by Sarah Noffke
Sophia rolled her eyes and pushed up. “Lun, you are acting out again. Are you feeling ignored?”
No, he answered at once. Then amended by saying, Maybe. If I’m honest, I can’t really get enough attention. The other dragons say I’m needy. I say they are boring and emotionally cold and then the name-calling starts, but they aren’t nearly as good as I’m at it.
“I do hope the new batch of dragons has more colorful personalities,” Sophia said sympathetically. She thought it must be tough for Lunis to be the only dragon on Earth with a sense of humor.
Well, so far, Blackey doesn’t seem to have much of a personality, but he likes to try and evoke pain on the rest of us in the Cave. He chomps on Bell’s tail when she is about to fall asleep and steals Coral’s food.
“Wow, he sounds mean,” Sophia exclaimed, not used to hearing of dragons acting badly. The others in the Cave were so mild-mannered they bored Lunis to death when he only wanted a bit of banter from them. A dragon who was unthoughtful and ruthless; well, that was a first, as far as Sophia knew.
“Blackey isn’t mean to you, is he?” she asked Lunis. “Because if he is, then I’m going to show that bully who is boss.”
Lunis laughed in her head. Thanks, Mom, but don’t worry. He doesn’t come near me ever since I threatened to toss him out of the Cave. Since he can’t fly yet, that would be quite the unforgivable fall.
Sophia didn’t mean to laugh, but it tumbled out of her mouth anyway. “I’m sure that scared him from bullying you like the others.”
Yeah, but then Bell said I was taking advantage of my position as the senior dragon, Lunis explained.
Sophia smiled, guessing how this played out between the dragons. “And what did you say to Bell,” she asked Lunis.
I told her if she wasn’t careful, I was tossing her out of the Cave too and changing the lock so she couldn’t get back in.
“I’m sure that went over very well,” Sophia remarked.
I’ve been on the Expanse ever since Lunis admitted. They kicked me out of the Cave last night until I had, and I quote, an attitude adjustment.
Sophia shot into a sitting position. “Oh, Lun, why didn’t you tell me?”
She’d been so busy she hadn’t scried her dragon and seen he was sleeping on the cold grounds of the Gullington.
“I’ll get down there right away,” she promised, pulling on her boots.
And brush my scales and take me for a walk, Lunis said with a pouty quality to his voice.
She shook her head but laughed regardless. “No, but I’ll keep you company until Mahkah and Tala show up.”
Soph, even when you aren’t talking to me, you still keep me company. That’s the thing about the ones we love. They are in our head, regardless of where they are.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Sophia felt so close to her old home and still so far away. The Pacific Northwest wasn’t anything like Los Angeles, and yet it held many similarities only a local would understand.
As she and Mahkah slipped through the portal in the sky on their dragons, she felt a familiarity wash over her as her eyes took in the terrain below. The way the hills rose and fell into one another in this part of Oregon was very similar to the ones around her childhood home in Los Angeles.
The smell in the air was reminiscent of the pines and crisp mountain breeze. Many thought that Los Angeles smelled of smog and filth, but that wasn’t her experience, or not how she chose to remember it.
After surveying the area, Sophia and Mahkah landed a safe distance away from the airplane hangar located on the south end of a small town. She’d asked Mahkah to accompany her because she wanted to maximize her eyes and ears during the reconnaissance mission, and she needed someone even-tempered. There was no one more so than Mahkah.
Sophia was still perplexed by Mortimer’s strange warning about this mission. He seemed to want her to be successful while also not taking out Trin Currante or her company. That was a first for Sophia. There were enemies and those she protected. There wasn’t this strange middle gray area.
She needed more information about Medford Research. Then the Dragon Elite could reconvene and figure out how to take Trin Currante down…or not take her down. They were getting the dragon eggs back regardless. Sophia was certain of that.
Sliding off her dragon, Sophia surveyed the warehouse below. It was a large blue building at a small airport. There were several small jets and helicopters parked around the building, but not much else to give them information.
All of her attempts to find anything on Medford Research online had come up dry. The company had a very low profile. That was why they were going to go incognito.
Sophia figured since many of the “employees” were leaving Medford Research that morning for a mission, only a bare-bones crew would be left behind. Those types usually looked forward to lying back, playing games, and eating snacks while the boss was away. That was perfect for their purposes and the disguises they were going to pull off. The only concern for Sophia was Mahkah and his ability to act.
“Okay, remember to let me do the talking,” Sophia urged him, watching as a crew by the airport fueled up a plane. They were about to take off on their mission.
They could follow the plane, but Sophia reasoned she needed to know what the company did, and the best way to do that was to get inside.
Mahkah nodded. “I’m the ears and eyes. I can do that and feel most comfortable with that assignment.”
“Good,” Sophia agreed, looking him over. “Now what we need to do first is make you look official. I’m thinking a starched suit. Something that looks like it’s supposed to be expensive but isn’t. Like a low-end department store suit.”
“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” Mahkah admitted sheepishly.
She nodded. “No need. Just close your eyes and hope I get this right the first time.”
Obediently, Mahkah pressed his eyes shut.
Sophia flicked her hand in the air, muttering a disguising spell she’d used a hundred times on her sister.
Just like that, Mahkah was transformed to look like a traveling salesmen. He wore an inexpensive suit with a tie done up like he’d watched on a YouTube video about how to fashion them. His long black hair was redone into a long ponytail, making it look like he arrived in a Toyota Corolla instead of on the back of an ancient dragon.
Tentatively, he opened his eyes and peered down at his starched appearance. “This makes me appear credible?”
“It makes you look like someone who would call on a company that needs resources,” Sophia explained. “Now, I need to look as equally polished.” She pointed at herself, and a moment later, she was wearing a pinstriped skirt and jacket. Her long blonde hair was folded into a loose braid, and to complete the look, she was holding a clipboard. Everyone appeared more official when they had a clipboard.
She spun to face the airport hangar, grateful the glamoured dragons were hiding their location at the top of the hill. Currently, the dragons, who were magnificent at looking like normal terrain when in the mortal world, were disguised as shrubbery and trees.
The roar of the plane taking off was deafening for a moment. It was followed by a couple of helicopters, and then the large door to the blue airport hangar closed.
It was go time.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Sophia found the main entrance, which wasn’t as easy as she’d have guessed. This place wasn’t like a Target that welcomed customers through the front. Instead, it seemed Medford Research would prefer no guests and didn’t advertise their business. Things were getting more curious by the moment.
Sophia felt strange knocking at the door to a business, but it seemed so stuffy she decided that was the best way. She rapped at the “front” door.
A moment later, a squatty woman who smelled of cigarettes and appeared interrupted, answered. “What can I do for you?”
“Hi,” Sophia said, swallowing and peering past the woman into a cluttered offic
e with muted colors. There were several workstations and loud rock music blaring. “I’m here with Best Designs, an inventory organization business. We’re all about providing solutions for expanding businesses who are losing track of their supplies because they are growing at an alarming rate and can’t keep things together. If you have a moment, then—”
“We’re good,” the woman stated, about to shut the door on Sophia.
“Did I mention you automatically get a two-hundred-dollar Amazon gift card just by allowing us to do a consultation for you?” Sophia asked, holding her clipboard up more prominently for the gatekeeper to see.
“Me or Medford Research?” the woman asked skeptically.
Sophia shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me. Whoever hears my presentation after making my assessments. Is the boss here?”
The woman shook her head, a smile breaking through on her face. “No, you’d have to pitch to me, which sounds like I’d get that gift card.”
Sophia nodded victoriously. “Absolutely, you would.”
The woman waved them in. “Then get in here. The draft is bringing in all sorts of dust.”
Sophia and Mahkah walked through to the cramped office. There were several workstations, but the computers were off on all but one, which probably belonged to the woman. Sophia’s eyes darted to her workstation, and she read a business card sitting behind some papers.
Tammy Swindle, Office Administrator.
This was perfect, Sophia thought.
“Okay, throw your pitch at me,” the woman said. “I have about ten minutes until my smoke break.”
Sophia nodded. “We’d love to, but first we have to do a quick assessment of your company. It won’t take long, but it gives a general scope of your needs. You see, most businesses of this type lose valuable assets because they don’t know how to inventory properly and we—”
“Don’t care,” Tammy stated. “Just go through to the main hangar. That’s where you’ll see a bulk of the inventory, but don’t touch anything. Don’t go into the offices on the second story, and when you’re done, I’m shaking you down to ensure you didn’t steal anything. Then I want a thirty-second pitch and my gift card.”
Sophia nodded. “You got it.”
“I’m going on a smoke break early.” The woman smiled like a thought just occurred to her. “Maybe I’ll take two. Who will notice?”
“Not us,” Sophia sang, filing through to the main area and leaving the woman behind.
She knew they were in an airport hangar, but it didn’t really hit her until she halted in front of a large plane, sitting squarely in the middle. It was like a dragon, not as awesome, but still great for mortal technology.
A guy with a bandana wrapped around his head rolled out from under a helicopter next to the plane. “Who you?”
Sophia held up her clipboard. “We’re with Best Designs, an inventory organization business. We’re all about providing solutions for expanding businesses that are constantly losing track of their supplies because they are growing at an alarming rate and can’t keep things too—”
“Don’t care,” the guy said, rolling back under the helicopter.
He was another mortal, which was good for them. Cyborgs might have magitech to sniff them out, but so far, it appeared Trin Currante had left behind the real bare bones of Medford Research.
Sophia nodded to the upstairs area, where they were told not to go. That was where she was going to scout. She pointed for Mahkah to search out a ton of equipment at the back of the warehouse. They were supposed to be assessing inventory needs, so he’d need to catalog that, or at least pretend to.
Looking over her shoulder, Sophia snuck up to the offices on the second floor. Thankfully, she found the area empty.
Unthankfully, she found the main offices locked. Luckily, she had a few pieces of her own magitech she was employing for this mission. The first was an unlocking device she’d gotten from Liv. She slipped the universal key into the lock and waited for it to do its job. A moment later, the door clicked and opened slightly.
Sophia sucked in a breath as she pushed back the door to find a dark office. Her eyes adjusted immediately, and she slipped into the space, closing the door behind her.
She knew she had to have found the boss's office based on the size of the desk chair. The boss always had the biggest chair even if they maintained a small workspace.
Not wasting any time, Sophia slipped another piece of magitech Liv had given her into the computer. It made a zinging sound and lit up as it went to work, copying the files of the computer. They sprung up on the screen at once, scanning through various screens as they were copied onto the drive.
Sophia’s eyes soaked in as much as she could, trying to make sense of it all. They would probably have to sort through the information when they returned to the Castle, but she was curious about what Medford Research did.
The drive flashed red when it was done copying files. It might give them enough information on what Trin Currante’s company did and what she did with the eggs, but it might not. Sophia hadn’t deluded herself into thinking the dragon eggs were simply lying with the inventory downstairs. She continued her search of the area. They still had a few more minutes until she had to give a bogus presentation to Tammy and then give her a legitimate Amazon gift card.
Sophia snuck through to the neighboring offices, finding them all empty. She was just about to copy files on other workstations when the artwork covering the walls caught her attention. They were all maps, but not ordinary maps. They were maps that showed the topography of the land. Over the top of the maps was a certificate signed by the President of the United States. It read, “To Medford Research for their dedicated efforts, detecting and cleaning up UXO worldwide.”
Sophia’s eyes squinted at the sign, trying to make sense of it when a door opened at her back. She dropped to the ground, hearing two strange voices as the lights flipped on. Sophia crawled for the other door on the far side, hurrying before she was spotted.
Thankfully the two chatting strangers seemed so engrossed in their conversation, they didn’t hear her moving to the other side of the room. She flicked her hand at the area by the opposite door, where she remembered seeing mail cubicles. The papers all flew out, falling to the ground and stealing the attention of the strangers.
“What the hell?” one of them yelled.
Sophia didn’t wait to hear how they responded as she slipped the other door open and snuck out. There was no one waiting, which was good because she was certain she would throw a lousy kick in the pencil skirt she was wearing.
Hurrying, Sophia trotted down the stairs and slid up next to Mahkah just as two paranoid faces ducked out of the office door up the stairs. Their angry eyes connected with Sophia briefly before skirting around, looking for what could have caused the disturbance.
“I got the files,” Sophia said, showing him the flash drive.
He nodded. “I think I’ve figured out what they do and why we can’t destroy them.”
Sophia expected him to point to a piece of the strange equipment sitting on a shelf. Instead, he leaned forward and indicated a man behind them sweeping the floor. “He told me.”
“Oh?” Sophia questioned. “I thought I told you not to talk to anyone.”
“He’s the custodian, and they see everything,” Mahkah told her. “It felt natural to talk to him, and it’s not like I know what I’m looking at here.” He indicated all the strange equipment she didn’t recognize either. “I used my observation skills and discerned he felt underappreciated and wanted the opportunity to feel important, so I had him tell me what they do here as though he did it himself instead of cleaning the toilets.”
Sophia had to give it to him. Mahkah, as shy and reserved as he was, could be a very good people person. “What did you learn?”
“They clean up old bombs and shrapnel from wars and military sites,” Mahkah explained.
“UXOs,” Sophia said, putting it all together.
“Yeah, they save thousands of lives yearly with what they do,” Mahkah continued. “Even more importantly, their work saves Mother Earth.”
Sophia let out a heavy sigh. “Okay, so we can’t destroy this place finding our dragon eggs.”
Mahkah nodded, conviction in his brown eyes. “We will still figure out how to get our dragon eggs back. As adjudicators, we are in the perfect position to find solutions, preserve peace, and make this work for everyone.”
“I still get to rough up some cyborgs who trespassed on our home, right?” Sophia asked, her face quite serious.
A smile broke across Mahkah’s face. “But of course.”
Chapter Fifty
Hiker read over the report Sophia had put together several times in silence before bringing his gaze up to meet hers. “I’m not sure I understand most of this.”
“They use lasers to detect the presence of UXOs in the ground, which roughly means unexploded ordnances,” Sophia explained.
“I get that much,” Hiker stated. “But these cyborg pirates figured out how to break into the Gullington. How? They were created by the Saverus, who play into this how? They’re actually good guys who clean up the Earth, but we have to stop them because they have our dragon eggs.”
Sophia nodded. That all was accurate and to the best of her knowledge after reviewing the data. “I don’t know, sir. Maybe Medford Research is a front for something else, or it’s a bad business Trin Currante pretends is noble so she can do bad things, like steal dragon eggs. I think we need more information. I’m all up for breaking noses to get our dragon eggs back, but I just think we need to be careful not to wipe out Medford Research in the process since it appears, at least on the surface, the organization might be good.”
What Sophia couldn’t say was that her source, the Brownies, had confirmed Medford Research was good.