Robert Charette - Never deal with a Dragon

Doctors around the world had invoked Unexplained Genetic Expression Syndrome to account for the births of strange children to ordinary parents. But UGE was just a name for something that they didn’t understand. When it became clear that the children were growing up to look so much like the Elves of fairy tales, the scientists clung to their ugly name for the beautiful children. The new generation weren’t fairies, of course, but that didn’t stop the popular press from applying mythical names to them. Those names stuck, but the children dubbed Elves and Dwarfs were still people, new and sudden subspecies of homo sapiens to be sure, but Humans still. Some people didn’t believe that, denying that Metahumans of any kind were people. It was an attitude Sam never understood. Even with all his father’s railing against the “claptrap of this Sixth World magic nonsense,” the elder Verner had acknowledged Metahumans as “biologically sound expressions of genes.” Sam had never found pointed ears and white hair to be any more non-Human than black or red skin.

All such thoughts fled as the woman turned to face them and Hanae performed the introductions.

“Sam, this is Katherine Roe. She’s the one I wanted you to meet.”

“ Telegit thelemsa, ” he greeted her.

“ Siselle. Thelemsa-ha. ” She laughed lightly. “Your pronunciation is excellent. Sam, but, please, let’s speak English. You wouldn’t want to embarrass me in public, would you?”

“How so?”

“Other than those who grew up in an enclave, very few Elves actually speak the language. We are all children of our culture, after all.”

“I only meant to be friendly,” Sam muttered apologetically. “It’s about all the Sperethiel I know.”

“And I chided you for it. Now see, you have embarrassed me.” Roe’s face flashed her chagrin momentarily. Then the smile returned. “How do you come to know any Sperethiel?”

“Oh, Sam knows lots of things, Katherine. He’s one of the corporation’s best researchers.”

Sam kit his face flush at Hanae’s enthusiasm. To Roe’s raised eyebrow, he said, “I’m told that I have a rather good memory.”

“Certainly an asset for a researcher,” Roe agreed.

“An asset for anyone,” Hanae asserted. “I’m sure you two will have a lot to talk about, so I’m going to get some shopping done. Two o’clock in front of Lordstrung’s?” she asked.

He nodded and she kissed him on the cheek and left. Roe conducted him inside the Coral Cafe, where she had a table waiting. She did not take long getting to the point.

“I may be able to help you out.”

“What exactly do you mean?”

“Caution is certainly advisable, Sam. You don’t know me, but I know quite a bit about you.” Her face was earnest as she reached out to lay a hand on his arm. “I’m going to have to tell you things in trust, but you seem to be the kind of man who knows how to keep a secret.”

She waited for his response. Sam hesitated. Her concern and sincerity seemed to be more than mere show. Still, he felt the need for wariness. “I can’t promise discretion with out knowing what you’re talking about.”

Sam read relief and satisfaction in her smile.

“That’s the answer of a man who takes his word seriously,” she said. “All right. If you think anything I say will compromise you, then go tell your bosses. But what will they think of someone who consorts with a villain like me?”

The lightness of her tone did nothing to lessen Sam’s sudden concern. If his association with Roe were known, there would be repercussions. All his nebulous fears about official sanction would become definite reality. “They would not take it well at all.”

“ I’m not going to tell them. Why should you?” When he said nothing to that, she continued. “I’ll leave out all the names. That should ease your fears about having to report anything. Besides, this sort of thing happens all the time. Don’t you ever watch ‘Confessions of a Company Man’?”

“I watch very little trid. I especially avoid fiction.”

“Fiction?” she exclaimed quietly. “ ‘Confessions’ is all true. They tell you so at the beginning of each episode.”

“If it’s real, why don’t any of the corporations mentioned ever appear on the world stock exchanges?”

“Why, you’re right. You’ve shattered my illusions,” Roe declared with mock seriousness.

“Somehow I doubt that.” She was trying to set him at ease and Sam was beginning to like her.

She smiled, dismissing her frivolity, but then her expression quickly became sober. “Seriously, though, my associate, Mr. Drake, and I are already arranging for an extraction. It would be little additional trouble to take you out at the same time.”

“I don’t know your principals. How do I know I want to work for them?”

“You don’t have to.”

“I’m supposed to believe that you and this Mr. Drake are doing this out of the goodness of your hearts?” Sam asked skeptically.

“Of course not,” Roe smiled confidently. “We’ve got an angle just like everybody else. Our principals are paying the freight for the extraction. If we add you to it without telling them, you’re out for free. Then Mr. Drake and I work with you to get a corporate placement in another city, say, San Francisco. Once we arrange a nice new home for you, we get a finder’s fee from the corporation you join. It’s practically free credit.”

“I won’t compromise Renrako,” Sam said.

“You won’t have to, We’ll put it into the hiring contract. It’ll make the sale go a little harder, but it’s not impossible. You may have to settle for a slight drop in your standard of living.”

Sam suddenly realized that he had made his decision and was in the process of implementing it. The future was opening up. “If I can get on with my life, it’ll be worth it.”

“Then we have a deal?”

“Not so fast. I want to meet this Mr. Drake.”

She hesitated, but Sam thought that it was just for effect. “Sure. I’ll set up a meet for as soon as you can get away.”

“I thought Hanae told you that I can’t leave the arcology without a guard.” He tapped the continuous plastic band that encircled his wrist. Fine wires and flat chips could be discerned through the translucent surface of the screamer. “This will alert security should I trespass beyond the boundaries encoded in its memory. It cannot be removed without setting off an alarm, and the Renraku Security Directorate controls the ‘off’ switch. Your Mr. Drake will have to come here.”

“No good,” she said with a slight shake of her head. “The big guy can’t come in. You’ll have to wait until you’re out to meet him.”

From the hardening of her manner, Sam sensed the matter was not negotiable. “That’s not reassuring.”

“Do you want out or not?”

He did. He had walked too far down this path to turn back now. He just wasn’t sure that this was the best way. “Let me think about it.”

“Don’t think too long.” she warned. “I’ve got a schedule to meet.”

“ Is it time? ”

“No.

“ But I’m getting hungry. ” Petulance accompanied the statement.

“Soon, Tessien.”

Rainbow plumes rustled, colorless in Hart’s night vision as she watched the serpent settle its coils. With its wings folded against its sides and the great fanged head tucked under the left pinion, it soon resembled nothing more than an uneven pile of feathers. It was hardly camouflage. In the lane between warehouses of United Oil’s docking facility on Puget Sound. such a pile was even more out of place than a dracoform.

For all its uncharacteristic impatience, Tessien was a dracoform, one of a variety of creatures that laid claim to the powers of legendary Dragons. It-Hart was unsure of the beast’s gender-was of a type known as a feathered serpent, the most common of the greater dracoforrns in the western hemisphere. Stretched out, it would measure ten meters of feather-scaled muscle, and its wingspan matched its length. Tessien was a dangerous beast, and had been her partner for four years of shadow business.