Tad Williams - The Dragons of Ordinary Farm

A last few gunshots cracked from the helicopter, then someone pulled the door closed and the aircraft started to rise once more. This time no dragon dropped out of the sky, and although the engines had a rougher sound than before, the helicopter kept rising until it was a couple of hundred feet off the ground, then it sped away west, its lights rapidly getting smaller until it was lost in the darkness.

The hairy, goat-legged figure slung Colin Needle off its shoulder and dumped the stunned boy to the ground, then put down what looked like Colin’s backpack. The goat-man hesitated, then turned to look at the Carrillos, who were staring, wide-eyed. Simos Walkwell looked sad.

“Why are you here, children?” He looked down at himself. “Why? I did not want you to see this.”

Steve and Carmen could only stare, but Alma actually smiled at him. “I saw you run, Mr. Walkwell. So fast! You were… you were beautiful!”

They found Meseret lying in a heap almost a quarter mile from where the helicopter had been forced down. Ragnar bent to hold his hand near her nostrils, which were as big as dessert plates. “She breathes,” he said. “She seems to be asleep-perhaps she is not too badly hurt.”

“She’s drugged,” said a voice from the shadows. Lucinda limped into view.

“Luce!” Tyler ran to her and hugged her, folding himself into her warmth. “I thought you were dead!”

“I did, too, especially when she hit the ground and I got thrown.” She patted his back and gently pulled away-not because she didn’t want to hug him, he realized, but because it hurt. She was staggering a little as she walked toward the others, so Tyler gave her his arm to lean on.

“Haneb gave her a shot just before she broke out,” she told Ragnar, then she saw the Carrillos. She smiled a little. Everybody seemed to have given up trying to get them to go home, Tyler thought with wry amusement-there didn’t seem much point now. “Hi, guys-you still here? Anyway, Meseret was losing consciousness before she got here, I think. It was just determination. She was after-”

“Her egg.” Ragnar lifted up the backpack. “We know-it is here. What we do not know is how it got here when we thought it had been destroyed by Alamu.”

“Alamu had nothing to do with it. Haneb took it. He says that Colin made him do it.” She turned toward Colin. “What were you thinking, Colin? That was so stupid. And now the secret’s out.”

“I am not certain of that,” said a voice. Simos Walkwell was still naked except for the bristly hair that covered his entire lower body. He stood up from examining the dragon and walked back to them. “I heard them arguing when they were on the ground-as Colin was running away. They did not know what had knocked them from the sky. They saw nothing of me, either, I think-I moved fast and kept to the shadows until I was far away from them.” He turned to the Carrillos. “If these young ones can be trusted-and I hope that they can-it could be our secret is safe for a little while longer.”

Tyler couldn’t stand it anymore. “But it’s not safe. That Stillman guy is going to be even more certain that something unusual is going on here, and I think it’s a pretty safe bet it’s all his fault.” He turned to Colin. “How much were you going to get for selling us out, Needle? What were you going to do with it, anyway? It’s not like you ever do anything except sneak around and rat on people to your mother.”

“That’s a lie!” Colin shouted, and his anger surprised even Tyler. “I don’t tell my mother anything! I want what’s best for the farm! I never-I never-!” He broke off, muttering angrily, staring down at his shoes.

“What’s best for the farm?” Tyler said. “You liar! You were going to sell a dragon’s egg to that creep Stillman!”

“Oh, grow up, Jenkins,” Colin snapped. “I was doing it to make the farm some money-we’re in debt up to our eyeballs and it’s going to get worse. How do you think Gideon’s kept this place going for so long? He used to bring all kinds of things back from trips through the Fault Line, old things from the past, and sell them as archaeological treasures-at least, that’s what he did till the Continuascope was lost in the lab fire. Now he can’t find his way around in the Fault Line anymore. And Stillman was the guy buying them, but he’s not going to do it any longer. This was our last chance to get any money out of him.”

Ragnar said, “You are a stupid little boy, Colin Needle.” His voice was full of contempt. “You have given away everything. You put a dragon’s egg in that man’s hand.”

Colin shook his head. “He thinks it’s a dinosaur egg. Just really well preserved.”

“I can’t believe you’d do that, Colin.” Lucinda slumped a little against Tyler. He could feel her trembling with exhaustion. “I can’t believe you’d do that to Gideon.”

Colin’s eyes filled with tears, but his face was angry. “Gideon! Are you joking? He’s letting the whole place fall apart! He hardly ever comes out of his room!”

Ragnar called to Mr. Walkwell, who was inspecting the place where the helicopter had landed. “We must take him to Gideon, Simos. He is the thane. He must know what happened here tonight.”

“No!” Colin shouted. “If you tell him, we’ll all be thrown out! Me and the Jenkins kids, all of us!”

Tyler took a step forward. He had seldom had such a powerful urge to slug somebody. “Shut up, Needle.”

“You think I’m wrong?” Colin turned on him. “Look at you! You snuck into the Fault Line. You stole stuff from the library. You brought these kids onto the property!” He pointed a shaking finger at the Carrillos, who were looking pretty nervous. “At least I was trying to help. You were just… entertaining yourselves!”

“That’s not fair!” Lucinda said.

“Quiet, all of you.” Ragnar looked like he’d also like to hit something. “Simos, what will we do?”

Mr. Walkwell was trotting back toward them, hooves picking gracefully at the uneven ground. He was carrying something.

“Things could be worse,” he said as he reached them, dropping his burden on the ground at Ragnar’s feet.

“Stillman has left something for us. I do not think he meant to.”

Ragnar crouched and fumbled open the briefcase. Tyler stared. Steve Carrillo whistled.

“Oh my god,” Lucinda said. “That’s like a million dollars.”

“Half a million,” Colin corrected her.

“So for a while at least Ordinary Farm is not… broken?” Mr. Walkwell smiled. “Breaked?”

“Broke,” Tyler said. “No, definitely not broke. But isn’t Stillman going to come back for it?”

Ragnar laughed grimly. “Stillman will be back, but I think he does not care so much about this. For him, it is a little bit of money only. Still, it will make Gideon happy.”

“ I got that money!” Colin said shrilly. “If anyone’s going to give it to Gideon… ”

“Shut your mouth or I will shut it hard.” Ragnar glared at him. Colin stopped talking. “So what do we do, Simos?” the big man asked.

“Um, I’ve got an idea,” said little Alma Carrillo. Everyone turned in surprise to look at her. “I mean, if you can’t tell Mr. Goldring about how the money really got here, why don’t you tell him something else? Tell him those bad guys were trying to buy the farm or something.”

“Hey, sis, you’re pretty sneaky!” said Steve Carrillo, obviously impressed.

“For half a million?” Tyler shook his head. “They wouldn’t believe it.”

“A bribe,” Lucinda said. She had sat down, and sounded about ready to fall asleep. “Tell Gideon that they tried to bribe you, Mr. Walkwell. That you went along with it to find out what they knew, and then you took the money.”