A Dragon's Tale #Watty's2015

A Matter Of Taste

"There are tanks down there", Sozenn said over the radio, "think Andrews made it out?"

"Hope so", I answered.

Quiet fell over us as we flew to a large rock stack that was hosting blue flares and Greyson's V22. We touched down, shook the water off our clothes and then stepped inside as Greyson began to spin up the engines. I shrugged off my vest and opened my jacket as Hudson took off the wing suit, going to sit in the Co-Pilot seat while Sozenn stripped down to bare chest before laying down.

"That was probably the easiest and...weirdest mission I've ever done", Sozenn said.

"Yeah it was pretty strange", I answered stretching out, "only questions I have now is how on Earth did he know about Lung when we didn't even know we existed?"

"Didn't he say he was a member of Talon?", Hudson asked, "maybe he and Faline have been talking?"

"Doesn't seem likely", Sozenn answered, "remember he thought she was dead."

"Or knew she wasn't and put on a face", I said, "remember he said he "did his homework and figured we were Raven when I handed him the tags."

"Only way he would know that was if...", Hudson said, "well holy shit."

"What?", Sozenn asked.

"Way back when Raven and Talon went together on Operation Sand Viper", Hudson said, "now that I think about it. Taro handed me a set of tags and told me that it was a contingency if we got separated. But now that I think about it I realize that there was no way he was talking about that mission, he was speaking of a long term plan. He knew something back then that he never told anyone and took to his grave."

"But still", I asked, "how'd he know who we were?"

"Recognized me I guess", Hudson said, "the fact that I had my mask off may have helped him with that."

"That answers that. But what about whatever it is....", Sozenn hesitated, trying to avoid using Taro in the past tense, "was? Andrews must have known what it was. He said he knew all about Wei's little betrayal."

"As if it were little", I said, "a little betrayal is when your friends promise to take you to the track to watch a 1,600 horsepower Camaro on drag slicks and backs out at the last minute."

"Let it go!", Hudson said, "that was 40 years ago and I told you my Mom was sick!"

"Right", I answered, still not buying into that story, "still though, I don't see how he could possibly have known about any of this."

"There's something going on in the background", Hudson said, "it's like those programs on Windows 13 that run in the back ground that you can never shut off."

"No kidding", Sozenn said, "what I wanna know is how do we tell Shadow, "hey, we wanna use you as bait to lure Lung Wei out of hiding, which may get you killed in the process."

"I have no idea", I answered, "but we'll figure something out. By the way Sozenn, did Andrews...did he seem familiar to you?"

"I dunno", he answered, "why?"

"I don't know", I said, "his scent seemed familiar, so much that I can't get it out of my head."

"Now that I think about it", Sozenn answered, "it does seem like I knew him, from years ago sure, but the memory is there. Could Andrews really be....Firedrake? It smelled so much like him."

Firedrake was an old friend of my Dad's who used to hang out with Taro, Hunter and Faline on the preserve on their time away from Draco. Firedrake had taught us how to do some really fun stuff when Hunter, Taro and our parents weren't drilling leadership and warrior skills into us. He had stopped coming to the preserve when I was 14 and I later learned from overhearing my parents talking that he'd died in a nuclear blast. Hearing it had wrecked me and I still cry when I think about it every now and again.

"It may have been his brother or something", I answered, "Firedrake died in a nuclear blast when I 14. You remember me telling you that right?"

Sozenn sighed, "yeah, now I do. Might have been his brother."

"Not possible Sargent", Greyson answered, "I may be an old man, but I flew enough missions for Talon to tell you that Firedrake's brother was too small to be a combat soldier, he was like the size of a fully grown cat."

"So if it wasn't Firedrake or his brother", Sozenn said, "then who the hell was it?"

"No idea", I answered through a sigh. This looked like it ran deeper than anyone ever could have thought. How deep? There's no end in sight. There had to be something someone somewhere had on Lung. I needed more than advice on how to set a trap. I needed to get inside Lungs head, I needed to know how he thought.

"I can't figure out Lung without getting inside his head", I said, "there has to be something, some Draco Dragon somewhere that knows how he thinks. Greyson, can you get Nolan on the line for me?"

Greyson nodded and started messing with dials on the dash broad and soon I had Nolan on a video chat in the back of the 22. He was in bed with his wife and looked like we had woken him up.

"It's three in the morning here Major", Nolan said, "your my friend and all, but I hope you have a good fucking reason for waking me up so damn early."

"I wouldn't call it good", I said, "we found Andrews at the Russian castle, but he brought up more questions than he answered."

"What questions?", Nolan asked.

"For one, it looks like Project Draco goes deeper than we ever could have thought", I answered, "Andrews kind of implied that Taro knew something long before the Draco Commanders started killing off dragons and Hudson out right confirmed it. He knew we were coming long before we even got there and was waiting for us. Andrews also told me that he "did his homework" and knew all about Lung's betrayal and he knew that we were Raven squad, apparently from working with us during my absence, so I'm assuming that he recognized Hudson."

"Is this true Hudson?", Nolan asked sitting up in bed.

"Yeah", Hudson said, "about the only thing we know to be true right now."

"So what?", Nolan asked, "is this what you called me for?"

"Not quite", I said, "I need something done, I need inside Lung's head."

"Well let me ask him to come to Romeo and tell you how he thinks", Nolan said, obviously not in the mood to put up with me right now.

"I want you to run Lung's name through the Draco Networks", I said, "when it comes up, I want the names of every dragon from his combat team and every dragon and dragoness on that team for the duration of Lung's time as an operative on that team."

"Well let me pull those out of the crack of my ass", Nolan said, "which team do you want? He could have been on five or six different teams."

"I want the one he was in from the beginning", I answered, "I want names, all their mission files, what they were proficient in, I want everything as soon as you can get it."

Nolan yawned, "I'll do what I can once morning rolls around. I probably won't be outta bed till at least ten because I was just putting down when you called, so don't expect anything soon."

I nodded, "see you soon Nolan."

Nolan nodded and killed the video feed. I looked away from the screen, placed my head between my paws and closed my eyes.