Dragon Deception

by Mell Eight

  "I'm Captain O'Simmons," one of the men said. He strode forward with his hand out for Valerie to shake. He was wearing a uniform, but the extra shiny bits around his badge told Mercury that his uniform was a mark of his rank while the other officers wearing their uniforms were the peons. It was a complicated way to divide ranks, but since it worked for the police, Mercury wasn't going to question it. O'Simmons looked clean cut with a military style buzz for a haircut, sharp brown eyes, and he fit in his uniform nicely with defined shoulders and a trim waist. He smelled like a normal human, although Mercury probably shouldn't be relying too much on his nose given the acrid stench of burnt building and firefighting foam that encompassed the entire area. O'Simmons turned to Mercury with his hand still out and so Mercury shook it too, hoping the bronze scales on the back of his hand didn't freak the man out.

  "Any leads so far?" Valerie asked, turning to survey the scene as she spoke.

  O'Simmons grunted. "Nothing. Had one of my boys look up the graffiti and he pinged off of your database, so we had to call you in. How many unsolved Quicksilver cases does this make so far for the FBSI?"

  Captain O'Simmons might not have a problem with Mercury being a dragon, but he did have a problem with the SupFeds swooping in to steal his case. It was typical inter-departmental rivalry, Mercury knew, but it was still fun to see firsthand. Mercury let Valerie answer.

  "There have been three bombings like this one that can be attributed to Quicksilver and a fourth we're fairly certain he was involved with even though the site was missing his usual signature. This is the fifth Quicksilver case I've investigated."

  Mercury didn't know Valerie was the lead investigator on his criminal activities. It must have rankled a good bit to be forced to work with the guy she had been trying to put behind bars not too long ago.

  "Five unsolved cases?" O'Simmons said with a mocking whistle of disbelief. "I'm sure glad they sent you my way then."

  "She never said they were unsolved," Mercury couldn't help interjecting. "The FBSI are fully aware of the circumstances surrounding the first four bombings and have exonerated the culprit." At least, he hoped they had. Mercury didn't want to accidently put himself behind bars while looking for the impostor.

  "With a judge and jury?" O'Simmons asked sarcastically.

  "You know full well that's not how some things work," Valerie snapped back. "So we've got a copycat and we need to find out who and why before he or she attacks again."

  "You're so certain it's a copycat," one of the plainclothes officers standing behind O'Simmons asked, his tone just this side of polite. He was apparently taking cues from his boss instead of being civil.

  "Like I said, the paint is the work of an amateur. The real Quicksilver has enough magic that he doesn't need to resort to cheap tricks," Mercury explained. "The place also smells like gunpowder, which is another cheap trick Quicksilver would never have to use to destroy a building."

  "Sounds like you think the bastard's a hero or something," the officer said warningly.

  Mercury shrugged. "Maybe I do. I'm a dragon and Quicksilver was destroying evil places where evil people were hurting dragons. Or maybe I want to go do my job and your nattering is pissing me off." He smiled widely at them, just being friendly, except he was also showing off his sharp teeth.

  "Tell me about this scene," Valerie snapped when the men shifted around slightly as if unsure whether they should be grabbing their guns or their security blankets.

  O'Simmons stepped forward, aggressively muscling his way past his own men and past Valerie as he walked towards the crime scene tape as if he needed to prove to everyone present that he was still top dog. "We've only had access to the scene a for few hours; fire and rescue had to cool off all the hot spots and the bomb squad had to declare the scene secured before my team could move in, and that took all fucking night. Our bomb technician tells me that whoever set the bomb most likely found instructions on the internet. It wasn't a high-tech build. Quicksilver set it off, ran for it, and returned with his paint to graffiti what was left."

  "The fake Quicksilver," Mercury grumbled under his breath. He ducked underneath the tape and started walking around the scattered debris in the parking lot in front of the building.

  "Had to be a bomb with a lot of pop," Valerie said as she followed Mercury. "Most internet sources aren't strong enough to blow out entire walls. They'll kill anyone close enough and cause major damage, sure, but this looks more like a missile hit than an internet bombing. I'm going to speak with your technician. Is he still here?" O'Simmons pointed towards the large crime scene vehicle parked next to a fire truck on the far side of the debris field. Valerie nodded. "I'll be over there. Don't make a mess, Mercury."

  Mercury just growled in reply, frowning at her when she turned and walked away.

  "She's a piece of work," O'Simmons remarked. Mercury held back his scathing reply of asking whether O'Simmons knew he was obnoxious too and instead walked towards what was left of the building.

  Aside from the lone standing wall, the rest of the two stories were scattered on the ground in various states of charcoal. There was a hole in the ground in the shape of the building, what was left of the basement. It looked like the bomb had been set down there because the basement ceiling was missing too and Mercury could see a crater in the center.

  Mercury walked to the edge of the basement and dropped down, hiding a smirk at O'Simmons' exclamation of surprise. There was a ladder set up off to one side for everyone else. He walked around the bomb crater, careful of the people still snapping pictures of the scene, and headed towards one of the hallways. He wanted to find the suspected jail cells first.

  There wasn't any evidence of destroyed lab equipment shattered on the floors. In fact, aside from the pieces of the building itself, Mercury didn't see any other debris. The place must have been totally cleaned out before it was attacked. Or it was never a lab to begin with because the impostor had nothing to do with dragons.

  Whatever. Mercury refocused on his surroundings instead of worrying about the various what-ifs.

  Stockton wouldn't have known that there were rooms that could have been cells on the upper floors after the bombing, which meant the area where any dragons might have been confined was somewhere still standing. There was only one hallway on his side of the basement, so he wandered down it.

  Four broken doors lay haphazardly on the ground. The walls they were supposed to be attached to were a soggy, half-burnt mess. Most of the basement was built from wood, but for some reason it felt like these particular walls were a later addition. Mercury didn't want to get his nice clothes dirty; he stayed outside of the soaked wood perimeter and leaned as far over the mess as he could to look inside.

  He didn't see the small bed or toilet he remembered from Zinc's horrible cell inside the first door. It didn't smell like a dragon either. In fact, underneath the overpowering stench of gunpowder and firefighting foam it smelled kind of like wet dog. Mercury wrinkled his nose and backed away from the first room.

  The second room also smelled like dog and like old blood. The same smell repeated in the last two rooms as well. There was no sign a dragon or anything with a human form had been kept captive in the building. Beyond the hallway was another large room with the remains of what looked to Mercury like a fighting ring in the center.

  "This was a dog-fighting operation," Mercury called loudly so everyone above could hear him. His stomach rolled with disgust, but also with relief that he wasn't looking at any more dead dragon kits. He had seen enough of that horror to last for the rest of his very long life.

  "A what?" Valerie asked from somewhere above his head.

  "Dogfighting. The whole place smells like dogs and blood and this looks like a fighting ring to me."

  "So the impostor blew up the wrong building?" Valerie asked sharply. "Get up here so I can look at you properly when you're talking!"

  Mercury sighed, but obeyed. He didn't think there was anything more to discover in the blast
ed basement anyway. Unless someone discovered a trap door that led to cells or a lab even further underground, Mercury was done searching.

  He hopped up the ladder to avoid putting his knees in the mud climbing up the side of the basement and then jogged over to where Valerie was waiting impatiently with O'Simmons near the lone standing wall.

  "There hasn't been dogfighting in this town ever and I don't expect there to be any now," O'Simmons was insisting to Valerie as Mercury got close enough to overhear.

  "It smells like wet dog down there and I'm pretty sure the ring in the far room was where they fought them," Mercury interrupted. "You've got dogfighting in your town now. I thought this was supposed to be a bombed government facility?" he asked Valerie.

  "Ex-government facility, and only through a technicality," she grumbled. "It was declassified thirty years ago and sold to a developer who went bankrupt before the property could be dealt with. We have no idea what squatters might have been doing with it in the meantime."

  "Apparently they used it for a dog-fighting operation, blew it up, and put Quicksilver's catchphrase on the wall," Mercury muttered. He looked up at the lone wall and the paint staining it. "Maybe someone who likes dogs did it?" he asked jokingly.

  "Or a werewolf?" Valerie added thoughtfully. Although their initial meeting had been terrible, Mercury didn't think she was a bad partner. She was just gruff and a little bit mean. He had a feeling her attitude had gotten her paired with the least capable of partners, Mercury included, and the worst assignments. Maybe she deserved it, Mercury thought unkindly with an awkward shuffle of his feet in the wet muck, but sometimes a bad reputation was also caused by bad luck. Maybe she didn't deserve it, Mercury insisted to himself. He stared down at his wet shoes, wondering if Chrome had ever returned his second pair so he had something dry to wear tomorrow. Everything was wet and yucky thanks to the firefighters' efforts to put out the fire. Mercury's shoes and pants cuffs were suffering.

  Everything was wet from hose water, except for the paint.

  Mercury rushed closer to the wall, staring incredulously up at the paint.

  "What now?" Valerie sighed with exasperation in her voice. "I don't see any dog hair in the paint."

  "Why isn't the paint washed away?" Mercury asked. "It couldn't have been dry by the time the firefighters arrived and the hoses should have been strong enough to wash at least some of it off."

  "Yet, it's pristine," Valerie finished. She spun on O'Simmons. "When did you first notice the paint?" she asked sharply, her intense eyes pinning O'Simmons in place as if he were a bug on display.

  "First the firefighters had to get the fire out, then the bomb squad had to clear what was left," O'Simmons hedged shiftily. "We didn't secure the scene until five o'clock this morning," he finally admitted.

  "And the bombing occurred at, what? Six o'clock yesterday evening?" she continued scathingly. It had happened early enough to make the morning paper, Mercury knew, which should have been more than enough time for O'Simmons to take control. That he hadn't meant he was either incompetent or was colluding with the bomber or the impostor. "Which means the paint might have been added well after the bombing and you didn't have the scene secured enough to know?" She swore at O'Simmons and ran a hand through her hair, dislodging it from its hair tie. "So sometime after the firefighters finished putting out the burning building, someone entered the scene and added the paint."

  "That's my guess," Mercury replied with a shrug. The curl of one letter was low enough that Mercury could touch it. How wet the paint still was would let them at least estimate at how long ago it had been added. Mercury reached upwards and felt the trap spring into action, magic igniting inside the paint to freeze his fingers in place.

  "Uh-oh," he gasped.

  There was magic in the paint and he hadn't noticed. Mercury called himself an idiot as he yanked on his hand. He wasn't quite touching the paint, but his fingers were stuck. His own magic flared from his fingers in ineffectual sparks as every spell he tried failed to free him.

  "What did you do?" Valerie snarled, glaring at him again.

  "The magic caught me," Mercury replied through gritted teeth as yet another spell failed to free him.

  The paint flared again and a second spell formed around his hand. Mercury groaned as it set into place and his body tried to shift form without his permission. Sweat broke out on his forehead as he fought the magic internally.

  "What's it doing?" Valerie snapped. "Talk to me!"

  "Trying to force me to change shape," Mercury gasped out.

  "And that's bad?" she asked, sounding skeptical.

  "I'll destroy the entire crime scene and squish you, O'Simmons, and most of the adjacent building if the spell wins," he growled, sending more magic through his fingers to fight the spell.

  Valerie spun on O'Simmons, who was backing away from Mercury with a dawning look of horror on his face. Maybe he just hadn't known that Mercury was a dragon when they shook hands and that was why he hadn't acted prejudiced.

  "You have a witch on staff or on call?" Valerie asked him sharply.

  "There aren't any witches in this town," O'Simmons replied with a touch too much pride in his voice, as if that was a good thing. Idiot.

  "Just like you don't have any dog-fighting operations?" Valerie scoffed. "You're terrible at your job, I hope you know." She turned back to Mercury. "It'll be at least forty-five minutes for the FBSI witch to get here. Can you hold on that long?"

  Mercury growled. He could feel the spell working through his body, picking at his muscles and bones, tugging on tendons and ligaments, and scratching down his scales. It hurt so very bad and Mercury just wanted to give in and change shape, but he knew he couldn't. There was a reason the spell had been triggered by his fingers, why someone had set a spell for a dragon in the paint, and he wasn't going to allow them to win, but he could only hold out maybe another five minutes and there was no guarantee the SupFeds witch could even help.

  "I have a better idea," Mercury gasped out. His free hand dove into his pants pocket and he pulled out his phone. It took a few seconds to key in Dane's cell phone number and hit send. Mercury could only hope Dane was in a part of the forest where there was service. Dane picked up on the second ring.

  "Hello!" Dane said, sounding cheerfully stressed as if he were trying to make the best of a difficult situation. Mercury didn't have time to worry about Dane at the moment as the spell intensified suddenly as if sensing he was about to get help.

  "I'm a little stuck right now. Some sort of magic caught me and I can't break free. I was wondering if you or Lumie might be able to get me out." He rattled off the address, then had to pause when yet another pulse of magic flared though him. His body shuddered, but he held his human form. This time. He might not be able to next time.

  "I'll be right there," Dane finished, ending their call abruptly. Mercury tucked his phone back into his pocket and tried a different spell to get his hand free. He failed.

  "Who was that?" Valerie asked. "You can't just call in an outsider like that! If you don't follow the protocol you'll get us both fired."

  Mercury didn't bother to answer. A second later, the air shimmered next to him and Dane appeared. Lumie was clutching at his leg. They were inside the perimeter supposed to be maintained by the warded police tape.

  Valerie jumped and swore. O'Simmons went a little white in the face. Dane ignored them all, immediately rushing forward and putting his hands on Mercury's shoulders. Mercury felt a block fall into place as Dane erected a magical wall between Mercury's body and the spell trying to force him to change shape.

  "This is a nasty bit of work," Dane murmured as Mercury sagged against him in relief.

  "Nasty, nasty," Lumie echoed, staring up at where Mercury's fingers were still stuck. "Daddy's silly."

  "I know, Lumie. I need to look before I touch," Mercury replied with a grin.

  Lumie nodded imperiously, something both adorable and hilarious coming from a five-year-old kit, and
held his hands out for Dane to pick him up. Dane lifted Lumie high into the air until he could reach Mercury's hand. Lumie danced his fingers across Mercury's own fingers, and with a loud pop, Mercury's hand slipped free. Dane's wall faded away slowly. The part of the spell forcing Mercury to change shape had also vanished the moment Mercury was released.

  Mercury's magic was depleted. He felt sweaty and gross, and a little stupid. It was idiotic of him to not double check the paint before reaching out and touching it. Dane let Lumie drop to the ground and wrapped his arms around Mercury. Lumie wandered off to eagerly check out his first real crime scene.

  "Give the paint a whiff," Dane grumbled. "I really hate that smell."

  Mercury obeyed and then wrinkled his nose at the first sniff. It smelled like paint, burnt building, and firefighting foam, but underneath all of that Mercury could smell tainted dragon magic. It was faint and it was also entirely possible that it hadn't been discernable until after Mercury had stupidly activated the hidden spell.

  "The enemy was here," Mercury growled. "So either they bombed the building and then set the trap or they took advantage of someone else's criminal act and trapped the paint when the firefighters were still working."

  "It's the first solid lead we've had in months," Dane replied eagerly. "The kits should obey their tutor for at least five more minutes. Let me dig at the layered spell in the paint for a bit."

  "Why were you home?" Mercury asked since Daisy was supposed to be watching the kits while Dane searched through the woods. Then he thought of an even more serious worry. "What did you bribe the kits with?"

  Dane blushed slightly. "Candy after dinner, but only if their tutor says they behaved." So the kits would be sugar high before bed. It made things a little more difficult, of course, but it was better to have happy kits than surly ones when it came to baths and pajamas. It only became an issue when Alloy decided to savor his candy, fell asleep with it still in his mouth, drooled all over his pillow, and woke with it on fire. "Daisy's son bit his teacher today," Dane added, sounding forcefully okay with how his morning had apparently turned out. Dane might not have a problem with the kits destroying his home or with a half-dozen things that drove Mercury mad, but he was desperate to find the missing dragons before the enemy did and losing the chance because Daisy had to leave work early again was enough to push his button. "Her husband took a half-day at work, but he can't leave until noon. Daisy promised Lumie she'll be back in time for our picnic, but until then I'm stuck making sure the kits don't kill this week's tutor." He sighed heavily for a moment.