Weekend Write-In Book 3

Discovery: Business Ideas

Prompt: Kind                

"Mark!" Gabriel shouted, "Snap out of it!"

Mark, clearly in shock, was muttering to himself balled up on the floor of the airport. Yelling and shaking him weren't working so Gabriel slapped him across the face.

Mark focused on Gabriel with wide eyes, "D... d... d... Dragon."

"Dragon?" Gabriel repeated not sure if he'd heard him correctly. Mark went back into his stupor and left Gabriel to think things over.

The EMT's showed up, pushing Gabriel aside, and were assessing Mark when his business partner walked up.

"Craig Colbeen is on the phone asking if Mark got back ok," Carla said, peering at the man on the floor. Gabriel took the phone from her and walked away from the commotion.

"What did you do to Mark? He's stuttering about a dragon and won't leave the airport," he asked.

The phone line was staticky, but Craig's voice came through, "I showed him the creature I tried telling you about. He believes me now."

"So, you think scaring the wits out of my assessor is going to make me believe there's a dragon that's waking up in the arctic?" Gabriel asked.

"Do you really think I could scare someone that bad with nothing but snow and ice?" Craig asked sarcastically.

Gabriel thought, "With Mark, possibly," but didn't voice his opinion. If this were true, and if it were alive, it could either prove to be a wealthy discovery or the death of civilization. "I guess it all depends on how easy they are to kill," he thought.

"Craig, how many of these 'things' are down there?"

"Just the one that I know of. Doesn't mean there aren't more just under the ice," he replied.

"I'll give you seventy-two hours to pack up your equipment and move to Site C. We'll take care of it," Gabriel said then hung up before Craig could protest.

Mark was being wheeled out on a gurney as Gabriel handed the phone back to Carla, "Send an Apache down to Site B and break it out of the ice."

"So, you believe it's a dragon?" she asked skeptically, not even questioning setting it free. The implications for business had already crossed her mind.

"Whatever kind of creature is down there scared the hell out of Mark," Gabriel said not really answering her question, "It's probably dangerous and having a winged death machine flying around could cause a serious boom in weapon sales."

"If I remember right there's a ship near the Falkland Islands heading to South Africa that has a few Apache helicopters on it," Carla noted, "It could make it to sight B in twenty-four hours if we redirected now."

Gabriel was nodding along, thinking about the business deal they'd made millions on, "Let's make Antarctica the priority."

Carla was walking with Gabriel, her phone in her hand ready to call the ship, when a thought struck her, "What about Craig?"

"He's probably already gone," Gabriel admitted, not caring if it was true or not.