Buccaneer (Dane Maddock Adventures) (38 page)

“
Holy crap,
”
she whispered.
“
It can fly.
”

The man, a powerful-looking black man with a shaved head, stood staring at a suit of armor. That was weird. He was the first person Bones had seen since entering the castle, so Bones decided not to kill him... yet. Maybe the guy would lead him to Angel.

All of a sudden, the man shook his head, turned, and headed off down the corridor. His Glock at the ready, Bones crept after him. The man came to a door with an electronic
keypad lock, entered in a code,
and the door swung open. Bones moved in behind him, ready to shoot should the man go for his weapon, but he seemed unaware of his surroundings as he walked slowly across the blue carpeted room, picked up a remote, and turned on a flat screen monitor, which displayed what looked like security footage of the grounds. He pressed a few buttons, and four images appeared on the screen, each displaying a section of forest.

Bones was disappointed to see that no one else was in the room. He guessed
it had been too much to hope
that Angel would be in the first room he entered. So much for that. Time to see if he could squeeze any information out of this guy. Three silent steps, and he
held
the barrel of his Glock to the base of the man
’
s skull. The man froze.

“
I
’
m in a really bad mood, so I suggest you don
’
t make any sudden moves.
”
Bones poured every
ounce of his hate
and anger into his voice.
“
Put your hands out in front of you. Slowly.
”
The man complied, and Bones relieved him of his weapon.
“
What
’
s your name?
”

“
Jacob.
”
His voice was dull, not so much unafraid as uncaring.

“
All right, Jacob, where
’
s my sister?
”
He figured he
’
d have to do some persuading, maybe with his knife, but Jacob answered right away.

“
She
’
s gone. I let her go.
”

Bones wanted to feel relieved, but he wasn
’
t buying it.

“
The hell you did. Tell me the truth, or I
’
ll cut your eyes out and feed them to you for lunch.
”

Now Jacob didn
’
t seem so uncaring.

“
I swear. She
’
s not here any
more. Morgan will probably kill me for it, but I let her go.
”

Bones didn
’
t know why, but he sensed the man was telling the truth.

“
Is she all right?
”
He bit his lip as he waited for the answer. If something had happened to Angel, he
’
d burn this place to the ground, that is, if Maddock didn
’
t do it first.

“
She was when she left here. A little banged up, but not by me.
”

Bones finally took a moment to look around the room. There was little to see, except a rack of weapons.

“
What are the swords
and crap
for?
”
He had a few ideas the uses someone could find for such a sinister array of weapons, but he forced those thoughts from his mind.

“
Morgan trains with them.
”

As he continued to look around, his eyes fell on a dark spot on the carpet. Blood. He turned to ask Jacob whose blood it was when he glanced at the monitor on
the wall, and what he saw
erased all other thoughts from his mind.

“
What the hell is that?
”
The image of a winged creature with a long, scaly tail and a fiery frill filled the screen.

“A dragon,”
Jacob said.

“
Don
’
t mess with me.
”
Bones dug the barrel of his pistol into Jacob
’
s neck.
“
What is it, really
?
”

“
That
’
s what Morgan calls them. They
’
re lizards, really. Her family began importin
g
different varieties from around the world centuries ago: komodos, frilled dragons, flying dragons. They
bred them
and culled out the smallest and weakest. But when Morgan took over, she started messing with
their DNA
.
”

Bones remembered what Tam had told them about Morgan
’
s philanthropic efforts.
She gives a lot of money to charity. She supports genetic research to fight all sorts of diseases. They even named the reptile house at the London Zoo for her because of all the money she gave them.

“
Is she crazy?
”

“
Maybe. But she
’
s fascinated with dragons, it
’
s sort of a legacy, and if she couldn
’
t have the real thing, she was determined to create the next best thing.
”

“
Don
’
t tell me they breathe fire.
”
Bones didn
’
t bother to keep the scorn from his voice.

“
No, but they
’
re deadly all the same. The one on the top left has the power and ferocity of the komodo, and the agility of the frilled lizard. The one on the bottom right is almost as big, just as vicious, and it can fly.
”

Bones
’
mouth was suddenly dry, and a sick feeling hung in his gut. Maddock was out there with these so-called dragons.

“
Morgan has them trained to hunt at a signal,
”
Jacob continued.
“
And the smartest one
will even obey
her commands.
”
Just then, a high pitched note, almost like a whistle, rang out, and the dragons on the screen suddenly became alert.

“
Oh no.
”
Jacob wobbled and almost lost his balance.
“
Morgan must have seen her and sounded the call. I thought she could get away.
”

“
You thought who could get away?
”
Bones asked, though he already knew the answer.

Jacob
hesitated
, and when he finally replied, his voice was
cold
.

“
Your sister.
”

Angel wanted to scream, but her voice was frozen in her throat. The beast glided toward her, growing ever closer and ever more frightening. She had nowhere to go, but she
’
d be damned if she would sit there. If she was going to die, she
’
d die trying to escape. She looked down,
searching for
a soft place to land. She was up on the balls of her feet, ready to make the leap, when a shot rang out and the creature in the air shrieked.

Two more shots rang out, one tearing a gash in one of the creature
’
s winglike
membranes and causing
it to veer off into the woods. The second shot caught it in its belly, and it tumbled to the ground and thrashed about in pain.

The
creature at the bottom of the tree cocked
its head, sniffed the air, then tore off down the path toward the sound of the gunshots. As An
gel watched, another shot came
seemingly out of nowhere, pinging off its skull and tearing a
ragged hole in its
frill.
It hissed and kept moving. The thing was tough.

Another shot rang out, the bullet striking the beast in the foreleg, and she thought she saw a muzzle flash in the middle of the pathway, but that couldn
’
t be. There was nothing there
,
but somehow she knew who had come to her rescue.

“
Maddock!
” s
he shouted
. Suddenly, all the fear and uncertainty of the past few days overwhelmed her, and she burst into tears. Crap! She didn
’
t want Maddock to see her acting girly, but right now, she couldn
’
t help herself.

The creature continued to charge, ignoring its wounded leg. Angel wanted to help, but what could she do without a weapon? As the tears welled in her eyes, the world became a kaleidoscope, where a myriad of crystallized lizard beasts attacked an invisible assailant.

Two more shots rang out
. She didn
’
t see where the first one struck, but the second one did the job, catching the beast in the eye and dropping it in its tracks. Ten feet down the path, the air rippled and Maddock appeared, holding a pistol in one hand and a weird-looking knife in the other.

Sobbing and laughing, Angel shimmied down the trunk of the tree and, by the time she hit the ground, he was there. She wanted to save face by saying something sarcastic but, before she could open her mouth, Maddock swept her up in his arms and kissed her. She kissed him back, the way she
’
d wanted to for years. He broke the kiss all too soon, and she was suddenly aware of the sounds of more of the lizard things approaching from all directions.

“
I love you,
”
she blurted.

“
Yes you do.
”
He winked and smiled, and she punched him in the chest.

“Ass.” She kissed him again. “You were, like, invisible. How...”

“Not now. We need to get
out of here.
”
He took her hand and turned to lead her back in the direction from which he
’
d come, and froze. Two beasts
barred the way
.
“
The other way, I guess. Hop on my back.
”

“
I can run,
”
she protested.

“
Just do it. I
’
ll explain later.
”

She saw no point in arguing. She hopped up on his back and, as they headed along the path back toward the castle,
something strange happened
. The air shimmered around them and the world got weird for a second.

“
What did you do?
”

“The knife is a cloaking device.” If
he was feeling any strain from the added burden of her weight, he didn
’
t let it show. He kept up a steady pace, though she could hear the beasts on their tail coming closer.

She was about to steal a look behind them when she saw one of the beasts leap from a tree up ahead and come soaring at them. She called out a warning, but Maddock had already leveled his pistol and fired two shots. Both of them caught it in the wing and sent it spinning into the trees. Now she looked back.

“
Maddock, I think they can smell us, and probably hear us. They
’
ve almost caught up!
”

He
quickened his pace.

Angel held her breath as the castle appeared in the distance. Would they make it?

“
Come on, come on,
”
Corey urged as he waited for Jimmy
’
s program to worm its way into the cracks of Modron
’
s security system. It hadn
’
t taken
this much time at the
museum. Surely it wouldn
’
t be much longer. He wondered how Bones and Maddock were faring. If he couldn
’
t break into the system, they might not be able to get out again. No, he couldn
’
t think that way.

He looked down at the spinning icon that indicated the program was still at work and tried to hurry it along by tapping the screen. Waste of time, he knew, but he hated this impotent feeling.

Just then, he heard voices close by, and the cargo area was suddenly bathed in sound and light as someone rolled up the back door. They were finally getting around to unloading the truck. Corey performed a few mental calculations. If it was only a couple of guys and they worked slowly, he might have ten minutes before they found him.