arcane Arts issued an open contract for the apprehension of ‘rogue field agent Sparkling Waters’—whereabouts unknown, but pictures and physical details attached for identification—with a $50,000 payoff. They say they want you returned to SAD Western Region AA ‘alive if possible,’ but with the warning that you may be armed and dangerous—because they believe you wasted the chupacabra as well. Shooters are therefore authorized to use ‘deadly force if subject is not completely compliant.’
“Since the payoff applies dead or alive, that’s pretty much an invitation for any Shooter who finds you to put a bullet in your head as soon as positive identification is made.”
“But…you can take me to them,” Waters pleaded, “then I can explain….”
“Not if I want to live with myself afterwards. They don’t want an explanation—they want a horrible example to deter anyone else from doing what they think you did. Last night at the warehouse, without even knowing who you were or what happened, they were already talking about a ‘psych adjustment’—wizard shorthand for a magic-induced frontal lobotomy, plus enough other brain damage to make you a drooling idiot for the rest of your life.
“And then, once they’ve picked Waters’ brain and found out what she knows about them—and those Trashmen super-Shooters—they’ll come after the rest of us because we know things we shouldn’t.
“Ramirez, you talked about these people ignoring the law. They do that a lot—can’t be bothered with little things like ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ They don’t recognize the right to remain silent or have legal representation. If they get their hands on Waters, they’ll pull out interrogation techniques reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition—and there’s not a damned thing we can do about it.”
“Yes there is,” Lisa told him. Martelli turned to look at her.
“We can go over there and burn their house down,” she said, coldly and without emotion.
Martelli stared into those beautiful blue eyes for a moment, then turned away with a shiver. He had just seen the dragon.
“Yeah…chupacabra redux…” Mark added. “I suspect that would convince them that Spark’s not the one they need to be dealing with.”
“And then they’d come after you—full bore, everything they’ve got,” Martelli insisted. “Hell…they’ll do that if they even find out you exist—like if I tell them about you to get them off Waters. As far as they’re concerned, you have no right to be what you are without their permission. You’re unlicensed magic-users, and therefore need to be taken out.”
Mark shrugged. “Fine…so they’re going to be after us anyway. Bring it on. Just get Spark out of the line of fire because it’s going to get messy.”
“We didn’t ask for this,” Lisa added, “but we are what we are, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to ask anybody’s permission to go on living. And I’m sure as hell not going to let them hurt Sparkle. If they try, they’d better have a good recruiting program, because they’re going to need to replace a lot of dead wizards.”
“My money’s on these two,” Morgan told Martelli.
“Mine, too,” Ramirez agreed. “I’m just afraid that if it happens, a big chunk of Los Angeles might wind up looking like Hiroshima in the fall of ‘45.”
“More like Tokyo after Godzilla,” Morgan added with a chuckle.
Once again, the group lapsed into silence. Ramirez got up and went to the sideboard for another cup of coffee. After a moment, Lisa picked up her own cup and did the same.
“So…dragons are still caffeine addicts,” Ramirez said with a grin.
“Absolutely,” Lisa agreed. “Especially when they’ve been up until 2AM dealing with a chupacabra.”
They refilled their cups and went back to the table, then waited while the men did the same. Sparkling Waters just sat there and continued to look miserable.
“It’s all my fault…” she told Lisa. “I should never have messed with you guys. Then nobody would know, and everything would be OK.”
“And you’d be dead, and the chupacabra would still be running around loose,” Lisa told her. “That’s a long way from ‘everything’s OK’ in my book. I’m glad it happened—and I’m glad you’re still here to tell us about it.”
“That’s a good point,” Ramirez said. “So far, everything dragon-related has produced a good outcome. Dragons haven’t hurt anybody; they’ve done good things—for LifeEnders, and for the community as a whole. They just have a public relations problem with a specific group of people.
“Look,” she told them, “you’ve all been looking at this like Shooters. That’s not surprising, since that what all of us—except Waters—do, even me on occasion. And Mark already told us what Shooters do: they solve problems with…what was that phrase? ‘Proper application of superior firepower?’
“We’re talking like we need to prepare for a war—but I think we can avoid that war altogether, in a way that leaves everybody happy, except maybe a few anal-retentive wizards, and they won’t be able to do a damned thing about it.”
“I’m listening, Sweet Thing,” Morgan said. “Lay it on us.”
Ramirez gave him a look that would have turned a chupacabra to stone, but it had no effect on the grinning ex-Marine. With a sigh, she resumed her proposal.
“The problem isn’t SAD, or even Arcane Arts. It’s the Western Region Wizardry Section. They’ve got a lot of clout with LifeEnders Corporate because they produce a lot of revenue. That doesn’t mean most people at the top like them, it just means they’re tolerated.
“They also produce more problems for us than any other Arcane Arts section. I’ve personally had to arrange some expensive settlements with ordinary people whose lives or property got trashed because things got out of hand on one of their contracts. We’ve paid out more money to hush up people who threatened to go public with information about their operations.
“Arcane Arts activities are supposed to be secret, behind the scenes, never revealed to the general public, but frankly this section’s security sucks. We’ve even had to put a contract hit on somebody who seduced a junior wizard and got hold of some top-secret files. Needless to say, the junior wizard is no longer with us, either.
“There are some people at the highest level of LEI who look with concern on just about everything these people do. Word is, Keel himself got involved the last time they needed to be taken down a peg.”
“Who’s Keel?” Lisa asked.
“Director of SAD.” Martelli suppressed a shudder. “I hear he’s not somebody you want to meet, even if he likes you. Fortunately, so far, I haven’t had the pleasure.”
“Well…if we’re going to pull this off, you might have to,” Ramirez suggested. “You might have to sell him on the idea of having a couple of dragons available for SAD contracts.”
“Huh?”
“Seriously,” she assured him. “Look, here’s the pitch. One of your agents, the incomparable Sparkling Waters, discovered these dragons, who just happen to be LEI Corporate citizens in good standing, with their own franchise operation, which contributes a tidy sum to the corporate bottom line—and don’t forget to plug the virtues of Charon’s Ferry, filling a neat little niche no other LEI franchise can.
“Now it just so happens that these dragons—out of loyalty to LEI, of course—came to the aid of your field unit recently, and not only rescued one of your agents, but also took out the target you were trying to hit. And they didn’t even ask for a cut of the proceeds on the contract.
“And now those morons at Western Region Arcane Arts are trying to shit on LEI’s birthday cake. Not only have they put out a contract on Sparkling Waters—who is innocent of any wrongdoing, and of whom the dragons are very fond—but they will probably want to go after the dragons themselves. Never mind that they are outclassed and will no dou
bt get their asses handed to them, the real problem is they will be turning a potentially valuable corporate asset into an enemy.”
She grinned at Martelli. “Think you can sell that? And while you’re pitching to SAD at the highest level, Jay and I will be doing the same to corporate on the non-SAD side.”
“You’re going to be pitching,” Morgan said. “I’m just going to be sitting there nodding my head. You’re the one they’ll listen to—and besides, it’s your idea.”
“He’s got a point,” Martelli agreed. “I might be able to get us an appointment with Keel, but you should make the pitch. Hell…you’re an attorney. You should be used to selling a case to a judge and jury—because that’s what we’re really doing here.”
“OK…I can do that,” Ramirez agreed. “Where do we have to go to see him?”
“Well…funny you should ask that. Nobody knows. His official address is a drop box in Houma, Louisiana. Rumor has it he actually hangs out in the swamps somewhere in Terrebonne Parish near Bayou Blue. Nobody goes there without an invitation, and those who do can’t remember how they got there afterwards. If he agrees to see us, we’ll find it. Otherwise, we won’t.”
They spent the next twenty minutes refining Ramirez’ plan. At one point, Mark expressed the opinion that they might be going a little over the top on the sales pitch—Charon’s Ferry wasn’t really a major revenue source or an irreplaceable asset on LEI’s bottom line.
“Hey, maybe not in the grand scheme,” Jay Morgan disagreed, “but you two produce as much in contract commissions as the average franchised Shooter Shop with LifeEnders’ name on the door. And since you don’t operate under the LEI banner, you produce fewer problems for corporate in return.
“Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that your clients—the people paying you—mostly end up dead and aren’t likely to complain about your services. The bottom line is, corporate likes you guys. As Nydia says, you’re good corporate citizens. I don’t know if that will carry any weight with Keel, but it’ll fly well with the regular execs at HQ.”
“I don’t know…” Martelli shrugged. “Who knows what motivates Keel? What might blow his hair back is the idea of having a couple of dragons working for him—even as independent contractors. Like I said, nobody’s seen a dragon in a thousand years, and the Arcane Arts assholes called Waters’ research a waste of time—because according to them, dragons are extinct.”
“Does anyone other than me find this whole discussion a little…surreal?” Lisa asked. “I mean…yesterday I was just Lisa, a country girl from Texas who somehow got into the business of killing people. ‘Hi…I’m Lisa! I’ll be your executioner today!’
“Then I wake up this morning and discover that I’m actually a force of nature with fangs, claws, and turquoise scales, of a kind not seen in thousands of years. But we’re all sitting here talking about it like it’s no big deal. It helps that you guys are treating us like we’re still human—but it feels a little weird.”
“You are still human, at least at the moment.” Martelli chuckled—the first sign of humor he’d shown since he arrived. “I’m just trying very hard not to piss you off so you stay that way. I’d rather not be sharing this little conference room with that force of nature you mentioned.”
“Well, hey…I’ve known this guy for a long time—” Morgan nodded at Mark, “—and I’ve probably called him a copper-plated son of a bitch on occasion—and didn’t know how close that was to the truth. Right now, I’m just trying to imagine a big turquoise dragon who looks as hot as Lisa does. Now that would be something to see.”
That earned him a jab in the ribs from Ramirez.
“Do you ever think about anything else?” she muttered.
“Well, yeah…” he replied, cheerfully, “most of the time I think about hot women who aren’t already taken…like you, for example.”
Ramirez rolled her eyes, then gave Lisa a secret wink.
“OK…” she said. “Are we agreed on what we need to do? I’ll work on the corporate execs on this end—with maybe a little help from Romeo here.” She jerked a thumb toward Morgan. “Tony, can you try to make contact with Keel? I’ll wait to hear from you on that.”
“Right,” Martelli agreed. “Meanwhile, that contract is still out there, so I guess Waters will have to stay here with Mark and Lisa. Can you two keep her safe?
“Dumb question!” He slapped himself on the cheek before Mark could respond. “You’re dragons. Of course you can keep her safe.”
“Even if they weren’t, I’m betting this place is pretty well defended,” Morgan said. “Just guessing, but tell me if I’m wrong.”
“You could probably get in here,” Mark shrugged, “if you brought an armored battalion. Short of that…yeah, I guess we can handle just about anything conventional. And if the wizards show up, well—it’s on. We’re not going to start that battle, but if they do, we’ll certainly finish it.”
Chapter Five: Sparkling House Guest
“I’m sorry to be so much trouble,” Waters said as they watched the LifeEnders delegation depart.
“Don’t be silly,” Lisa told her. “We’re happy to have you. We rarely get visitors at all, let alone house guests. Just sorry it had to be under these weird circumstances. Is there anything you need to get from home? I just realized I don’t even know where you live.”
“I’ve got an apartment in Pasadena, but there’s nothing there I need right now…except maybe some extra clothes and a toothbrush, stuff like that.”
“Not worth going for.” Mark shook his head. “We can supply what you need for the duration, and I don’t want to risk anyone seeing you outside this building. Both Lisa and I have guest rooms, but you’ll probably want to stay at her place.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that,” Waters said, hesitantly. “We’ve always met down here in your offices or gone out to a restaurant or someplace…I never saw where you actually live until last night, but you’ve mentioned it before. Why do you guys have separate apartments? I mean…you two…”
“Love each other, can’t live without each other, spend all of our time together…” Lisa grinned at her. “Yes, we certainly do all that. We just decide each night whose apartment we’re going to be sleeping in—‘your place or mine,’ like that old cliche.”
“Everybody needs private space.” Mark shrugged. “And besides, we agree on a lot of things, but interior decor isn’t one of them. My man-cave is filled with classical sculpture, mostly female nudes. None of them are as beautiful as Lisa, of course, but I find them pleasing to the eye. And I have some special rooms for my…oh, I guess you could call them hobbies.
“My kitchen is minimal—probably what you’d expect in a much smaller apartment. Lisa has the culinary skills of a world-class chef and a fully equipped, high-tech, modern kitchen to match. Hopefully, she’ll get to practice those skills on you—give her a chance to feed somebody whose palate is more refined than mine.
“And finally, my furniture tends to be classical in style, including a nice king-sized, four-poster bed in the master bedroom. Lisa prefers modern and has a custom-made bed the size of a football field.”
“I know…” Waters said with a smile. “I woke up in it this morning. But I was alone…so where did you guys sleep? In Mark’s apartment?”
“No…we didn’t want to leave you alone after what happened,” Mark told her. “We slept in the same bed—hey it’s big enough for a lot more than three people. We just got up before you did.”
“Actually, we didn’t sleep much.” Lisa gave Mark a sultry glance. “After all that excitement, the dragons kind of got…frisky last night. I was afraid we’d wake you, but you were really out.”
“Oh…” Waters reddened. “Well…it would have been OK—if you woke me up, that is. I wouldn’t mind if you…uh…”
She was at a loss for words. Finally, she started over, trying to tell them what was bothering her.
“Look…about what was sa
id this morning. Yes, I knew what you were from the first time I came here, when SAD sent me to do that silly paranormal activity study. I felt it, but at first I couldn’t believe it, so I came back to make sure. Then I kept coming back, and part of that was curiosity, but more was just because I wanted to get to know you.
“I don’t do relationships very well—probably has something to do with my talent. It’s hard to get close to people when you know what they really think of you. Mostly they think I’m a strange little geek or some kind of flower-child throwback—long story how I got this way—and they mostly just ignore me. Guys think I’m an easy lay, and that’s all they’re interested in, so I try to ignore them. Girls don’t understand why I don’t care about stuff they think is important—their social media image, for example—so they just brush me off. I haven’t gotten really close to anybody in years, until I met you two. After the first couple of times coming over to see you, going out to lunch, stuff like that, I got to the point where the dragon thing wasn’t important.
“Well, OK…” she admitted, “it wasn’t as important as it was before. I just thought it was really neat having a couple of dragons for friends. Besides—you didn’t know you’re dragons. Maybe part of why I didn’t tell you is because I was afraid it would screw up our friendship.
“The point is, you were never just a research project for me. I want you to know that.”
After a moment of silence, Mark spoke up.
“We know that, Spark…I mean, we didn’t know there was a ‘research project,’ but we knew what we were getting from you was genuine. You’re transparent, kid—you wear your heart on your sleeve, at least with us. Maybe that’s another reason you have trouble with relationships.”
The Dragons of Styx Page 4