Fawks (Dragons of Kratak Book 4)

by Ruth Anne Scott

  He sighed again. “From what I've been told, there are some port managers and inspectors who are being paid off to look the other way when certain shipments come in.”

  His tone was angry, but there was a bit of relief mixed in with it as well. It was as if the burden he'd been carrying on his shoulders by keeping that secret had been lifted – and it felt good. Like I'd said, Dibs didn't like liars and thieves. But he also wasn't one to traffic in unfounded rumors, either. I got the feeling he'd never looked very deeply into it because he didn't want to know.

  “What's being brought in, Dibs?”

  He shook his head. “Couldn't tell you for sure,” he said. “Off world drugs, I assume. I hear some of the kids in the cities are going crazy for this new crystal drug from somewhere off world. Other than that, I really couldn't say.”

  Drugs. That didn't surprise me in the least. I was sure there were all sorts of other contraband flowing in through our ports thanks to corrupt managers and inspectors. The drug problem would have to be handled, of course. Dibs was right, there was a drug craze sweeping through some of our biggest cities and it was destroying lives. It would have to be dealt with – and it would be. But not right then.

  In that moment, I wasn't after drugs or the people running them. I was looking for information on the trafficking of people – Optorions being shipped out and alien beings being brought in.

  “Have you heard rumors, regardless of how vague or unsubstantiated, of anybody trafficking in – living cargo?”

  “Living cargo?” he asked. “As in wild animals? I've heard a few things here and there, but most of it's above board. Most of the ones I've dealt with had appropriate permits and all. I haven't heard of a big black market for exotic beasts from other worlds. Could be happening – I just haven't heard a whisper about it.”

  “Well, not animals, exactly, but –”

  “Listen, Tarkonil,” he started. “I don't know what you're trying to get at here, but you're asking me if I know of anyone transporting living cargo, and all I can say is no. I don't know anything about all of that. And I wouldn't condone it either.”

  “Of course you wouldn't, Dibs,” I said softly. “I know that.”

  I got to thinking – Dibs was only one man and he had a solid reputation as a straight shooter. And he worked days. If I were going to bring in illegal cargo, I'd likely do it in the dead of the night when Dibs wasn't around. When there wasn't really anybody around and security was a little more – lax.

  “Who's the supervisor once you leave for the day?” I asked.

  “Zavrik. He works the overnight shift, usually.”

  “Zavrik, that name doesn't ring a bell,” I said, mainly talking to myself.

  “He's only been managing the port for a few months now. Not long. New guy,” he said. “Not sure where he came from before he started here, but between you and me, he isn’t cut out for this job.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  Dibs shrugged. “I shouldn't say anything more,” he said. “Not if I want to keep my job.”

  “This conversation is between you and me, Dibs. You can trust my discretion and that I will keep this all confidential,” I said. “Is he doing something illegal?”

  “Not that I know of. Not that I can prove, anyway,” Dibs said. “He just can't do anything right. He has no experience, and his paperwork is always screwed up – which means I have to do twice as much work to try to get the correct information we need for our records. And we're so busy that I really don't have the time to go dig it all up. And that's exactly why you'll find documents with a ton of missing information coming out of this port. I keep telling Zavrik that he needs to go back through and fix them, but he never does. Always says he's too busy. But you know what this place is like at night. I'm pretty certain he's just off somewhere sleeping.”

  Dibs' rant might sound like a typical workplace rant, but there was something there – just beneath the surface – that stood out to me. Maybe I was just looking for an excuse to believe in the worst case scenario, but this Zavrik sounded like trouble to me. And his incompetence sounded deliberate – not the shortcomings of a lazy, underqualified supervisor

  “Thank you Dibs,” I said. “Would you mind if I took a look at those records myself? And please, do not worry. All of this is still very much off-the-record and confidential. You have my word.”

  Dibs nodded. “Fine with me,” he said with a shrug. “All of my records are in order. Nothing out of place. I can't say the same about his paperwork though.”

  “That's okay,” I said. “I'll sort it all out.”

  Chapter Four

  Riley

  My alarm sounded way too early for my liking. I rolled over and felt like crying when I saw that it wasn't even six in the morning yet. But, that was the story of my life. My only consolation was in believing that one day it would be better. That one day, all of the hard work and long hours I was putting in now would pay off.

  That one day, my life wouldn't suck quite as hard as it did in that moment.

  I lay in bed, trying to find the strength and willpower to pull myself out from beneath my warm blankets. After several minutes of denial, bargaining, and finally acceptance, I managed to climb out of bed and make it to the shower. Not without plenty of moaning and groaning along the way, of course.

  I was a zombie most mornings. A blubbering, incoherent and unintelligible mess on the best of days. And that morning was nowhere near my best of mornings. I somehow made it through my morning routine of brushing my teeth and getting dressed, all while half asleep. I poured myself a giant mug of coffee and downed it right before I needed to dash out the door for class. I was hoping it would help keep me awake through my first few classes, and at lunch time, I could sit in my car and take a quick nap. It wasn't like I hadn't done it before – more than a few times.

  I was running late, so I rushed out of my apartment, hoping I'd locked the door behind me in my haste. Scurrying across the parking lot, I made it to my car and as I climbed inside, a chill rushed through my body. The hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood on end just like it had the night before, the feeling of being watched stole over me. I looked around but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

  “You're so damn jumpy lately,” I muttered to myself and shook my head.

  I tried to brush it off as nothing more than coffee jitters and a healthy case of paranoia, but as I pulled out of my parking spot I stopped the car and froze. Sitting across the street from my apartment complex was a black sedan. The same black sedan that had been in the parking lot at the Hen last night. And even through the tinted windows, I could see that somebody was inside the car.

  Adrenaline coursed through my body and my hands trembled upon the wheel. Apparently, I wasn't nearly as paranoid and jumpy as I'd thought. I racked my brain, trying to figure out what to do. I couldn't go back into my apartment; I'd be a sitting duck. I'd be trapped. I could call the cops, but there was some small part of me that argued it could still be nothing and if you dragged the police all the way out there, it would turn out to be a misunderstanding and I'd look like a complete freak.

  The longer I sat there, the more my anxiety grew. The best thing I could do was get moving. Getting myself into motion would probably ease my worries some. Surely, they wouldn't do anything to me in broad daylight. And once I got to school, there would be plenty of people around and I'd be safe in the crowds. Right?

  “Get moving, dummy,” I said to myself.

  Putting the car in gear, I pulled out of the driveway – a little too quickly. My tires chirped on the pavement as I accelerated away, my eyes glued to the rear view mirror. I was so busy watching the road behind me that I very nearly forgot to watch the road in front of me until it was too late. Thankfully though, I looked up in time to hit the brakes, very narrowly avoiding rear ending the BMW stopped at the light in front of me. I obviously had bigger things to worry about, but destroying my car and also having to pay for the repairs of a
very expensive car pretty high on my list of things I couldn't afford to do.

  My car squealed to a stop, a cloud of smoke and a line of rubber behind me. I quickly checked the rear view again and saw the sedan behind me. It was moving slowly, casually, as if it had all the time in the world.

  “Shit,” I said. “Shit, shit, shit. Come on light. Come on!”

  It seemed to be a law of the universe that when you were running late – or were running for your life – that all of the traffic lights were duty bound to work against you. And given that I was mere inches off the rear bumper of the car in front of me, I couldn't get around him to make a fast getaway.

  The sedan stopped about twenty feet behind me. It was as if the driver were enjoying inspiring sheer terror in me and was making a game of it. Finally, the light turned green and the BMW sped away – very likely to get away from the crazy chick behind him that had almost ruined his day. And his car. I followed suit though and floored the accelerator, speeding away from the intersection.

  I rocketed through town, heading for school, not caring that I was going over the speed limit. In fact, if I got pulled over for speeding, it might actually work out in my favor. With a cop there, I could point to the sedan that was very clearly following me at that point, and have them find out who he was and what he wanted.

  Sapphire Bay Community College sat at the far edge of town. It overlooked the Bay and was a stunning campus – surprising for a junior college – but it also had a very good reputation for its academics. But none of that mattered to me at the moment. All that mattered to me was the safety and sanctuary it offered me. If I got there.

  The one part of the drive that worried me was Sapphire Canyon Road. It was a long, lonely stretch of highway that ran from the heart of town and through a small canyon before emerging into the part of town where the school was located. Sapphire Bay was a small town and wasn't overly populated. Stretches of road like the canyon road were very seldom congested and in fact, were often deserted.

  If the psycho in the sedan was going to make a move on me, he would likely do it in the canyon. Of course, maybe I'd seen too many movies or television shows and the idea of him speeding up and forcing me off the road was more fiction than fact. But still, it wasn't a comforting idea no matter which way you sliced it. My old car was falling apart around me and I worried about the added strain I was about to put on her, but my plan was to go as fast and hard through the canyon as I could.

  The sooner I was off the lonely road and among people again, the better.

  Traffic thinned out and then disappeared altogether by the time I hit the mouth of the canyon. My heart was thundering in my chest when I looked in my rear view and saw that the sedan was still behind me. And had actually closed some of the gap between us.

  “Come on, baby,” I encouraged my car. “Don't let me down. We can do this.”

  I pushed down harder on the accelerator and though my little beater shuddered, she dutifully picked up some speed and soon enough, we were racing through the canyon. And the sedan not only stayed with us, it drew closer.

  “What in the hell do you want?” I screamed in the mirror.

  Tears welled in my eyes as my terror grew to gargantuan proportions. My hands were trembling every bit as hard as my car was with the strain I was putting on her. But I thought I was going to make it. We were going to get out of the canyon before the sedan caught us. We were going to get to safety. I checked my rear view mirror once more and thought I saw a flash of blue light in the window. It was brief and perhaps it was just a reflection of light from the sun or something else entirely – or perhaps it was just my eyes playing tricks on me. But the flash was brief and then it was gone. And I continued on, knowing that in less than a mile, I would be free and safe.

  Or so I'd thought. In a heartbeat, my whole world came crashing down around me. My car died.

  Nothing blew. Nothing rattled. Nothing – happened. All I knew was that one moment we were racing to beat the devil and the next, everything just quit. The engine. The radio. Everything. It just – stopped.

  “No!” I screamed as my car slowed down and began to coast.

  The sedan didn't overtake me, but it continued to pace me even as my car continued slowing to a stop. I pounded on the wheel, frustrated, terrified, and feeling infinitely powerless. The walls of the canyon seemed to be pressing in on me, amplifying the feeling that I was trapped. I had nowhere to go.

  Sure, I could try to climb the walls of the canyon, but on one side, there was a hundred foot drop to the jagged rocks of the coastline below. On the other was a vast wilderness I was half afraid I'd get lost in forever.

  But all things considered, perhaps getting into the forest was the best option available to me. It was either that, plunge to my death, or try and face down whatever chainsaw wielding psycho was behind the wheel of the sedan.

  That settled it. I had no choice but to make a run for it. I was in relatively good shape. I didn't work out much, but I had always been pretty quick on my feet. I had outrun more than a few people in my life. Of course, the difference between then and now, was that all those times had been in fun – this was a matter of life and death.

  Taking a deep breath, I gritted my teeth. It was time to act. Jamming on the brakes, I brought my lifeless car to a stop and flung open the door. The sedan had already stopped behind me. I stood rooted to my spot as two men got out of the car. They were tall with skin paler than anything I'd ever seen and long, dark hair that beneath the sunlight seemed to have a purple sheen to it. They looked like normal men – and yet they didn't. There was something strange, something ethereal about them. They just looked too – perfect.

  They stared at me with eyes that were dark – very dark. It was as if they didn't have whites to their eyes, which only added to their strange appearance. I willed my body to move but found that I couldn't. I couldn't do anything but stand and stare back at them.

  “Please,” I said. “What do you want from me?”

  They shared a look and then turned back to me and the first one spoke. “Come with us.”

  His voice was cold. Emotionless. And yet, it still seemed to convey something sinister. The second man – the one who'd climbed out of the passenger seat raised his hand toward me. He was holding something – it looked vaguely like a gun. But not. Just as they looked like normal men. But not. There was something bizarre, something surreal about this whole thing.

  But seeing the weapon – or whatever it was – in his hand, pointed at me, it broke my paralysis. I didn't know who – or what they were – or what they wanted with me, but I wasn't going down without a fight. I turned and ran for the far embankment.

  “Stop,” called one of the men behind me. “We mean you no harm.”

  Yeah, right. I reached the embankment and scrambled up. The dirt crumbled beneath my feet, making it slow going and hard to gain traction. I dared not risk looking back for fear that I would lose any momentum and find myself frozen with fear again. I just continued trying to crawl up this dirt wall, trying to reach the forest beyond it where, at the very least, I could hide.

  “Stop,” the voice came again, this time sounding closer.

  I couldn't help myself. Though continuing to scramble up the dirt embankment, I glanced over my shoulder and saw both of them coming toward me. They moved with a grace that was almost feline. They reminded me of dancers in a way. But like everything else about them – not. They seemed to glide – almost hovering a bit off the ground.

  “What in the hell are you?” I screamed.

  I looked both ways on the road but saw no cars. Nobody coming to help me. I was alone with two creatures closing in on me. I made it about halfway up the embankment and gritted my teeth, digging harder, scrambling faster. From the corner of my eye, I saw that they had both reached the bottom of the embankment and were staring up at me.

  “Please,” called one of them. “Come down and come with us.”

  Tears rolled down my cheeks and m
y body was racked with sobs, but I continued digging and clawing my way up the embankment. Like hell I was going with them peacefully. My breathing was ragged and labored and my energy was draining fast. The top of the embankment was close, but still seemed miles away. I wasn't going to make it before my body gave out. It was like trying to crawl through tar.

  Sobbing, I dropped to my hands and knees. My hand landed on the hard edge of a jagged rock and a sudden idea, a final gambit, shot through my mind. Picking up the rock, I turned and fired it at the men. I thought that maybe, if I could hit them with the rock, it might give me enough time to get to the top of the embankment and into the forest.

  I watched the rock sailing straight toward one of them and had a momentary flash of triumph. It looked to be on a trajectory that would hit him square in the face. It might disorient them enough to give me the time I needed to escape.

  But then something happened that I could not comprehend.

  The second man raised his hand and a beam of blue light shot from the device he was holding. It was a narrow beam that crackled like electricity and when it struck the rock, the rock simply vanished. Disintegrated. It just ceased to be. I stared at it, completely dumbfounded. I had no explanation for what had just happened.

  I turned and looked at them and found that they were looking back at me, their faces devoid of any expression or emotion whatsoever. And when the man raised his hand and pointed the device at me, my heart felt like it was going to burst. I envisioned what happened to the rock and imagined it happening to me – just vanishing. Disintegrating.

  As the blue beam of light flared and streaked toward me, I felt my eyes grow wide as I opened my mouth and screamed.

  Chapter Five

  Tarkonil

  The night was dark and the twin moons of Optorio were high in the sky. It was late. Way too late. And I was way too old to be sneaking around in the dark playing these games of mystery and intrigue. But I had a duty to Optorio. More specifically, I had a duty to the people of Optorio. I strongly suspected there was corruption among the Council – I thought that some of them were even breaking the laws of our people. And it was my duty to bring that to light.