Dragon's Mind

by Ehsani, Vered

  Maybe the Games Boss is really a vampire, I mused. He certainly acts like it.

  Inside was a lot nicer. Not that I got the grand tour or anything. I was taken directly to a room. Griffin made quite a show of unlocking the door with the control panel on the side.

  Yeah, yeah, I get it. Top level security systems. La-dee-da. I glared at her.

  The door swung open and the guard pushed the barrel of his gun into my back. I strode in, determined to look confident and unconcerned. The door swung shut immediately. I was really glad it did. Because just then, I uttered a very concerned gasp.

  The body on the bed twitched and opened her eyes. “Myranda?”

  “Mom, you’re okay,” I blubbered and rushed to her side. A hug never felt so good as that one.

  She stroked my hair, held me tight in her rose-scented embrace. “Of course, I’m okay. But I thought you were escaping to the mainland.”

  I gave her the full story with all the gory details. Neglected to tell her where Dragon was though. I figured someone was listening and that was definitely one detail I didn’t want known.

  “So now we’re stuck, they have the memory stick and…” I started to snivel and sucked it up. Changed the topic. “How did you contact us from here?”

  My mom smiled. “While I was helping set up MindOpS 2, I managed to sneak in a couple unofficial communications.” Her smile faded. “We won’t have that opportunity again. The only time that door opens is to bring me a meal.”

  We sat there on her bed, wallowing in dark thoughts. Time passed. The room had no windows and maybe that was better. I’d hate to see glimpses of blue so close and so out of reach.

  At some point, I stood up to stalk about the room. Checked it for hidden panels, air vents I could crawl through. Nothing. I stuck my hands into my pockets. My finger tips grazed the earpiece. Not sure what use that was now. I stroked it, feeling the button on it that could activate the cellphone and its voice control option. But that only worked when the phone was in reasonable proximity.

  Then again…

  As my hand closed around the piece, I felt something else. I checked my jacket’s inner pocket. My eyes widened. The guards in the games room. Dragon had told them to drop their Tasers and I’d put one of the guns in my pocket.

  “How much time do we have before dinner?” I asked softly.

  My mom glanced over at me, eyebrows raised. “Are you hungry? Did you skip breakfast?”

  “Mom,” I protested, feeling all of seven years old when she did that. You know, that motherly thing. Yeah, I know it’s in her job description and I love her for it, but still. “I’m fine. What time?”

  She glanced at her watch. “It’ll be dinner in fifteen minutes,” she said. “They’re very punctual here.”

  I pulled out the earpiece, pressed the button. The Boss may call his place a mansion, but the house wasn’t that big. Maybe my phone was still within range.

  I heard a connection. I cupped my hand over my mouth.

  “Call Dragon,” I ordered, slow and soft.

  Please pick up, please pick up. Don’t hate me.

  “Myth?”

  I chocked back a sob and whispered, “Dragon, I’m sorry I left you. It was a trick. Griffin…”

  “I know,” he interrupted. “Where are you?”

  “In the Boss’s ugly floating mansion.” I glanced at my mom, who was watching me. A glimmer of hope twinkled in her eyes. I couldn’t let that die. “My mom’s with me. We’re locked in a room. In fifteen minutes, a guard is coming with our meal. Remember that thing I picked up in the games room?”

  Silence.

  When Dragon spoke, he was cautious. “Yes, I remember. You’re going to need more than that though.”

  “I know.” I blew out angrily. “But at least we have a chance once we get out of this room.”

  Again silence for a moment. “I can’t access the house directly. It’s on an external system, but the energy system is connected to the island’s.”

  I waited. Seconds ticked by. They were very long seconds.

  “If I do this,” he continued, “it would shut everything down.”

  I got the feeling he was talking to himself. Battling with some inner dilemma commonly called a conscience.

  “Myth, listen carefully.”

  What did he think I was doing?

  “I’m going to enter the main system and interrupt the energy,” he said. His voice was very serious and solemn, like he’d just announced he was initiating World War 3 or something. “I won’t have much time. MindOpS 2 will track me down in seconds, overpower me and a few seconds later, work out where I’m physically located if I stay online that long.”

  “Got it,” I said, trying to figure out what exactly I just got.

  “There will be an energy surge across the island, disrupting everything but mainly focused on the link to the Boss’s house,” he explained. “It’ll knock out that line. It won’t take long for them to get it up again. Approximately sixty-eight seconds.”

  I grinned despite the situation. Or maybe because of it. “That’s not an approximate, Dragon.”

  “That will set off all sorts of alarms, distract and confuse them, and give you a chance to get out of the house,” he went on, ignoring me. “But there will still be guards around the place, five all together, plus Griffin. By the way, after you left, I contacted a friend of mine.”

  “What friend?” I demanded and lowered my voice as my mom gestured urgently to me. As far as I knew, he only had one friend: me.

  “More like a colleague, from my previous life,” he said. “It wasn’t easy with the communication block the Boss has up, but I managed. As long as I kept the message short and light and routed it through…”

  I interrupted. “Details that are not important.”

  He huffed and continued, “His name’s Blade and he’s already on his way. I’m directing him to the mansion right now. He’ll be waiting for you at the east side of the house, away from the dock. He’ll take you to the mainland.”

  “Okay.” I really needed to think of other words to use instead of ‘okay.’ Plus I wasn’t sure how okay it really was. Something sounded off with him. And what kind of a name was Blade? What do you have to do to get a name like that? “But what about the memory stick?”

  “Forget it. Just get out of there. Call me back in twelve minutes,” he said. “As soon as the guard enters, I’ll start the energy surge.”

  “Be careful,” I whispered. “Don’t get caught.”

  “You too.” The connection died.

  Chapter 36: Myth

  I’m not even going to mention how long those twelve minutes were. More like twelve hours. Or days. It was painful. I kept checking my watch. Every ten seconds. How is it possible for ten seconds to feel like a full minute?

  When I wasn’t tugging at my watch, I was fiddling with the Taser gun. It was the standard issue for security on the island, a high-powered version that was almost as scary as a real gun. I hoped it was charged. I hoped I didn’t have to use it.

  Of course you have to use it, you ninny, I berated myself.

  I still wished I didn’t have to. That was a nasty thing to do to someone, shooting them full of electricity. Then again, locking innocent people up in a room or harvesting brains illegally also wasn’t very nice either.

  Twenty seconds for that thought.

  I lurched upwards and paced the room. My mom sat still, staring down at her clenched hands. She looked like she was praying. Well, it couldn’t hurt and we needed all the help we could get right about now.

  “Twelve minutes,” she whispered.

  “About bloody time,” I grumbled. Pressed the button on my earpiece.

  “I’m here,” Dragon said. “Ready?”

  I nodded, relieved to hear his voice. Not that I was ready. But I was as ready as I could be. After twelve extremely elongated minutes, I was ready to do something, anything. I stood at the side of the door, waiting. An eternally long minute
later, footsteps approached. I heard buttons being pressed on the control panel. The door swung open.

  “Now,” I breathed out and pulled the trigger.

  A jolt of energy shot out of the gun and straight into the guard’s chest. He flopped down on the floor, shaking.

  The lights went out just as the second guard pulled out a gun. I shot in her direction, the bolt of electricity burning a lightening bolt against the darkness. The guard shrieked and crashed down.

  My mom stumbled towards me, groping in the dark. The lack of windows was going to be a hindrance for us as well, I realised. I felt her hand on my shoulder, grabbed it and began to run in what I thought was the direction of the main door. A few emergency lights flickered on.

  I didn’t stop. Let go of my mom’s hand, pressed the button on my earpiece twice. Listened.

  A phone rang from behind us.

  I spun around, heading for the sound.

  “Myranda, come on,” my mom hissed.

  “Not without that memory stick,” I said.

  The ringing came from a room farther down the corridor from where we’d been locked up. I jumped over the quivering guards. They were starting to recover.

  I spun on a heel, threw myself into the room. Griffin glanced up, my phone in her hand. In the dim light of the emergency light, her eyes glowered bright red. She dropped the phone as her other hand went for something on the desk.

  I tasered her.

  Her skin glowed luminescent as the prongs of electricity snapped around her.

  My phone shattered on the floor just as Griffin slumped against the wall.

  My bag was on the desk, beside a gun. A real gun. I grabbed my bag and checked if the memory stick was still inside. It was.

  “Myranda!”

  I grabbed the gun. Not that I knew how to use it. But I grabbed it and flung myself past my mom and into the corridor. Aimed it at the guards who were starting to stand up.

  “Down,” I ordered. My voice might’ve squeaked a bit. A lot. Whatever. Doesn’t matter because I was holding the gun. And the guards didn’t know I was more likely to shoot my own foot than them.

  I could hear other guards coming from ahead, where the front door was. How many guards did Dragon say there were? Five. Plus Griffin. Sounded like way more.

  “This way,” my mom said, grabbing my elbow and pulling me in the opposite direction. “There’s a back door through the kitchen.”

  I followed her. Shouts rung through the house. Heavy boots, weapons being loaded. All for us. Wow, I sure felt special.

  As we ran into the kitchen, I heard footsteps behind us. A guard was pounding down the corridor towards us, looking very determined. I slammed the kitchen door closed. Still no electricity so there was no way to lock it.

  A young man wearing a chef’s hat stared at us, startled. He had a knife in one hand, a carrot in the other. I waved both guns at him, as if I was planning to electrocute him first and then shoot him. He dropped the knife and the carrot. Smart guy.

  We exited the kitchen and into the night. The sunset glowed from behind us and ahead of us was open waters, already dark with the night.

  “This is the east side,” I muttered, running down a path that led to a rocky shore. “He’d better be there.”

  I saw a small red light glowing to one side. I veered towards it, stumbling over the rough shore. I could just make out the outline of a speed boat, its nose faced away from the island, ready for a quick escape. It must belong to Dragon’s friend.

  I stubbed my toe on a rock. “Couldn’t the Boss have ordered a sandy beach?” I grumbled.

  We reached the red light just as the house behind us recovered its energy. Lights burst into life. A dark creature loomed up in front of us.

  My mom screeched. I almost did too but bit my tongue. The guards were nearby. I could hear them shouting for torches.

  “Hello, ladies,” the dark apparition said. His teeth shone against dark skin and his dreadlocks whipped around as he jumped off the boat and splashed towards us.

  In the dim light, I looked the guy up and down. Not quite what I expected when Dragon had mentioned a friend. Every surface of skin I could see was covered in tattoos or rings or both.

  “You… uh… You’re Dragon’s friend?” I voiced my doubts. I was having difficulty picturing youthful, handsome, gentle Dragon with this ruffian.

  “That’s me.” He grabbed my mom by the arm, dragged her a few feet into the water, pushed her up a small ladder and into the speed boat.

  “You’re Blade?” I asked, just to double check.

  His dark eyes glittered as he handed me a business card. Seriously. A business card. We were running for our lives and he gave me his laminated business card. I stuffed it in a pocket while he reached out to grab my hand, pulled the real gun from my grip.

  “You see anyone else offering to take you off this place?” he asked as he steered me into the water.

  He had a point.

  And a guard had just seen us and our… ah… rescuer. She shouted to her companions. I pushed through the water to the boat and joined my mom. Blade leaped gracefully onboard and revved the engine. I grabbed the railing to keep upright as the boat surged away.

  “Heads down,” Blade ordered just as a gun shot rang out.

  “Great,” I muttered, gripping my bag. “You got any plastic and tape?”

  He glanced back at me, grinning. “You got some strange timing, little girl.”

  I glared at him. “I need to wrap something up.”

  He shrugged his broad shoulders, jerked the wheel so we were heading toward the mainland. “Check under the seat. Got all sorts of junk in there.”

  I rummaged through the junk, found what I needed and wrapped up the memory stick. The way this guy drove, we’d probably end up in the water at some point.

  “So how do you know Dragon?” I asked.

  He wagged a finger at me without turning around. “That’s between him and me, cute stuff.”

  I glanced at my mom with an outraged expression. Who’d this guy think he was? She smirked and shook her head.

  “We got company. Keep low,” he said.

  I glanced back to the house. Two speed boats were pushing off from the dock.

  “Can this thing go any faster?” I shouted over the wind and the engine noise.

  He swivelled about, winked (unbelievable) and said, “For you, sweet thing, it sure can.”

  I tightened my grip on the Taser. Oh yeah, I was tempted. Unfortunately, he was driving.

  “I’m going to get as close to the mainland as I can without driving onto dry land,” he shouted. “When I tell you, you jump and swim for it. I’ll lead the other boats away.”

  Okay, I was a bit impressed by the gallant offer. Not the part about jumping off a speeding boat into the ocean at night. But leading the bad guys away part. How did Dragon know this guy? And what kind of colleague would risk his life to help out two strangers?

  The mainland and a number of freight ships were a lot closer now. So were the other two boats. At least, I thought so. Hard to tell at night with only starlight plus a choppy sea and the occasional gun shot to distract the focus.

  “Hey, gorgeous, get ready to jump off,” Blade shouted above the roar of the engine and the wind.

  I scowled at him. My mom grabbed my arm. Pressed hard.

  “Myranda, you keep swimming, no matter what,” she said. She had that look in her eye, the one that told me I’d better listen up or else.

  Or else what?

  “We’re going to make it, together,” I retorted angrily. Salt stung my eyes. Spray off the ocean, that was all.

  Before she could say anything more, the speed boat veered sharply around a large tanker. I could’ve sworn that it hadn’t been there a minute ago but it certainly didn’t just pop up out of nowhere. The bulk hid us temporarily. My stomach felt like it was hanging over one side of the boat when we swerved in the opposite direction. I slammed against the other railing, my mom right
behind me. We zoomed around a freighter that made the speed boat look miniscule in comparison.

  “Hey, careful!” I screamed.

  Blade just laughed, pointed to a rocky outcrop jutting out from the shore ahead of us. Directly ahead of us. As in: we were going to crash straight into the end of the outcrop and that would be the end of our little escape plan.

  “Get back there,” he shouted, gesturing for us to climb onto the backboard. We huddled there, our shoes soaked and the roar of the engine deafening. He tilted the wheel slightly one way and the other. The boat just missed hitting the outcrop as it spun around it. “Now!”

  I yanked at my mom’s hand and we jumped. Cold blackness rushed over our heads. We both broke the surface at the same time, gasping for air and warmth.

  Okay, it wasn’t that cold, but it wasn’t a hot bath either.

  Blade didn’t check to see if we’d jumped or drowned or anything. He zoomed off. Two speed boats raced into view. I pulled my mom beneath the dark waves. My eyes scrunched closed, my lungs complained and my clothes felt so heavy.

  Under water, the engines’ muffled noises gurgled around us. We waited until the noises faded, until our lungs demanded we breathe and we floated to the surface. We were alone.

  Well, almost.

  A strobe light burst into life, flashed across the water, stopped when it had found us.

  “Stay where you are,” a voice demanded from the rocky outcrop. Clicks of a weapon being primed followed that command.

  I almost cried. Didn’t, but I was sure tempted to throw a tear-filled tantrum. A boat swung around the outcrop and threw a second strobe light on us. As if one wasn’t enough.

  “Myranda,” my mom whispered. She sounded relieved.

  “What,” I growled. All I could think about was the memory stick wrapped in plastic and tape. They’d take it, destroy it. They’d find Dragon, destroy him.

  Anything but that. Please don’t let them find him.

  “It’s okay, Myranda,” she continued. Her teeth chattered around her words. “It’s the Coast Guard. We’re going to be fine.”

  And that was when I started crying.