“We promise,” said Alma promptly. Her older brother and sister looked at each other, but then agreed.
“Hurry, then. Follow me until we reach the farm road, then Tyler will lead you home.”
They ran then. Within only a few hundred yards Ragnar was far in front, lost to sight among the trees despite the bright moonlight. Tyler had just turned back to encourage Steve, who was lagging behind again, when something huge plummeted out of the sky, blocking the stars and-for one terrifying second-even the moon. Carmen shouted in surprise. Steve tripped and fell. For the first second or two Tyler thought it was the helicopter bearing down on them like something in a war movie, but the thing was almost entirely silent-no helicopter sounds at all.
And then a thin voice, full of panic, floated to him from high above-a voice he thought he recognized.
“No! No! Don’t!”
The wind of the monster’s passage knocked Tyler back a few steps as its huge shadow swept over him, wings spread wide, tail stretching over him like a knife slash of blackness against the midnight blue sky. Then it was gone.
Steve stumbled to his feet. “Whoa! Do you know what that was?”
Even by moonlight Tyler could see the strange, rapt expression on Alma’s face as she stared after the departing dragon. “Grandma Paz was right,” she said. “It is the door to another world.”
“That was Lucinda up there,” Tyler said. His insides felt like a block of ice. “Lucinda.” But what would she be doing up there with that giant creature, unless she was… in the dragon’s mouth.
He began to run again, even faster.
With the Carrillos behind him, he charged up the last yards to the top of the hill. As they reached the summit Tyler could suddenly hear the sounds of a real helicopter, the steady, quiet fwop-fwop-fwop of its blades as it idled on the grassy valley floor. It was waiting for something-its running lights and the light spilling from its open door showed a last passenger clambering up the stairs, then the door slammed shut and the blades sped into invisibility. The helicopter began to rise.
“That’s Ragnar running down the hill,” Steve said, pointing at a figure racing toward the scene but still far from the rising helicopter, which was now at least twenty feet off the ground.
“He’ll never get… ” Tyler began, then a huge batlike shape dropped out of the sky. As he watched in horror it smashed into the side of the helicopter just below the rotors with a tremendous thump like a clap of thunder. The helicopter pitched to one side, wallowed for a moment in midair, then dropped unsteadily to the ground, but somehow managed to land on its skids. The dragon had fallen into darkness.
“Lucinda!” Tyler shouted, but someone grabbed at his arm. It was Carmen. Sparks began to pop from the doorway of the helicopter where it stood on the ground, its propeller still rotating.
“Don’t,” she said. “Those are guns!”
And now Tyler heard the cracks, distant but sharp as hammer blows. “What’s going on? Why are they shooting?”
“Maybe because they just got knocked out of the sky by a giant dinosaur with wings?” Carmen said. “You think?”
“But my sister-my sister was on that dragon!”
Steve Carrillo stumbled up and stood, wheezing. “No… wonder
… you guys never… call us. Sounds like you’ve been… pretty busy.”
Suddenly the field was splashed with light-the helicopter crew had switched the searchlights on, turning the area around the idling chopper bright as day. A shape was running away from the helicopter, toward Ragnar, who waved his arms from the other side of the meadow as if urging the figure on, but more pops and flashes came from the door of the helicopter and Ragnar had to duck down.
“Whoever that is, he’ll never make it!” squealed Carmen.
Then a new shape came from somewhere behind the helicopter, moving over the grassy ground in a blur, fast as a rabbit, but bigger-much bigger. Even with the bright helicopter searchlights Tyler could not make sense of it as it snatched up the figure escaping the chopper, threw it over a shoulder, and ran toward them, moving with what seemed like impossible speed. As the figure sped past Ragnar, the Viking turned and followed it.
A last few gunshots cracked from the helicopter, then someone pulled the door closed and the aircraft started to rise once more. This time no dragon dropped out of the sky, and although the engines had a rougher sound than before, the helicopter kept rising until it was a couple of hundred feet off the ground, then it sped away west, its lights rapidly getting smaller until it was lost in the darkness.
The hairy, goat-legged figure slung Colin Needle off its shoulder and dumped the stunned boy to the ground, then put down what looked like Colin’s backpack. The goat-man hesitated, then turned to look at the Carrillos, who were staring, wide-eyed. Simos Walkwell looked sad.
“Why are you here, children?” He looked down at himself. “Why? I did not want you to see this.”
Steve and Carmen could only stare, but Alma actually smiled at him. “I saw you run, Mr. Walkwell. So fast! You were… you were beautiful!”
They found Meseret lying in a heap almost a quarter mile from where the helicopter had been forced down. Ragnar bent to hold his hand near her nostrils, which were as big as dessert plates. “She breathes,” he said. “She seems to be asleep-perhaps she is not too badly hurt.”
“She’s drugged,” said a voice from the shadows. Lucinda limped into view.
“Luce!” Tyler ran to her and hugged her, folding himself into her warmth. “I thought you were dead!”
“I did, too, especially when she hit the ground and I got thrown.” She patted his back and gently pulled away-not because she didn’t want to hug him, he realized, but because it hurt. She was staggering a little as she walked toward the others, so Tyler gave her his arm to lean on.
“Haneb gave her a shot just before she broke out,” she told Ragnar, then she saw the Carrillos. She smiled a little. Everybody seemed to have given up trying to get them to go home, Tyler thought with wry amusement- there didn’t seem much point now. “Hi, guys-you still here? Anyway, Meseret was losing consciousness before she got here, I think. It was just determination. She was after-”
“Her egg.” Ragnar lifted up the backpack. “We know-it is here. What we do not know is how it got here when we thought it had been destroyed by Alamu.”
“Alamu had nothing to do with it. Haneb took it. He says that Colin made him do it.” She turned toward Colin. “What were you thinking, Colin? That was so stupid. And now the secret’s out.”
“I am not certain of that,” said a voice. Simos Walkwell was still naked except for the bristly hair that covered his entire lower body. He stood up from examining the dragon and walked back to them. “I heard them arguing when they were on the ground-as Colin was running away. They did not know what had knocked them from the sky. They saw nothing of me, either, I think-I moved fast and kept to the shadows until I was far away from them.” He turned to the Carrillos. “If these young ones can be trusted-and I hope that they can-it could be our secret is safe for a little while longer.”
Tyler couldn’t stand it anymore. “But it’s not safe. That Stillman guy is going to be even more certain that something unusual is going on here, and I think it’s a pretty safe bet it’s all his fault.” He turned to Colin. “How much were you going to get for selling us out, Needle? What were you going to do with it, anyway? It’s not like you ever do anything except sneak around and rat on people to your mother.”
“That’s a lie!” Colin shouted, and his anger surprised even Tyler. “I don’t tell my mother anything! I want what’s best for the farm! I never-I never-!” He broke off, muttering angrily, staring down at his shoes.
“What’s best for the farm?” Tyler said. “You liar! You were going to sell a dragon’s egg to that creep Stillman!”
“Oh, grow up, Jenkins,” Colin snapped. “I was doing it to make the farm some money-we’re in debt up to our eyeballs and it’s going to get worse. How do you think Gideon’s kept this place going for so long? He used to bring all kinds of things back from trips through the Fault Line, old things from the past, and sell them as archaeological treasures-at least, that’s what he did till the Continuascope was lost in the lab fire. Now he can’t find his way around in the Fault Line anymore. And Stillman was the guy buying them, but he’s not going to do it any longer. This was our last chance to get any money out of him.”
Ragnar said, “You are a stupid little boy, Colin Needle.” His voice was full of contempt. “You have given away everything. You put a dragon’s egg in that man’s hand.”
Colin shook his head. “He thinks it’s a dinosaur egg. Just really well preserved.”
“I can’t believe you’d do that, Colin.” Lucinda slumped a little against Tyler. He could feel her trembling with