I slept fairly well that night. I woke up a few times due to the thunder storm that was blowing outside, which scared the life out of the kids and ended up moving them to our room, but other than that the night was uneventful.
When I woke up the next morning, there wasn't any sun coming in through the window like there usually was and the storm was still in full swing. The kids were huddled against each other in the corner and under all their blankets, the only parts of them that were visible was Helix's tail, Ace's Head and paw and Tyson's tron wing, everything else was hidden. Smiling, I stretched out, staying under the covers as the room was fairly chilly. I rolled onto my side and put my arm around Adelind, pulling her close to me.
If there was one thing I could never get enough of it was the two of us pressed together. Even when I was little we used to cuddle all the time and it hadn't stopped as we got older. Just having my arm around her, having her right there, made me relax in such away that I felt like I could just sink into the area around me. I closed my eyes again. No sooner than I did she rolled over so that the tips of our snouts were touching and I was looking right into her icy blue eyes with flecks of glowing bright silver threaded into them.
"Morning my boy", she said pulling me into a kiss.
"Morning to you too", I said pulling away.
"Is it still storming outside?", she asked.
"Yeah", I said, "it's coming down real hard right..."
I was interrupted when a clasp of thunder that sounded like my 105 exploded above us. The entire barracks rattled, shaking the bed, windows and startling all of the kids awake at once. Even Adelind and I jumped.
"Jeez", Ace said in Draco, the first Draco we'd spoken since this whole ordeal started, "are we being bombed?"
"Sounds like it", Tyson replied, also in Draco.
I let go of Adelind and rolled out of bed, slipping my dog tags over my neck. We walked out into the living room and Adelind turned on the TV while I started heating a cast iron frying pan for pancakes. I grabbed the eggs and milk out of the fridge and got the mix down from the cupboard with a big mixing bowl. I poured the mix into the bowl, added two eggs and the milk. I mixed it until it was a thick paste and then poured it onto the pan. There was a loud crack and sizzling sound and a pleasant, vanilla smelling aroma filled my house. I could hear a few sniffs, a pause and several, quiet muffled voices from the living room. There was the slight sound of hushed breathing coming from just behind the wall. I smiled to myself and set the rubber spatula down. I crept over to the wall and lowered myself to the ground, placing my ear against the wall. I could hear three, distinct heartbeats, as well as smell their fear of discovery. I crawled to the edge of the wall and lay there as a small head poked around the corner, it was Helix, she didn't see me. I reached out and tapped the side of her face, scaring her completely white and making her jump. She must have been on the bottom because I heard the other two fall to the ground.
"Busted", I said laughing.
"Daddy!", Helix whined, "that wasn't funny."
"Yes it was", I said nuzzling her.
"Was not", Helix pouted.
"Yes it was", Ace said from the living room, "I saw the whole thing!"
"Whose side are you on!?", Tyson asked.
Ace shrugged.
"I'll kill you!", Dusk said leaping at Ace. He moved out of the way at the last second and Dusk smacked into the wall. Ace calmly stood and pinned Dusk on his stomach.
"This fight is over", Ace said, "I win."
"I'm not done with you traitor!", Dusk howled.
"Yes", Ace said, "you are. There's a reason I'm the Alpha of the bunch."
I could see Adelind, Tyson and Helix struggling to hold back there laughter just as much as I was. I walked over and picked up Ace by the scruff of his neck. He fought to spin around, but it didn't work.
"What mortal dares to lay a hand on me?", he asked, "put me down this instant!"
"For the third and final time", I said, "Sprites are not allowed in this realm. Be gone!"
"Not before I claim your pancakes for my own realm", Ace said.
"Then you will be put in a sprite jar until they are done", I said setting him down.
Ace sighed, "they creep into the kitchen to steal food and then attack me so I'm the one that gets put in a jar? Not fair!"
I laughed and walked back to the kitchen. I grabbed the spatula and flipped the cake over. The underside was a golden brown all the way around and there was a darker brown spot in the middle where the fire was underneath it. I moved it over a little and added another cake to the pan. The two of them together took about three or four minutes to cook, as did the other fifteen that I made. Seemed like a lot at first, but then I realized that hey, we were dragons. I put the cakes on the plate and carried them to the table, setting them in the middle as everyone gathered around.
"Where are you getting this stuff Dad?", Tyson asked, "it smells really good."
"Emelia gave it to me Tyse", I said, "shortly after we moved in here."
"What are they?", Ace asked sniffing at them.
"Pancakes", I said.
They reached out and each pulled on of the cakes off the server plate and onto their own. Ace took the first bite, then quickly ate the rest of it, so fast I thought he might choke.
"Your going to choke carnivore", I said, "be careful."
"Sorry", Ace said, "it's just SOOOOO good!"
I took a bite of my own. Their soft, chewy villain flavor filled my mouth, getting stuck to my teeth as it always had and judging by the smacking the others were making, they were facing a similar problem.
"It's stuck in my teeth", Adelind said picking her fangs with her claws.
"Mine too", Tyson said.
"Me three", Helix whined.
"Just lick it out", I said, "it's what I always do."
Once they had managed to clean their teeth, they went right back to eating. I was in the middle of my second cake when there was a knock on my door.
"Who could that be?", I asked standing and going to the door.
When I swung it open, Hudson was standing there.
"Nolan wants you Tyro", he said, "something about name data that came back?"
"I'm on my way", I answered.
I walked back into my room and slipped on my uniform. I ran back to the door where Adelind was waiting for me.
"What's going on?", she asked.
"I had Nolan run a few names last night", I said, "remember last night when I told you about Faline?"
"Oh", Adelind said.
"I'll be back soon", I said kissing her.
She kissed me back and I exited my room and walked down to the command tent. Nolan was inside dressed in tan cargo pants, a white shirt and a multi cam jacket. He had a cup of coffee in one hand and a waffle in the other, trying to wake himself up by my guess.
"Nolan", I said.
"Tyro", he replied setting his breakfast aside, "your names came back. Your not gonna believe what I found."
"What you find?", I asked.
"Since they were military tags, I ran the names of every solider that was in from 1960 to 1990", Nolan said, "what I found freaked the hell outta me. Jack Price was drafted into Project Draco at the age of fourteen, with the year of his draft redacted, but I place it, given his age of 55 at death in the year 2027, to have been drafted in 1986, with his birth date in the year 1971. I had the status of him as a dragon, but his face and name like his draft date had been redacted. I managed to get in touch with a insider at the Pentagon who was able to get into the paper files and run a deep ink analysis."
"Deep ink?", I asked.
"When you use ink to redact a document", Nolan said, "there will be slightly more ink over the actual letters. There is a special scanner that can read the ink level, as well as any present dyes and use them to determine the letters, words or images underneath the redacting. What came back....well just see for yourself.
Nolan slid a document in front of me, with Taro's picture on it.
"Turns out that Jack Allen Price was also Taro Ferreth Salanth", Nolan said.
My heart skipped a beat and I felt myself go brain dead. I was literally speechless, unable to find the words to describe the piece of paper in front of me.
"Hanna Silverton was born in '72 and drafted in '86 just like Taro. Her file reads MIA, she was never confirmed dead and her file, as well as Taro's was image redacted and had much of the bios cut clean out, the only thing on the file that we were able to deep ink was the image and..."
Nolan slid the paper in front of me and I found myself staring at a picture of Faline. What could I say? Nothing, I was lost for words.
"Now here's where it gets extremely interesting", Nolan said, "I ran the number of John Eric Andrews, It came back negative. So I tried a later date, through the '90's and still no match. So I tried running everything from 1900 to the '60s with that number and still nothing. Then I started running the year 2000 up till the present."
"And?", I asked.
"I found this", Nolan said handing me a piece of paper. There was barely any of it left, most if it having be cut out rather than ink redacted. There was barely any thing to go off. I had what John weighed and the fact that he was a he, that was it.
"How does this help me?", I asked.
"After this little piece of paper here", Nolan said, "I started snooping around the US governments most highly secured server where they keep many of their most highly classified documents unredacted and I crossed the same file again. There still wasn't a picture, but I was able to confirm a sneaking suspicion."
"Which is?", I asked.
"He was a project Draco recruit and a former member of Talon squad", Nolan said, "I didn't find much before the strongest Anti-Virus I've ever seen locked me out of the server, but I did manage to find that he was a heavy weapons and special operations expert as well as a middle and last name, Zoral Xalanth. I ran a scan of all US servers, looking for any kind of cross reference that I could, and I found this."
Nolan handed me what looked like a log of sorts. It was detailing a CIA stake out of a "Highly suspicious individual" in New York. The interesting thing was that the log was dated to only a few days ago, the 24th of March. The only names that came up were Zoral Xalanth, the word just before them had been omitted completely.
"We ran a very thorough Deep Ink on this", Nolan said, "but the first name of this dragon had been cut out completely. But a second CIA report and a few more PDF files suggested that Andrews is still alive and kicking, maybe even on the hunt for Faline."
"How did you take that away?", I asked.
"Two days ago an HK plant in Germany reported a theft of almost 4,000 rounds of 9mm and 5,750 rounds of .308 caliber ammunition from one of their warehouses", Nolan said, "I was able to get my hands on the security footage and I found this."
Nolan handed me a photo. In it, was a dragon, dressed from snout to tail in jet black body armor and had a 9mm and .308 rifles bolted to his vest. They were simple designs as well, older models with analog controls that were just as effective as their newer, computer controlled counterparts. The dragon was a drake, and only had one eye showing, the other covered by his mask, leading me to suspect it was either gone, or he was blind in it.
"You think this is Andrews?", I asked.
Nolan nodded, "along with this picture, I have images of an old mansion and reports filed by locals of a quote unquote "strange creature" seen in the vicinity. The catch 22 is that the mansion is occupied by a leader of a Russian revolutionary group with strong forces in and around the mansion, even the German Military doesn't want to move on the place. I also checked into the leader of the group. I found a name, Kireyev Vladimir Valeryevich and he has a huge bounty on his head, in our money it translates to 5.5 billion dollars. I suspect that Andrews is on the hunt for the man, with his background it certainly seems he's capable of it."
"Should I go after him?", I asked, "he could be a valuable asset to the Resistance, and if the sheer amount of censoring on his file is any indication, then I want him."
"Then you'll need a small team", Nolan said, "three at the most, including you."
"Then Hudson and Sozenn are my catch all", I said, "call Greyson and tell him to get a 22 ready for us. Tell Hudson and Sozenn to bring suppressed weapons, three packs of C4, two parachutes and five smoke serenades.
Nolan nodded and handed me a map of the castle as I left the command tent. I walked back to the barracks and entered my room, grabbing my vest.
"Nolan have a mission for you?", Adelind asked coming to my side.
"Sort of", I answered, "Nolan has what he thinks is the location of one of Faline's old friends, were going to try and find him. Keep and eye on the others for me will you?"
"Your not all going?", Adelind asked.
"Nope", I answered, "just me, Hudson and Sozenn."
She nodded. We kissed each other goodbye and then I made haste for the armory. Since we were undoubtedly facing a stealth op, I needed to switch weapons. When I made it down, I entered and found the armory master reading.
"Major Serelath", he answered, "what can I do you for?"
"Suppressed 20mm LRR with thermal optics", I answered, "analog firing controls if you have them. Five smoke grenades, three packs of C4, two parachutes and rappelling equipment."
"That's a lot of gear", the master said, "what you planing on doing?"
"Finding someone."
The master shrugged and gave me what I needed. I grabbed my vest and made haste for the landing pad. Sozenn and Hudson were already there, dressed in a full load, sporting suppressed weapons and ready to go. Greyson was spinning up the 22 and it was throwing clods of mud and dirty water everywhere.
"Mind telling us why were here brother?", Sozenn asked.
"Were going on a hunt for an old Talon member", I answered as we climbed into the chopper.
"Where we going?", Hudson asked.
"Nurburgring, Germany", I answered, "there's an old castle there playing host to a Russian revolutionary leader with a multi billion dollar bounty on his head. Nolan thinks Andrews might turn up there."
"Sounds like an easy hunt", Sozenn said.
"We'll see once we get there", I answered, "once were over the AO, we'll make HALO jumps in and once we set up a safe area, we'll figure out what to do next. Get some rest, next stop, Germany."