Callan
A shouted command came before he could strike the blow.
“HALT!”
He spun to see an older man with ebony skin emerge from the tunnel mouth, hand upraised toward him. While the soldiers on the base wore khaki-style uniforms designed for anything, this officer was in a darker green style. It was instantly noticeable that he was some sort of officer, the ranks on his shoulders as well as the chest full of medals. Callan had seen Colonel Mara in her formal uniform once before, and she looked similar.
“Give me one good reason,” he snarled. “This is an Outsider. If it wakes up or gets loose, it’s going to do whatever it takes to get through that portal.” He laid his knives against the back of the thing’s neck, droplets of acid dripping off and melting very tiny rivulets into its armor.
“The reason is because I said so, soldier.” The officer spoke calmly yet with an arrogance that belied the neutral expression on his face. This was a man used to being obeyed.
“Do I look like one of your soldiers?” Callan challenged angrily. Why were they wasting time discussing this? The thing needed to die.
“I’m not sure,” the unknown officer said, flicking at one of his nails. Callan thought they looked manicured. “Are you Callan? The black dragon that was brought back into this world by modern human technologies? Technologies that happen to be owned by the army?”
“It’s okay, Callan,” another voice said from off to the side.
Colonel Mara came forward, standing near, but very obviously apart from the other officer. “This is General Knefferson,” she said, as if that was supposed to mean something to him.
“The head of the CDC.”
Callan blinked. He vaguely recognized the acronym, but hadn’t actually paid too much attention in the courses designed to catch him up on what was going on in the army. He just didn’t care. All he wanted was to get his treasure and go mourn. These bastards weren’t letting him do either, and now they wanted him to keep the Outsider alive.
“My boss,” Colonel Mara added gently.
Now he really wanted to behead the creature, just to stick it to her. No, that’s not right. You know none of this is Colonel Mara’s fault. She’s just trying to do her job. Kallore wouldn’t have mated her if she were a bad person.
“Do you have a plan for it?” he growled, not moving from its back. So far he hadn’t felt any sort of movement to indicate it was alive, but he wasn’t willing to take any chances either.
“Yes,” she said, motioning to someone out of sight. A moment later half a dozen more battlesuits emerged from the tunnel mouth, carrying a large tube between them. They set it down, and only after it hit the ground with a dull clang did he get an idea of how heavy it was.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“A special cryo-tube,” she said as the metal-clad soldiers opened it up. The inside was pure steel on the outside, but the inside was lined with some sort of synthetic material. The top and bottom had vents on it, but anything beyond that just looked like technology he wasn’t familiar with.
“A what?”
“We put the Outsider in there, it freezes it, keeps it from doing anything,” General Knefferson said tiredly. “Just pick it up and dump it in, okay?”
Callan made a show of dismissing his acid-daggers while staring at the general, before picking the already half-destroyed Outsider up and tossing it inside.
“There. Done. Now I’m out of here.”
“Where are you going?”
“Elsewhere,” he snapped. “I’m done with you and your games. First you wake me, and steal my treasure, then you generously offer to give it back if I fight for you? Screw you,” he spat at Knefferson. “I already lost my mate, now I’ve lost my treasure. You have nothing that will work on me.”
“If you leave now, you’ll never get your treasure back,” Knefferson barked as Callan pushed his way past the battlesuit clad soldiers.
“Fuck you. I’ll get it back somehow. Good luck convincing anyone else to fight for you. Nobody likes a thief, General Knefferson,” he mocked.
Callan stormed from the chamber as behind him the giant tube was closed and sealed with huge metal clamps and other locking devices that looked strong. He just hoped they were strong enough. This was a mistake, but he doubted anyone else would acknowledge that until it was too late.
Footsteps sounded behind him.
“What do you want, Colonel?” he asked softly, continuing to walk. “I’m not coming back.”
“I wasn’t going to ask you to.”
He came to a halt without turning. “So you came to wish me good luck?”
“Nothing so crass,” she laughed softly. “No, I was hoping to convince you not to leave.”
“You just said you weren’t going to ask me to come back.”
“They aren’t the same thing.”
Now he did look back at her as she approached at a more sedate walk, no longer having to run to catch up with his long strides. “Explain.”
“Leave the base,” she said. “But don’t go off on your own. Go to Barton City. Meet some of the other dragons that you haven’t yet. Talk to them. Get to know the world that I’m asking you to save. We’ll introduce you to some humans, things like that. But you won’t be based here anymore.” She sighed. “You should know I didn’t want to hold on to your treasure. But after Knefferson saw how much it was…he wanted to use it to fund several other dragons as we awaken them, instead of using it all on you.”
“Asshole.”
“Agreed. Until recently he’s stayed at his hidey hole, leaving me and Major Von Kemp to run the dragon program and this base. Now he’s decided to come here, like a jerk. But that’s beside the point,” she said, waving her hands. “Just give us a chance. Please. We need you, Callan, and the other dragons. We can’t do this alone.”
She seemed sincere. Her face was full of honesty and worry.
“Fine. I’ll go there. I’ll meet some humans. But I’m leaving in a week.”
“Okay. One week, no problem. I’ll make all the arrangements for your stay, and set you up to go meet a human.”
Callan nodded his acceptance and walked away, trying to figure out how she’d brought him around so swiftly. Damn, she was a crafty one.
So what the hell did I just agree to?