by Alan Marble
No one seemed to have the temerity to speak up against Abe’s plan, to point out how fragile it all was, yet at the same time they all seemed to lack the courage to throw their lot in behind him, to voice support for the effort, no matter how ill conceived it might be.
When someone did finally speak up, they were all surprised to see that it was Jason who spoke the silence. His eyes, blue rimmed in pained red, wavered a little as he finally looked up and fixated on Abe where he stood, his voice coming out thin and dry. “Ibrahim. You can save her? Save Jenna?”
“I can’t promise you that,” Abe answered with stark sincerity, his smile fading ever so slightly and taking on a sort of grim resolve. “But I can promise you we will do everything in our power to do so.”
Jason’s eyes seemed to wander back and forth, considering the statement as he nodded slowly, licking his lips before he spoke up. “Then … if I die trying, at least I die trying. I cannot sit here and wait without doing at least that.”
The statement did not fail to rouse an emotional response in the others, ranging from quiet little gasps to an even quieter, reverent nodding. Abe, on the other hand, merely nodded firmly. “Then we will fly, my brother. Be it into the arms of victory or the jaws of defeat, we fly together. We fly as brothers. We die as brothers.”
One by one the others in the room began to echo the sentiment in their own ways, grim promises of going to battle as family, side by side, facing death together if need be. The sentiment had caught on, proven infectious, and not a single one could fail to fall in to line with the plan, to make their stand. Even when it came around to Jonah, he could not simply stand by idly and not feel swayed by the grim determination around him.
All the same, he was in no hurry to die and was not afraid to say so. “I’m with you guys on this one, if it means we might get them back. But if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather go in expecting to come back alive.”
A few stray chuckles echoed in the little room, and Abe leaned over to clap him firmly on the shoulder once more. “Ah, once again the wisdom of the young ones is apparent. Perhaps we’ve been around too long, come face to face with death so many times that we come to expect that familiar risk at every turn. I like your attitude though, kid. Let’s all go into this one with a little more hope, a little more optimism, why don’t we?”
There were a few nods of assent, the big man raising his fist upward in the air. “For Jenna! For Rebekah!” The others repeated in somewhat muted shouts, slowly picking up in enthusiasm as they went. “For our elder! For our clan! For dragons wherever they may be on the face of this Earth! For each other!”
#
Hours later the brief fit of enthusiasm they had felt together in that hotel room had become a distant memory. A long, bumpy flight on a turboprop into Reno, followed by a much smoother and more comfortable trip northward to Seattle on the posh corporate jet had put more than simply miles between them and the hurts of their loss in the valley. Even the sensation of hope that the little cheers had instilled them with felt like they had fallen away into the past, tempered by long hours in the relative quiet of the flight.
Finally the jet had set down in Seattle, when the night had worn long and the wee hours of the morning had come along. A hired limousine had taken them from the airport to a small hotel south of downtown, where they had briefly set up in accommodations much more luxurious than the little motel in Bishop had offered.
The luxury meant little to them, however, and did even less to ease the aches and pains that they had felt. When Abe had assembled them once again in the suite they had rented for the night he had not been able to rouse them to the same level of energy, the same enthusiasm as before. The determination was still there; not a one of them wished to shirk from the moment, not a one of them would have suggested turning back and trying to find some other way.
Some of them looked even more tired and despondent than they had back in California. The glimmer of fire that had burned in Jason’s eyes at the talk of rescuing Jenna had become little more than a smoldering flicker hidden behind a visage that looked gaunt and worn like he had not slept in weeks. Two of the others looked little better than walking zombies, apparently having not slept at all either at the hotel or on the flight north. Jonah didn’t feel much better himself; though he had managed to fall to sleep in the motel, his sleep had been unsettled, riddled with replays of Rebekah’s fall, of the death of his friend Sam back in Florida, of the sinister look of that bull drake behind the wheel of a semi seconds before pushing them of a bridge.
When Abe had announced that only he and Jonah would be going to the Syndicate headquarters in search of information, the protest had been earnest but muted. Even when he had attempted to allay their concerns by telling them that once the location of the clan had been determined they would return to regroup once again and assault the compound as a whole, the others had protested, or at least tried to.
Abe had finally prevailed, however, and while the others agreed to remain behind for the time being, Jonah was dragged up to the the roof of the hotel, where he could see the glimmering lights of the city splayed out around them. It was still dark, still very early in the morning, and a chilly wind spilled over the rooftop, making him shiver. “Tell me again. Why do we have to do this now, at this hour?”
“This is a little different than flying over Lake Tahoe, kid. There’s a few million people living in this city, and we could cause a real stir flying overhead during the daytime. We’re headed right into the heart of downtown, too, so there’s no real way around it.”
“Right,” Jonah responded with a little mutter, stuffing his hands into the pockets of the hooded sweater that he had picked up down in the hotel lobby. “Remind me again why the two people to go on this little trip are the oldest and the youngest among us.”
Abe smiled in spite of himself, dressed once again in a clean, well pressed double breasted suit. A fresh, unlit cigar was clamped between his teeth, but it seemed enough to satisfy him for the time being. “You’re going because you’re young enough to recover from earlier. I’m going because I happen to know the way.”
“I wish that explanation didn’t make so much sense.”
“I can get someone else up here to take your place, if you really want,” the bald man offered, peering out over the city.
Jonah shook his head. “Nah. I just wish that I was more sure about this,” he said, turning to look at Abe again and level a sort of accusation in his direction. “You don’t intend on coming back here for the others, do you.”
“That obvious, is it?” It was Abe’s turn to shrug his shoulders again, sighing as he stuffed the unlit cigar into his pocket. “Look, kid. I won’t lie to you. What we’re flying into is dangerous. Real dangerous. A good chance we could be caught, but if we were dragging along half a dozen half dead dragons we’d be as good as captured already. Two of us, we just might be able to sneak in and get the job done without getting caught.”
A faint breeze snuck up and ruffled at his hair, the chill making him shiver slightly as he looked out over the city. “I know this isn’t the best timing, but there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”
The bald man turned to look at him curiously in the dark. “I suppose it’s as good at time as any, as long as you can make it quick.”
“I’ve been having these strange dreams lately,” he said, not wasting any time. “Rebekah called them visions.”
Abe nodded. “Right. You would be starting to have them about now, yes. We all get them, all of us on the council, anyway. You want to know something about them?”
“Yeah,” he said, with a bit of a shrug. “She said they were some kind of … I don’t know how she put it. Fragments of memories, or something, from those who have gone before.”
“That’s fairly accurate. None of us are exactly sure how they work, or how they were originally made. They’ve been around since the beginning, really. Your token has been carried by every Silver Dragon to sit
on the council, and then by every leader of the Clan Silver before that.” Abe peered off into the distance before turning to look at him with a faint smile. “A lot of memories locked up in that little bit of silver.”
Jonah shot him a quizzical look. “You mean to tell me that this thing is thousands of years old?” Without thinking about it, he reached down and felt the hard little disc through the fabric of his pocket.
The bigger man chuckled. “No. It’s just a piece of silver. Eventually these things get worn down, broken, ruined or the like. When it does we fashion a new one.” As he had been speaking he pulled his own out from beneath the jacket that he wore, dangling on a gold chain, letting it glint in the faint light cast by the city. Even in the faint light Jonah could see that it was, indeed, much newer looking than his own.
“But how? If you don’t know how they were made in the first place, how can you make a new one? Transfer all of the … well … whatever it is that’s in it?”
“I can’t say for sure, but I’ll tell you my theory. See, I think that when you hold the coin, the memories, the bits and pieces of the others that it has inside of it, actually go inside of you. They become a part of you. Their memories become yours. When you fashion a new one, they just go into it when the time comes. We don’t know how but we don’t have to. Just happens all on its own.”
The explanation was a bit on the weak side and left Jonah feeling dissatisfied. Once again it seemed all too convenient and simple, but he felt like he had no choice other than to accept it. “Gotcha.”
Abe nodded and once more looked out over the city. “That answer your question?”
“Actually,” he started, drawing in a deep breath. “That wasn’t really my question. What do the visions mean? Why am I having them? Is the token … or whatever, are they trying to tell me something?”
“Well,” the big man paused, stuffing the gold token back beneath his jacket, pulling the cigar out of his mouth and stuffing it in his breast pocket. “Again, no one knows for sure. But if you follow my theory - that the memories become a part of you, a part of your own being - that it’s no different than any other dream. That it’s your own mind pulling them up, drawing them out of your memories, turning them into dreams. If there’s a reason for them, the reason is your own. Not so much that the memories are trying to tell you something, but it’s something else. Your subconscious, perhaps, is trying to tell you something.”
The possibility that the strange and unsettling visions that he had been experiencing were supposed to be some message from the deeper recesses of his mind - that he was the one dredging them up all by himself - was perhaps more unsettling than the dreams. Before he could ask any further questions, however, Abe spoke up, clearing his throat. “I hate to rush things, Jonah, but we’ve really got to be going.”
Frowning a bit, shrugging it off, Jonah merely nodded and tried to put his mind back to the task at hand. “All right. You really think we can do this? You really think we have a shot?”
The bald man smiled at that, turning away and glancing one more time over the lights of the city, fixing his gaze on the silhouettes of the skyscrapers rising in the distance. “Only one way to find out,” he replied with a chuckle, abruptly hopping off the edge of the roof and into the night. Realizing there was nothing more he could do, Jonah sighed softly into the night and followed.
TWENTY
“Stay close,” Jonah heard Abe call out in the darkness ahead of him, his voice taking on the deeper timbre and slight growl to it that was the hallmark of being in dragon form. He didn’t really need to be reminded, however; it was painfully dark over the city at that hour, and even close by he could only barely make out the larger dragon’s silhouette. If he lost track of him now, he wouldn’t have any clue where they were going or how to get there.
Fortunately Jonah’s scales proved to be somewhat resilient against the cold, for as soon as he’d jumped off the roof of the hotel and taken flight he had stopped shivering in spite of the wind now rushing past him. In a way there was an odd kind of serenity to the night flight, no sound except for the air flowing over his scales and the quiet beat of his wings, nothing other than the sea of lights spooling out beneath him to detract him from the sensation.
The air, thick with moisture had a unique smell to it, vaguely reminiscent of the way the ocean smelled back home in Florida but at the same time quite different. The cool humidity had a way of making him feel disarmed, strangely at comfort aloft over the city. Were it not for the grim errand that they were on, it might feel almost relaxing.
Having to keep up with Abe’s silhouette flitting through the night sky in front of him was the only thing that kept him grounded enough in the moment not to let him lose himself to the sensations.
They had to cross several miles of hilly terrain, trying to fly fairly low to the ground to reduce the risk of being spotted by air traffic while at the same time keeping high enough that they didn’t catch the attention of any of the night owls below. In spite of the distance, however, it seemed to pass fairly quickly, and soon Abe was picking up altitude, circling his way around as the huddled mass of skyscrapers closed in like a looming, blocky mountain of its own.
Jonah had no clue which one they were actually heading toward. Trying to keep close, he only let his vision stray once, to catch a glimpse of the iconic Space Needle off in the distance, but it was just long enough that he nearly lost track. Abe’s shadow was all but lost against the looming shape of a dark colored building ahead, dipping in toward the roof. Jonah felt his heart skip a beat as he angled in afterward, reaching his talons out to grasp at something, trying to make out a safe landing spot in the dark. He didn’t want to think of what would happen if he missed his mark here.
Somehow, through some combination of dumb luck and chance, he landed almost perfectly on the roof of the building, only a brief little stumble before he came to a rest. Abe had already shifted back into human form, and he followed suit with a little gasp, coming up to his feet and looking around, slightly dizzy from the sight.
Abe reached out a meaty hand to steady him, leaning in to whisper quietly. “Steady yourself, kid. This is where it gets serious.” The man’s voice had enough of a deadly sober tone to it to make him suddenly feel a little uneasy to his stomach, and was about to ask exactly what he meant before Abe went on.
“Now, listen. We’re going to try and make this as quick as we can. In and out. The Syndicate headquarters only make up the top four floors of this building so we won’t have far to go. We’re not looking for anything specific, just any computer terminal connected to their network should do the trick. Got it?”
“Got it,” Jonah nodded.
“All right. I’m hoping we don’t run in to much trouble, not here, not at this time of night. They shouldn’t be expecting us and shouldn’t be expecting any trouble to come from up top. With any luck all of their security is focused down below and we’ll have pretty much free run of the place,” he continued, making his way over to a rooftop door nearby. “If we do run into trouble, it’s not likely to be bulls. Not here. Could be some trouble if they’ve got mages running security.”
Jonah blinked in confusion at that. “Mages?”
Abe paused at the door, turning to look at him a bit critically. “What? Damn, that’s right … we never really taught you how to handle mages. Look. Good news is mages can’t sniff out a dragon. So if they do run into us, they’re likely to take us for common criminals and just try to shoot us or something like that.”
“That’s good news?”
“It sure beats having them try and unleash their magic on you. Trust me on that one, a gun is a bit less frightening than that. Just, whatever you do, try not to let anyone here realize who you are or what you are, got it? And, god forbid we do have to deal with magic, try and let me deal with it,” he muttered, trying the door and looking a little surprised to find it was unlocked and opened right up for them.
Once again Jonah shook his head, and b
reathed out a little puff. “Right. Whatever you say.”
With a curt nod the big man took the lead and began to descend quietly into the stairway, ill-lit save for a few emergency lights and exit signs. Three flight of stairs down they arrived at the first doorway, rather conveniently fitted with a small window that Abe could look into. Shaking his head, they bypassed the floor and continued down a few more flights of stairs to the second. Again, he shook his head and continued down until the next door, where, finally, he nodded and pushed the door open.
The hinges creaked quietly, but the sound still set their nerves on edge. Abe held the door partially open for a moment, glancing inward for a moment as if he were waiting for some response to the quiet creak. None came, and he pushed the door open the rest of the way, beckoning for Jonah to follow along in near silence.
It was unremarkable, as office buildings went, Jonah supposed. A quiet hallway, also lit only by emergency lighting and exit signs, with little more than generic looking art prints hung at irregular intervals to break up the monotony. He could make out a little alcove in the distance where it looked like a copy machine was tucked away, the fronds of a silk plant jutting slightly out into the hallway from where it turned the corner.
Altogether it seemed rather unprepossessing for the regional headquarters of some powerful organization like the Syndicate, but then Jonah realized that he didn’t really know much about them at all.
Abe betrayed no real emotion at all as he moved down the hall. There was something slightly absurd about the sight of the big man slinking down a hallway as quiet as a cat, but it was effective; their footfalls made nary a sound against the carpeted floor of the hall, and as he made his way to the first, nearest door, testing the handle, he managed to do that even in silence.