Читать книгу Legion - Julie Kagawa - Страница 15

RILEY

“Riley,” said a voice out of the darkness.

I turned, shooting a bleary glance at the clock on the wall as the soldier appeared in the door frame of the cabin’s tiny kitchen—4:50 a.m. Apparently, I wasn’t the only early riser of the group. That, or St. George hadn’t gotten much sleep, either. Yesterday had been an exhausting, mind-numbingly long day of travel, the five of us—me, Ember, Wes, St. George and the Eastern dragon—stuffed into an old black Jeep that was not designed with comfort in mind. We’d taken shifts, both in driving and getting to sit in the front passenger seat, while the rest of us huddled in the back. A couple hours from our final destination, we’d pulled into one of the many small campgrounds scattered at the base of the Ozarks and had rented a cabin for the night. It had been a relief not to have to share space in a tiny hotel room, though my mind wouldn’t shut off long enough to let me sleep. Finally accepting that sleep was not an option, I’d risen and headed into the kitchen for the strongest black coffee I could make, when the soldier appeared in the doorway, wide awake, as well.

I ignored him, reaching for the coffeemaker. Well, what do you know, someone—probably St. George—had already made a pot. I poured myself a mug and took a swallow. Black and strong enough to strip paint from the wall—perfect. “What?” I mumbled.

A pause, then he took a quiet breath. “I never got the chance to thank you.”

Surprised, I turned away and opened the cupboard that held the meager supplies we’d brought. “Let’s not make this awkward, St. George,” I muttered, pawing through cans of soup and ravioli, jerky packages and bags of candy, anything that could be heated up quickly or eaten on the road. Ugh, maybe I would just grab something later from a drive-through. I didn’t see how Ember could eat Skittles for breakfast every day. “You don’t owe me anything.”

“You saved my life,” the soldier insisted. “You didn’t have to. There was nothing anyone could have done, not with how far away we were from the city. You could’ve let me die.”

“How much of an asshole do you think I am?” I growled, shutting the cupboard door to glare at him. “I didn’t do it because I like you. I did it because it was the right thing to do. Because you’re a decent shot, and you’ll back us up when we need it. Because you know about the Order, how it works, what goes on in their screwed-up heads, and it’s easier to stay alive when we have insider information. I did it for any number of reasons, St. George, and all of them outweighed the desire to watch you bleed out in the dirt.” I narrowed my eyes, taking a sip of bitter coffee to swallow the anger. “So don’t make me regret that choice with stupid questions about why I decided to save your sorry ass. Hard as it is to believe, I don’t let any of my team die if I can help it. And I’d be a piss-poor leader if I let personal feelings get in the way of anything. You don’t know me as well as you might think.”

For some reason, that made him close his eyes in a grimace. “Ember told me the same thing once,” he said. “She was right. I didn’t know anything about your kind back then. Everything the Order taught me was wrong.” He drummed his fingers against his arm and glanced down the hall, where Ember, Wes and Jade still slept in quaint, woodsy rooms. “I want to know more,” he said quietly. “I’m trying to understand. Even with Ember, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface.”

“If only you had a dragon around to explain these things to you.”

He smiled, though his expression remained shadowed and distant. “I don’t want to fight you, Riley,” he said after a moment, and we both knew what he was referring to. “You’re not my enemy. I don’t want to feel like I have to watch my back with any of my teammates. I love Ember.” He said it simply, like he was telling me the weather. “And I know there’s something between you and her, something...Draconic, I guess, that I might not ever understand. It’s not my place to ask—she’ll tell me when she’s ready. But I’m here to stay. I’m not going anywhere.”

I swallowed the growl and pushed Cobalt down from where he was rising up, bristling and indignant. “And you’re telling me this why?”

“It needed to be said.” He stared down the hall again. “We’ve been dancing around this for too long. I’m done hiding. I’d rather have everything out in the open. You saved my life,” he continued, obnoxiously sincere and calm. “I thought I’d give you the courtesy of knowing where I stood.”

Anger boiled, but I forced a smirk and pushed past him, into the living room. “Near-death experience making you sentimental, St. George?”

“Maybe.” His voice remained the same. “But it doesn’t change anything.”

“What are you two talking about?”

Ember walked out of the hall, yawning as she came into the kitchen. Her crimson hair stuck out at every angle, and Cobalt stirred at the sight of her. With a brief smile at St. George, she walked to the coffeepot, poured the contents into a mug and padded back to join us in the living room.

“Did we wake you?” the soldier asked, ignoring, I noticed, the previous question. Ember shook her head and brought the mug to her lips.

“Couldn’t sleep. Heard the two of you out here and thought I might as well get up, go over the plan or something. Ugh, that’s awful.” She pulled the mug away from her lips, screwing up her face, then took another sip. “I assume it hasn’t changed, right? We’re still keeping to the same plan?”

I sighed. “Yeah.” I nodded, taking a bracing swallow myself. “Same plan. As soon as the others are up, we’ll head out. We need a few things before we can pull this off.”

* * *

“All right,” I said, pulling to a stop on the narrow, winding road that cut through the mountain. Up ahead, a yellow barricade blocked both lanes, and a single police car sat beside it, lights flashing blue. “There’s the security checkpoint.” I glanced at Ember and St. George in the backseat, seeing a pair of strangers staring back. Like me, both wore black suits—or monkey suits as Wes so elegantly put it—and dark shades, the “few things” we had to pick up for this plan to work. I resented the fact that Wes didn’t have to dress up for this stupid mission; he got to stay at the cabin. I hated G-man suits; the tie around my neck felt like a noose, and the jacket was tight in all the wrong places. St. George, obnoxiously, seemed perfectly at ease in a suit and tie, probably used to being in uniform, but I wanted this over and done with as soon as possible.

“Remember,” I told them and the Asian dragon sitting in the passenger seat, “I’ll do the talking, but if anyone asks, we’re with the Department of Homeland Security. You two are assistants in training, so any questions should be directed to me or Ms. Long here.”

“And what are you going to tell them?” Ember wanted to know. “You don’t know any more about this Security Department than we do.”

“Department of Homeland Security, Firebrand,” I corrected. “And I might not be a Chameleon, but I am a master at bullshitting. Generally, I don’t need to know what I’m talking about. I just have to bluster and act like the person I’m talking to is wasting my time—basically be a giant dick—and most humans will cave. If you act like you’re supposed to be there, people will generally assume the same. What about you?” I asked the woman beside me. “Think you can BS your way past a guard?”

The Eastern dragon’s voice was dry. “I’m sure I can come up with something.”

“All right, then.” I faced forward and put the car into Drive. “Let’s do this.”

We cruised up to the barricade, stopping as the door to the police car opened and an overweight human stepped out. I rolled down the window, watching him with as much bored disdain as I could muster as the officer strolled up to the side of our car.

“Sorry, folks,” the human said, peering in at us. “The road is closed for now. You’ll have to take the detour around.”

I flashed the fake badge Wes had given me that morning. “We’re expected,” I said in a bored, I-can’t-believe-I-have-to-deal-with-this tone of voice.

“The DHS?” The officer pulled back, shaking his head. “Damn. I didn’t realize a plane crash was such a big deal.” He gave me a furtive look, lowering his voice as if there were people around to hear him. “So, what’s really going on down there? You government types have been in and out for days. What, was this some kind of terrorist attack or something?”

“Sorry, but I’m not at liberty to say,” I replied stiffly, dropping my arm, and the badge, from view. “And you should know better than to ask. You’re lucky I don’t have time to report you to your superior.”

“Hey, don’t get all high and mighty on me, suit.” The officer stepped back with a sour look on his face. “You government hotshots think you can come through and order us around, but you’re wrong. This ain’t your town.” But he stepped back, waving us through the barricade. “Go on. The sooner you’re finished here, the sooner you can leave.”

Triumphant, I rolled up the window and continued down the road, watching the flashing lights get smaller in the rearview mirror until we turned a bend and they were lost from sight.

“That was easy,” Ember muttered.

I smirked. “Like I said, Firebrand. Master of BS, right here. Still, we shouldn’t press our luck. Try not to talk to anyone while we’re snooping around. And if you happen to see the Chameleon, let me know so we can clear out right away. The humans might not suspect anything, but she’ll definitely know something’s up if she sees three other dragons wandering around.”

As we turned a corner, the “town” came into view, a cluster of run-down houses and trailer homes huddled between the mountains on either side of the road. This is it? I thought. Town might be too strong of a word. Why the hell was Talon even here? What did they want? I pulled off the road, parking the car in the first driveway I came to, well away from the center of town and the scattering of people wandering the street. A lot of government types, I noticed. Men and women in black suits, along with a few in uniform. Something was definitely going on.

“Everyone stay together,” I warned as we exited the vehicle. “Remember, we’re the Department of Homeland Security, you two are our assistants and we’re here to assess the situation.”

“No civilians,” St. George muttered, gazing down the street. “Everyone here is an official or agent of some kind. The town is empty.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” I narrowed my eyes, trying to shake the unease that had settled under my skin. “Something is wrong here. This sure as hell isn’t about just a plane crash. As Wes would say, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“Then it is good that we came to see what is going on,” Jade put in, and if I didn’t know better, I would swear there was a hint of I told you so in her voice. I ignored it and started walking.

As we began seeing more houses up close, I understood why there were people in suits swarming all over the damn place. And it raised the hair on the back of my neck.

The houses were all burned. Some just had a few scorch marks here and there; others were nothing but blackened shells, crumbling to ash. For more than a few, only the foundations were left, blasted cinder blocks and scorched concrete lying beneath what used to be a home. Several front yards held a colorful assortment of lawn ornaments, kids’ toys, and junked cars rusting side by side. They were untouched, as was the vegetation and trees around the buildings. Only the houses were charred to nothing, as if blasted with fire from the inside.

“Jeez,” Ember whispered, her eyes wide as she gazed around at the devastation. “What happened here? It looks like a bomb went off or something.”

“No,” I said. “A bomb wouldn’t just destroy the houses and leave everything else untouched. Neither would a forest fire, or a damn crashing plane. What does it really look like happened here?”

St. George’s voice was grim. “Like this place was attacked by fire-breathing dragons.”

“Yeah,” I muttered as a chill crept up my spine and turned the heat in my veins to ice. “Though, if Talon is behind this, I have no idea what that means. They’ve never engaged in something so blatant. The cover-up would have to be massive, and I don’t see what they would gain from it. If this is Talon...” I shook my head, repressing a shiver. “Something is definitely wrong.”

Voices halted us. Up ahead, a pair of humans in white coats stepped out of one of the more intact trailer homes, arguing with each other, and went hurrying away down the street. Leaving the door wide open behind them.

“Come on,” Jade said. “Let us do some snooping.”

We slipped into the trailer, and I was immediately struck by the smell. The faint, acrid stench of smoke lingered in the air, baked into the flimsy walls and floors. Part of the kitchen wall was gone, blackened and scorched around the edges, and it looked like the flames had spread to the living room. Tables and chairs were tipped over, broken dishes were scattered over the floor and the windows had been shattered. I wondered what had happened to the people that lived here. Had they been eating dinner, or asleep in their beds, when a dragon clawed open their door and turned the place into an inferno? Or had something else, someone else, been responsible?

“St. George,” I murmured as we slowly picked our way through the rubble and charred furniture. “Is there any way the Order could have done this?”

He frowned. “It doesn’t seem like them,” he answered, though he sounded unsure. “They would have no reason to attack this place unless there was a dragon living here. But even then...” He gazed around the devastated living room. “They wouldn’t take out the entire community. That would raise way too many questions.”

“Yeah, no kidding. Which is why I’m having a really hard time believing that Talon was behind this. They’re just as paranoid about discovery as the Order, if not more so. I mean, that’s their entire freaking philosophy—stay hidden, blend in, don’t let the humans know about dragons.” I stared through the giant hole in the wall to the house across the street. Unlike this home, it had been completely devastated, burned to the ground, only a few twisted frames poking up from the ashes. “Something this huge...it flies in the face of every single thing Talon taught us since the day the organization was founded. Why would they be breaking all their rules now? It makes no sense at all.” I raked a hand through my hair, shaking my head as I groped for an answer. “Maybe this wasn’t Talon or St. George. Maybe this was a random terrorist attack, or something else entirely human.”

“Riley,” Ember said from the living room, her voice urgent. “Take a look at this.”

I walked to where she was crouched beside an overturned coffee table, staring at a patch of cheap carpet. The carpet was gray and thin, but when she moved the table aside, a large brown stain came to light. I winced.

“Yep, that’s blood. Dammit. Well, I’d say we have a pretty good indication of what happened to the people here.”

“No,” Ember said, putting a hand on my arm. “That’s not what I wanted to show you. Look at this.”

She pointed to the coffee table, holding it on its side. It was scorched on one corner, a large black burn mark covering half the surface, but below that, raked across the wood, were four long, straight gashes.

“What do those look like?” Ember whispered, and I closed my eyes.

“Claw marks.”

“Excuse me.”

We turned. Two men were entering the trailer home, frowning at us as they stepped through the door.

“I’m sorry,” the older one said, gazing around at us, “but this is an ongoing investigation. Who are you, and what authorization do you have to be here?”

Before I could stand up or say anything, Jade turned, flashing her badge for both men to see. “Department of Homeland Security,” she said in a firm, no-nonsense voice. “We are here to assess the situation and determine whether or not we need to escalate the current threat level.”

“The DHS?” The older human looked unsure. “No one said you were coming. When did—”

“Do you have evidence to support this was not a terrorist attack made on American soil?” Jade interrupted, stepping forward slightly. The man blinked.

“I...no, not really. We’re still—”

“Then it is possible this was a malicious attack carried out by extremists.”

“I suppose.” The human sighed and looked away, flustered. “Look, we don’t really know what we have yet,” he admitted. “The evidence we’ve gathered so far has been...strange. The inspector has been trying to keep everything under wraps until we figure out what really happened here. If you want, you can check out the evidence tent at the end of the road. See the weirdness for yourself.”

“Thank you,” Jade said, and gave a brittle smile. “We will do that.” She started to turn but paused, staring at the human as if surprised he was still there. “You may go now.”

The two men retreated, practically scrambling over each other to get out of the house. They fled, slamming the door behind them, and strode away down the road without looking back. Jade, standing at the edge of the room with her arms crossed, allowed herself a triumphant smirk.

“Damn,” I said as the Eastern dragon turned back. “That was impressive. I guess I’m not the only one with a master’s in BS.”

She smiled. “The DHS does have a public website,” she said. “They list their mission statement, job offers, history, everything. When Wesley told me how we were getting onto the crash site today, I did my research. But yes.” Her smile widened. “If it is necessary for our survival, I have been known to ‘bullshit’ with the best of them from time to time.”

I snorted a laugh. “Wish you were around a couple years ago. I could’ve used the help. Anyway...” I glanced out the hole in the wall, down the road where the two men had disappeared. “Shall we track down this evidence tent and see if we can uncover what the hell is going on?”

The evidence tent wasn’t hard to find, being a large white structure at the edge of the road and the only building that wasn’t charred, scorched or burned to the ground. Humans in suits and white coats were swarming in and out of it, but other than flashing my badge at the entrance, we didn’t really get a second glance. Inside, metal shelves ran the length of one canvas wall, each of them holding boxes marked with labels in clear plastic bags. Immediately, Ember headed to the wall, her innate curiosity no doubt driving her forward, while St. George hovered at our backs, watching the crowd. Grateful that the soldier was keeping an eye out, I walked up and peeked into one box.

It held an assortment of clothing in more plastic bags. But as I looked closer, I saw that most of the garments had large brown stains soaking the fabric. Blood. And a lot of it, judging from the mangled clothes. I looked at the next box in line and saw more of the same; only this time, I could make out several long, straight tears in some of the clothes, as if made by the edge of a knife.

Or the claws of a very large reptile.

“It seems the evidence against Talon is becoming more and more damning,” Jade remarked, also peering into the containers. “Between the fires, general destruction and the Talon agent on the news, it certainly seems like the organization is at least partially involved.”

“I still can’t believe they’d be this sloppy,” I said. “They had to have known that something this big would cause a huge investigation, with everyone scrambling to figure out what the hell happened.” I snorted. “Plane crash, my ass. I bet it’s not even Talon that’s trying to cover this up—the government has no idea what they’re dealing with, so they invented a cover story to keep things quiet until they can figure it out. And since Talon has agents seeded throughout all the government agencies, they’re only too happy to help.”

“That might be true, but it is not the question that needs answering,” Jade mused. “If the organization is involved, then the real question becomes why. What could they possibly hope to gain here?”

“Riley,” Ember murmured in a warning voice. She pulled a bag out of a nearby crate. I looked up, and my stomach flipped.

Resting in the bag was a small, flat oval, pointed on one end and glittering a dull iron gray. Even though the color was strange, one I’d never seen before, I knew what it was instantly. We all did.

A dragon scale.