Mara staggered backward from the bumper and, after a moment, appeared to get her wits about her. Catching Sam’s eye, she made a twisting motion with her hand. Sam waved and tried the ignition key. The engine turned over and caught. When he pressed the gas, it revved smoothly. Mara jogged over to the driver’s door and opened it.
“Slide back over. We need to get going,” she said.
Sam lifted Cam’s head and rolled back into the passenger seat.
Mara flung herself into the car, put it into gear and ran through the red light that dangled ahead, nearly missing a bread van in the intersection. She turned toward the passenger seat. “I’ve warned you about prompting me. Next time, I swear I’ll—”
“Just get going, and try not to hit any more cars,” Sam said, then turned down to look at Cam. “Where’s Mom now?”
Cam looked up thoughtfully for a beat, furrowed his brow and said, “I can’t seem to isolate her signal on the network. Her phone could be off, or it just might be the wireless system is overwhelmed in the area. I’ll keep trying.”
Mara shook her head, wiping her forehead, attempting to keep water from streaming into her face. “We’ll have to assume that she’s going to head south, if she gets across the bridge. Hopefully we’ll be able to catch up to her before Ping leaves a trail of carnage all the way to Oregon City.”
That thought squelched all conversation. Sam stared into his phone and tapped its surface every few minutes, hoping to connect with his mother. Cam closed his eyes and didn’t say anything. Mara tried on focus on driving, not wanting to get into another accident. Still she worried about what she would do once they located her mother or, more specifically, when they located the dragon. Something must be done. Ping and the dragon could not continue to coexist if the beast ran wild every time it sensed danger, or if it had some need to stalk her mother, like the other reptiles that crossed over with her mother’s evil twin. Ignore a dragon’s folly. Like that’s gonna happen. She didn’t care what that little book from the future said, even if she did write it herself. There was no way she would simply stand by while all hell’s breaking loose, Chronicle of Continuity or not. What could her future self be thinking? The last thing she intended to do was ignore it.
So what’s the alternative? Kill Ping?
Cam’s eyes snapped open. “You’re getting a call. You want me to route it to your speakers?”
“Is it Mom?” Mara asked, glancing down at him, still sitting on Sam’s lap.
The head wobbled slightly. Mara took that as a shake of the head. Not Mom.
“Listed as DetBo in your contact list,” Cam said.
“Detective Bohannon. Yeah, put him through. He might have some info that can help,” she said.
Garbled static came from the hands-free speaker, then a voice said, “Mara, you there?”
“It’s me, Detective.”
“That your dragon flying around over the river dive-bombing the Ross Island Bridge?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t characterize it as my dragon, but, if you are asking me if that is Ping’s alter ego, the answer is yes. I think it might be chasing my mother.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m on Powell just past Thirty-Ninth, heading toward the bridge, but it looks like things are getting backed up pretty bad. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get there,” she said. She tapped her brakes and came to a stop behind a sea of red taillights.
“The bridge looks like a war zone. There are several cars on fire out there. We’re getting calls about giant birds, dragons and UFOs attacking. We’ve got to do something. There are a lot of casualties out there, and it looks like it has the potential for fatalities as well,” the detective said, then asked, “Why’s this thing after your mom?”
“It’s complicated. A few creatures that passed over from another realm were stalking my mother, because they mistook her for their master, mistress or whatever. Most of them were just lizards, little stuff like that, and one big iguana.”
“Uh-huh. What happened to those guys?”
“Look, Bo, now’s not really the time to get into all this. I need to reach my mother. If I can get to her, maybe I can do something to address the dragon problem, but, right now, I’m stuck staring at the back end of a stationary station wagon.”
Cam cut in. “It appears your mother has made it across the bridge, at least her phone has. She exited the bridge onto McLoughlin Boulevard headed south.”
“Who’s is that?” Bohannon asked.
“Cameron. He’s able to track Mom’s phone,” she said.
“So you got him put back together?”
“No, it’s just his head.”
“So, you’re tracking your mother and a dragon with a disembodied robot head?”
Mara rolled her eyes. “You have a better idea, Detective? I’d love to hear one. Anything is better than just sitting here and doing nothing.”
“Pull over and wait for me. I’m a few minutes away, and I’ve got a sedan with lights and a siren. It’ll still probably be a little slow-going, but it’ll be faster than what you’re doing now,” he said.
Turning off Powell onto a side street, Mara found a small industrial office that had closed up for the day. She parked in the small lot and had Cam text the address to Bohannon. Five minutes later Bohannon’s city-issued brown Caprice pulled up behind them. Leaning forward to grab her phone from the charger, she said to Sam, “Bring Cam, and please don’t drop him, okay?”
“What is he, some kind of klutz or something?” Cam looked worried.
“No, she just thinks up stuff to worry about,” Sam said, tucking the head under his arm and opening the passenger door. He stepped out into the light drizzle.
“Mind rotating my head a little, so I’m not looking straight up into the falling rain?” Cam asked.
“Sorry.” Sam placed a palm on Cam’s crown and twisted, while maintaining a grip with his arm, in effect smearing Cam’s mouth across Sam’s wet jacket sleeve.
Cam looked disgusted. “Thanks.
As they approached the detective’s car, Bo stood up behind the driver’s door, waiting for them. “Go ahead and jump in.” He nodded toward Sam but looked at Mara. “Did you have to bring the head?”
“How would you like me to abandon your head in an empty car in this neighborhood for the night? What’s wrong with taking it?” Mara asked.
“Him, not it,” Cam said.
“We’re likely to run into other people, other cops, and I don’t want to have to explain a talking head, if there’s any way to avoid it.”
Mara opened the back door and waved for Sam to get in. She then opened the front passenger door and said, “We’ll be discreet. Besides, he may be the only way for us to track Mom and, therefore, the dragon.” She got into the car without waiting for a response.
Bohannon got in on his side and slammed the door. He put the car in gear and flipped on the flashing lights mounted in the grill of the sedan. As they pulled from the parking lot, he said, “We won’t need him to track anyone.”
“Why is that?” Mara asked.
“Two reasons. One, television helicopters are zooming around up there, giving blow-by-blows on the wreckage that thing is wreaking on the city. So everyone and their mother know where the dragon is. They may not know what it is, but they’ve got a pretty clear trail of destruction to follow.”
“And the other reason?”
“Oh, a patrol car on McLoughlin pulled over your mother and is holding her on the side of the road, waiting for us to come by, a little ways before the Holgate off-ramp.”
Mara straightened in her seat. “That’s great! Is she okay?”
“The officer didn’t say, but he didn’t ask for any medical assistance when he called in, so it’s safe to assume that she’s not hurt seriously.”
“Why did they pull her over? I mean, how did they know to pull her over?”
“Apparently she was driving a stolen taxi that was on fire and missing its roof an
d windshield.”
Sam leaned over the edge of the front seat, blocking Mara’s view of the detective with his head. “Did they happen to mention if my daughter was okay?”
Bohannon narrowed his eyes and glanced away from the road ahead to stare at Sam. “You have a daughter?”
“Another long story, Bo,” Mara said, while pushing Sam’s head out of the way. “Did the patrolman mention a little girl named Hannah, when he called in?”
“There was a child mentioned. Again he didn’t ask for EMTs, so I’m sure she’s fine. Daughter, sheesh. What are you, thirteen years old?”
Something buzzed in the dashboard, and Bohannon tapped a button on the console in front of him. “Bohannon.”
“Detective, it’s Tracy in Dispatch. Patrolman Henderson says you’re on your way out to McLoughlin and Holgate to meet him. That right?”
“Yeah. What’s up?”
“You better get out there. He just called for backup, says they are under attack.”
CHAPTER 27
Diana stood in the decapitated taxi now parked along the shoulder of McLoughlin Boulevard, facing south, where the patrol car had pulled her over. She craned her neck, trying to get a look at the police officer who had been hurled from the side of the car, over the hood and onto the curb. A blast of air had swept down from the night sky, tossing the cop like a crumpled piece of paper. A sudden burst of flame followed, igniting a row of trees several yards away.
She looked up, blinking away the mist that still fell. Glare from the burning trees made it impossible to discern anything in the darkening sky. They needed to get out of here. She and Hannah couldn’t stay in the open for long, especially if the dragon knew where they were. They needed to keep moving. Turning toward the backseat, she forced a smile. There Hannah sat with her hood pulled up over her head, hugging herself. She returned the smile, sending a rush of blood to her nose and cheeks.
Facing forward again, Diana saw the police officer, talking into the microphone attached to his shoulder. He released the button and pushed up from the curb.
“Officer, are you all right?” Diana called to him.
Looking drawn and rattled, the young cop stood slowly, as if to make sure his legs would hold. Blankly he nodded to her and turned away, his soaked backside facing Diana. The cop gaped at the burning trees beside the road.
“Officer!” Diana yelled over the traffic whizzing by. “We need to get out of here, in case it comes back!”
He turned around and walked over to stand next to the driver’s door of the taxi. “We can’t go anywhere, until my backup gets here. I’ve asked for a fire crew as well, but I’m told that may be a while, because of what’s happening on the bridge. Why don’t you and your daughter come sit in the patrol car, until they get here? It’s a lot warmer than sitting out here in the cold and rain.” He nervously looked up into the sky.
A shiver ran through Diana. Until that moment, she had not realized how cold it was. She nodded and opened the door. Stepping to the back door, she opened it and gathered up her granddaughter. The police officer led them to the black-and-white patrol car a few feet behind the remains of the taxi and opened the back door. Holding Hannah’s head down with her palm to avoid bumping it on the roof, Diana bent forward and leaned in. She noticed the metal mesh separating the backseat area of the vehicle’s interior from the front. She backed away.
“What’s wrong?” the cop asked.
She turned to him, hefting Hannah onto her hip, getting a better grip around the child’s waist and said, “I don’t want to be caged in the back of your car, if we get attacked again.”
“I’m sure it will be perfectly safe,” he said, his eyes still darting around nervously.
“Young man, what’s your name?”
“Henderson. Mike Henderson.”
Diana pointed to the taxi. “Mike, you see that? The creature that just buzzed by and tossed you from the street like a rag doll and”—she pointed to the rows of flaming trees—“set those ablaze is the same one that ripped the roof off that taxi. I’m not sitting in a cage, even if it is in a cop car. Is that clear?”
Henderson raised his hands. “Okay, okay. You two can sit in the passenger seat. Come on.” He led them to the opposite side of the car and opened the door. After they got in, he ran around to the driver’s side, slipped behind the wheel and started the engine. He adjusted the heat and turned toward the passenger seat, but he stared past Diana and Hannah to the burning trees. The flames receded, though the bark of the trees still glowed, orange embers spewing smoke into the air, feeding a growing haze that hung in the glow of the streetlights.
“Looks like that’s not going to spread anywhere,” the cop said, still looking in the distance, his eyes filled with a blankness that Diana took to be camouflaging fear. “This thing that attacked you …”
“It’s a dragon. His name is Mr. Ping,” Hannah said.
The corner of Henderson’s mouth turned up, and his eyes cleared. “So you think it’s a dragon named Mr. Ping? I was sorta thinking it was a big wild bird, like a falcon that had gone crazy for some reason, or maybe a big mama owl protecting her territory.”
Hannah shook her head. “That’s silly.”
“Sillier than a dragon named Mr. Ping? Why?”
“’Cause birds don’t blow fire and tear the roof off taxis, even the big ones.”
The cop’s gaze caught Diana’s. She just gave him a shrug and said, “The girl’s got a point, which is why I think we should find a covered place to wait for your backup. Can’t you call them on your radio and tell them to meet us somewhere that is not so exposed?”
Now it was her turn to scan the distance. She looked past the scorched taxi ahead of them, beyond the green Holgate Boulevard Exit placard suspended above the road to a set of traffic lights winking in the distance. She could see no sign of the dragon ahead. Of course she knew it was out there somewhere nearby.
Officer Henderson shook his head. “We have to stay here until help comes.”
“Mike, there isn’t any help coming that can deal with what’s out there,” Diana said.
“You don’t seriously think it’s a—”
Red lights from behind strafed the inside of the patrol car. They intensified as a vehicle with a siren approached on McLoughlin.
“There’s your backup. Now maybe we can get out of here.”
“Naw, that’s the firefighters. It’s an engine pulling in behind us.” He glanced over at the trees again. “Don’t think we are going to need them. It looks like they are going out on their own, thanks to the rain. I better go touch base with them. You two stay here. I’ll leave the motor running for the heat, but please don’t touch anything.”
Henderson got out and walked to the back of his car, waiting for the fire engine to park several feet away. Diana saw the fire engine’s headlights go dim, but the parking lights and siren lights remained illuminated. Two firemen jumped to the curb, and the patrolman approached them, pointing toward the trees. They appeared to be discussing whether any intervention was necessary.
“Nana,” Hannah said, almost in a whisper. She reached up and touched Diana’s chin.
“Hold on, sweetie. I’m watching the firemen.”
“Nana, he’s back.” She pointed forward through the windshield.
As Diana turned, she said, “What?”
Movement in the distance caught her eye. A quarter mile ahead, she caught a glimpse of the dragon’s underbelly, its hind legs and intermittently the edges of its wings as they dipped within range of a streetlight above the oncoming lanes of traffic. Then it disappeared. As it passed the next closest streetlight, its outline once again flitted into view and flew back into obscurity.
It reappeared, its head and torso visible, as it crossed above the well-lit interchange ahead where the Holgate turn-off swung left and bisected McLaughlin. The dragon was on a descending glide path toward the police cruiser, less than thirty feet from the ground—so low, a taloned foot struck
the metal beam holding three traffic lights. The collision toppled the pole at the corner that supported the entire structure, sending a spray of sparks into the air as a power cable was ripped away. The metal pole slammed across the trunk of a Buick crossing the intersection, sending up a fountain of sparks amid the clatter of metal being dragged across the pavement. The squeal of tires joined in as a Chevy truck tried to avoid the melee and broadsided a white van. Diana cringed at the impact and the crunch of metal.
She lifted Hannah off her lap and yelled, “Stand up on the floor in front of me, sweetie!”
The girl stood in the footwell of the patrol car in front of her grandmother, wedged against the dashboard. Leaving her standing there, Diana crawled over the console between the seats in the front of the patrol car and slid behind the steering wheel. Turning to Hannah, Diana said, “Sit down and buckle up.”
Squinting ahead, she caught the dragon’s profile as it passed by another streetlight, this one just yards away. It was now less than twenty feet from the ground.
Diana considered honking the horn to get Henderson’s attention, but she was afraid he would try to stop her, and there was no way she was going to sit still while this thing attacked her and Hannah again. Diana shifted the car into Drive, pressed the brake and held her breath. Through clenched teeth, she glanced over at Hannah and said, “Baby, Grandma will really need to meditate after this whole thing is over. She’s a wreck.”
The dragon landed directly on top of the battered taxi, flattening it and sending a shudder through the pavement that shook the patrol car. With a single kick, the dragon sent the yellow pile of scrap flying into the smoldering trees. Facing the police car’s windshield, the dragon lifted its wings, howling as it stepped forward.
Broken Dragon (The Chronicles of Mara Lantern, Book 3) Page 14