Soul of the Dragon (5 page)

“Well, today I’m going to Dragonsoul Enterprises.”
 

“
Whaaaaat
!”
 

The dragon’s roar filled the hangar, shaking the loft as he reared back and glared at her. “You cannot! I forbid it!”
 

Alexa just shook her head. It had been years since anyone besides her boss had told her what to do. “I need to get the lay of the land, Cyrgyn. He’s not likely to even be there, and there’s no way I’ll get in without an appointment, anyway.”
 

The dragon’s volume didn’t diminish. “You would walk into the arms of the enemy? Have you no consideration for what we have suffered?”
 

“For what
you’ve
suffered,” she shot back and felt a pang of regret as soon as she said it. “Cyrgyn, I don’t remember any of it. Alexa Ranger hasn’t suffered.” She set her glass in the sink and moved closer to the rail. Smoke drifted from Cyrgyn’s snout as he glared at her.
 

“You are reckless, Alexa. You have no care. And you will render the curse complete with your death.” Sadness replaced the anger and fear in his eyes. “Perhaps you have no care for yourself. Perhaps you do not fear death. But should you approach the mage and fail, I shall not only be consigned to an eternity in an unnatural form, I will mourn your loss for all time.”
 

The pang of regret grew. She had less at stake than her friend did, and her attitude was causing him pain.
 

“I didn’t mean to seem careless.” She placed her hands on either side of his jaw and tilted his head so she looked directly at one eye. “I will not fail.”
 

“You cannot know.”
 

She didn’t know how to convince him, this creature from a different time. She could only repeat, “I will not fail.”
 

* * *
 

Cyrgyn listened as Alexa relayed the information she’d gathered. She explained every little modern term until he interrupted her.
 

“Alexa, I do not remain in the middle ages. I understand modern culture.” Alexa grinned at him, but when she said, “Okay, what’s a P and E ratio?” and he told her, she gave in and recited what she knew.
 

“This is what I do,” she told him at the end. “I’m not going in blind, nor am I just waltzing in to confront him.”
 

Cyrgyn watched Alexa race off on the motorcycle a short time later. He could not deny her capability. But she was so assured of their success, though she knew so little. He didn’t discount the information she had gathered, but she didn’t
know
Tarsuinn, hadn’t watched his character develop over three lifetimes.
 

Cyrgyn had known when Tarsuinn was born again, just as he had known when Alexa returned. He had followed the boy’s development until his early teens, when he disappeared and Cyrgyn could not pinpoint his location. He had shown signs as a child, however, of the magic that gave him power in his first life. He suspected Tarsuinn had been as aware of the dragon as the dragon had been of him, and had learned to cloak his own presence. If he had harnessed the magic, learned how to use it, he was as dangerous as ever.
 

* * *
 

Alexa parked on the street half a block away from the headquarters of Dragonsoul Enterprises. Luckily, the main building was inside city limits and near public roads. Things would have been much more difficult if Tars had built in the suburbs with acres of empty land around his fortified building.
 

She approached the front door with a confident stride and went straight to the front desk. She smiled at the guard, who sported a nametag that said “Charlie,” and scrawled a name in the book.
 

“Who shall I ring?” The grey-haired man had the phone in his hand and a finger poised to dial. Alexa waved him off.
 

“I have to make a pit stop first.” She ran a hand over her windblown hair. “It wouldn’t do for me to go upstairs like this, would it?” She didn’t wait for a response before heading for the ladies’ room. She pushed through the door, waited a beat, then peeked back out. The guard was busy with another visitor who, to Alexa’s advantage, didn’t know where he was going. Alexa waited ten more seconds until Charlie turned to get something from under the counter. Then she strode to the stairwell next to the elevators and disappeared inside.
 

Piece of cake.
 

* * *
 

Tars Suinn was deeply involved in an international conference call when something like an electric shock hit him at the base of his skull.
 

She was here.
 

He disconnected from the call and spun his chair to the console behind him, flipping through security images until he found her. A moment later Mark Heiling, his assistant, entered the office. The man saw the look of intensity on his boss’s face and waited in silence.
 

Tars ignored him. His eyes never leaving the screen, he moved only his right arm, reaching forward to tap the button that would change his view from the lobby to the stairwell.
 

The woman had easily and cleverly penetrated his outer shell. Tars would have expected nothing less from his Alexa, even if he hadn’t made it fairly easy for her. Nor was he surprised at
her appearance. The black leather jacket over a silk tank top and flared pants were chosen by the feisty wench he’d fallen in love with so many centuries ago.
 

Tars watched, amused, as Alexa systematically scoped out the building’s layout, floor by floor. He watched her note the location of ventilation shafts and hoped she wouldn’t use them. It was so… common.
 

Mark apparently sensed the lightening of his mood and dared to ask, “Who is she?”
 

Tars took his time answering. “My destiny.”
 

* * *
 

Alexa explored seven of the ten floors of Dragonsoul Enterprises. The building reflected Tars Suinn’s historical background and the “top down” structure typical of most large corporations. The bottom two floors were the “unimportant” staff—clerical and accounting clerks, technical support, maintenance and IT. Two floors were dedicated to in-house printing and marketing departments. Three floors housed liaison staff representing Dragonsoul’s major subsidiaries. Nothing was laid out in an unexpected manner, and Alexa didn’t detect any “hidden” sections.
 

Her travels went unchallenged in those first seven floors. She knew it would be harder the higher she went. She doubted she’d get onto the executive floor, or the top floor, obviously the bastion of The Man himself. Floor eight was human resources, with its confidential files and managers with a false sense of power, and Alexa figured it would be the end of the line. Still, she mapped half the floor before she was approached.
 

“May I help you?” The woman’s utter politeness made Alexa think of a fifties-era socialite housewife. She wore a pink Chanel suit á la Jackie Kennedy, and her hair was plastered into a high French twist. She eyed Alexa’s biking boots and leather jacket with barely masked distaste. “Are you here for an interview?” She even had a strong Georgia accent.
 

“Ah sure am.” Alexa registered the woman’s surprise at her voice. She didn’t look like a Georgia peach. But Alexa’s specialty—one of many—was accents.
 

The woman smiled and led her into a small, bare office clearly kept for interviews. “Ah’m Jolie Smith, the Assistant Director of Human Relations. You are?”
 

“Anell Breathwater.”
 

“Of course.” The woman motioned to a chair and sat behind the desk, looking for all the world as if she’d been expecting Alexa/Anell. “I’m afraid I don’t have your résumé handy. Can you refresh mah memory?”
 

“Oh, ah’m certain it’s my pleasure.” Alexa rattled off an on-the-spot work and social history in Atlanta.
 

“I’m from Atlanta!” Ms. Smith declared, touching her fingertips to her chest.
 

Alexa smiled self-deprecatingly. “I’m sure we didn’t sail in the same circles.”
 

“Well, Atlanta is such a large city,” Jolie agreed. “Do go on.”
 

They spent quite a pleasant half hour discussing Alexa’s “qualifications” and her potential role in the company administration. Alexa probed for Dragonsoul’s inner workings via standard interview questions and managed to pick up a few tidbits.
 

“I’ve read so much about Mr. Suinn,” she said at one point. “What kind of a boss is he?”
 

Jolie glowed. “Mr. Suinn is extremely generous. He knows every employee here bah name, as well as what they do and how well they do it. If you go the extra mile, you’ll be rewarded handsomely.”
 

“And if you screw up?”
 

Jolie’s brow furrowed and Alexa realized the phraseology was out of character. “Mistakes are dealt with, and solutions found in a manner that best fits the company’s and the employee’s needs.”
 

Ambiguous enough, Alexa thought. Probably masking a swift retaliation program. She let Jolie wrap up the interview and declined a tour.
 

“I’m a bit overwhelmed,” she claimed, thickening the accent and drooping a little. “I need to process what I’ve learned today.” More like, she needed to get out of there before she pushed her luck too far.
 

“Of course. And there will be a second interview, so when we call you back we can do the tour then.”
 

“Who will conduct the second interview?”
 

“Some members of management, including Mr. Suinn if he is in town. He does like to be involved in every aspect of operations,” Jolie confided.
 

Alexa smiled vaguely and followed the woman back to the main area. “I’m not certain which phone number I put on my résumé. I’ve sent out so many.” She fluttered her eyelashes. “Could you look for me? I would absolutely
detest
missing your call because I didn’t update your file!”
 

“Just one moment.”
 

Alexa waited ten minutes while the woman looked for non-existent paperwork. Finally, so flustered a strand of hair had come loose from her twist, she asked Alexa to complete another application.
 

“I swahr I don’t know what could have happened to that file!” Jolie fiddled with her pearls. “Do you have another résumé with you?”
 

Alexa looked up from her clipboard. “I’m afraid I ran out and didn’t realize it until this morning. I can send you one.”
 

“Please. I’m very sorry for the inconvenience.”
 

Alexa handed over the application and smiled sweetly. “It’s no trouble. Thank you.”
 

“No, thank
you
.”
 

Alexa whistled her way back downstairs. She’d skip the executive floors this time around. She had no doubt that if Tars Suinn was here, he had followed her progress through the building and was possibly getting a good chuckle out of her impromptu interview. Every action would be on tape, including her real foray into a fourth floor ladies’ room. It didn’t matter. Alexa would go home and map the parts of the building she’d seen, then manufacture a résumé to send to Jolie Smith, Assistant Director of Human Relations. She could even provide references. Anell Breathwater was one of Alexa’s GenCom aliases, and the numbers she’d supplied would ring to voice mail. Someone would call back with a positive reference, no questions asked.
 

When she emerged from the stairwell, Alexa was cocky enough to tilt down her sunglasses, wink at the single visible camera in the lobby, then blow a kiss toward one of the not-so-visible ones. She sensed when Tars was no longer watching her.
 

And also sensed when another pair of eyes picked up the surveillance outside the building.
 

* * *
 

When Alexa wheeled into the hangar, Cyrgyn was moving restlessly back and forth. If
he’d had room, he’d be pacing.
 

She turned off the bike and dismounted, then strode to the door to close it. She heard a low growl and chuckled quietly.
 

“Alexa, stop torturing me. What happened?”
 

She moved to his end of the hangar and dropped into an upholstered chair. “Pretty basic layout. I got in easily. Probably too easily. I’m sure Tarsuinn was watching me the whole time.”
 

The growl got louder.
 

“It’s okay. I never saw him. In fact, I lucked out.” She told him about her interview. “They’ll call me back for a second meeting and I’ll get into the inner sanctum. Invited, no less.”
 

“Why is that luck?”
 

“Because I can get near Tarsuinn with other people around. I don’t have to break the law to get to the upper floors. It’s more information gathering.”
 

Cyrgyn’s wings unfurled a bit. “I still do not like it. It is risky.”
 

Alexa puffed her frustration. “Cyrgyn, this whole deal is risky. We can’t succeed without risk. You know that.”
 

“Yes, I know.” He visibly relaxed and settled to the floor. “I am feeling more desperate this time, Alexa. I am less inclined to place you in a vulnerable situation. I hold hope with a very slippery talon.” He sighed, and Alexa caught the scent of smoke. He was still burning.
 

“In our first life, we feared too much,” he said. “We did not act. Indeed, we did not truly feel we
could
act. But we hoped in the next life we would be able to reverse the curse.
 

“Then it took two hundred and fifty years for your rebirth. Hope had dimmed, and I rushed your training. I pushed you to attack, to find Tarsuinn and try to force him to reverse the curse.”