The Case of the Vanished Sea Dragon by Gareth P. Jones

Author:Gareth P. Jones [Jones, Gareth P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2012-12-03T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

On a list of all the places in the world a Mountain Dragon is safe, a densely populated capital human city in the south-east of Britain wouldn’t rate highly, and yet safe was exactly how Dirk always felt in London. It was his home, his patch. These rooftops were his playground.

‘I still do not understand why we are coming back to this noisy humano nest?’ said Alba.

‘You don’t need to understand,’ said Dirk, landing on an old-fashioned red-brick library at a busy crossroads. ‘You need to keep quiet and stay close.’

He stood on his hind legs and worked out the best route. The lights changed and he leapt across the road, stopping on the roof of some flats above a row of shops. He looked back at Alba. She stared nervously down at a mother and two children coming out of the library, all clutching books to their chests.

‘Come on,’ mouthed Dirk.

Alba closed her eyes and made the jump, flying over the road, landing with a loud THUD on the roof.

‘Frank, did you hear that? It sounded like something just landed on the roof,’ shouted a woman’s voice.

‘It’s probably those blasted squirrels,’ another responded. ‘I’ll get the broom.’

Dirk grabbed Alba by the scruff of her neck, pressing his nose against hers.

‘Will you be careful,’ he whispered angrily. ‘Keep your eyes open at all times. Use your wings to land gently. The roofs are your friends. Use them for cover. Now, come on.’

Dirk ran along the rooftops. He knew that Alba and London didn’t mix well but he had no way of shaking her off and he needed to look at that book. He had no idea how, but the late Ivor Klingerflim had collected a lot of information and he hoped there was something in Dragonlore that would help him find a Sky Dragon and solve this case.

Dirk paused on a rooftop by a grassy roundabout near a row of shops. He looked down at the shoppers in the high street. Humans’ love of shopping had always fascinated him. As far as Dirk could see shopping was a kind of hobby, and yet, looking down at the people trudging from store to store, they didn’t appear to be enjoying themselves much. Big droplets of rain began to fall and the already disgruntled shoppers groaned and put up umbrellas.

The rain gave Dirk and Alba enough cover to move more quickly across the city. It wasn’t long before they were soaring through Dirk’s open office window.

Inside, Dirk pushed the window shut and picked up the remote control, out of habit pointing it at the TV, before remembering that Alba had smashed it.

‘What does it do, this lights and noises box of yours?’ asked Alba.

‘It was a television,’ replied Dirk pointedly. ‘And before you broke it, it told me what was going on in the world,’ he said, even though he spent much more time watching old detective films and reruns of cop shows than news programmes or serious documentaries.

Looking around the room he realised that Mrs Klingerflim had tidied up.

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