Page 28 of Escaping my Dragon

“He had them killed?”

“No. By all accounts, the family is alive, just moved to an undisclosed location,” Gus explained.

I tapped my lower lip as I paced. “Where else is he in trouble?”

“China, for trespassing on Laojun Mountain. It’s forbidden to foreigners. In Hawaii, some locals claim he hired them to steal and smuggle a lizard. In Australia he’s accused of a hit and run and unauthorized departure of a private jet.”

A wide range of crimes that didn’t seem to have any kind of link. “Is he actually a doctor of seismology?”

“Not even close,” Gus scoffed. “He’s a cryptozoologist.”

“A what?” Noah exclaimed.

Unlike the captain, I knew the word. “A person who studies supposedly mythical animals. Think unicorns, or satyrs.”

“How can you study something that isn’t real?” asked the puzzled Noah.

“That’s been his life’s work,” Gus answered, his voice slightly choppy as the connection tried to drop. “He was laughed out of the science community because of his insistence dragons existed.”

“Dragons?” Noah snorted, but I didn’t laugh. Couldn’t with the dream suddenly flashing inside my mind.

“Why the obsession with dragons in particular?” was my next query.

“Dr. Malone claimed to have found the remains of one in a cave. He brought some of the bones in for analysis. However, testing proved inconclusive due to DNA degradation along with contaminants.”

“What about the comparison of the skeletal structure to other documented species?”

“They couldn’t find a match, but paleontologists said he most likely discovered a dinosaur.”

“Dinosaurs do resemble dragons in many respects,” I murmured.

“Anyhow, this Malone character ended up dropping mostly out of sight, and I’ve yet to find out what he was doing during those missing years.”

“Other than committing crimes in other countries.”

“Do you want me to keep digging?” Gus offered.

“Yes. Also, email me everything you’ve found so far.”

“Will do.”

Gus hung up and I turned to face the captain. “Do you think he was here looking for a dragon?”

“I guess it’s possible but seems odd since that’s the one rumor that isn’t floating around about Antarctica.”

“And it doesn’t explain why he’d steal a chopper only to kamikaze into a volcano, either.”

The captain stood, his height dwarfing mine. “Speaking of which, it occurs to me I should check the rest of our helicopters.”

“For what?”

“Sabotage,” his grim reply.

“You think he did something to them?”

“It’s possible he might have to ensure no one could follow him.”

“I imagine that will take you several hours.” I glanced at my wrist for the time. Early afternoon. “Shall we meet for dinner?”