Steel Dragon 4 by Kevin McLaughlin & Michael Anderle

Author:Kevin McLaughlin & Michael Anderle [McLaughlin, Kevin & Anderle, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Urban Fantasy
ISBN: 9781642029468
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2020-05-29T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifty

Larry had long since learned to appreciate the perks of a private jet. He loved the legroom, the full bar, and the real food, but he didn’t think he’d ever appreciated how much easier it was to pace on a private jet than a commercial airliner.

“Are you trying to wear a hole in the carpet there, boss?” Butters asked, his tone light.

The mage swept a glare at him and was ready to snap something about the Steel Dragon’s life being on the line. When he saw the man’s eyes, though, he could see the rotund sniper was as concerned as he was.

“I have some gasoline so we might as well simply burn a hole,” Hernandez quipped. Although she was joking, he could hear the concern in the normally blustery demolitions expert as well.

“Is this the gallows humor Lady Steel told us about?” Heartsbane asked. She did not seem even mildly amused. “Because it’s not funny.”

“Nah, that’s not gallows humor,” Keith said and a devilish grin crept across his face. “It would be like joking that she isn’t picking up because she’s probably already fought the North American Council to a standstill and is installing herself as god-empress.”

“That’s not gallows humor!” Hernandez protested. “That sounds like a good thing to me. Gallows humor would be to joke about how Kristen is probably dead and being melted into swords right now.”

“Oh, come on!” Butters protested. “That’s taking it too far. She’s not dead. It’s more like she’s found another cell of technomages and has already recruited them to our side by eating their leader.”

Larry was about ready to unload on the group of ingrates when his phone rang. He glanced at the screen and confirmed that Brian was calling. As he moved to the back of the plane to have privacy for the call, he wondered if this was how Windlock had felt when he talked so much. It was one thing he had not expected about being a leader. When he’d been the underling, it had seemed fine to say whatever he thought because, at the end of the day, Windlock would either tell him to shut up or take responsibility for whatever gaffes he made. Now that he was a leader—if only for this mission—he realized he had to be much more controlled about what he said.

He'd have to talk to the team later but right now, he hoped the techie had good news. Or, better yet, that Kristen was on the line so she could reprimand her old team for making the dragons uncomfortable.

He answered the call.

“About time! That was, like, nine rings. Why are you wasting my time?”

“Why are you wasting mine?” he retorted. “What’s going on with the boss?”

“Well…I have okay news but it’s also bad news.”

“Just get to it!”

“All right, here’s what I’ve found so far. There are all kinds of pictures up on social media of Kristen at the welcome building at Mammoth Cave National Park.”

“That makes sense. It’s where the Dragon Council told her to go.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.