by Joseph Lallo
“That’s because he gets paid a couple thousand dollars an hour and I’m a frugal man,” said Dimitrios as he stepped through the door.
He was dressed in a very sharp outfit, the sort of suit you expected from a lounge singer from the fifties.
“Give us a few minutes alone, would you?” he said to the guard at the door.
The guard nodded and shut the door but did not lock it.
“Uncle Dimitrios, what’s going on?” Markus said.
“They say the wheels of justice grind slow, but they grind true. It turns out if you pump a couple hundred thousand dollars into your legal defense, they grind however the hell you want. Or did you forget I’m a millionaire now?”
Markus scratched his head. “I kind of thought that money would sort of go poof once things went south. Wasn’t there a contract?”
“You’re not a businessman, Markus my boy, so you can be excused for not knowing this. First, contracts involving illegal things are a bear to defend in court. Second, if you’ve had the… checkered entrepreneurial past I’ve had…”
“You mean one with a couple dozen failed businesses?” Markus said.
“More or less. If you’ve had a history like that, you get pretty good at hiding money.” He lowered his voice. “And considering the things the guy who paid me tried to do, the fifteen mill is a bargain. Now listen up. Hollenger is finishing things up right now. You’re going to be getting off with eight months probation in exchange for some testimony against Grumman.”
“Oh, I’ve got some choice words for her all right,” Gale said.
“Fine, that’s great, but what about Blodgette?” Markus asked.
“Yeah, what about Blodgette?” Gale said.
“I’m getting to that. The legal status of the Struct… the struc…”
“Structophis gastrignae,” Gale said.
“Right. The legal status is sort of a gray area with regard to ownership. But the decision has been made that Blodgette will be moved to an animal-behavior facility and education center on the outskirts of Crested Butte to be cared for until her health and psychological state are sufficient that she can be introduced to other… er…”
“Pizza dragons,” Markus said.
“Right,” Dimitrios agreed.
He knocked on the door, and the guard opened it. The three of them were led out into the hallway.
“There’s no facility like that near Crested Butte,” Gale said.
Dimitrios dug a freshly printed brochure from his pocket. “There is now! The Spiros Center for Observation, Parenting, and Education. SCOPE!”
Markus took it and flipped through. It was filled with overblown language about the value of learning from the wonders of nature, as well as architectural illustrations of buildings likely not yet built.
“Observation, Parenting, and Education?”
“I’ll admit, it’s a stretch, but these things do better if the acronym spells something.”
“Admission, fifteen dollars?” Markus said.
Spiros tapped the page. “Free to schools and kids under twelve. But think of it. There isn’t a single facility in the country that’ll let the average person come and watch a pizza dragon being raised. And once she’s grown, maybe Blodgette will stick around. People might even be able to interact with her! We’ll make a fortune, and all for a good cause!”
“I’m sure the good cause is the first thing on your mind,” Gale said.
“I’ll have you know the first thing on my mind was clearing us of potential jail time. To pull that off, I had to make sure that we were able to rehabilitate Blodgette and ensure proper treatment. But don’t be so high and mighty. You can’t spell SCOPE without ‘education.’ Paperwork is pending, but by this time next month we’ll be an accredited research facility, and we’ll be in the market for a head researcher.”
“Done!” Gale said, grabbing his hand for a shake. “That’s it, hand shake! No take backs! … What’s it pay?”
“A percentage of net receipts. So if I were you, I’d make it interesting enough to pack in the crowds. Think Crocodile Hunter.”
They reached an exterior door and stepped outside into a parking lot behind the courthouse. A flatbed truck was waiting for them. Blodgette was sitting atop it. Two white-clad handlers were attempting to minister to one of her sore spots, but she had her arms crossed and her head turned aside as though they weren’t there.
At the sight of Markus and Gale, she warbled happily and hopped to her feet, then down to the ground—much to the detriment of the pavement. After a few bounding steps she swept Gale and Markus into a tight hug.
“You can thank Blodgette here for probation instead of jail time. They wanted to lock you up, but she refused treatment and we made it clear that if they really cared about her recovery, they’d have to let you two be in charge of it.” He turned to the handlers and raised his voice. “See! I told you!”
“What happened to that lady who tried to kill us?” Gale asked.
“She’s taking the full brunt of the law. Seems like none of it’s flowing uphill to her boss, but that’s just the way it goes.”
Blodgette released them from the hug and took them each by the hand to lead them up to the back of the flatbed. All sorts of random shapes had been scrawled on the deck of the truck in sidewalk chalk. The dragon proudly pointed to some of them. Her novice artistry meant that it wasn’t clear to anyone but her what she’d drawn, but she was clearly very pleased with how it had turned out.
“There’re all sorts of handgrips up there, so hold tight! It’ll be a few hours before we’re to the facility, and I don’t want my new research team falling off. The place is basically an empty lot right now with some tents, but you just wait. Before long it’ll be the biggest thing to hit the town since my bistro!”
Gale quickly struck up a conversation with the handlers about how Blodgette was doing. Markus sat beside Blodgette and held her hand as she scrawled a fresh picture. Looping, jagged lines traced out the basic shape of a flower.
Markus quietly mused as he watched her. For a long time now he’d been hoping to make something of himself. Night classes, long hours, studying. He was trying to turn himself into the sort of person who could make a difference. Someone who would mean something. It hadn’t struck him until this very moment that there was a whole lot more to meaning something than being skilled and doing an important job. No one really meant anything unless they meant it to someone. Now there was Blodgette. He meant the world to her, and now it was clear that she meant the world to him.
There was no doubt that his life was a shambles now, but he was okay with that. Sometimes when it feels as though your life has been derailed, it’s just because you were stuck on the same track and needed to change course. He never would have imagined that riding on the back of a flatbed with an exotic animal would be the right choice for him, but as Blodgette murmured happily and traced out another flower, he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
From The Author
Thank you for reading! If you liked this story, or perhaps if you found it lacking, I’d love to hear from you. Below are links to some of the places you can find me online. For free stories and important updates, join my newsletter.
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Discover other titles by Joseph R. Lallo:
The Book of Deacon Series:
Book 1: The Book of Deacon
Book 2: The Great Convergence
Book 3: The Battle of Verril
Book 4: The D’Karon Apprentice
Other stories in the same setting:
Jade
The Rise of the Red Shadow
The Redemption of Desmeres
The Big Sigma Series:
Book 1: Bypass Gemini
Book 2: Unstable Prototypes
Book 3: Artificial Evolution
Book 4: Temporal Contingency
Book 1: Free-Wrench
Book 2: Skykeep
Book 3: Ichor Well
Collections:
The Book of Deacon Anthology
The Big Sigma Collection: Volume 1
NaNoWriMo Projects:
The Other Eight
Other Stories:
Between
Fallen Empire: Rogue Derelict