“My apologies, priestess, for repeating that which you already know. By your leave, I’ll go now.”
Thank the sacred fyre.
L’yla pivoted and strode away. She had been well informed. O’ne drew her brows together in consideration. “Where are you getting your information?”
“The palace staff, the prince’s guards. The First City is abuzz over King K’rah having severed relations with the humans again. The cargo ships from Earth bringing products for Princesses Rhianna and Helena were ordered to turn around. No spacecraft from Earth will be allowed to land, and no ship of ours will travel there.”
Time, that slow passing of moments over the eons, jerked to a hard stop. “When?”
Confusion drifted from the acolyte. “When what?”
“When did interplanetary travel halt?”
“Soon after the discovery of the defilement of the temple. After consulting with the king, Prince T’mar informed the Earth president.”
“So no ships have left Elementa for Earth, and no Earth ships have come here?”
“No, priestess.”
Sacred Fyre! H’ry was still here.
Chapter Fifteen
Parson Hicks slipped into the control room. “The new camera is in place, boss.”
“I’m watching the feed now,” Biggs said.
Only ash remained of the pillared rotunda. The heat had been so great, it had melted the hidden camera. There’d been a flash of flame and light and then the screen had gone dark. It had been days before workmen could sneak over to the site and replace the camera.
“Why did they burn down their own building?” Hicks asked, shaking his head.
“Dragons set fires. It’s what they do.” Biggs had told no one about what he’d done. It had seemed juvenile. Still did, yet it had resulted in an interesting outcome. Why hadn’t they just mopped it up? Maybe it had nothing to do with him having taken a piss. What was a little urine anyway? On Earth, nobody blinked an eye if somebody urinated on a public street, in a tenement hallway, or in a subway.
“Nobody spotted us replacing the camera, right?” he verified.
“The site is deserted. After they torched it, they abandoned it. Not a single dragon has gone there. Not like everywhere else.”
“No kidding.” Since the ship had landed, the sky teemed with lizards like a plague of locusts. “You get anything interesting from the landing footage?”
“Well, the computer counted 5,002 disembarking the ship.” Hicks paused. “The two were human.”
Biggs swiveled in his chair.
Hicks nodded. “One man. One woman. They left the ship, and then they were snatched up and carried off.”
“Willingly or as prisoners?” The man had to be Henry Winslow. The woman was either the President’s daughter or her friend, Rhianna Montclair. Unless it was Patsy. His assassin supposedly had died at the hands of a dragon, but he wouldn’t put it past her to fake her own death. The problem with turning an agent was you couldn’t trust him or her. If they’d betray their country, they’d betray you, too.
“Well, they didn’t appear to resist, but who would take on a dragon?” Hicks said.
Biggs would. He’d blast the fucker right between the eyes.
The feed of the planet surface above the operations center appeared clear, but the creatures filled most of the other screens. “There sure are a lot of them,” Hicks commented.
They were like pigeons or seagulls. Ubiquitous. Annoying. Dirty. It stood to reason they’d swarm over their town, but strangely, even remote, uninhabited areas were crowded with the giant lizards. Heads down, they flew back and forth. Back and forth, incrementally widening their scope.
Biggs leaned forward. “Shit!”
“What is it?”
“You notice anything about the way they’re flying?”
“What do you mean?”
“Look at the Dragon Town vids.” Biggs motioned to screens five, six, and nine. “Compare it to twelve and fourteen.”
Hicks ping-ponged his gaze. “They’re disorganized over Dragon Town. They’re zipping around wherever.”
“Exactly. If you watched people in a city, some would be going to the subway, others to the store, some to the museum. They’d jaywalk. They’d run across the street in the middle, cut corners. As a group, movements would appear random. Here”—he jabbed his finger at a remote area vid—“they’re methodical, they’re moving in a grid pattern—they’re conducting a search.”
“For what?”
Jesus, the man could be a moron sometimes. “Us.”
Hick’s eyes bulged, and he shuddered. “They know we’re here?”
“No, not here-here. Not this specific location.” He pointed to the clear footage over the control center. “See—no dragons. They haven’t reached our area.”
Habitat units and the control room were located deep underground twenty-five miles from Dragon Town and thirty-five miles from the former Earth colony. He’d chosen the site because the distance and tunnel depth offered the best chance of avoiding detection by Earth authorities who’d sent out drones to ensure everyone vacated Elementa. Caution and foresight had paid off.
“Yet,” Hicks added.
“Yet,” Biggs conceded with a twist of his mouth. “All they know is there are still humans on Elementa.”
“They must have found a camera.”
“Probably,” he lied. In retrospect, pissing in the building had been a bad idea. He studied the monitors, noting which sectors had become off-limits and which ones were still accessible. “Send out an all-up alert. No one is to go to the surface without clearing it with me first.”
“Do we continue mining operations? What if they detect vibrations?”
“We’re so far underground, they won’t. They’re in the air, not searching on foot. But I want the control room manned 24/7 to track movements and changes. If a dragon farts, I want to know about it.”
“Got it.”
“And then we need to —” Movement on a screen caught his attention. “What the fuck? Jesus Christ!” Biggs did a double take as a naked woman tromped over rocky ground. “What the hell is she doing out there?”
“Oh my god, she’s not wearing a hazmat suit.” Hicks gasped.
“Screw the suit! If
