Robert Asprin's Dragons Run (32 page)

George
held Mai tight. He knew that he was stronger than she was, but she fought dirty. So did he, for that matter, but no sense in taking chances. He fished another long, looped wire tie from his pocket and captured both hands behind her back. He ratcheted the strap out until she moaned in protest.

“I’ll take the rope off your neck if you promise nothing but words are going to come out of your mouth.”

Her hooded eyes flashed, but she nodded. George loosened the cord. It was spelled to be strong enough to strangle dragons. He hated to use it, but he always carried it. Mai took a deep gasp of breath.

“Ow!” Mai protested. “You didn’t have to do that!”

“When a dragon like you pays me an unexpected visit, you had better believe I take all precautions until I know where it stands.”

“Don’t call me ‘it.’ Check your messages! Debbie told me where to find you. I need to talk to you.”

“Really? About what?”

“About what you’re doing here.”

He guided her roughly to one of the beds and made her sit down on it. He crouched at a distance but kept hold of the long end of her manacle tether.

“What I am doing anywhere is never any of your business.”

Mai tossed her hair out of her face. “That is not true. I have used your services in the past. You never seem to mind taking my money for surveillance or research.”

“True. But you can’t hire me for anything at the moment. I’m on a job.”

He had never seen such raw fear in the eyes of any of the Eastern dragons.

“What job? What is it you intend to do to Valerie McCandles?”

George didn’t let his surprise show. Of course, the Eastern dragons would be interested in a pure-blooded dragon baby, not to mention a fecund and reasonably sane mature female.

He had just returned from his final surveillance of the Wurmley estate. He had planted caches of supplies and weaponry in various locations inside the fence. On his checkthrough he had seen no signs of the Gollum-demon, but he could smell it. He was surprised that the dogs didn’t go crazy at the scent of such an indiscriminate predator. Henry must have trained them not to freak out. Dammit, all he needed was one more obstacle to his goal. Interference from Mai could cause him to lose his concentration. That could prove fatal to his target.

“You know I can’t discuss open contracts with you.”

“What will it take for you to back off the McCandles girl?”

George regarded her with exasperated patience. “If I were working on a job for you, what would you think if I took a bribe from another interest? You know we don’t work that way.”

Mai stood up. George followed suit. He towered over the petite Asian female, but she was not intimidated.

“I’ll stop you,” she said. “Unless you kill me right now, I will keep you from taking her anywhere.”

“Don’t try, Mai. We don’t freelance, but I’ll protect myself.”

“Bring it, tough guy,” Mai said, holding her chin high.

George shook his head wearily. “Not now, Mai. Sometimes I like your sparring, but it’s inappropriate at the moment.”

“Really?
Why?
Tell me why! You have no idea what you’re walking into over there.”

“Sure I do.” George snapped the wire tie off her wrists. He went to the door and held it open. “Get lost, Mai. I’ll buy you a drink sometime once this is all over.”

She rose, looking surprised. The way she gathered herself, George sensed that she was going to spring at him. He held up a hand.

“Would you mind not trashing my room? The staff has been really nice to me. And after you gave the hotel maid ten bucks, I’d hate to have her waste her tip scrubbing blood off the walls. It won’t do any good anyhow. I might have to hurt you, and I still won’t give you any details.”

Mai halted in her tracks. Her lip curled, showing her sharp little white teeth.

“You’ll be sorry, George.”

“I’m already sorry. See you around.”

He stood silently by the open portal and waited. Mai stared at him for a long time, then stalked past him. He watched her go around the front of the building, then kept watch until he was sure she wasn’t coming back around the other side. With a sigh, he closed the door and took out his cell phone. He held it to his ear while he started loading his pockets with supplies and weapons.

“Debbie, we have a problem. I have interference. Mai is here. She just left. She wanted to know what I was doing here.”

The secretary’s voice squawked from the speaker.

“What? You haven’t broken confidentiality, have you?”

“Give me a break. She’s got a nasty sense of humor. If she knew I was saving a dragon instead of stalking one, she’d phone the news services. I can hear her laughing about it now.”

“You have to get that girl out immediately.”

“I know, I know. Putting together my kit now. I’ll call you once I’m safely on the road with her.”

•   •   •

Mai
dashed into the trees. She held her handbag in her teeth as she ran. Transforming on the fly wasn’t as easy as it looked in the movies. Better to complete the alteration as she went. As soon as her wings were clear, she opened them and flapped hard. She cleared a picnic table, only registering too late that it was occupied. She and a couple who had decided to sneak off for an afternoon quickie both got an eyeful.

“Oh, my God!” the woman cried, pointing over her lover’s shoulder. “A demon!” The man rolled off her and gawked upward.

“Dragon, curse you,” Mai muttered to herself. “Why do they always think scaly wings mean demon?”

She had no idea when George was going to make his move. She had to hurry. Val firmly believed that George was a benevolent rescuer, not a killer. Mai had three hard tasks ahead of her: convincing Val that George was a monster; convincing Val to leave the mansion now, at all costs; and finding a way past all of Melinda’s insane security protocols.

At the mansion, she circled impatiently, staying out of range of the cameras, waiting for a vehicle to pull through either gate so she could sneak in. Twilight was coming. She didn’t have any bribes for Melinda’s herd of mutts. Damn George! He had made her forget details! Drink, hell! If she ever saw him again, she was going to tear out his guts and eat them.

At last, she felt a break in the security spell near the back. She flitted down onto the access road in time to see a car exiting: one of Melinda’s day staff going home for the night. Mai closed her wings and swooped down toward the gate.

Curse it! Before she could reach the gate, it swung down again. All the security cameras lit up. Mai swore colorfully in Cantonese, Mandarin, Thai, and several ancient dragon dialects.

The only way in was with an ID or an invitation. She had neither. But the man in the car did. She turned on a wingtip and arrowed after him.

As the brown auto stopped at a T-intersection on the overgrown lane, Mai landed on the hood. The stocky, dark-skinned man in the driver’s seat threw up his hands to shield his face. Mai reached in through the open window and grabbed him by the throat.

“You forgot something in the house,” she said, dragging him eye to eye with her. “You need to go back and get it. Right now. It’s a matter of life and death: yours.”

“Yes, sir!” the man said. His eyes were so wide that they looked as if they might pop out.

“It’s
ma’am
,” Mai said. She shoved him back into the front seat, and slid in the window to the rear. She kept one claw at the back of his neck. His skin twitched. “Turn this junk heap around. Move it!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Though his hands were shaking, the man threw the car into reverse, executed a Y-turn, and raced back to the house.

Once they were through the security gate, Mai hauled the driver out of the car and tied him up with his own belt and a set of jumper cables. There was just room for him in the trunk, among the usual detritus humans accumulated in storage places. She unfurled a strip of duct tape from the roll she found there, pasted it over his mouth, then slammed the trunk lid down over his frightened eyes.

No alarms or lights went off, so her presence must have gone undetected. As twilight began to fall, a few more employees emerged through the rear door, chatting to one another in loud voices. Their noise covered Mai as she slithered in past the cars parked at the rear of the house. No one paid attention to a serpent the color of the gravel.

Once past them, she grew legs again to race along the edge of the house toward Val’s window. Thank all the ancestors, it was open! Blessings on the Amazon’s proclivity for fresh air. She rolled in over the sill, gathering her wings in and assuming human shape again as she stood up.

“Put your things together, Val. We have to get out now!”

To her horror, Val was not alone. A slim woman with black hair jumped up from the table and backed toward the door. After crawling over the dirt to get back, Mai was in no mood to have a mere human interfere with her plans. She dashed to slam the door closed and put her back against it. The other woman dropped to a crouch. Mai was surprised. The woman didn’t look like a typical student of krav maga. Mai struck a karate stance, then relaxed.

“What am I doing?” Mai asked, appalled at herself. “I know what you just saw. Scream and I will kill you long before anyone can possibly come to your aid. Very painfully, I might add.”

By then, Val was between them, hands holding them back from one another.

“Don’t hurt her, Mai. She’s my friend! Marcella, this is Mai. I told you about her.”

Marcella stood wide-eyed, but she swiftly regained her aplomb.

“Pleased to meet you,” she said. Mai laughed.

“I should have known that anyone who worked for Melinda would be made of steel,” she said. “You are surprising for a human.”

“Thank you,” Marcella said.

“Enough pleasantries. Well, Amazon? Grab your purse! We have no time! The George is coming!”

“Who is the George?” Marcella asked.

“He’s an assassin!” Mai cried. “He is here to kill you. I do not intend to let that happen. We need to go, now. Val, you say you do not believe me, but I just saw him. He is preparing to make a strike here. We must get away from here. Now!”

Val wore confusion like an itchy sweater. “I can’t believe it; he seems so nice!”

“Forget nice,” Mai said. To her great annoyance, Val had fallen back under the house spell. “If I am wrong, you can apologize to him and to Griffen once we get you home!”

“Griffen!” Val’s face brightened. “I want to see him.”

Mai grabbed her hand. “Come with me.”

Val pulled back.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Val beamed. Her smile brought out the dimples in her cheeks and made her large blue eyes shine. Mai deplored the brainless expression she wore. “Marcella just came to tell me that Mike is on his way to have dinner with me. Isn’t that great? I want you to meet him.”

Mai waved her hand impatiently. “No one is supposed to know I’m here, remember? You can invite Mike to visit you when you get home.”

“I
suppose
so.”

Mai glanced at Marcella. “What about her? I hate to leave witnesses.”

Val seemed startled, but Mai knew she understood what she was saying. Instead of vapid complacency, her expression changed slowly to one of resolution. She appealed to the housekeeper. “Marcella, please, we need your help. I don’t know how much you know about Melinda and her family, but . . . we’re like her.”

Marcella took her off the hook at once.

“You’re dragons. I knew that. I’m not.”

“What about this Henry?” Mai asked.

“Oh, he’s not a dragon, either, but he’s different,” Marcella said. “He controls almost everything on the property, even when Melinda is here.”

Mai pushed impatiently between them.

“This place has almost Pentagon-level security. Can you get us past it?”

“I don’t want my baby born here,” Val added, crossing her arms over her belly protectively. Yes, the spell was broken now. “I want her born at home, where she belongs!”

For the first time, the housekeeper looked frightened.

“I’d do anything I can for you, Val, but Melinda will have my head, maybe literally, if I let you leave the house.”

“If you get us out, then you can come with us,” Val urged her. “My brother knows dozens of people in the hotel industry in New Orleans. He could find you the kind of job you’ve always wanted.”

“Val!” Mai protested. Val glowered at her.

“We can’t leave her here to die.”

“We’re not,” Mai said. She eyed the housekeeper up and down. “You’re in good shape. If you slow us up, it’s your own problem. What do we have to do?”

“Nothing,” Marcella said, showing as much resolution as Val. “I don’t need to leave. It will be a harmless diversion. How could I know you were going to run away? I’ll go and distract the security detail for a little while. Just be ready to head for the front gate.” She glanced at her watch. “Give me ten minutes, starting from . . . now.”

Val looked at her own watch, a round Patek Philippe slip of gold that Mai immediately envied.

“All right,” she said. “Thank you.”

Marcella gave her a grim smile. “No thanks needed. It may not work, but it is your best chance. Good luck.”

She opened the door and peered out to make certain no one was in the hall.

The doorbell rang.

All three women looked at one another. Val threw back her head in dismay.

“Mike! I forgot about him!”

Marcella
gathered herself and went down to answer the door. Val and Mai watched from the hallway, just out of sight.

“What should we do?” Val whispered.

“This is a gift,” Mai whispered back. “He can get you off the grounds. If he is not an utter creature of Melinda’s, have him take you out and drop you somewhere, then wait an hour to call me. If I am not off the property by then, I am dead. Go home to Griffen.”

Val hugged her. “I don’t want anything to happen to you!”

Mai shook her head. Val was so young! “I should be all right. I am not without defenses, and your housekeeper friend may help me because she wishes to please you. Are you ready?”

Val swiped at her hair. She wore no makeup, but she never needed it. Mai envied her that bright, clear complexion and that sun gold hair. Val looked down at her sapphire blue sweat suit.

“This wasn’t what I was going to wear, but it’ll be better for travel.”

“Shhh!” Mai tapped her lips for silence.

Marcella opened the door. A tall man stepped over the threshold. The sun framed him from behind, giving him a halo of gold. He had a nice shape, though it was somewhat obscured by the faded army jacket he wore. Mai liked lean men with wide shoulders. Marcella shut the door behind him, cutting off the glare. Mai nodded with approval. Black hair, blue eyes, that jaw! She pushed Val’s shoulder.

“Mmm! Very nice, Amazon. Now, go! I’ll see you as soon as I can!”

•   •   •

Val
straightened herself up and shook her hair back over her shoulders. The two people at the door looked up as she came down the stairs to join them. Mike smiled warmly at her.

“There’s the beautiful lady,” he said.

“Hi, Mike.” She smiled at him, feeling shy before Marcella. He swept her into his arms and kissed her. When he let her go, Val sensed a tentativeness about him. Maybe he didn’t like having a date with so many observers. That was good. He ought to go along with her plans—if she could get away with it.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Mike seemed surprised. “Nothing. You look lovely.”

“Come in, Mr. Burns,” Marcella said. She stood aside to let him in.

“I have a better idea,” Val said brightly, hooking her arm into Mike’s. She smiled up at him. “Let’s go out tonight instead.”

“Uh, all right,” Mike said. “Where would you like to go?”

“How about the jazz club?” Val asked. She knew that building well by now. The ladies’ room was down a blind hallway. She could sneak into the kitchen and go out the rear door if she had to.

“Why not?” Mike said. “I’m dressed a little casually for it, aren’t I?”

“Well, look at me,” Val said, impatiently. She gestured at herself. Her belly looked like a velour dome under the jacket. “If they don’t mind me, they won’t mind you.”

“You look fine,” he said. “No one will notice your clothes, as beautiful as you are.”

Something in the way he said that struck her as forced. She searched his face and tried to guess what he was thinking.

“What’s wrong?” she asked again.

“Nothing’s wrong, Val. Come on.”

He hooked his arm in hers and drew her toward the door. Val held her breath. The sunshine felt so good on her face! She was going home. A pity about all those gorgeous baby gifts, but she didn’t need much. Her baby kicked at her belly, as if telling her to hurry up.

“And just where. Are.
You
going?”

Val felt as if a sword of ice had plunged into her back. She turned and favored Melinda with a casual smile.

“Out for dinner,” she said. “I thought it would be a nice change.”

Melinda put her plump hands on her round hips and glared up at Mike, though her voice was as sweet as saccharine.

“What about all the work that my chef has gone to, to make a delicious dinner for you two?” she asked. “What am I going to tell him? He will be so hurt!”

“I’m sure that he will understand,” Mike said. His eyes were innocent. Val could have jumped him right there out of sheer gratitude.

“Now, you remember the conditions that I gave you for seeing the mother of my grandchild,” Melinda said. Her muddy brown eyes flashed into polished agate. “They did not include making plans without consulting me.”

“Wait a minute,” Val said, natural outrage flooding her for the first time in days. “Conditions? I’m the one who decides who sees me and where. I want to go out. Are you really going to stop me?”

Melinda eyed her up and down with a rueful expression. “Darling, you sound completely out of sorts. Your hormones must be so out of balance that it’s a wonder you’re not standing on your head. That’s why I’ve been acting as your guardian for these months. You need me.” She reached for Val’s other arm. “Come on into the lounge and sit down. Where’s Henry? Marcella, get him.”

Val backed away.

“Don’t you dare, Marcella,” she said.

The housekeeper looked torn. Her hand went to the phone on her belt, but she didn’t open it.

“Hurry!” Melinda barked.

“I . . .”

“Humans! They’re useless!” Melinda bore down on Val, moving much faster than Val thought she could. She tried to pull her arm away, but Melinda clamped her hand on it with the strength of a bench vise. She fixed her glare on Mike.

“It was so nice of you to come over tonight, Michael, but as you can see, Valerie is out of sorts. She really needs to lie down. That little one must be giving her a bad time. I remember when I was carrying my Lizzy, sometimes I didn’t know how I was acting. So, if you’ll excuse us, I’m going to put her to bed. Come along, Valerie.”

“No!” Val said. She tried to shake loose. Melinda held on.

“I say yes. You don’t know what’s good for you, darling!”

“For me?” Val asked. “You kidnapped me from my home. God knows how many lies you have told me over the last few months. I should be behind the bar, listening to Shriners tell me that their wives don’t understand them. Come on, Mike. Let’s go out and . . . get some food.”

Val felt her voice die in her throat. She knew it was obvious to everyone that this had stopped being about going out to eat. Melinda understood that if Val made it over the threshold, she wasn’t coming back. She clamped her other hand onto Val’s wrist and barked an order over her shoulder.

“Marcella! Now!”

Val couldn’t blame the housekeeper for being cowed. Marcella opened the small phone and dialed a number. Val thought she could hear ringing in a distant part of the house.

Val refused to wait for Henry to come and fuzz her brain again. A tiny kick under her diaphragm reminded her why it was so urgent to get out right away. Her women’s self-defense teacher had told her that anything that let you run away from a mugger was the right action. She swept her leg under Melinda’s feet. The older dragon dropped on the black-and-white tiles, but she didn’t loosen her death grip on Val’s arm. Val fell heavily on her knees.

“Dammit, let me go!” Val shrieked.

“Never!”

“Ladies, please,” Mike said, trying to help them up. “Aren’t you both overreacting?”

In unison, they chorused, “No!”

“Mike, help me,” Val pleaded. She pried at Melinda’s fingers. Undoubtedly against his better judgment, Mike got on his knees beside them. He pulled one hand loose. Before he could get the other one off, Melinda put her fingers around Val’s windpipe. And squeezed. A red halo sprang up around Val’s field of view.

“It’s all right if you deliver from a coma, darling. Easier for us all.”

Her vision narrowed into a diminishing disk of light, with Melinda’s face in the center. Before she blacked out completely, Val summoned what was left of her wits and swung her left fist into the only thing she could see.

The grip on her hand collapsed. Val sat on the floor for a moment, panting. Her sight cleared. Melinda lay spread-eagled on the floor, eyes closed, mouth agape. She was unconscious.

“That was one hell of a punch,” Mike said admiringly. “Come on, let’s go!”

“Right,” Val said. She still couldn’t believe that she had knocked Melinda out. “Hurry.”

Mike helped her to her feet. Marcella gave her a quick hug.

“I didn’t call Henry, but he knows everything that happens in this house,” she said. “Run. I hope I see you again someday.”

Val returned the embrace warmly. “Me, too.”

Swallowing hard in her sore throat, Val staggered a little unsteadily toward the door. Mike held her arm to steady her. She looked out to the driveway. The only vehicle on it was a dark green sedan with North Carolina plates.

“Where’s your car?” she asked.

“Right there,” Mike said. “Mine needed service. This is a loaner.”

“Not your style at all,” Val said.

“It was what they had. It drives just fine. Come on.” He put his arm around her and urged her forward.

Val hesitated. Something
was
wrong.

•   •   •

At
the top of the stairs, Mai saw Val balk. She peered over their heads toward the driveway. The green sedan didn’t look like the kind of car dealerships lent out to repair clients. It was nondescript, almost a junker. In fact, she was almost certain she had seen it before.

Mai probed hard at Mike. A guy that good-looking had to have a few secrets.

He had. It was a big one. Mike wasn’t a dragon. In fact . . .

She stood up and screamed.

“Val, it’s George! Run, Val!”

•   •   •

George
could have ripped Mai’s lungs out. He almost had the girl out the door! He reached for Val. The girl backed away for him. He extended his arm into a muscular tentacle and wrapped it around her wrist.

Her shattered nerves had put Val’s reactions on full red alert. When his hand touched her, Val turned, raised a leg, and gave him a hard side kick in the stomach.

“Oof!”

He staggered backward, his rubbery extremities flailing for a handhold. The doorstep caught his heel. He tripped and fell on his back. He rolled over and sprang to his feet. With more presence of mind than most humans had, the housekeeper sprang forward and slammed the door on him.

•   •   •

Marcella
spoke into her cell phone and took Val by the arm. “Come with me!”

“Mai! What about Mai?”

The small Asian woman appeared at her side almost as if by magic.

“I am here, Amazon. What now?” Mai asked Marcella.

“I’ll take you through the back door. Where is your car?”

“In the road out front. It will be a run. Can you make it, Val?”

“Yes.” Val had caught her breath by then. Melinda was starting to stir. She moaned loudly. Marcella took both young women by the arms. She hustled them into the dayroom and through the servants’ door. Behind it, Val inhaled the warm, moist, mixed scent of drying laundry, insecticide, and cedar. Once they were through, Marcella pushed the door closed and snapped a bolt into a bracket just above the knob.

“That won’t hold her,” Val said.

“Yes, it will,” Marcella said. “It’s made to withstand Lizzy. Come on!”

They ran through parts of the house that Val had never seen before, much more humbly furnished than the grand rooms in which she had been living. The floors were polished flagstones with heavy, rectangular, woven rag rugs four feet wide down the center of the corridor. Narrow tracks worn into the fabric in parallel lanes told Val that they had been there a long time. Their intention, for which she was very grateful, was to keep the footsteps of those below stairs from being heard by the gentry above stairs. They passed heavy wooden doors with old-fashioned wood-and-iron latches fastened by very modern padlocks. Some of the rooms stood open, and a few even had large windows facing the corridors, like a sewing room where a plump Hispanic woman sat at a gently humming Bernina machine with folds of teal blue cloth in her lap.

“The kitchen is this way.”

An alarm blared from the ceiling.
HONK ah HONK ah HONK ah!
Val tensed, clenching her fists, but kept moving.

Marcella’s small phone started buzzing. The housekeeper lifted it to her ear and answered it in a supernally calm voice.

“This is Marcella. No, I am not in the front hall. What do you need done? What?” She sounded shocked. “Should I call the doctor? No, I will be there immediately.” She glanced at Val. “I have not seen Miss McCandles, but I will go up to her room if you require it. Very well.”

She holstered the phone. “Henry. The security room called him.”

Val felt a jolt of panic, remembering how easily he sapped her will.

“Where is he?”

“He said he’s upstairs. He’s on his way down to the front hall.”

“Good,” Mai said. “Let us hurry.”

“Right in here,” Marcella said, guiding them through a pair of stainless-steel swinging doors. She pushed inside. The kitchen, like everything else in the house, was spotless and expensively furnished. Esteban and a few of the other kitchen staff turned away from a long metal table as they entered. The stocky little man set down the knife and the onion in his hands and scooped up a package wrapped in white paper. He ran to meet Val. She braced herself for a fight.

He smiled at her and pushed the parcel into her hands.

“Here is food for your journey. We guess something was up, Miss Valerie. You have been very nice to us. We appreciate. And we say nothing.”

Val took the package and kissed him on the cheek.

“Thank you. I’m going to miss your cooking, Esteban. I’ve never eaten so well in my life.”

“Makes healthy babies,” the small man insisted. “Make strong boys!”

“And girls,” Val said. “Whatever this one turns out to be.”

“Out here,” Marcella said, darting between the metal fixtures toward a block-glass window. Beside it, a painted steel door waited, latched closed with a steel bolt. The housekeeper flung it open.

On the other side stood Mike Burns. Or, rather, George. Val gasped.

He grabbed Val by the wrist. “Come on, Ms. McCandles. I’m taking you home.”

“No!” Val screamed. She fought to plunge her fingertips into his pressure points. He didn’t seem to have any. She pulled back. His grip was stronger than anything she had ever felt. “I don’t want to die!”