Dragon Warrior

by Shéa MacLeod

  “I agree. If anyone knows what happened back then, it would be Barnes.” Micah leaned against the wall of the store room, his casual stance belying his own anger. He’d woken to a world destroyed by the drags only to find out the military he’d loved and served had created the destruction. It was not a comfortable pill to swallow. “I still can’t believe the men I followed and admired did this.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “I’m not. You’ve seen how these Marines operate.”

  “It wasn’t like that back then, Rain. The military served the people. Protected them. They didn’t steal from them.”

  She snorted.

  He heaved a sigh. No point arguing with her. In her world the uniform meant nothing but trouble. “Come on, then. Let’s go find Barnes.”

  “And Sutter. I promised.”

  He nodded. “And Sutter.” But he feared it was too late.

  They slipped out the store room door and into the deserted hall with its creepy lighting, or lack thereof. Unlike the rest of the spit-and-polished base, this section had definitely been left to rot. Strangely, Rain felt more at home in this part of the base than in the other parts she’d “visited.”

  Rain tried to lead, but Micah held her back. “Let me.”

  She grimaced but let him go first. If they came across any Marines, he certainly had a better chance fighting them off than she did.

  He led them through more dim, empty hallways strung with cobwebs and coated in dust. Up and down random flights of stairs they trekked, through creaking doors and empty rooms until at last they came to a door marked “Private.” Slowly Micah pushed the door open.

  “It’s the back way into Barnes’s lab,” Rain whispered in surprise. “How on earth did you find it? Looks like no one’s been back this way in ages.”

  “They haven’t.”

  “Then how did you know about it?”

  He frowned.

  “What? What is it?”

  “Jones.”

  “Jones?” She was starting to sound like a broken record.

  He frowned harder, trying to pull up the memory. “He used to hide back there to smoke. Until the drags got him.”

  “Who is Jones? Was Jones, I mean.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. I never met him.”

  The look she gave him was one of pure confusion. “Excuse me?”

  He sighed. “I don’t know. I sometimes get these little flashes of this guy. Of his life. But I don’t know him. It’s almost like a dream. He’s not the only one, either.”

  “Uh, okay. Why didn’t you mention it before?” It was all a little too bizarre for her.

  He shrugged. “Didn’t seem important.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Let’s find Barnes. We’ll worry about this Jones person later.”

  He nodded absently and followed her into the morgue. Rain hurried to the banks of drawers along one of the walls. She pulled open the drawer where Sutter’s body lay. It was empty.

  “But he was here. Right here.” She began pulling open other drawers. Most of them were empty. A few held bodies, but none of them were Sutter. “Where is he? What have they done with him?”

  Micah pulled her away. “It’s too late, Rain. He’s gone.”

  “If Barnes has been experimenting on him ...”

  “You said he was pretty badly burned. They probably ended up burying him.” More likely they threw his remains out like trash, but she didn’t need to know that. “Let’s find Barnes. Get some answers so we can get out of here.”

  She nodded, but she still looked a bit shell-shocked. She turned and headed into the lab with him hot on her heels.

  Barnes glanced up from his microscope. “Ah, so you’ve come back. And brought my boy with you. Excellent.” His hand reached for the radio on the bench next to him, but Micah was too fast. He snatched it away before Barnes could use it to call for backup.

  Barnes blinked at Micah, a clear look of astonishment across his face. “Goodness me. This is an interesting development.”

  “The conditioning is broken, Barnes. I got my memory back.” Mostly.

  “So I see.”

  Micah glowered at the scientist. “You lied, Barnes. Remembering didn’t kill me. There’s plenty of room for the memories and the Warrior training.”

  “Of course I lied, you imbecile,” Barnes said with no small amount of exasperation. “Without conditioning, how were we supposed to control you? With your memories and emotions intact, however, would we have made you do what we needed you to do?” He explained it as though it was the most logical thing in the world, and they were just being silly.

  Micah snarled and gave Barnes a little shake. Rain laid her hand on Micah’s arm, as though willing him to calm down. He knew she was right. They needed answers from Barnes, much as he’d like to strangle the man. Micah finally let go of the scientist and stepped back.

  “I want to know what you’ve done with Sutter,” Rain demanded.

  Barnes frowned. “Sutter?”

  “My friend. He was here last time I was. In one of your drawers.”

  Barnes shook his head in genuine bafflement. “I’m sorry I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Drawer thirteen. He was burned ...” Her voice choked. “He was burned pretty bad.”

  “Ah.” Barnes peered at her through his glasses. “I am sorry, my dear, but his body wasn’t viable. We, ah, cremated him.”

  “Is that a joke?” she snapped.

  “No. We finished what the dragons had started. Is that not the way of your people?” Barnes gave them an innocent look. Micah didn’t buy it for one second.

  Rain deflated. “Yeah, that’s our way.”

  “Well, then.” Barnes started to turn back to his work.

  “I’m not finished with you,” Rain snarled.

  He heaved an exasperated sigh. “Very well. How else may I help you?”

  “Tell us about the dragons.”

  Again, the expression of bafflement. “I don’t understand. You probably know as much about the dragons as I do. Maybe more.”

  “We know the military created them as a WMD.” Micah finally spoke up. He was through playing Barnes’s game. He was well aware that the longer they waited, the more likely it was they’d be discovered. Barnes knew it too.

  “Yes, that’s true,” Barnes admitted. “Stroke of genius, really. A completely eco-friendly way of destroying one’s enemies. I wish I would have thought of it.”

  “You didn’t?”

  “No. They brought me in later to fix their mess.” He shook his head. “Typical.”

  “What was their mess? Exactly.” Micah crossed his arms over his chest.

  Barnes shook his head. “The idiots thought it would be a grand idea to test their new weapon. So, they let loose a couple of dragons on some village in the Middle East. Stupid idiots didn’t bother to insure they had any sort of safety measures in place.”

  “I take it the drags didn’t just kill who they were supposed to.” Rain piped up.

  “Of course not. They’re wild animals, essentially. Reptilian, to be specific. They destroyed the village and moved on to the next. Of course the locals were a bit up in arms and tried using missiles on them, to no avail. Next thing we knew, half the continent had been destroyed by dragon fire and the other half by nuclear weapons. It was a disaster. And then the dragons did another thing they weren’t supposed to do.”

  “What was that?”

  “They started breeding.” Dr. Barnes took his glasses off, polished them on his tattered lab coat and popped them back on. “The original team of scientists had the brilliant idea to add a specific instruction into the dragons’ DNA sequence, one that forced them to mature at an accelerated rate. In a matter of months we went from two dragons to dozens and with drags nearly impossible to kill with conventional weapons...” He shrugged.

  There was no need to finish the thought. They all knew what had happened.

  “The only reason the world wasn�
��t overrun by dragons was that future generations of dragons matured at a normal rate giving humans a fighting chance. Lucky break, I suppose.” Barnes said.

  “So they brought you in to stop the drags?” Micah asked.

  “Oh, no. It was far too late for me to do anything about stopping the dragons. They brought me in to create someone who could.”

  Micah frowned. “Who was that?”

  Barnes beamed at him. “Why, you, of course.”

  Chapter 18

  “WHAT DO YOU MEAN?” Rain slipped her hand into Micah’s, giving it a small squeeze. “What did you do to Micah?”

  “We were losing the war. The entire military had been decimated. Even nuclear warheads had no effect on the drags. We needed a new kind of weapon and a new kind of warrior, so they hired me to do just that.”

  “And how ... how did you do it?” Micah’s voice cracked with emotion.

  Barnes shrugged and sank down onto a nearby stool. “The one thing on the planet that could cut through dragon scale was diamonds. Some D & D yahoo made a sword based on the old claymores the Scottish Highlanders used to carry in battle. Only he edged the thing in diamond shards. Worked like a charm. Problem was an ordinary man couldn’t wield the thing long enough to be effective without getting himself killed.”

  “But you obviously solved the problem,” Rain said.

  “Of course. What we needed were Super Soldiers. Men strong enough, fast enough and with enough stamina to wield the diamond blades against the dragons. Not to mention smart enough to stay alive. So, we did a little gene splicing here and a few hormone injections there and some chemical brain surgery and voila!”

  “Brain surgery?” Rain was truly horrified. They’d messed with Micah’s brain?

  “Well, yes. In a way. In order to be effective, the soldier had to be fearless and free of past loyalties, focused entirely on destroying dragons. The only way to do that was to erase all memory and replace it with the drive to kill. The most effective way of achieving that was with a combination of chemical and physical brainwashing, if you will.”

  The thought made Rain sick. She glanced at Micah. He was pale as a ghost. She couldn’t blame him. “What about this gene-splicing thing?”

  “Ah, that,” Barnes looked pleased she’d asked. “That was easy enough. We’ve been playing with genetic manipulation for decades. After several disasters I finally found the right method. They provided a brilliant specimen, a real hero.” He nodded at Micah. “I simply added a bit here and there to make him perfect.”

  “You mean you added parts of other people?” Rain couldn’t help the tone of horror that crept into her voice.

  “Well, the DNA of other people, yes.”

  “Was one of them named Jones?” Micah’s voice was hoarse.

  Barnes thought for a moment, tugging slightly at his lower lip. “Yes, now you mention it. Intelligent young man. Unusually fast reflexes. Terrible nicotine habit. He was killed in action nearly two decades ago, but not before I was able to harvest his DNA.”

  He beamed at them as though he’d done something spectacularly wonderful. Rain just felt sick. And if the look on Micah’s face was anything to go by, so did he.

  Barnes rubbed his hands together. “And now you’ve returned him to me, I can finish what I started.”

  “Excuse me?” Rain couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing.

  “He’s good, of course, our Micah, but he’s not the perfect soldier. Not yet.”

  “I don’t think so, Barnes. You’re not getting anywhere near my DNA. Not again.”

  “Oh, my dear boy, you don’t have a choice,” Barnes explained, as though to a child. “You don’t honestly think the radio is the only way I can signal the meatheads, do you? Goodness, I wouldn’t have believed you two quite so dimwitted as that. Corporal!” he raised his voice on the last.

  The door swung open revealing three very large Marines. Rain thought they looked familiar, but then all the Marines pretty much looked alike to her. She glanced at Micah. His face was expressionless, but his jaw was clenched tight and a vein throbbed in his temple. He was pissed as hell.

  “Do you think we can take them?” Rain kept her voice low, her eyes locked on the Marines. She’d taken down two of them last time she was here, but that was one-on-one, and she’d had the element of surprise. No such luck this time.

  “I can take two if you take the other one.”

  “Done. What about Barnes?”

  “We’ll deal with him later.” The tone of his voice said he clearly thought Barnes not worth thinking about.

  Rain wasn’t so sure. The scientist may not have been a fighter, but he was clever and ever so slightly crazy. She wouldn’t be at all surprised if he had a gun or something stashed away.

  The three Marines started across the lab. Out of the corner of her eye Rain saw Micah shift slightly to the left, putting space between them. As expected, the two biggest ones headed toward Micah while the slightly smaller one headed her way. Obviously they assumed she was the lesser threat. Physically they weren’t wrong.

  Rain bent her knees slightly, shifting her weight to the balls of her feet. Sutter had taught her to fight, but Padre Pedro had taught her to dance. Sometimes dancing got you a lot further than fighting. Something the meathead facing her was about to learn.

  He wasn’t stupid enough to think she’d come easy, but he was stupid enough to underestimate her. He watched her for a split second as she stood, lightly balanced, unmoving. Then he lunged, swinging his fist straight for her jaw.

  She leaned to the side, letting his fist whiz past her face. She could feel the air displacement kiss her cheek, he was that close. The jab she gave him to the kidneys would have hardly been felt by the huge man. She just didn’t have the strength to get through his muscle mass. Except for the brass knuckles she’d slipped onto her hands. Another gift from Sutter.

  The Marine let out a gasp and staggered slightly, thrown off balance by the surprising pain of her punch. Rain smiled a little. She was faster and stronger than she looked, reflexes honed from years tracking the high desert, and the brass knuckles gave her an edge against the bigger man.

  The Marine hauled off and threw another punch which she easily avoided. She cast a quick glance at Micah. Watching him fight the two other men was like watching poetry in motion. Every move he made was fluid grace, faster and more powerful than anyone she’d ever seen. Too bad she didn’t have time to watch him properly. Instead she was busy avoiding the boot that lashed out to sweep her off her feet.

  Round and round they went, the Marine throwing punches and Rain avoiding them. One hit from those giant fists of his and she knew she’d be down for the count.

  Then she caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. Barnes. But he wasn’t going for a gun. He was going for a syringe. Again. Man, the guy just didn’t learn.

  She kept Barnes in the corner of her eye while keeping up the dance with the Marine. They were both tiring which meant it had to end soon.

  She sensed more than saw Barnes sneaking up on her. In one flowing move, she grabbed the Marine by the lapels as he lunged for her and used his own momentum to swing him around just as Barnes brought down the hypodermic.

  The naked needle plunged into the Marine’s back, sending whatever poison Barnes had cooked up shooting straight into the man’s system. The reaction was nearly instantaneous. The Marine crumpled to the ground at Rain’s feet. His body spasmed, foam bubbling from his mouth.

  Barnes stared at Rain, eyes wide. Rain just smiled. “Your turn, doctor.”

  Barnes turned and fled.

  She cast a glance over at Micah who obviously didn’t need her help. One Marine was on the floor, still as death. The other was up and fighting, but he didn’t look like he’d last long.

  Rain took off down the hall after Barnes. If he got away, he’d be free to pull this crap all over again.

  She caught sight of the tail of his lab coat disappearing around the corner ahea
d. Her boots thudded against the concrete floor as she raced after him. Right into the middle of a group of Marines.

  “Shit!”

  They looked as surprised as she felt. She whirled and ran back down the hall, the Marines bellowing after her.

  She darted into the lab and slammed the door, throwing the lock. Micah had the second man down.

  “We better get out of here. There’s half a platoon of Marines on my ass.”

  He nodded and grabbed one of the heavy shelves, heaving it across the door. “That ought to slow them down.”

  Rain laughed as they headed back the way they’d come. At the door she paused. “Wait here a minute.” She disappeared back into the lab.

  Micah heard the crash of breaking glass and then the acrid smell of smoke. Rain reappeared, a smug look on her face. He raised a brow. “He’s probably got plenty of equipment elsewhere, you know. Barnes isn’t stupid. He’s sure to have backups of his work.”

  “No use making it easy for him. Besides, it’ll really piss him off.”

  He laughed at that. Then he took her hand as they both sped down the dark, dusty hallway. The fire raged behind them.

  “I KNEW THEM MARINES were up to no good. I told you!” Dave Dugan’s strident voice cut through the chatter in Hank’s bar. “But, no. You wouldn’t listen to me. Crazy drunk Dave Dugan, you said. Don’t know which day it is, you said. Well, you know what’s up now, don’tcha!”

  Micah and Rain had returned to Fossil. The first thing Albie did when they told her what they’d learned was call a town meeting.

  “Come on, Dave, sit back down.” Albie patted his arm. “You were right and we were wrong. We know that now. But there’s no use in gloating. What we need now is a plan.”

  “A plan? What do you mean by a plan?” a young woman spoke up from one of the tables in the front. She was clutching a baby to her breast, her narrow face prematurely creased with worry lines.

  Albie wheeled on her. “We can’t leave those Marines to run amuck any more. It’s just plain wrong.”