“This way,” I whispered. Even with the soft glow of sunrise, the place felt gloomy and haunted.
Skirting the maze of buildings, I headed for the green belt that fringed the city. It was still too early for anyone else, so we had the man-made forest to ourselves. A path slunk through the trees. The leafy branches blocking the sky trapped the rising humidity. I wiped away a film of sweat. I wanted to collapse on one of the benches scattered through the forest and sleep off the heat and my exhaustion. Instead, I picked up the pace when I saw the end of the forest path and the start of the bridge.
The last time I’d been here was at night with Dragon. Dodging hunters and searching for a safe place to hide. For Dragon to hide and for me to abandon him.
I rubbed my face, willing my eyes to stay open. I’m coming, Dragon.
The path dipped under the bridge and emerged as a boardwalk lining one side of a beach. We were close now.
I began to run along the boardwalk, the wood springy underneath. I ignored my huffing and the stitch in my side. The beads of sweat trickling down behind my ears, over my forehead. I could almost taste the sweetness of the moment when I burst into the schoolroom and Dragon saw me. I’d apologise again for leaving him there. He’d tell me why he’d been offline. I wouldn’t cry. Well, maybe one happy tear or two. But that’s it. And we’d rescue him and keep him safe until we figured out the next step.
I picked up the pace.
Blade loped along behind me, keeping up easily.
The boardwalk merged with a cobblestone path that snaked through a residential area. I took the branch that headed for my old school.
“Dragon,” I shouted, my feet crunching brittle grass as I raced across the playground area and ran towards one of the schoolrooms. “Dragon, I’m back. Unlock the door. I’ve come to get you. I…”
I pushed the door with my shoulder, stumbling inside, then glanced around, my thick, damp curls flicking in my eyes.
“No. No, no, no…”
As if repetition of a word had ever changed the truth. As if hope and belief had never disappointed me.
Dragon was gone.
Chapter 8: Dragon
I’m waiting for Darren to show up. I don’t dare go online to check where he is. Even placing that call to him had been risky. Instead, I pass the time by reflecting on memories from my previous life, before I became a bodiless brain. My brain looks like a porcupine cancer survivor. That’s what Myth had said when she’d first seen my brain with the electrodes sticking out of it. She’d been ten years old then.
A porcupine that managed all the systems of a city. I’m not surprised Director Lavack is nervous about us.
Where is that kid?
I shift my portable sensor unit up to one of the classroom windows. Outside, trees twitch in the breeze and the playground swings hang forlornly from their frame.
I hear Darren way before I see him. He’s stumbling through the crunchy summer-burned grass and muttering to himself. I try not to snigger at his garbled sentences. At least he’s here. And this is not the time for laughing.
Using my portable sensor unit, I create my solid-looking, holographic image. I haven’t used it for the past month. There was no need to. I mimic brushing a light brown lock of hair off my forehead and glance down at the Chinese dragon tattoo on the underside of my right forearm. Against my pale skin, it swirls boldly down my arm.
That tattoo had been the trigger for me. When I’d first selected this image for the hologram, I’d seen the tattoo and started to remember.
That’s when our problems had started. It landed Myth and I into a lot of trouble, the image of a murdered dragon boat racer / smuggler.
Darren bursts into the room and stares at me. He looks startled, like he wasn’t expecting to really see me here. I smile and wave, trying to look natural, for a human.
“Hi,” he mutters, cracking his knuckles.
“Hi.” I watch him. He’s scared but he came. That’s what matters.
“Um…” He glances around. “Guess I should get the cart ready, right?” He doesn’t wait for my response but starts to unplug it from the grid.
I gaze out the open door. “This is one view I will not be missing.”
“Huh?” Darren glances up.
I shake my head and pause. Several small classroom pods dot around the main school building. Dry grass rustles behind one of them. I float outside and towards the sound.
Must be a cat or dog.
Glass shatters.
I scratch the cat / dog theory and float past a couple pods towards a room with a smashed window. Kids running wild? Crayon thieves? There isn’t anything valuable on the school grounds.
The door of the room opens and two men exit.
“Dan, I told you… I have the code,” a heavy set guy with a black moustache grumbles. “Bloody good thing. Otherwise your window breaking would’ve set off the alarm.”
I don’t hear the response of the other man. Dan is a muttering, mumbling type. The black moustache guy scoffs. “Just leave the thinking to me. I’ve got the code. No more broken windows. Let’s hurry up then. It’s in one of these rooms and she’s not exactly the patient type.”
I zip back to my pod, hovering outside, listening to the men. Who’s not patient? And what are they looking for?
As soon as I ask the questions, I know. Griffin sent them here to find me. She must’ve tracked the call I’d made to Darren. I hear a door open two small buildings away.
“All clear, Max,” Dan announces, not too worried about making noise, apparently, as long as it doesn’t involve smashing windows.
“Darren,” I whisper, floating back into the room. “You about ready to go, buddy? No pressure or anything, but…”
“I’m having problems with the shutters,” he mutters. He’s struggling to lift the last of the metal panels that roll up from the base and hook into the top. They transform the cart into a metal box on wheels and protect the aquarium. Three are up but the fourth is jammed.
“Forget about it,” I say, still whispering. “Let’s just go. We’ll fix it later.”
He glances up at me, still fiddling with the panel. “What’s the rush?”
The door in the neighbouring pod slams open. “Anything in there?” Max shouts.
Darren gapes at me as he stands up. “No. Please tell me that’s the janitor.”
“Okay,” I agree. “It’s the janitor and his best friend. Can we go now?”
“No. Not again,” he mumbles as he tugs the cart towards the door. “Why? Every time I’m with you, there’s trouble. Why can’t you be a girl magnet instead? That would be cool. But no. I have to hang out with a trouble magnet.”
I glance out the door and gesture to Darren. “In all fairness, the first time was your own fault. I didn’t tell you to gamble and I definitely didn’t advise you to cheat the Boss.”
“But I still get into trouble with you,” he whines while pushing the cart along the crunchy grass.
The two men round the corner.
“Hey, kid, come back with that,” Max yells.
Darren yelps and throws himself against the cart as he runs. The tank’s motion detector sends an alarm signal to me as the cart bumps against the rough path. I tune it out, twirl around and pull out a hologram gun. That distracts Dan, who seems to be missing a few light bulbs upstairs, but Max doesn’t hesitate. He draws his own gun and fires at my gut. Good thing my gut doesn’t actually exist.
“I don’t believe it!” Darren hollers as he reaches the cobblestone path. In one direction, it snakes through leafy landscaping and the quiet neighbourhood; in the other, it heads towards the beach. “Why me?” He veers towards the cluster of peaceful homes.
I block the path and turn to face the men. They hesitate.
“Must have a bullet proof vest on,” Dan comments, staring at my gut, looking for the bullet hole.
“Then I’ll aim for the head,” Max retorts with a nasty grin.
Oops. That would not be
a good thing, considering that’s where my mobile sensor unit is floating. I shift images and turn into a red and gold dragon. I tower above them, teeth glittering. I snort holographic fire at them and snarl.
Dan shrieks and runs off in the opposite direction. Max stumbles backwards, but is made of sterner stuff.
“You’re not real,” he says like an invocation. “You’re not real at all.” He raises his gun and fires.
The bullet pings against my sensor unit and I howl. Not with pain, but in outrage. Apart from being an expensive prototype, this unit is my one connection to the outside world.
The hologram quivers and starts to fade. The world gets blurry and there’s a crackling sound ringing in my audial sensor. I direct the unit to chase after Darren. For a skinny kid pushing a heavy cart along bumpy cobblestones, he sure moves fast. He’s already a block away, tugging at a wooden gate tucked into a hedge. I float after him and try to zoom my camera in on him. Past the open gate, I can see a crowded backyard. There’s some sort of gathering happening, but I can’t quite see what. My visual sensor is flickering on and off and the zoom function is finished. The unit starts sinking towards the ground.
“Darren,” I call out. I don’t know if he can hear me. All I hear is a roaring noise.
The last thing I see before my sensors conk out is rapidly approaching cobblestones. Then there is silent darkness.
Chapter 9: Myth
“This can’t be happening.” But it was. I collapsed into a chair made for much smaller backsides than my own.
I couldn’t think where to go next. I’d been so sure I’d have Dragon by now. And we’d be sitting in Blade’s boat, heading out to wherever people like Blade head out to. We’d be safe, and we’d be together.
I gazed around the schoolroom without seeing it. I avoided looking at the place I’d left the cart. Abandoned it. And all for nothing. They’d still found him, whoever “they” were. Was he dead yet?
“Come on, Myth,” Blade said softly, touching my slouched back. “We’re not going to find him sitting around here.”
Numb, I followed him outside and stared across the schoolyard and along the cobblestone path with its lush landscaping. Birds trilled their welcome to the dawn. I wasn’t in the mood to appreciate their singing. Had Griffin found Dragon? What if she had and was dismantling his aquarium at that very moment?
“Who would Dragon call? Apart from you?” Blade interrupted my morose thoughts. He was leaning against the wall.
Why aren’t we leaving?
“No one,” I muttered, staring at the space directly in front of my feet. It was cast in shadow. Symbolic, isn’t it.
“Really?”
I peered up at him through a curtain of knotted curls gone crazy with the humidity. The eyebrow with the two silver loops rose up high, while the other squeezed down. I’d always thought that was cool, when someone could do that. Blade made it look even cooler, in a wicked kind of way.
I frowned. I was his only friend. Who else could he have called? I mulled over it. Dragon had known he would have to leave the school before the kids came back. Assuming Griffin didn’t have him, he would’ve been devising Plan B, given that Plan A (me coming back to rescue him) clearly hadn’t worked. Who else was there on this island that he would trust?
“Darren,” I breathed out. “Oh please let Darren have him.”
“And just where would this Darren character be?”
I only knew one place I could definitely find him. “At Cho Restaurant in town,” I replied. “If he’s not out gambling.”
Blade nodded approvingly. “I like this fellow already.” He gazed up at the sky. Dawn’s light was bleeding across the darkness. “But we aren’t going to go chasing after anyone right now. We’ll wait until close to sunset.” He strode back into the classroom and tossed his small backpack onto a chair designed for little kids.
I started to protest, but he held up a hand. “Wherever he is, we’re not going to be able to drag his cart around in broad daylight without attracting attention. Especially Griffin’s. If he’s still alive, he’ll survive until evening. Lavack’s probably got a bulletin out on you by now. As for me.” He shrugged and gestured to himself. “I’m kinda noticeable, don’t you think? And not exactly on best terms with the authorities.”
I ground down some more enamel on my teeth. He was right. I hated that. And I hated waiting, especially with Dragon lost somewhere out there. On the other hand, I didn’t know for sure if my original arrest warrant had really been lifted on the island. And if Lavack pulled strings to find me… Dragon would remain in danger and I’d be locked up for sure.
We opted for hiding out in the school, since we were already there. How do you pass almost twelve hours in a room designed for six-year-olds? Painfully, that’s how. Seriously painfully. I couldn’t go online even, in case Kraken or Griffin were there. And there wasn’t much to read apart from fairy tales and basic grammar textbooks. My only solace, at least Blade had thought to pack food. I stalked around the room, chomping on granola bars, biting my nails, doodling on the white board, pretending to find a box of wooden bricks fascinating. Tried to sleep. Didn’t work.
Blade had stretched out and slept most of the time. How do people do that? Just flop down and sleep wherever they are? How could he sleep at a time like this?
The moment the sky began to darken, I kicked at Blade’s boots to wake him up.
He yawned, stretched, grinned up at me. “Enjoyed that, did you?”
“Way too much,” I muttered back while thinking through the fastest route to Darren’s family restaurant. “Don’t tempt me or I’ll do it again. Can we go now?”
We hurried through the darkening neighbourhood and caught one of the small shuttles that crisscrossed the island. Most people didn’t own a car here. They didn’t need one. I’d lived on Sana Island for ten years and I’d never even been in the inside of a car. Apart from the Grogan van I stole, of course. But that’s different.
I kept my shoulders slouched, my face hidden behind my hair, avoiding the faces of the other passengers. At each stop, more people entered and I kept lowering more hair in front of my face. I figured most people would’ve forgotten about my arrest warrant by now, but I felt so visible being out in public again. Plus I had Mr. Visibility softly singing Reggae songs beside me. I was sure EVERYONE on the dimly lit shuttle was looking at us. Even if they politely pretended not to.
We had just entered the city centre when it happened. The shuttle coasted to a halt and the lights went out. I mean all of them. Not just in the shuttle but all the lights went out. Everywhere. The street and the buildings and all the other vehicles around us, all went dark. The sunset was obscured by the skyscrapers, and in the grey moments between day and night, everything and everyone inside the heart of the city took on a sinister hue. No one was paying attention to the heavily tattooed, pierced Reggae singer now. They were all peering out the windows, chattering softly to each other, as strangers will do when something fearfully unexplainable happens.
“Blade,” I whispered. “It’s started.”
I felt his hand take mine and I gripped it tightly. He leaned towards me. “We have to get out now—find Dragon and get the hell off this island.”
“No arguments against that plan,” I murmured, searching out the emergency exit. Yet again, I would be sticking my rear end out of a vehicle’s window. At least this time, it wasn’t moving. The vehicle, that is.
By now, the shuttle was pretty full, standing room only, and everyone was twitching, trying to get a glimpse outside, as if the answer was out there. One guy kept pressing the button to open the sliding door and each time nothing happened, he’d mutter, “You see that? The door’s not opening.”
Blade slipped through the crowd towards the rear window, which doubled as the emergency exit, tugging me along behind. Passengers complained as we pushed by. Then they swivelled to watch and a wave of anticipation followed behind us as people pressed in closer. I could feel the air bein
g squeezed out as bodies and voices crowded in. My mouth gaped open and my lungs gasped but there was nothing to take in. Nothing at all. Just faceless people blocking out the grey pre-night light and the air and…
“Myth, breathe,” Blade ordered as he held my shoulders and pulled me in front of him. I gazed up. His face was in shadow but his eyes caught what little light there was. “Focus on me and breathe.”
I anchored my sanity in his voice. Calm, warm, deep. It reminded me of the ocean at dusk. I gripped his arms. Held on like I was about to drown in a shuttle bus. Air whistled in and out.
“The exit’s right behind you,” he continued, watching me struggle to keep breathing. “We’ll be outside in a minute. You gonna make it?”
As long as I don’t focus on the crowd about to crush me, I thought. As long as they leave some oxygen for me. As long as I don’t have a nervous breakdown.
“Yeah. Sure,” I wheezed out.
“Turn around then and look out the window,” he said. His big hands held my shoulders firmly, keeping me together. He gently shifted me to face the exit. It was right there, behind a couple dressed in flowery shirts and surrounded by luggage. Tourists. Trying to make the early evening ferry to the mainland.
They weren’t going to make it.
As that thought skittered through my oxygen-deprived brain, I almost stopped breathing again. Blade squeezed my shoulders and steered me over the luggage. I stumbled and ended up climbing on top of a bulging suitcase.
“Hey, watch it,” shouted Mr. Tourist, his tacky shirt speaking even louder.
I didn’t hear Blade’s response. Don’t think he actually said anything. Maybe he just gave the guy a look. Whatever he did, the guy shrank back, his hands up. I did a quick check. Nope. No gun. But Blade sure had a fierce look on his face. Not one I’d want to see directed at me.
Dragon's War Page 4