Shadow Dragon

by wade coleman

  “How?” John says. “There’s no handle on this side of…”

  I bend down, put my hand in the quarter-inch gap under the door, feeling the familiar cold from a shadow. Before John finishes his sentence, I’m on the other side.

  I reform next to a man holding an AK-47. Before he notices me, I knee him in the groin, watch him go down and then open the door.

  Raising my hands, I say, “Voila.”

  Kim and John show no appreciation, too busy worrying about survival.

  John retrieves the man’s rifle while Kim drags the guard inside the pantry. John smiles, “The talented Mr. Hermes and his bag of tricks. I’m feeling a whole lot better about tonight.”

  “I’m feeling lucky, so let’s stick to the plan.”

  We move to the back door, John in the lead. Behind the window, I notice two men are smoking. Two full-sized cars are parked in the alley. The doors open to both cars and two men get out of each automobile.

  We turn around, heading for the door leading into the restaurant.

  “There’s a man on the other side,” Kim whispers.

  John aims. A short burst pierces the door, and a body drops on the other side. John kicks open the door and steps over the body. Kim stops, grabs the dead man’s rifle and the spare clip. We weave through chairs placed upside down on tables to the front door, which is made of glass. Several men approach with pistols drawn.

  We step to the right before we’re seen and I find a booth with the right amount of darkness beneath the table. I point to underneath. “Get under there now.”

  Kim gets down and under; John follows after some hesitation, giving me a wary look. After getting below with them, I take a moment to find the edge of the shadow cast on the tile floor. I grab the line between light and dark, pulling it around us. The colors fade to deep blue, and there’s a sensation of falling. John takes in a sharp breath.

  “Focus on your breathing,” I whisper.

  Men walk past, searching the restaurant, and leave. I wait until I hear the front door open and close. I let go of the shadows so we can leave our little sanctuary. We crawl under the tables towards the entrance. Just on the other side of the glass door, another pair of men are standing there smoking.

  John lays down, using his left arm to prop his rifle, takes careful aim and nods. I activate the homing beacon on our SUV. John shoots and the glass shatters. An elf with green hair is violently thrown to the ground by the impact of the bullet. Before the second guard can react, John fires again with deadly accuracy, the bullet slamming the mutant into the wall, and he slides down, still.

  After the first shot is fired, I immediately move towards the steps in the back of the restaurant that leads to Mr. Fukui’s office.

  Kim moves quickly to cover the door while John stands up and collects his weapon.

  By the time I reach the steps, another mutant comes out of the kitchen with his pistol drawn. He falls when Kim shoots him in the chest. John steps over broken glass and takes up position on the other side of the shattered door.

  Climbing the stairs with my head low, I spot two other mutants in suits shooting from the second story railing. Since Kim and John know I’m upstairs, they don’t return fire.

  With their attention on the door, the two men are blind to my proximity. I hit the dwarf with no pinky in the head, his mouth hitting the railing, knocking out his front teeth. They clatter against the rail, and he groans. His gun drops, and it lands on a table below. The other suit turns towards me, but I punch him in the jaw before he levels his pistol. His head rocks back, and his knees give out at the same time. The dwarf with the shattered teeth reaches for a gun strapped to his ankle, and I kick him in the diaphragm, and the air goes out of him. Throwing the guns over the side, I head down the hall.

  Mr. Fukui’s door is locked; the space underneath the door is filled with carpet, leaving no place for the shadows.

  I knock on the door and dodge to the side. A barrage of bullets comes through, and now there’s plenty of openings as if my prayer has been answered.

  Waiting for them to reload, I slip through the holes and reform on the other side. Three men are behind the bar; Mr. Fukui, the elf with the ice blue eyes and the telepath, a dark elf with black ink skin, hair and eyes. Mr. Fukui ejects a clip from his pistol, and it lazily falls to the ground.

  The room is lit by a single bulb above the mahjong table. The three mutants take aim and fire, but I’m gone…entering the shadow thrown by the couch. I exit the other side, then slip into the shadow of a trash can.

  While they shoot up the couch, I slip from one shadow to the next and make my way to the bar. Behind the counter, the men continue to fire. If they lean over and look down, they’d spot me easily.

  I make my move when they eject their clips again.

  On a table near the door is the gold dragon. Moving quickly, I grab the Kukan and head for the door. The scene seems surreal, the couch stuffing leisurely floating down like flakes in a snow globe.

  Putting my hand on the door, I take one last look behind me. Mr. Fukui’s normally expressionless face is filled with rage, and I can’t help but smile.

  Slipping through the door, I reform hand down the hall and down the stairs.

  I look around the corner and our SUV drives itself to the front entrance. The windows were programmed to roll down and the manual controls locked out. There’s a mutant in the back seat, probably looking for our concealed weapons. When he looks up, Kim shoots him in the face, then pulls him out of the back seat.

  John is pinned down by weapon fire from the kitchen. Kim gets behind the wheel and shouts, “Where in the fuck is he? We need to go right fucking now!”

  “Fuck, I’m out!” John yells back.

  The men in the kitchen have their attention on John. I accelerate to the door and punch a man in the face. The next man turns, and I hit him on the chin. His head rocks back violently. John grabs me, pulls me to the car and throws me in the back seat. Kim takes off while John gets in and closes the door.

  My hands vibrate. My right hand is locked around the Kukan dragon.

  Kim, driving, looks over her shoulder. “Hermes, what’s wrong?”

  “I’m having a seizure.”

  “John, take over,” Kim sets the autopilot and hops in the back. John gets behind the wheel after some awkward fumbling between the seats.

  My legs cramp, and I try to get a pill out of my pocket. Kim sees what I’m trying to do and helps. The shaking gets worse, so Kim sits on me and pins my arms down.

  I giggle.

  “What so funny?”

  “This is the only job ever where everything went exactly as planned.”

  The three of us laugh, more out of nervousness than anything else.

  The trembling gets worse, my heart races, and I’m having difficulty breathing.

  “My bike,” I pause to catch my breath. “I bent the front fork when I rammed the troll…it needs a new one.”

  Kim lowers her head, so our foreheads touch. “If you live, I promise to God I’ll go dancing with you. Even though you’re such a spazzy pussy bitch.”

  With my free left hand, I grab Kim’s hand. “You let everyone know that Hermes Conrad stole the Kukan Dragon.

  “Fucking-A.”

  John drives over the bridge and heads out of the city. At a set of railroad tracks, he hits a button, and a hissing sound comes from the tires as air bleeds out. John then lines the car up with the tracks and heads west. Driving with our lights off on the railroad tracks, we clear the city limits, avoiding the checkpoints.

  Kim pries open my hand, takes the dragon, and then holds my hand.

  “You’re the bravest woman I ever met. I’m happy you found Maggie and a home.”

  Kim wipes a tear from her eye. “Stop talking like that. When we get home, your mom will fix you up.”

  Once we clear the city, John gets off the tracks, pushes a button, and the tires refill with air. He then drives like a madman to my house.

>   By the time we get home, my left hand is clenched so tightly that my fingers have pierced the skin and my palm is bleeding. My heart races and my limbs have a mind of their own. The muscles in my chest are so tight; I have to fight to take a breath. Daniel and John carry me to the couch. Daniel holds my legs, John my arms, while Kim prays.

  “Honey, we have to take you to the hospital.”

  “No, Ma, no hospital. I want to die at home with my friends.”

  The men put me down on the hardwood floor in the kitchen. Mom dials the phone and puts on a headset. “I need to speak to Dr. West. It’s an emergency, Hermes’ heart in fibrillation.”

  My vision fades, but I can still make out voices.

  “Yes…okay…how much?” Mom sounds very far away.

  “Honey,” Mom says. “Your heart is beating too fast…I’m going to have to stop it.”

  And that’s the last thing I hear…

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Waking up in my bed, I watch a crescent moon setting in the west through the window. There’s an IV in my arm and Mom’s sleeping in a recliner by the bed.

  “Natasha, are you all right?”

  “Yes, darling, but I was frightened. We almost died.”

  “I was scared, too.”

  Beverley opens her eyes, stands up and looks at me with tired eyes. “My dear, how are you?”

  I sit on the bed and look at Beverley. There are dark circles under her eyes; she’s aged ten years since last I saw her. “I’m okay Ma.”

  Mom bursts into tears and I hold her while we weep together. Growing up, all Mom had to do to punish me was cry. I would feel so bad for making her sad that I’d start crying. For the next five minutes, she lays her head on my lap while I stroke her hair.

  Dad must have heard us because the door cracks a little and our eyes meet. He gives me a quick nod and closes the door.

  When Mom regains her composure, she puts on a stethoscope and listens. “Luckily, there seems to be no permanent damage. It’s a good thing you’re young, healthy and stayed in shape. Otherwise, you would have died.”

  “Darling, what is she talking about?”

  “The heart can only beat so fast, and if you push it too hard, it breaks, just like any other piece of machinery.”

  “Honey, who are you talking to?” Mom asks.

  “Natasha. She doesn’t understand what happened to me.”

  “Can she hear me?”

  “Yes, Natasha can hear and see what I hear and see but only I can hear her speak.”

  Mom takes the IV out of my arm and puts a piece of gauze over the hole and tapes it down. “Natasha, a human heart has limits. At Hermes age and health, a heart rate should never exceed 180 beats per minute.”

  Mom hands me a flash drive. “This is from Dr. West; it’s all the information Natasha needs to know about the care and maintenance of a human body.”

  The smell of bacon creeps into the room and my stomach growls. I swing my legs over the floor and stand up. My leg muscles are screaming, my calves so tight it takes me a while to loosen them up. Moving at an accelerated speed is traumatic for the body. Finding the toilet, I take the longest piss of my life.

  Mom makes a face while leaving the room. “You’re just like your father, never learned to close the bathroom door.”

  A little later, I hobble to the kitchen, my hamstrings on fire. Kim is cooking bacon and hash browns. I try to sit on a bar stool, and a jolt of pain runs from my ass all the way up to my neck, so I get up.

  “What’s wrong?” Mom frowns.

  “I can’t sit, my butt hurts.”

  Mom gets a pillow from the couch and puts it on a chair by the kitchen table. Sitting down, she works my neck. Her fingers feel like talons.

  “Ow. Softer, much softer,” I wince.

  Mom lets up a little, so the pain is tolerable.

  “Where’s my dragon?”

  “With your dad. It’s in his den,” Mom says.

  I don’t have the strength to get up, so I send him a text. Dad comes out of his office with the gold dragon and puts it on the kitchen table. Its body is serpentine, each scale carved into the metal; the eyes are ten carrot rubies, a blue star sapphire sphere the size of a golf ball nestled in its claw.

  “I did some research. Your dragon, the Kukan, was stolen during the Bio Wars. There are a total of five dragons, one for each element: water, fire, wood, air, and sky. The Kukan is the Sky Dragon; it’s considered a Japanese national treasure. Empress Hitomi has been looking for this dragon for decades.”

  I admire the workmanship. The dragon seems so real it looks like it could walk away at any time. I run my fingers down its spine and feel a tingle of electricity.

  ‘What are you going to do with it?” Daniel asks.

  “This doesn’t belong to me, or Mr. Fukui or anyone else for that matter. The Kukan belongs to Japan, not sitting on anyone’s desk.” I’m surprised at my speech.

  “Son, I think your mom stopped your heart for too long because you don’t sound like yourself.”

  Mom kisses the top of my head, “I’m proud of you, Son.”

  Kim finishes cooking up the bacon, hash browns, and scrambled eggs. Mom continues to work my neck while Daniel sets the table.

  Mom’s cell phone rings and she answers it. She shows me the phone. “It’s Dr. West.”

  “I’ll call her back later.”

  Beverly puts the phone to my ear anyway, and I let out a sigh. “Hello, Dr. West,” I take the handset from Mom.

  “Hermes, I need to see you right away,” she sounds urgent.

  I walk outside, making sure I’m out of range of Mom’s radar ears. “Doc, I have a twitchy Mark five implant that wants to fly. Tomorrow, I meet with the Search and Rescue Board about flight school. I can’t miss that appointment.” I smile at my next thought. “After the meeting, you can send Pam to pick me up at the Broadmoor Country Club.”

  “Alright, but I want you to give the information on the human body to Natasha immediately...and no strenuous activity of any kind.”

  “You get no argument from me, Doc. I’m so sore I can barely walk.”

  “Okay, give the phone back to Beverley.”

  I walk back inside and hand the phone to Mom. They talk for a few minutes, and then Mom hangs up. Then the four of us sit down to an early breakfast.

  Mom tells me she spent three hundred thousand credits to purchase land, equipment, and a home. They shipped the rest of the vaccine to Seattle and LA, but it’s barely enough to cover one percent of the mutant population.

  After we finish eating, Daniel clears the table. I’d help, but I’m beat, so instead, I stand up, “I’m going for a walk.”

  Mom blocks the door and hands me a flash-drive. “Before you go, download this information to Natasha.”

  I take the flash-drive from Mom, head to my office and plug it into my immersion helmet.

  Natasha appears wearing hospital scrubs. She hugs me. Feeling a little self-conscious, I close the door so no one can see me, I hug her back.

  “I so sorry, darling, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “Natasha, it’s okay, we’re both getting used to sharing the same body.” I try to step back, but Natasha won’t let me go, so I stand there and take in her affection.

  Once the download completes, Natasha breaks her grip and smiles at me. “Darling, we’re tired. Try to get some rest.”

  I take off the helmet and leave my office. Returning to the kitchen, everyone is pitching in cleaning up after breakfast.

  “I’m going for a walk to stretch things out.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Kim says. “Now that you’re better, I need to head back home.”

  We walk down the center of the gravel road, no traffic this early in the morning, and all is quiet.

  “When you took Mr. Fukui’s dragon, you took his honor,” Kim smiles. “He was supposed to deliver us to the Baron, and he failed. We have officially made an enemy.”

  Kim keeps walkin
g faster than me, my legs too sore to keep up. She’s wearing shorts and a sports-bra. Her tiger stripes flash yellow-green in the sunlight.

  The morning air and exercise clears my head. Kim talks about her new home and the materials needed to build it. Walking the mile to Maggie’s house, I start to turn around, and before I take a step, Kim grabs my hand.

  “Stop being a douche bag and come in.”

  “I love it when you sweet-talk me.” Walking in, I smell the baking bread and my stomach grumbles, even though it was just fed. I ease myself down on the couch, moaning when my derriere connects with the sofa.

  Kim puts her hands on her hips. “Pussy.”

  Maggie comes out of the kitchen when she hears us. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “I’m sore.”

  Maggie looks me over with her big brown eyes, her nose curling up. “You stink, too.”

  “I’m too tired to care.”

  She gets a towel and hands it to me. “Here, take a shower.”

  I sit on the couch. “Now that I’m down, I can’t get up.”

  Kim grabs one arm, Maggie the other. They pull me up and point me to the bathroom. Getting in the shower, I scrub thoroughly, letting the hot water run down until it turns cold. Once I’m out, I dry off and look for my clothes, but they’re nowhere around.

  I stick my head out the door, a towel around my waist. “Where're my clothes?”

  Maggie finds me. “About time. I was about to come in to see if you drowned.”

  She leads me into the living room, where there is a sheet laid out in the center of the floor.

  “Lay down,” Maggie commands, pointing.

  “Uh… where’s Kim?”

  “She’s out back.”

  “Is she okay with this?”

  She points to the sheet again. “You’re getting a massage. Stop acting like I’ve never seen you naked.”

  “Kim has a temper. I don’t like the idea of being this exposed if she’s pissed at me.”

  Maggie takes my foot.

  I slap my hand down on the ground, “Ow…Jesus…even my toes are sore.”

  “You are the biggest crybaby I’ve ever met… Kim said you were a blur running up the steps of the restaurant.”