The room beside Garret’s, where Riley and Wes shared a bunk, was empty. So I headed to the one other place they would be, the “command room” at the other end of the tube.
Like everything in this underground facility, the command room had low ceilings, concrete walls and just enough room to move around. A square table sat in the middle of the floor, with maps and files and other documents scattered over it, and a desk with an old computer was shoved into the corner with a couple shelves. Amazingly, Wes had been able to get power running to this place. The opposite corner held a very old, yet working, television, and it was on at the moment, an overly cheerful weather reporter announcing that we were in for a soggy weekend.
As I walked into the room, I blinked in shock. Wes, unsurprisingly, sat at the computer, both his laptop and the other screen open and active. Riley stood at one end of the table with both hands on the surface, gazing down at the map spread out beneath him. He was dressed in black—black jeans, boots and shirt—and his dark hair was unkempt. I felt a stirring of heat inside me, my dragon coming to life as she always did when he was around.
But it was the third person in the room that caught my attention. She stood on the other side of the table, arms crossed, straight black hair falling to the center of her back.
“Jade?”
The slight Chinese woman, in reality a forty-foot-long Adult Eastern dragon, turned and gave me a faint smile as I stepped into the room. “Hello, Ember,” she greeted me. “It’s good to see you again. From what Riley has told me, I was expecting not to catch a glimpse of you for days.”
“What are you doing here?”
One slender eyebrow arched. “I said I would return, did I not? When I made certain the monks were safe and had found a new temple, I promised to come back. And there is still a war to be fought.” She lifted her hands slightly. “So, here I am. Though it seems I have come at a, if not bad, rather uncertain time.”
“Ember.” Riley rose quickly, his gold gaze meeting mine across the table. For a moment, his expression was apprehensive; I hadn’t voluntarily left Garret’s room since the day we’d arrived. There were only two reasons I would leave it now. “St. George?” he asked cautiously.
“He’s awake,” I said, making him slump, but whether it was in relief or disappointment, I wasn’t sure. “The fever has broken—he was talking to me a few minutes ago. I think he’s going to be okay.”
“Well, that’s something at least.” Riley raked back his hair. “Nice to get some not horrible news for a change. If the bastard gets back on his feet soon, I could use his perspective on what the hell is going on out there with the Order.”
Mention of the Order brought the current situation rushing back. I’d been so distracted by Garret, I’d nearly forgotten about it, but now it rose up again, looming and ominous. “Why?” I asked, stepping to the edge of the table. What had I missed? “What’s going on? What’s the Order been doing?”
He shot me a frustrated look. “Nothing,” he growled, making me frown. “Not a damn thing. We haven’t heard a peep from them since we left Salt Lake City. There’ve been no raids, no strikes, no activity at all. The Order has gone completely AWOL.”
“I’m confused,” I said, cocking my head. “Isn’t that a good thing? We exposed the Patriarch to the rest of St. George, and Talon’s hold on them is broken. They’re not going after your safe houses anymore.”
“Not right now.” Riley crossed his arms. “But it’s still too quiet. I don’t trust this complete lack of response—it’s not like them at all. This is probably the calm before the shitstorm.”
“The Order is not the one we should be worrying about,” Jade insisted, as if I hadn’t said anything.
“So you keep telling me,” Riley said, glaring at the Eastern dragon. “But I don’t know what you expect me to do against Talon. If the organization is up to something, all the more reason to keep off their radar. We hide deep, and we hide hard. That’s the only way we’re going to survive.”
“It is not a plan to simply hide and do nothing.”
“I’m sorry—this from one of the Eastern dragons who, for hundreds of years, have done nothing but sit on their scaly butts in isolated temples while the rest of us fought the war?”
While they were talking, the news story changed to show a young reporter standing on a narrow stretch of pavement that snaked into a forest. A pair of orange and white barricades blocked the road behind her, warning lights flashing in the gray drizzle. “Authorities are still struggling to discover the reason behind the accident that caused a cargo plane full of fuel to crash into a small Arkansas town last week,” the woman was saying. “As you can see, the road to the town has been blocked, and authorities have closed off the area. Rescue crews are on the scene now and have been combing through the rubble nonstop, but so far no survivors have been found.”
“When did that happen?” I asked.
Riley gave the television a cursory glance. “Couple days ago,” he said in a brusque voice. “Apparently, a plane full of jet fuel took a nosedive into some hillbilly community in the mountains. Caused a spectacular explosion and wiped out the whole town, according to the news. It’s been on every station for days.” He shrugged. “Tragic, but not something we need to worry about.”
“Correct,” agreed Jade. “We should be worrying about Talon and what their plans are, now that the Order has been disrupted.”
“And what is it you think we can actually do against the organization?” Riley said, turning back to her. “For that matter, what makes you think Talon is up to anything at all?”
While they were arguing, I turned my attention to the TV. The scene had changed from a map of the United States to what looked like a news conference, with a man behind a podium speaking to a handful of reporters and flashing cameras. After a moment, he stepped down, and a woman took his place behind the podium. She was tall and attractive, with jet-black hair and striking blue eyes, and for some reason, my instincts prickled when I saw her.
“Oh, bloody hell,” Wes breathed from the corner.
Riley and Jade didn’t hear him, or the quiet horror in his voice. Puzzled, I turned, but he wasn’t looking at any of us, his attention riveted to the television in the corner. “Shit,” Wes swore again and glanced at Riley, still in a heated argument with Jade. “Riley, bloody shut up for a second. Look! Look who it is.”
Riley craned his neck toward the TV, and his eyebrows shot up. “Miranda?” he exclaimed. “What the hell? Why is she there...?” His eyes narrowed, jaw tightening as he shook his head. “Dammit,” he growled.
“What?” I asked. “What’s going on? Who’s Miranda?”
Riley swore again. “She an agent with the NTSB—the National Transportation Safety Board,” he answered. “They’re a federal agency that’s called in to investigate aviation accidents across the US.” He sighed, his gaze sharpening. “She’s also a Chameleon, and one of Talon’s best. Which means...”
“That whole story is a bloody cover-up,” Wes muttered darkly. “If Talon sent a Chameleon herself to the site, they’re neck-deep in whatever is going on down there.”
Jade’s cool gaze held Riley’s across the table, and there was a warning in those dark eyes. “Talon is on the move,” she said in an ominous tone. “How long can we remain ignorant? How long can we hide while they put their plans into motion, unopposed?”
“As long as it takes,” Riley growled back. “Breaking up the Order is one thing. Saving hatchlings from the organization is another. Dragons who go head-to-head with Talon die, that’s all there is to