Immersion (Apalala Clan Book 1)

by Dzintra Sullivan

  “No,” he said coldly. “That is what I want, money is no obstacle.”

  Payton scrunched her face as she thought how to say it delicately. “Money isn’t the issue… the environmental impact would be the issue. Getting the powers to be to sign over these rights could take more than a greased palm, Mr. Embah.” Payton wanted to squash the thought of bribing officials, she was a professional lawyer and wasn’t about to have her reputation tarnished because of a spoiled little rich kid with an unhealthy need for world domination.

  “There’s no palm that cannot do with a little greasing, Ms. Hunter. How about triple your check to make it happen?” The dark undercurrent was threatening to pull Payton under, dark inky tendrils reaching out to wrap around her legs and tugging her into the darkness.

  Payton took a second to process that information. Triple the check, that’s her house paid off and still six digits in the bank. That would leave her comfortably wealthy and able to open her own practice, give her the freedom to pick and choose her clients. It would also leave her devoid of a soul—she would become a crooked lawyer with nothing but the hunger of money driving her each day.

  That was not the woman her grandmother had spent years raising.

  Payton got up from the chair, opened her briefcase and placed the papers back inside. She glanced at Kylee who was following her lead and stood up to join her. “Mr. Embah, my integrity is not and never will be for sale, no matter how tempting the paycheck size might be. You employed me because I’m fucking good at what I do. I suggest you let me do what you’re paying me for, and hope for the best.” She took a deep breath. “I will report back before the end of tomorrow’s workday with any developments I have. Until then…” she nodded to a shocked Mr. Embah who was clearly not used to a woman who had bigger balls than most men, “… I bid you, good day.”

  As the elevator doors shut Kylee blurted out, “Well, fuck me, Payts, your balls are fucking huge. I think you gave me a lady boner in there.”

  Payton outwardly laughed, inwardly she was hoping she had made the right choice.

  Wyvern couldn’t believe the messages he had intercepted, still sitting at the computer that had been his home for the past three hours. Wyvern had been researching the drilling company that had made an application for geological exploration of the basin floor, with intent to claim rights for the natural gasses that they think lay hidden below.

  James: I’m not sure you understand, but I work at the “Ministry of Natural Resources.” I don’t decide on the pass or failure rate of any applications.

  Mr. Q: James, now all those nights we spent talking, drinking and laughing with the clan, certainly have shown me there’s nothing that’s impossible with your job.

  James: What you’re asking for is… difficult.

  Mr. Q: What I am asking for, is for you to simply get a stamp from the Ministry and Kwakiuti Council to say I can have a look. It’s a simple look. I won’t lift a single shell, harm a solitary oyster or even touch a reed of kelp. All I want to do is explore, with the use of some high-tech cameras, the floor of the basin. I have sensors at my disposal that can detect what I’m seeking.

  James: And if you find it?

  Mr. Q: If I find what I’m seeking, I will come back and make a further application to retrieve it. For this first stage I simply need an exploration application approved.

  James: I don’t know if the Council will sign off on it.

  Mr. Q: I’m sure you can be persuasive. I have my computer open and my bank account at the ready. Name your price and I’ll transfer it to you within seconds.

  James: Name my price?

  Mr. Q: That’s what I said.

  James: Leave it with me

  Mr. Q: Consider it left.

  Wyvern sat and read then reread the conversation. Was he actually seeing what he thought? Was what he’d found, evidence of an official taking a bribe? And if this was, in fact, passed, the Oasis was in a level of shit it had never seen before.

  Wyvern’s head turned to see Volos walk into the room. He looked like he’d just had a shower and by the shortness of his gait, Volos was in a very bad mood. Wyvern thought for a second, should I say it now? He’s already in a bad mood, might as well make it worse. Or perhaps this would make it better? Give him a focus? Maybe make his oldest brother look at him with an equal respect of a true dragon warrior. Wyvern didn’t know which way to jump, taking a leap before he had a chance to second, third, and fourth guess himself.

  “Hey V, got a few?” he asked, trying to sound calm.

  Volos looked up from the ground, his forehead a roadmap of frustrated thoughts. Seeing his littlest brother, he lightly shook his head. “Not now, Wyvern.”

  “Um… you might really want to make some time,” Wyvern said quietly, he wanted to be heard, but Volos was an intimidating dragon, and even more so as a brother.

  “Wyvern, I said not now,” Volos growled, his boots thumping heavily on his way past.

  Wyvern stood suddenly, his chair tipping over behind him, making Volos stop to look at him. Wyvern jumped from the bravery train. “You need to listen, Volos, I have something important to show you. And if you don’t… the price paid by the Oasis will fall solely on your shoulders.”

  Volos raised his eyebrows, Wyvern was never one to speak so boldly. He took a deep breath and let it out with an audible sound of tolerance. “Okay kid, what have you found?”

  Wyvern ignored the display of tolerance and handed his brother the paper with the transcript on it. He found it hard to hide the smile that wanted to show through as he watched his brother read and reread the paper. His eyes wide with shock, Wyvern could hear the speed of Volos’ heart increasing as he processed the importance of what he was reading.

  Volos looked at Wyvern. “When was this sent?”

  “Hard to say, it wasn’t time stamped, but I can say it was within the last twenty-four hours.” Replying to his brother’s question and adding some extra information, “No idea what he’s ‘seeking,’ but it’s safe to say if the words ‘name your price’ are involved, it’s not legal.”

  “Do you have any ideas who the players are?” Volos asked, his eyes continuing to scan over the words on the paper, his attention to detail would make all the difference.

  Wyvern shook his head. “Not yet, but finding a ‘James’ that’s both involved in the Ministry and the Council shouldn’t be too difficult. Should be public record.” Wyvern shrugged. “The true difficulty will be with the other character, Mr. Q. I will run the message through some programs, see if I can pick up the origin. However, if he values his privacy, and by the way he conducts his business transactions, privacy would be paramount and finding him might be near to impossible.”

  “How long will this take?” Volos asked coldly.

  “What? You mean it can’t wait?” Wyvern smirked making a weak attempt to scold his brother.

  “You know it can’t, Wyvern. Surely even with your youth and inexperience, you can see that this is important,” Volos scolded harshly.

  “But…” Wyvern scrunched his face in confusion, “… I was the one—”

  Volos interrupted him, “Listen, kid…” Wyvern flinched at being referred to as a kid again. Volos continued, “I need you to work your magic and find out who these two dick whistles are. I’ll gather the boys and meet you in the mission room in what...” he looked at his watch, “… an hour?”

  Wyvern watched his brother walk out the room. “What the actual fuck?” he mumbled, running his hands through his hair.

  “Who is fucking?” Jo asked as he walked into the room from the gym, a pair of training shorts on and a sweat towel hung over his shoulder. Wyvern was always amazed at Jo’s abundance of ink, he swore every day it seemed to increase. His favorite was the dragon that weaved around his entire chest, its tail wrapped around the back and down his spine. It was accented by the blue waves of the ocean and had piercing pure white eyes just like Jo.

  “Nothing, V is just being a—” Wyvern s
topped, he wasn’t one to complain.

  “A pompous, overinflated, shark fucker, with a spiky starfish shoved so far up his rectum, it tickles his tonsils?” Jo offered, tilted his head, and with a wiggle of his eyebrows, he flashed a grin that spread the entire span of his face.

  Wyvern laughed. “I was just going to say he was being a prick.”

  “Same thing.” Jo joined in the laughter and walked off to shower after his workout. “Later, kid.”

  Volos was the strongest and most capable dragon of the clan. Wyvern knew in order to be all he could be, learning from Volos was the only way. He had the utmost respect for his oldest brother, even if his brother didn’t see him the same way. One day he would, Wyvern thought to himself as he went to sit at the desk, shuffling papers and cracking his fingers, he had searching to do.

  An hour later he walked into the mission room, five sets of eyes turned to look at him as he entered. Sitting over by the balcony was Jo and Ladon, both of them just gave him a nod of ‘thank God you’re here, let’s get this over with.’ Volos, Attor, and his father the king, were all sitting around the main desk, and strewn across it was a pile of different papers, newspapers and printed out articles that had been collected from the dry landers.

  Wyvern walked over, his boots the only sound as they thumped across the stone floor surface. Coming to a stop in front of the desk, he pulled over the black chair and sat down.

  “Brothers, Father…” He nodded in acknowledgment.

  “What did you find, Wyvern?” Volos asked first.

  “Not everything you wanted, unfortunately, V. However, the James that the transcript referred to, is a James ‘Silver Wolf’ Paxern. He holds a high position with the Ministry of Natural Resources. Combine his elder title with the Kwakiuti District Council and he’s a very powerful and persuasive man. If you want something to happen, you need him in your pocket. Otherwise, it’s not going to happen.”

  “Is he up for sale?” Attor asked.

  “Has been bought in the past. He’s a confusing guy, not clean nor dirty. I guess it would be dependent on his mood on the day. Bottom line is… he’s up for sale if you have the right price.” Wyvern spoke evenly, his brothers might think he’s still a kid, but moments like this—when all of them are focused on him, attentive because of the information he’s able to source—made him hang on and hope for more.

  “Then he’s a dangerous man,” King Basilisk stated. “And the other?” he asked Wyvern, with an intense look of expectation.

  “Here’s where it gets cloudy.” Wyvern shuffled some papers. “The messages from Q were bounced to and from twenty-three different IP addresses around the world.”

  “Is that even possible?” Attor asked.

  “Indeed, brother.” Wyvern turned to look at his brother, focusing his words directly at him. He knew what he was talking about, and being questioned about the possibility of things really pinched his scales. “The more places you can bounce messages from, the harder it is to track down where it originated.”

  “So, he’s invisible?” Volos asked.

  Wyvern rubbed his hand across his chin. “Not entirely…” Pulling out a sheet of paper, he pointed to a spot on the map. “See where it bounced last?”

  “C.O.D.E. office here,” Attor exclaimed as he looked back at his brother.

  “Then the dick whistle is here?” Volos asked.

  “No,” Wyvern stated, watching the wind deflate from under Volos' proverbial wings. “It means whoever Q is, wants you to think he is.” Wyvern smiled at the different levels of confusion that crossed his brothers’ faces. “In a nutshell, Mr. Q doesn’t want to be traced. However, he left a calling card of connection to C.O.D.E.”

  “What’s your own opinion, Wyvern?” the king asked.

  Wyvern paused for a second, he was actually being asked his opinion, not facts or research, but for his opinion, and by the king no less. He took a breath and spoke evenly, “My opinion is if you crack open C.O.D.E., you will find what you’re looking for, and I wouldn’t hit the snooze button and relax with this. The notes I have are laced with urgency, and I think you should be acting accordingly.”

  “Thank you, Wyvern, you have been invaluable,” the king said with a nod of pride. Wyvern’s smile was broad and genuine, as he looked to his brothers for validation. All but Volos nodded and gave him the thumbs up, Volos was firmly focused on the paperwork.

  “Oh, a side note question, Attor?” Attor looked up at his father’s mention of his name. “Did the young woman get home safely?”

  Volos’ head snapped up with an audible crack as the young woman who scented him was being brought into a conversation. “I’m sure she was, Father. How about we just focus on the problem at hand,” he said quickly, his need for distraction was very visible.

  Attor smiled as he turned to speak to the king. “Indeed, she was escorted all the way home successfully unaware of who or what we are. An interesting point was she has a large and intense dragon collection. Soft toys, statues, little glittery things that breathed fire, it was rather sweet.”

  “Good work, son. Maybe she’s a dragon lover.” The King dismissed the subject with a satisfied nod.

  “Oh yes, I’m sure it’s something very much like that,” Attor said with a teasing grin.

  “Attor…” Volos growled. “Don’t…”

  Jo’s ears pricked at hearing Volos’ tone, he knew that sound meant something massive had happened. “Dragon lover?”

  Volos rolled his head with a frustrated growl. “Nothing for you to concern yourself with.” Volos flashed a death stare at Attor for starting it in front of Jo.

  Jo grinned widely. “Oh, I think there’s something happening I might find fascinating.”

  “Jo…” Volos’ growl was deep and rumbled across the ground, any other dragon or human for that matter would have shut up instantly and let it go, but not Jo.

  “What did pretty little Payton do?” Jo smirked.

  “Hang on,” Wyvern said, as he flipped through the papers he had in his hands. “Payton… Payton…” Flip, flip, flip, the pages went. “Ah, I knew it was here… Payton Hunter.”

  Volos and Attor looked to their brother. “Her name is there?”

  Wyvern nodded as he read further. “Wow,” he exclaimed.

  “What?” Volos and Attor spoke at the same time.

  “She is C.O.D.E.’s environmental lawyer. It’s her filing the ‘intention’ applications with the Ministry.” Wyvern looked up to his brother. “You want to stop it. Stop her!”

  Attor and Volos looked at each other. “Fuck…” Volos exhaled the word.

  Attor nodded. “Fuck.”

  Payton rolled her eyes for the fiftieth time at the woman on the other end of the line. Her voice was incredibly high and had the same effect as nails down a chalkboard. It was so nasally that Payton had to hold her hand over the receiver to stop herself from asking if she was the actress from the television sitcom ‘The Nanny.’

  “Sorry, luv,” the voice said. “He’s in a meeting. Yeah?”

  “I understand Mr. Paxern is in a meeting…” Payton wanted to reach through the phone and shake this woman hard. Not only was she not listening to what she wanted, but her office etiquette was appalling. “He’s been in a meeting for the last five hours.”

  “He’s super busy, hey?” the voice quipped, causing the fifty-first eye roll from Payton.

  “Can you please, please, get him to call me today. If not, I’ll be over first thing tomorrow to sit on your desk ‘til he opens the door to me. And oh, yeah… I’ll make sure I bring some crumbly cake and sticky soda. Oh my, I hope I don’t spill any, I can be such a klutz.” Payton was pissed now, she had phoned at least a dozen times, and she was not even sure if this bird brain was passing on the messages.

  “Um…okay, yeah…” She stumbled through her thoughts. “I’ll make sure Mr. Paxern gets your message as soon as I see him.”

  “You do that! If not, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Payton hun
g up the phone with a satisfactory thump. “Stupid women piss me off.”

  Kylee looked up from the desk opposite her. “Stupid anyone shits me off.”

  “How hard is it to do your job, one would think she was trained.” Payton starting typing on the keyboard as she pulled up some files she needed printing.

  “Maybe she’s just there because she sucks cock like a fuckin’ hoover?” Kylee asked with a deadpan face.

  Payton sprayed the mouthful of coke she’d just taken all over the screen, and for the next few minutes she coughed and spluttered through the laughter of what her best friend had just said. “Give me warning next time, Kylee.”

  “There’s no fun in that.” Kylee winked, her attention suddenly distracted as she looked over Payton’s shoulder toward the front office desk. “Come to Mamma,” she drooled over her words.

  “Huh?” Payton murmured as she pressed print on the screen.

  Kylee pointed, her mouth ajar as her eyes drank in the two fine specimens of the male species that stood at the front desk. Both of them were tall, short hair and even from here, Kylee could see the most intoxicating eyes she’d ever witnessed. The men had clean white shirts that looked freshly pressed, open top button, and skin color that was something akin to a bronze statue of a Greek god. Kylee’s mouth was already salivating with wanting to climb these mountains of muscle and claim them as hers.

  Payton turned to look over her shoulder at whatever crazy thing had caught Kylee’s eye, and froze instantly to her chair. Standing at the desk, speaking to the front office lady who seemed to be far too busy fucking them with her eyes, was Attor and Volos.

  “Can my day get any worse,” Payton exclaimed as she slammed her mouse down on the desk.

  Attor and Volos looked up at the sudden bang and zeroed in on Payton’s face.

  “I want to speak to her.” Attor spoke with a conviction no one would question as he raised his huge arm, extending his finger and pointing directly at Payton.

  “Who’s that?” Kylee whispered as she leaned forward, her eyes not leaving the faces of these new strangers.