Steel Dragon (Steel Dragons Series Book 1)

by Kevin McLaughlin

  Although he was disappointed that Death had not met expectations—the amount of resources he’d expended on her fees was embarrassing to even contemplate—he wasn’t entirely surprised at her inability to kill the Steel Dragon.

  Kristen Hall was a feisty, stubborn little being. She had stood against him in combat despite not activating her dragon body. And then there were her pesky allies. While his alarm didn’t indicate that any dragons accompanied her, he assumed she’d bring her human police. In fact, he counted on it.

  While Death had pursued her through the city, Shadowstorm had quietly prepared his base for a final showdown with the Steel Dragon.

  Although the Detroit Renewable Power facility had been officially shut down due to licensing and permits, no one seemed to have noticed that the steam continued to run.

  Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He chuckled smugly. His contact at the Detroit Free Press said one of the reporters had asked questions, but he’d been shot down and sent to cover the water treatment situation in Flint. The dragon hadn’t simply wasted more than a century in Detroit. He was a part of this city, a hidden master who knew where all the strings could be pulled.

  For example, despite the Renewable Power facility being shut down, trash was still delivered for incineration. The transformer station was still operational—even though there had been unusual spikes in its energy consumption. And while the building was devoid of workers, no one had bothered to lock the network of tunnels that started beneath the facility and radiated out into the city.

  That was where he headed now, down into the tunnels beneath the facility. These were the blood vessels of Detroit that delivered hot steam to the city that was spawned from its own burning garbage.

  Shadowstorm didn’t doubt that Kristen would find where he had gone. In fact, his plans required that she do so. But she wouldn’t find the way down to his lair easily either. He had grown increasingly paranoid since being summoned by the Masked One and no longer relied on people to protect him. Once they’d set up the web of traps, he’d had them executed. That was one of the other reasons he knew she had found Death. There simply wasn’t anyone else alive who could possibly know where he was.

  The Steel Dragon would come to the facility and that would be her downfall. She would either be snared like an insect in a web or, if she somehow did make it all the way into the tunnels where he was waiting for her, she would die at his hands.

  He knew that if this happened, he’d not only have the advantage of centuries of experience but that the deaths of her pathetic human allies would weigh on her as well.

  While he wasn’t stupid and hated that she saw herself as a human, he also accepted it. He could use this weakness to his advantage. She had some kind of traitorous sense of loyalty to the lesser species and would risk her life for the humans she cared for.

  By the time she reached him—if she reached him—she’d either be exhausted from protecting her humans or mourning their death. Either way, he would be able to destroy the pathetic excuse for a dragon and take back the city that the insolent little whelp had inadvertently pried from his hands.

  Shadowstorm almost relished meeting with the Masked One. He’d explain the careful traps he’d set and the way he’d quickly and efficiently dispatched Kristen’s allies, and the powerful dragon would only stare. He was old, but the Masked One was positively ancient and wouldn’t understand the dangers of steam tunnels, the power that humans had harnessed and put into their machines, or the sheer mass of garbage humans created.

  But that would come in time. First, he would destroy the Steel Dragon. Then, he would celebrate.

  Chapter Sixty-Eight

  The SWAT van eased to the curb outside the Detroit Renewable Power facility.

  “This is the place?” Butters asked.

  Kristen nodded. “That’s what it says on the phone.”

  “What is it?” Keith asked.

  “It’s basically an incinerator for garbage.” Jim stepped from the back of the van and studied the gate in front of them.

  “That’s disgusting.” Hernandez frowned.

  “The city council agrees,” the Wonderkid continued. “I read that they voted to shut this place down. It releases particulates into the air, for one thing. Plus, there are all kinds of weird rules about who pays how much to get their trash burned. I won’t get into it because we have a dragon to kill but apparently, it’s not a great deal for Detroit.”

  “What do they do with all the burned garbage?” Drew asked as he took out an assault rifle and checked the magazine.

  “They use it to make steam, which they send around the city to heat many of the buildings downtown. It’s why we have all those grates that spit steam all the damn time. Those are leaks. I guess there’s a whole network of tunnels under the city and has been since 1903.”

  “I thought that was sewer gas or something,” Hernandez aid.

  Jim laughed. “This city would smell far worse than it does if all that came from the sewers.”

  “But if it shut down, how come there’s still steam coming from that smokestack?” Butters gestured to the towering brick smokestack that protruded from the white-and-red block of a building.

  “Because Shadowstorm is expecting us.” Kristen had no doubt that this was true.

  “Are you sure we shouldn’t call your boy Stonequest?” Keith sounded nervous.

  She was glad he did, though. It would give her an opportunity to deal with her team.

  “I’m sure. He’ll run.”

  “There has to be a whole mess of tunnels down there for him to choose from,” Jim pointed out.

  With her back turned on the facility, she faced her team. “I’m also sure this won’t be an easy fight. Shadowstorm wants me dead, obviously. His assassin failed, so I have no doubt that we’ll walk into a real death trap. I think it would be better if all of you went home.”

  The response was instant.

  “Are you out of your mind?”

  “Fuck off, Red.”

  “Under no circumstances.”

  Kristen couldn’t track who’d said what, only that they’d all refused. “I’m serious. Last time, it was all of you that exposed him. He won’t forget that. I…I can’t lose you—any of you.”

  “So what, we’re supposed to watch you walk in there without backup and let Shadowstorm grind you to pieces?” Drew said.

  “I’ve been training—”

  “So have we,” Hernandez cut in. “We’ve all done this far longer than you, Red. You forget you’re still the newbie on the team and that we all signed up for this crazy job because we know that someone’s gotta risk their fucking life.”

  “Hernandez is right.” Jim nodded. “You have a way better chance to defeat him if we have your back, which means this city has a better chance.”

  “This city is my responsibility,” she protested.

  “With all due respect, Kristen, no, it’s not.” The words were especially surprising coming from Keith. He was generally her biggest supporter. “This is our city as much as it's yours. We’re glad to have a dragon on our side, but it’s still ours. I’d rather risk my life than have dragons duke it out like we’re nothing but a prize to be fought for.”

  For a moment, she was speechless. She simply didn’t know what to do with her friends’ courage. None of them had her strength, her speed, or her steel skin, yet they were all willing to venture into a place that would put their lives at risk simply so she could try to defeat Shadowstorm? It was too much.

  “Oh, Jesus, Red. Stop crying, you’ll rust,” Hernandez said.

  She nodded and wiped her eyes. “Okay. Let’s do this. Drew, bolt cutters for the gate?”

  “They won’t be necessary,” Beanpole said. “The gate is not locked.”

  Kristen nodded. Of course it wasn’t. They pushed the gate open and entered. Inside the fenced-off area was a massive parking lot dotted with various buildings—cooling towers and a few others that were probably offices or someth
ing similar. Garbage trucks, a few dumpsters, and a massive pile of garbage cluttered the lot and in the center was a massive red-and-white building. It appeared to be the heart of the operation and looked like it had recently been expanded to house the tower of bricks that probably comprised the smokestack of the incinerator.

  “All right. Beanpole, watch our back. Butters, I very much doubt this asshole will give us vantage points to snipe from but if he failed to notice one, I want you there. Hernandez, are you packing explosives?” Drew’s eyes never left the facility.

  “Does a bear shit in the woods?”

  “Good girl. Now, I don’t want you to bring this place down on our heads, obviously, but once we see Shadowstorm, look for exits. He doesn’t have a problem with running off when he loses a fight, so if he reaches one of these tunnels, make him regret it.”

  “What about me, sir?” Keith asked.

  The team leader grinned and tossed him an assault rifle. “You, me, and Jim? We’ll watch Kristen’s back. We have the fun job of shooting a dragon with bullets we know won’t hurt it.”

  The Wonderkid shot her a knowing look and she felt the bullet that had punctured her shoulder in her pocket. She didn’t know what she would do with it but leaving it behind seemed like definitely the wrong answer.

  They pushed forward into the Detroit Renewable Power facility, a building she had only ever previously heard about on the local news. It now seemed to possess the importance of an ancient European castle.

  Slow and careful progress brought them about halfway across the parking lot that surrounded the red-and-white building. The entire team startled when the electric transformers in a corner away from the facility itself crackled. Bolts of electricity arced between them like a tesla coil gone mad.

  “The dumbass missed us,” Hernandez said.

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Kristen said. She could feel the electromagnetic energy pulling at her steel skin. It was getting stronger and stronger and in a moment, it would drag her across the parking lot and slam her into one of the massive transformers, where she’d be crucified with electricity.

  She turned her steel skin off and the tug stopped.

  Keith laughed. “That was a weak trap.”

  “I don’t think it was only for me. What about your guns?” she asked.

  Drew answered first. “Mine’s getting pulled for sure. Double time toward the facility.”

  “Ahh!” Beanpole yelled. His weapon had already slipped from his hand and clattered across the parking lot toward the transformers. He cursed and bolted after it but was too slow.

  Everyone else raced toward the facility before the magnets could rob them of theirs.

  “Beanpole, get back to the van and keep your radio handy. It would help to know if anyone else shows up—mages, thugs, even Dragon SWAT,” Drew yelled at the other man as he ran. “And for Mom’s sake, don’t approach the malfunctioning electrical transformers. There are more guns in the van.”

  “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir!” Beanpole yelled and adjusted direction toward the vehicle.

  Kristen led them to a door, concerned that this was exactly what Shadowstorm wanted, but the rapid fire of a machine gun peppered the ground ahead of them with a line of bullets. It seemed that he didn’t want them to use this door after all, but that didn’t mean she could allow them to be shredded by the barrage.

  She turned and led the team away from the door and toward a massive pile of garbage outside the facility.

  “Do we have a sniper, Butters?” Drew asked.

  “No, sir. It’s an automated system, looks like. I can’t tell if its magic or machine-powered.”

  “Can you take a shot?”

  He lifted his rifle, aimed, fired and cursed.

  The gun started to fire in return.

  They ran farther from it and closer to the garbage.

  “Either it's one hell of an AI or magic, but either way, it’s firing through a tiny slit. I can’t target the gun itself and I don’t know where the sensors are.” Butters looked downright ashamed that an automated system had already bested him this early in the fight.

  “I think we need to assume its magic,” Kristen said. Everyone nodded—an agreement of necessity.

  “There’s an entrance.” Keith pointed to open hangar doors. A conveyer belt led inside them and a giant claw looked like it normally deposited trash on it but was currently still.

  “We can go in with the trash,” she said. “I don’t think Shadowstorm would think a dragon would sink that low.”

  They moved toward the conveyer belt and the stench of garbage became more acrid as they approached.

  “This plan stinks,” Keith joked. No one laughed. That would have involved breathing far too deeply.

  They had reached the base of the garbage pile when the crane activated. She saw no operator seated at its controls, but the massive machine began to move all the same. Its boom arm swung out and a dangling claw of metal gnashing teeth hung below it. “Go, go, go! Up the pile!” she said. She stayed on the ground near a giant circle with an X painted on it, no doubt the claw’s typical target.

  It probably wasn’t smart, but she thought she could totally destroy it.

  Instead of targeting her, however, it tracked the Wonderkid up the garbage heap. She cursed, turned on her dragon speed, and reached him as the claw descended. Its massive metal jaws closed around them both and she activated her steel skin.

  The machine was strong but the Steel Dragon was stronger.

  “What do you want me to do?” Jim asked as she held the jaws apart so they couldn’t close.

  “Get inside. Hernandez!” she bellowed. “Blow the controls for this fucker.”

  He obeyed and scurried up the garbage heap, his legs sinking into the trash up to his knees as he did so.

  Kristen tried to hold the jaws of the claw at bay but it was too much. They slammed shut. Her head, arms, and torso were now inside the clawed scoop and her legs dangled out. If she was a human, she’d no doubt be dead.

  She was forced to wait, blind and deaf as her prison carried her to who knew what.

  After an agonizing thirty seconds, the expected explosion—dulled from her being enclosed in metal—stopped the mechanical claw’s movement.

  Impatient, she kicked her legs but her prison remained shut.

  Something pinged off the claw, followed rapidly by another. After the third, it opened and dumped her into a pile of garbage inside the facility.

  The team stood above the pile in the massive open hangar doorway. Butters settled his rifle on his shoulder. He must have shot the release for the claw—a damn hard shot, but he had done it in three tries.

  “Where’s Hernandez?” she asked, tried to push herself up the pile of muck, and failed. She was impressed her team had not only scaled the garbage pile but reached the doorway.

  “She blew the controls. She’s on her way,” Drew called.

  The door to the facility began to slide closed from either side with the team trapped in the middle. Already, the catwalks that led around the trash pile were blocked.

  “Hernandez, see if you can find another way in without getting shot!” Drew yelled over his shoulder as he turned his back to the outside and scrutinized something in the building.

  “Fuck that!” Hernandez yelled but it was obvious from how faint it sounded that she was too far. She wouldn’t make it.

  “Everyone else, jump!”

  “No!” Kristen yelled but the others ignored her. They all flung themselves into the garbage pile. Butters and Drew did so with disgusted resignation, but Keith and Jim almost looked like they enjoyed it. She couldn’t let them go it alone, so she turned her dragon speed on and raced up the pile. At the top, she discovered another garbage pile inside the building and she jumped into it with her team.

  They plunged into the trash and she immediately realized they’d fallen into another trap.

  The stack began to writhe and convulse like some great beast had been asle
ep at the bottom and had now awoken.

  “Stay near the top,” Jim shouted. “I saw a video online about this place. Those are giant metal corkscrews down there. They’ll grind us up like hamburger meat.”

  That instruction was easier said than done. As the trash was pulled into the garbage grinders, lighter items were pushed toward the top while heavier things—like people—seemed to sink through the mass like pasta in boiling water. Already, they’d sunk six feet, and the top of the wall was out of reach. No one could jump that high, and even if they could, the footing was so poor that it gave instead of providing a springboard. She had to turn her body back to skin instead of steel to avoid sinking through it all.

  “How deep you think this pit is, Jim?” Drew asked.

  Kristen turned to him as well. He was the only one of them who seemed to have any idea about the specs of this place.

  “How the fuck am I supposed to know? I’ve seen this place on the news once or twice and Googled it, but it’s not like I know the goddamn engineering plans!” There was panic in his voice and she couldn’t blame him. They were way too close to those grinding screws.

  Chunks of garbage spewed—coffee grounds, popped diapers, and the leftovers from kitchen sinks. The screws continued to grind, and they sank even deeper.

  “We need an idea!” Butters shouted. Despite his weight, he wasn’t any deeper in the garbage than the rest of them, but there was real panic in his voice. She had to do something—anything—if her team was going to survive this.

  She pushed toward the surface and again, the mass of garbage threatened to swallow her. An extension cord wound around her neck. It seemed both ends were already stuck in the grinder below. She tried to pull herself free but had an idea. A dumb, dangerous idea, but an idea all the same.

  After a deep breath, she dove into the garbage. Moving down through it proved to be much easier than staying afloat in it. Yes, the smell was almost unbearable. It was dark, although not pitch-black thanks to her night vision, but at least she could head down. It made it easier that she’d turned her skin to steel again, so she basically sank through the muck. She wondered if—in all of Earth’s history with its dragon overlords—a single dragon had ever willingly dived into garbage. From what she could tell, not getting their hands dirty was maybe rule number one of being a dragon. Swimming through trash had to be a serious no-no.