Broken Dragon (The Chronicles of Mara Lantern, Book 3)

by D. W. Moneypenny

  “Hold on,” Diana said. She stomped on the gas.

  The cruiser leaped forward, straight toward the dragon’s chest.

  The creature’s red eyes widened; its toothy snarl disappeared, as it clumsily executed an odd wing-flapping pirouette, attempting to get out of the path of the vehicle. It stumbled over the curb, rolled sideways and fell face-first into the high weeds next to the road, swinging its massive tail into the street, directly in the path of the patrol car.

  Thump, thump. For a second Diana thought she had run over a body, a person. That’s what it felt like. When she looked in the rearview mirror, she saw the giant tail curl into the air, and a howl of pain pierced the night. It sent a chill down her spine.

  CHAPTER 28

  Despite thinner-than-usual traffic and his sedan’s flashing lights, Bohannon still found himself making halting progress down McLaughlin. Ahead, they were blocked in by an old lady in a burgundy Seville, and, to the right, they were flanked by a semitruck advertising cold cuts.

  The detective pounded on his horn three times, not letting up on third beep for several seconds. The lady in the Seville turned in her seat and glared out the back window. After she faced forward again, her brake lights illuminated and her reverse lights flashed for a second. The Seville’s back tires spun and squealed, sending the car lurching over the left-hand curb onto the grassy median.

  The way ahead was clear—except for the burning fire truck, lying on its side across both lanes of traffic heading south. Two firemen and a cop stood on the side of the road, crouching away from the toppled fire engine, as if they were afraid it was going to blow up.

  Stepping on the gas and yanking the wheel to the right, Bohannon cut in front of the semi in the right lane. No other vehicles stood between them and the pyre half a block ahead. He accelerated and skidded to a halt at the curb, where the three uniformed men cowered. Looking at Mara, he said, jabbing a finger downward, “Lower your window.”

  She complied, and, with the window now open, Bohannon yelled to the cop, “Hey, are you Henderson?”

  The cop, gesticulating wildly and talking into the microphone on his shoulder, ignored him. Bohannon put the car in Park and said to his passengers, as he opened his door, “You guys stay put. Let me find out what’s going on. I don’t see his patrol car, but it might be on the other side of the truck.” He pointed to the blaze ahead.

  Mara opened her own door and said, “You go talk to the cop. I’m going to see if Mom is out there somewhere.” She slammed her door.

  Bohannon was about to call after her but threw his hands into the air and slammed the car door, as she jogged away toward the fire. Keeping one eye on Mara’s back, he ran over to the cop, whose jaw was tucked down toward the radio microphone on his shoulder.

  “No, no!” Henderson shouted. “I’m telling you it was a friggin’, honest-to-God, fire-breathing dragon. It kicked the crap out of a fire truck and then set it on fire.” He paused for a second, then rolled his eyes in disgust. “No, there was no torch or matches. It blew flames from its mouth.” Another pause. “I don’t know where it is. The road has stopped shaking, so maybe it took off somewhere. No, not in a vehicle! In the air!”

  Bohannon reached over and turned off the microphone.

  “Hey!” Henderson yanked his shoulder back and glared wild-eyed at the detective.

  Bohannon pointed to himself and said, “Detective Bohannon. You can’t call in a dragon, dude.”

  The cop’s jowls jiggled, as his head swayed back and forth, his eyes filled with fear and amazement. “I didn’t believe her, but she said it was a dragon. I didn’t believe her, but it was. It was a dragon.”

  “Who said it was a dragon?” Bohannon asked.

  “The little girl who was in the taxi I pulled over. She said its name is Mr. Ping. A dragon named Mr. Ping, and it was.”

  “They were in a taxi, not the woman’s vehicle?”

  “Correct, a taxi with the roof ripped off.”

  “Where are they, the girl and the woman, her grandmother?”

  “They stole my patrol car when the dragon landed.” The cop pointed blankly toward the burning truck.

  Bohannon’s gaze followed where Henderson pointed. From around the back bumper of the overturned truck, Mara jogged toward him, returning from searching for her mother on the far side. She headed directly for them, until a yell came from Bo’s parked sedan.

  “Mara! Come here!” Sam called, his torso hanging out the back window, his arm waving wildly to get her attention.

  Mara course-corrected with a slight slip on the wet pavement and turned toward her brother. Bohannon returned his attention to Henderson. “Where did they take your cruiser, Officer?”

  The cop shook his head. “How should I know? We had our hands full after that dragon landed. I didn’t see where she went.”

  One of the firemen standing nearby leaned in and said, “I think she kept going south on McLoughlin. She didn’t take that exit.” He pointed to the green sign a short distance down the road.

  From the curb, now standing in front of the car next to her brother, who was holding Cam’s head tucked under his arm, Mara yelled, “Detective, we’ve got to go!”

  Henderson pointed a shaking finger at Sam and, in a voice an octave higher than he had a moment ago, said, “Is that someone’s head?” He raised his hand to his mouth and added, “Oh, my God.”

  Cam wriggled his nose and blinked away some mist that had landed in his eye.

  Mara yelled, “Now, or I’m going without you!”

  “Hold on. I’m trying to figure out what happened to your mother,” Bohannon said, then added, “Besides, unlike this idiot, I didn’t leave my keys in the car.”

  Mara leaned forward and placed both palms on the hood of the car. The ignition turned over, and the engine roared to life, causing the headlights to brighten with increased intensity. She turned to her brother and said, “Get in. We’re going.” She ran toward the driver’s door.

  Sam smiled and gave her a thumbs-up, “Nice hot-wire job, sis.”

  Bohannon yelled, “Don’t! I’m coming!” He turned to Henderson and said, pointing to the firemen, “Catch a ride back with those guys and have them drop you off at the hospital to get checked out.” He turned and ran toward the car, yelling back over his shoulder, “And for God’s sakes, don’t file any reports about dragons.”

  When he got to the car, Mara stood beside the open driver’s side door. He pointed across the roof and said, “Get in over there. I’m driving.”

  She ran around the front of the car and got in. Bohannon had already slipped on his seat belt and was sliding the gearshift down the steering column.

  He looked over at her red-faced. “You know, we might get something accomplished if we weren’t running around like chickens with our heads cut off. No pun intended, Cam. A little information goes a long way, when you’re tracking down someone.”

  “Cam’s tracked her signal. She’s still going south here on McLoughlin. I’m sure she’s making her way home. I’m just not certain if she’ll stay on this road all the way to Oregon City or get off on the Milwaukee Expressway and cut over to the interstate. It might be safer to stay off the big highways, in case she needs to run for cover. Can we catch up before she gets to the interchange for the expressway?”

  Bohannon steered the car over the right curb onto the grassy area in front of the now smoldering trees and around the burning fire engine, sending the vehicle into a short slide before he made his way back onto the pavement.

  On the road once more, he accelerated and said, “Maybe.”

  “She drives a Ford Edge Crossover,” Mara said, scanning ahead.

  “She’s not in her car,” Bohannon said. “You would have known that, if you had taken the time to ask some questions before running away half-cocked, threatening to steal my car. Does grand theft auto run in your family?”

  Mara shook her head and stared back at the detective in the green glow of the dashboard. �
�What are you talking about?”

  “Your mother is driving a police car, a police car she stole from Officer Henderson, after he pulled her over in a taxi with no roof or windshield.”

  “Was Hannah with her?” Sam asked from the backseat.

  Bohannon looked into the rearview mirror. “Yes. I think they’re both all right, so far.”

  “Sheesh, stealing a police car. Does that mean Mom’s going to jail?”

  Mara looked over the back of her seat. “Jail is the least of our worries right now.”

  CHAPTER 29

  Bohannon slowed down to navigate around two clusters of wrecked cars with several people standing nearby, further impeding traffic from getting through the Holgate interchange. With oncoming lanes shrouded in darkness, thanks to the fallen traffic lights, his car’s flashing lights drew a lot of attention, and several people started to walk toward his vehicle, blocking his progress even more. He waved them off, but they continued toward the hood of his car. He rolled down his window and leaned out.

  “Hey! Is anybody hurt over there?” Bohannon yelled.

  A skinny bearded man with a baseball cap brim jutting out from his hoodie shook his head and waved a hand, as if dismissing the question.

  “Then you people need to move from the middle of the street, or I’m going to write you a citation. Now get out of the way and wait for the emergency vehicles on the sidewalk!”

  The detective gunned the engine, and swung around the crowd and the pile of wreckage, clipping the curb.

  In the passenger seat, Mara stared ahead. Movement in the starless sky caught her attention. She leaned forward and squinted, straining to see what it was. A light of some kind. Pointing to it, she said, “What is that? Do you see that tiny light straight ahead up in the sky?”

  A red light blinked next to the fainter one.

  “Helicopter. Probably one of the television stations,” Bohannon said. “Coming this way.”

  “Do you think it is tracking Ping?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. More likely they’ve got their cameras focused on the streets. Those helicopters are mostly used to report on traffic, so they are probably looking for wrecks on the ground, not monsters in the air.”

  “Let’s hope they’re not stupid enough to take on a dragon in one of those,” Mara said with no hint of humor. “I don’t think it would end well.”

  Bohannon glanced at her but quickly looked ahead. He noted the lit speedometer read 76 mph, gripped the wheel a little tighter, and said, “Speaking of taking on a dragon, what exactly do you plan on doing, once you catch up to him? I mean, I understand that your mother and niece are in danger, but is there anything you can do about it?”

  “This won’t be the first time I’ve had a—I guess you would call it a standoff—with Ping’s alter ego. But, to answer your question, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I’ll just have to figure that out when we catch up to them. If we catch up to them,” she said.

  From the backseat, Sam said, “We should get me in front of the dragon, so I can prompt him. That would be the best thing to do.”

  Bohannon narrowed his eyes, a questioning expression. Mara noticed and said, “He’s talking about an ability he has. It’s something like a posthypnotic suggestion, without all the hypnotism. We can explain later.”

  She turned to the backseat. “I think it might be a good idea for you to stay in the car with Cam.” Sam opened his mouth to protest, but she raised a hand. “Wait. I know the simplest thing to do would be for you to walk out there and tell him to stop. If I thought it would work, I’d be all for it, but, if there is one thing I’ve learned from these encounters with him, it’s that he learns. The dragon learns, and the same tactics won’t work on him a second time. He’s not just going to stand still and let you gaze into his eyes.”

  Sam pressed his lips into a thin line. “I’m not sitting in the car while a dragon is after my daughter—and my mother for that matter. You wouldn’t do it, and I won’t. Besides, my way won’t hurt Ping.”

  “I don’t want to hurt Ping any more than you do, but the reality is that he cannot continue tearing his way across the city, whenever the dragon gets in a bad mood.”

  “What are you saying?” Sam asked.

  “I’m saying, we need to get rid of it.”

  “You mean, kill it. You mean, kill Ping.”

  “No, that’s not what I mean.” Her eyes welled up. “I just don’t know what the alternative is.”

  From the shadows of the backseat, Cam’s voice interrupted. “I’ve got a location on your mother. It looks like she’s just ahead on this road, but she has stopped right at Highway 224. It could be that the location data just hasn’t updated for a few minutes. She may have exited east.”

  “That’s the expressway to cut over to the interstate,” Mara said. “That’s normally how she would go, I think.”

  “We’re only a minute or two from there,” Bohannon said. He jerked the steering wheel and swerved into the right lane, getting by a slower vehicle to the left. “Sheesh, if I had more time, I’d stop and give that jerk a ticket for not pulling over.”

  Mara knew they were coming up on the exit, a raised off-ramp that looped over the road to allow traffic to turn left. She scanned ahead in hopes of seeing the patrol car her mother had taken. Gritting her teeth, she said loud enough for Bohannon to hear, “Come on, Mom. You’re around here somewhere. You drive too much like an old lady to have gotten too far ahead of us.”

  She caught glimpses of large industrial buildings and far-flung parking lots, but they soon became obscured by huge pines flanking the road, turning it into a dark passage through which they plunged. Drizzle danced lightly in the peachy haze of the tall streetlights nestled in the brush, further blotting out the rest of the world. This area was only yards from urban sprawl, but, at night, this was a lonely, isolated stretch of road.

  They sped toward a lit road sign indicating an exit for Clackamas and Estacada emblazoned with a 224 highway emblem, plus an arrow pointing to the right. The road widened to accommodate a deceleration lane for the exit. Ahead, Mara could see the large four-lane overpass suspended above the road on which they traveled.

  She pointed to the right and said, “Take the exit. I’m sure she’s headed that way. Cam, let us know if you get another fix on her. By the way, have you tried her number again, to see if you could get a call through?”

  A semitruck, hauling two trailers in the right lane, passed by them, hit its brakes and skidded. Bohannon stomped on the brakes. Mara was flung forward until her seat belt caught and slid up her rib cage, sending a sharp burning sensation across her chest and shoulder. Bo’s car slid to a stop in the middle of the street. The semi’s cab slid to the left, while the trailers jackknifed to the right, like derailed train cars, and rolled onto their sides, twisting the cab onto its side a millisecond later. The disjointed mass writhed along the roadway, like a giant dying snake, as it slid to a stop thirty yards from the overpass, blocking both southbound lanes and the exit lanes to the right.

  Mara tore her eyes from the fallen truck and stared at Bohannon. “What happened?” she asked.

  The detective didn’t look back. He stared out the windshield, his eyes wide, and his mouth hanging open. Lifting his right hand from the steering wheel, remaining mute, he pointed.

  Mara’s gaze followed his pointed finger to the top of the overpass. There perched on the ledge, looming over the road, wings spread wide and head craned to the sky, was the dragon. Suddenly a siren screamed in the night, and bright blue lights flashed from the road ahead. A Portland police cruiser sat below the overpass, on the far side of a smashed guardrail, wedged between two massive concrete pylons.

  CHAPTER 30

  A shudder swept over Mara, as she stared at the dragon, backlit by a vaporous streetlight that hung over the elevated road that crossed above them. The silhouette, a pulsing giant gargoyle, much too large for its perch, darkened and then skewed each time headlights in the dist
ance swept over it from behind.

  Despite the sounds of nearby traffic, mature pines blocked most of the view of the northbound lanes of McLoughlin. That side of the highway might as well have been on another planet. The drone of rubber on wet pavement and the patter of rain continued in the background, just white noise that Mara didn’t hear because of the pounding of her heart.

  The dragon swayed almost imperceptibly, its feet seeking better purchase on the concrete wall that bordered the overpass, like a crow on a telephone wire. Bits of debris and dust fell from where its talons dug in, sprinkling the road below with grit that melted into the wet pavement. The rain picked up.

  The creature contemplated the overturned, mangled semitruck lying on its side, blocking the three lanes of roadway, including the exit loop on the far side of the overpass. Shifting its gaze to Bohannon’s vehicle, the dragon paused to stare at the passenger side of the windshield, languidly lowering its lids over blazing red eyes, looking down on Mara.

  A car horn drew the fiery eyes away, to look behind the sedan with the blue lights flashing from its grill. Mara turned to see a line of cars forming behind them, the one in the lead now aggressively honking. She turned to Bohannon.

  “What do we do now?” she asked.

  Bohannon slowly shook his head while keeping his gaze locked on the dragon and whispered seemingly to himself, “God have mercy. That’s the Chinese baker?”

  Mara poked his arm. “Bo, stay with me here. Aren’t you trained to deal with situations like this?”

  He looked at her. “No one is trained to deal with situations like this.”

  More honking came from behind. Mara widened her eyes at him in frustration. “That’s probably my mother and niece out there under that overpass in the patrol car. Give me something to work with here.”

  “Well, we should worry more about what’s in front of us than that jerk on the horn behind us,” he said. The muscles in his neck tightened. “Uh-oh, the dragon’s doing something.”