XXII
680 Words
XXII
“We’ve been followed,” Miri said.
She patrolled the factory floor, looking in every dark area for any more signs of followers. The white orb had freaked her out and she wasn’t taking any chances.
“You’re not going to find anything,” Lucan said. He was still slumped in the chair, a hand over his face.
“Making sure,” Miri said. “That was a dragon, and whoever it was, it didn’t want to be seen.”
“It’s my uncle’s dragon,” Lucan said.
“Governor Grimoire?”
“You heard the rumors about how he secretly made a deal with a dragon for protection, right?” Lucan asked. “That was it.”
“That was just a rumor,” Miri said. “I thought it was something your camp spread to attack the governor.”
“Negative,” Lucan said. He stomped the floor and said “f**k! I’m so f*****g f****d it’s not even f*****g funny. Goddamn it!”
He picked up the chair and threw it at the cage. It splintered into pieces upon hitting the metal bars and he slid to his knees, panting. “f**k!”
“Lucan, stop cursing!” Miri shouted.
“You don’t understand,” he said. “That dragon is working with my uncle. He’s white, with blue eyes. Old.”
“Surely you aren’t talking about Norwyn?” Miri asked. “He hasn’t been seen in over five hundred years.”
“Norwyn the White from the northern continent? Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was him.”
“Oh, god,” Miri said. “What’s his Abstraction?”
“Beats me. But knowing my uncle, it’s probably justice. Norwyn doesn’t leave the Hall much, so he sent his little drone orb to spy on us.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Miri asked.
“I didn’t think it was important,” Lucan said. “It was between me and my uncle. Besides, you said you didn’t want anything to do with the politics.”
Miri pulled out her strategy sheet. She crossed everything out.
“Hey, I thought we had a plan!” Lucan cried.
“Norwyn changes everything,” she said.
“Don’t think so,” Lucan said, climbing to his feet. He rubbed his elbow through his sling. “I think very little is going to change the fact that we’re all screwed.”
“A few hours ago, you were the one telling me it was all going to be okay,” Miri said. “What happened?”
Lucan gestured to the broken cage. “This is what happened.”
“We held him for several days,” Miri said. “We can capture him again,” Miri said. “I just hope he doesn’t do anything terrible by then.”
“Earl, call Celesse,” Lucan said. “I haven’t been able to reach her.”
“What’s Celesse going to do?” Miri asked.
“There’s a last resort, though I don’t know what a difference it will make,” Lucan said.
Lucan grabbed her pen from her hand and began to doodle on her notebook. He made a big circle in wispy loops and then he wrote PLAN Z inside.
“In the off chance that the dragon got out, we inserted a geolocation chip under his scales,” he said.
“Then why don’t we go get him?” Miri asked.
“That’s the catch,” he said. “It’s magicked and it has a cost. The moment we start tracking the chip, it’ll start glowing and he’ll know.”
“But he’s never seen a chip before.”
“Still too risky,” Lucan said. “We need to wait for the right time.”
Lucan adjusted his cuff links and cursed again. “s**t’s about to get even more f****d up, Miri. We have some loose ends to tie up. I’ll find Celesse and we’ll work on the election. Pre-emptive damage control. Now that my uncle knows something’s up, I’m going to go after him hard. Your investigation—sounds like we have a problem there, too, right?”
Miri remembered Laner’s call. She shook her head.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’ll find out.”
“We’ll shore up our liabilities and meet tomorrow,” Lucan said. “The old dragon should bungle his hiding by then. I mean, how long can Old Dark hide in a major metropolitan city? He’s never known anything so big. He’s bound to screw something up.”
Miri picked up her purse. “I’ll call you.”
“Meet me here at five p.m.” Lucan saluted Earl. “Looks like you’re not gonna see your family for a while.”
“Quite alright, sir,” Earl said.
“We might all be spending more time with our families when this is over,” Lucan said. “Because it’s going to take a miracle to get out of this.”
- Writer
