Jack ripped off the hood and cold air slapped his face, making his eyes water. He held his hands out to make sure he wouldn’t bounce off one of the cavern walls and squinted up ahead as he turned the corner into the straightaway. There, faintly, he could see the pale glow of the exit.
Gasping for air, he collapsed against one wall and tried to catch his breath before the final marathon. He had to have put some amount of distance between himself and the dragon by now.
“Who knows?” Jack panted. “Maybe she got annoyed and turned around.”
An earth-shattering roar rocked the very walls of the cavern.
Jack paled.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
Boom, boom, boom, boomboomboomboom—
Mother of God.
The dragon had broken into a run.
Jack shoved himself away from the wall, lowered his head, and ran as fast as his legs would carry him.
He made it halfway to the cave’s exit when Baba Yaga came tearing around the bend.
Jack couldn’t help himself. He glanced behind him.
The dragon filled the corridor with her enormous scaly body, her head low, her claws scraping furrows into the cave floor, the spines along her back and her tail gouging white lines into the ceiling, her wings pressed tight to her streamlined sides. She moved her limbs in alternating patterns, and her torso wriggled back and forth, much like an alligator gliding through a lake after a fish. Her yellow eyes were nothing but pinpricks of pure, hungry animal instinct that glowed as hot as coals in the darkness. The sparse light from the cave’s exit glinted off of her enormous, sharp fangs. Every stride made the earth around them tremble. Chunks of rock and dirt dropped from the ceiling around the lanky scientist as he raced towards his salvation.
Several yards from the exit, Baba Yaga’s terrifying jaws opened and unleashed a column of fire.
One thing that Jack had seen in movies a thousand times was the valiant hero or heroine outrunning a fireball of death.
Fire didn’t work that way.
He had only a second to pull his mask on and activate the oxygen flow before he became engulfed in suffocating heat on all sides. The suit’s temperature reading shot up into the hundreds, then the two-hundreds, and higher still as the flames flooded the tunnel behind him. The cavern was far too cold for anything around him to catch, but he immediately felt the suit’s outer material cooking in the unbearable heat and hardening, making it harder to run. Chemicals from the glands in her mouth splattered behind him and burst into bright spots of fire as they seared straight through the floor. He was sure if any of it touched him, it would melt clean through the suit. He could hear himself screaming in exertion as his lungs ached for air and the pain in his ribs doubled, slicing into his torso, and his legs burned from the strain of sustaining a dead sprint. He had to make it. Just a little further.
Jack leapt onto the landing of the wooden stairs leading up, clearing several steps, and scrambled up the others two at a time as the dragon closed the distance between them. The fire licked up around the old wooden structure. He heard the steps crackling and snapping in his wake, and the entire thing shifted to one side as it started to crumble. He stumbled and fell, and the pain in his ribs made him scream in frustration.
Desperate, Jack rolled onto his back and pointed the cold gun at the steps and loosed a stream of liquid. It hissed as it came in contact with the fire and extinguished it in a cloud of steam. Baba Yaga loomed fifty feet away, her yellow eyes locking on him, and her jaws parted a second time.
“Not today, bitch!” Jack snarled, and turned up the pressure on the cold gun.
The next jet of liquid splashed over the dragon’s horned neck, instantly hardening. The dragon thrashed and roared in pain, turning her head aside. Jack scrambled back to his feet on the disintegrating staircase. His foot punched through one stair and the entire thing cracked in half and slid towards the cavern floor.
Jack jumped.
One hand clamped onto the edge of the ledge. Wheezing, Jack threw his other arm up and gripped it with both hands. He strained with effort and crawled through the opening as the staircase finally gave way and collapsed. He rolled onto his uninjured side and peered down to see Baba Yaga’s tail vanish into the darkness as the dragon crawled away, still hissing and shrieking in pain.
Jack crawled through the forest floor for as long as he could and then slumped into an unconscious heap.
8
WITHOUT A PADDLE
“Did you hear that?”
Fry nodded. “Yup. Not gonna lie—a little bit of pee might’ve come out of me.”
“Not helping,” Kamala said, her voice breathy as the two of them paused at a fork in the caverns and she began meticulously scanning the infrared screen. “If we’re close enough to hear her roar, then Jack must not be far off.”
Kamala’s stomach performed a Triple Lindy at the thought that crossed her mind—that the dragon had just attacked and devoured its prey. Her mind conjured images of Baba Yaga swallowing Jack in one bite. She shuddered. She had to find him now.
“Any mercs up ahead?” Fry asked.
“No. Which way?”
Fry reached into a pouch and withdrew his phone, pulling up the diagram of the map he’d snapped with it. “Snow said we’re looking for her lair. There are only about three caverns big enough for the dragon to settle herself, considering her size. She’d also want to locate a water source nearby.”
He pointed to the right. “That way’s our best bet.”
Fry paused, listening. “All quiet now. Keep your eyes peeled, Dr. Anjali.”
They started down the tunnel. Kamala alternated between checking the infrared screen and attempting to reach Jack over the radio. With every failed attempt, the knot in her belly grew into a larger, tighter ball of pain.
“How many months?” Fry asked quietly.
She fought the urge to wince. “Just one. Found out the night Baba Yaga attacked.”
“Helluva time to find out you’re bringing a little one into the world,” Fry said. “Why’d you still come out here if you knew you were knocked up?”
“I felt it was the right thing to do.”
Fry glanced at her quizzically. “What about Sir Gawain?”
“So did he.”
Fry shook his head. “Can’t tell who’s crazier—you or him.”
Kamala scowled. “I don’t recall asking your opinion, Agent Fry.”
He shrugged. “Just sayin.’ You’re playing it awful close to the chest.”
He thought about it. “Or would that be close to the stomach?”
Her scowl deepened. “We will do what is necessary to protect the innocent. That includes the people of Japan as well as my own child.”
“Dunno about that, Mommy Dearest,” he said, his voice taking on a slight edge. “I threatened to shoot you and you didn’t even hesitate.”
“I know when to gamble with my life.”
“That’s going to get you in trouble someday.”
“I imagine it will.” She glanced back the way they came. “What are we going to do about the men in those tunnels? There’s a chance that Baba Yaga will come across them.”
“Then their troubles are over.”
She frowned. “You intend to leave them to her?”
“Not like we have a choice, doc. We can’t take them with us. We tucked them in a secluded spot. The men chose to come down here to retrieve her. They knew the risks, same as you.”
Kamala’s gut twitched. She pushed the disturbing thought aside. “Are the two of us enough to subdue the dragon?”
“In theory? Yeah. But odds are it’ll empty our tanks. We’ll have to hope it holds her.”
Kamala sighed. “Perhaps you acted in haste sending Snow back to camp.”
“She signed up to capture a dragon. She didn’t sign up for mercenary yakuza. I won’t ask her to lay down her life for something she hates.”
Kamala didn’t let it show on her face, but she took
a mental note of the comment. “Did you personally recruit her for this mission?”
A neutral tone slipped into his voice. “Maybe.”
“Did you know her?”
“Met her once before when I was out in Scotland training agents.”
“You knew her history?”
“Yes.”
“And yet you still decided to put her on this team, knowing how volatile she is.”
Fry grinned. “I figured bringing down a dragon would take something volatile, at one point or another.”
“If that’s the case, do you really think she just went back to camp?”
Fry sighed. “Point taken. She’s a stubborn piece of work. Guess we’ll just have to find out.”
“Incoming,” Kamala whispered sharply. “Two. Armed the same as the others.”
Fry gave a curt nod. “Behind me.”
Kamala shut off the infrared screen, leaving them swathed in the darkness, and melded into the wall as the two men approached. Luckily, they’d found an alcove that wasn’t visible from the other side. Fry let both men walk past before darting forward and slamming the butt of the cold gun on the top of his skull. He hit the floor, face down, unconscious. The other one whirled, but Fry caught his rifle and jerked it upward, slamming it into the man’s nose. The man cursed loudly and hit the floor with blood spurting out of both nostrils. Fry pointed the Desert Eagle at the man and he froze, his brown eyes wide as he stared up at the alarmingly large barrel.
“Don’t move,” Fry said in Japanese. “Don’t make a sound or you die right here. Let go of the weapon.”
The man dropped his hands to his sides. Fry unsnapped the harness and handed Kamala the assault rifle. He spoke again. “You speak English?”
The man on the floor licked his lips and nodded. “Good. How many of you are out in this forest?”
A stubborn look slid into the man’s eyes. Fry exhaled. “For God’s sake, this is a fifty-cal, kid. Do you know how big a hole it’ll put in you? And from close range, no less?”
“Wouldn’t feel it anyway,” the mercenary answered in accented English. “Do your worst.”
“I could always kneecap you.”
The mercenary pursed his lips. “Dragon would come. You won’t shoot.”
Fry mulled this over before holstering the Desert Eagle and instead switching to the cold gun. He adjusted the nozzle and froze the mercenary’s booted feet to the ground. He cried out in pained surprise.
“There,” Fry said casually. “Now, either you tell me how many men are out there or I’ll leave you as a popsicle for the dragon to find.”
The mercenary swallowed. “You’ll leave me whether I talk or not.”
“True. Or I can just start freezing bits and pieces of you and leave a nice little trail mix for the dragon to finish off. Think carefully, son. Do you really want to have no legs while that monster is walking towards you? Tell me what I want to know and I’ll let you make a run for it.”
The man licked his lips. Fry froze him up to his knees before the man finally cried out, “Stop, stop it! I’ll talk!”
Fry raised an eyebrow and lifted the cold gun away. The man started shivering as the numbing cold climbed up his legs through the black khaki pants. “They sent in a unit. Twenty-five.”
Fry narrowed his eyes at the man. “How the hell did you sneak twenty-five people into this area without the authorities finding out?”
“We were dropped by helicopter a few miles outside of your quarantine zone several hours ago. Your men work on rotating shifts, so we snuck in two at a time.”
Fry cursed. “What are your orders?”
“Secure the dragon and subdue the opposition by any means necessary.”
“This is a large government-run operation. Who the hell authorized a standing kill order?”
The man pressed his bloody lips together. Fry froze his thighs and crotch. The merc howled in pain.
“Keiko! Keiko Sugimoto!”
Kamala gripped the assault rifle tightly, her teeth clenched. “Conniving bitch.”
“That she is,” Fry growled. “If Yagami’s little sister is bankrolling these assholes, we’re out of our league on this one. We’ll need reinforcements.”
He glanced at his watch. “There’s not enough daylight left to capture the dragon alive. We’re going to find Dr. Jackson and come back with a team of agents.”
“A-Alright, I told you what I know. G-Get me out of this c-crap,” the merc said, his teeth beginning to chatter.
“You ever see that movie Commando?”
“W-What?”
Fry offered him a frost-bitten smile. “I lied.”
He snapped the nozzle of the cold gun across the side of the man’s head. The mercenary went boneless on the cave floor, unconscious.
“Dr. Anjali,” Fry said, gesturing towards the tunnel. “After you.”
“Agent Fry,” she said, attempting to keep her voice empty. “We cannot leave this man to die here.”
“We can and we will, doc,” he said. “He’ll die from exposure to the cold anyway, long before the dragon stumbles onto him. Let’s go.”
She didn’t move. He gave her a dirty look. “This isn’t triage, Dr. Anjali. These men were sent here to kill you, me, the dragon, Dr. Jackson, and everyone on this site. There’s no time for sympathy.”
“Then how are we any different from those men?”
“You want morals? Here? Right now? Fine.”
He drew the Desert Eagle and shot the man through the forehead.
Kamala dropped the assault rifle. The world swam in front of her eyes. “What…what have you done?”
“Mercy kill. Most moral thing a man can do.” He tucked the gun away. “Let’s go.”
“What were you like when you were a kid?”
Kamala blinked and tilted her head, casting a glance over her bedmate. Jack lay on his side, his head propped up on one hand, the sheets trailing down past his hip. “Pardon?”
“You know my sad, pathetic backstory,” he said, smiling a little. “But I actually don’t know a lot about yours. Tell me.”
She arched an eyebrow. “This is peculiar pillow talk.”
“I’m a peculiar guy.”
“No argument there.” She mirrored him. “I was a quiet child. I didn’t really open up until around middle school. I was always the shortest kid in class and very academic, so I didn’t talk much. However, I did hit puberty early at about fourteen, and so the other teenagers wanted to talk to me because I was pretty. That’s when my mother started calling me her ‘flower,’ because I opened right up to everyone after I realized that I could.”
“I can see that,” Jack said, nodding. “I assume you graduated valedictorian in high school.”
“My father would accept nothing less,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But it wasn’t all bad. My graduation present was that I got to go see my maternal grandmother in Bangalore for the summer. I learned a lot of things there and got back to my roots. Well, half of them, at least.”
She brandished her left hand, where thin gold bands rested on each finger except for her ring finger. “She gave me these as a graduation present. Twenty-four carat gold. Hard to get that over here in the states. Shopping in Bangalore was paradise. Everything here is overpriced in comparison.”
“I can imagine,” Jack admitted, intertwining their fingers. “You mentioned that your father’s family disowned him after he married your mother and you only found that out recently. Why do you think they forgave him? Was it just because you were born?”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “My mother hasn’t been forthcoming with the reasons yet. I’ve been trying to coax it out of her, but she’s been deflecting me. It’s possible she thinks the truth will hurt my feelings.”
“What do you think the truth is?”
Kamala winced. “That I was an accident.”
Jack’s eyes widened. “Really?”
She nodded. “Yes. I think my mother hadn’t planned on h
aving children until she’d gotten a little further into her career alongside my father. She was relatively young, just twenty-four, when she had me. Perhaps my father’s family came around because they thought he couldn’t provide for me without his inheritance.”
“Do you visit them a lot?”
“Once or twice a year. Some of them come here for Christmas, and other times we go to them. We switch off each year. My family has gotten more Americanized over time and they accept the major holidays as a reason to break bread with each other.”
Jack paused. “You also mentioned you hadn’t been dating anyone since Christmas last year. What happened?”
Kamala sighed and shut her eyes. “My father invited some of his students to Christmas dinner, saying that they couldn’t go home for the holidays. It was a ruse. He was trying to set me up with them.”
Jack’s jaw dropped. “Wait…all of them?”
She nodded. “He figured I’d pick a favorite to take home with me like some kind of awful party favor. We argued. I told him he had no right to have an agenda during a family event and he said he was going to grow old and die waiting for me to conceive.”
“Wow.”
“Yes. Wow. I think his head would explode if he found out you and I were together.”
“Dunno about you, but that almost sounds like a good idea.”
Kamala smiled. “Almost. On that note…”
She tossed one leg over his waist and straddled him, her smile fading into a pensive look as he settled on his back in the nest of pillows. “Perhaps we should establish some ground rules.”
“Ah,” Jack said, licking his lips and trying desperately to keep eye contact. “Maybe you should put on a shirt if you want me to actually pay attention to the conversation.”
“I like watching you squirm. It’s funny.”
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