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Chapter 8

Jamie opened his eyes when he heard the metallic sound of something like a cargo container door closing and locking. He then found out that he was indeed inside a cargo container, the crenellated walls of thinly painted steel were a complete give away. He was strapped to a chair facing away from door, and there was a florescent tube light attached to the top the the container, providing the harsh, bright light source. He was wondering what the hell was going on and why had they shot him...Was it the company? It must have been; they were talking about how he was changing. 'Am I changing?' he asked himself. He didn't know much about DNA, but enough that it was what made him, him. If it was changing, that was bad wasn't it? Alida had said that he would change back, but if that was right he might be turning into a dragon for sure. He tried continuously to work his bindings free, but they were tied to tight for him to get any leverage; but he kept trying fruitlessly anyway.

It felt like days later, but it must of only been a couple of hours. He heard the lock on the container unlatch and the door open; he didn't bother to pretended to be unconscious as that would get him nowhere. The person was stood just inside the door, he could fell the stare. He turned his head around to try and get a better look, but he knew they were staring directly at him.

"What do you want with me?" He asked the unknown person. No answer came, the person just stood there. "Why have you captured me? WHAT DO YOU WANT!?" He shouted at the end. It was frustrating, they had just left him here for hours and now they weren't telling him anything. There was a pause for a minute before the man answered.

"Answers."

"To what?"

"To what you are," he softly spoke after a short pause.

"To what I am? What are you talking about?" he said hesitantly, but he thought he knew the answer already. Did they know he was turning into a dragon?. The man completely changed then from the man that was asking questions and staying in the shadows, to a matter of fact tone. He walked around Jamie then and revealed himself to the bound boy or the first time.

He was an older man maybe late forties early fifties, he had short hair that was starting to go grey, he wore a pin stripped black suit, with a grey tie. It was pressed practically to perfection is if a single crease out of place was unacceptable. There was no sign of any facial hair on his face. Jamie could feel the piercing knife of his gaze, and he could tell that this person was not to be messed with and he fell silent rather quickly.

"You are not what you look like," he said quietly. "Our tests show you are changing," he paused for a moment before continuing. "I know the dragons are interested in you." Jamie's heart stopped at the word dragons. Even though he already half expected it, it was still a shock to him. "Looks like you know something about it then," he continued, having observed the slight start in Jamie's body language.

"I-I don't kn..."

"DON'T LIE TO ME!!" The man shouted, suddenly only inches from Jamie's face. "You know exactly what I'm talking about."

Jamie didn't know how to respond, so he stayed silent. He was starting to get angry at this man. Out of nowhere he and his organisation had appeared, like a stealthy branch of the army, and taken him; no warning, no 'Could you come with me sir?' Just thwupp, and the sharp pains, before oblivion had enveloped his mind from the anaesthesia. What right did he have to hold him? What branch of the government gave him the right? It was kidnap wasn't it? There was a few minutes of silence as all of the above steamed through the still foggy edges of his mind, before the man again spoke.

"If you insist on silence, I will be forced to use unpleasant measures to get the answers I need," he said smoothly, as if he ordered this kind of thing everyday.

Jamie shivered. He realised then just how far the 'person' would go, or was it a bluff? He tried the think it through. He suddenly caught the gaze of the man and time froze, he saw the intent in there with the slight madness that fueled his insanity.

Fear suddenly gripped him. He was in danger, mortal danger. "What do you want?" he said quietly.

"Where is Alida?" Ian said in a monotone, now looking away from him.

"I don't know," he said truthfully. It was only then that the thought struck, how did he know her name? Ian didn't say anything at first, then he turned around to look at him.

"As you wish," he then walked to the door of the modified cargo container they were in, and banged on the door. He didn't turn or look as the door swung open and three additional men walked in. Two of them were wheeling some sort of complicated looking equipment. They looked like normal security men with clean matching clothes and cap, they had sidearms but they where not like anything he had ever seen. Even though the only weapons he had seen where in the films that he watched they still looked different.

They were single handed weapons, that looked like the had a fold out piece that would make them more like rifles. The magazines where a lot larger than he would of expected, like the ammunition was two or three inches long. They were strapped firmly to the sidebands of both men. The third he smelt before he saw, a putrid smell of gone off milk and body odour, he came into view and looked like a mess, greasy hair with rather large round goggles over his eyes. A rather messed up beard covered most his face and looked like he was saving some of his food for later. He wore a thick looking black apron aver the front of his clothes which Jamie assumed from the intolerable whiff, weren't much cleaner then his beard.

The man grinned at him with yellow teeth, before turning to the other two, "Right there should do."

"Who are you? What is that?" Jamie said with a tone of anxiety. The man looking back to him spoke

****

Alida approached the place in the woods where the foot tracks ended, and several vehicles had obviously forced their way into the undergrowth. The large amount of snapped and shredded branches were enough for her to risk taking to the air, and still being able to follow.

A few powerful strokes of her wings and she was at tree top level, scanning the ground beneath her until it the tracks broke out onto the paved road again near the parking area. She whirled quickly and landed in the canopy of one of the trees overlooking the almost deserted tarmac, hunching herself against the trunk like an over-sized buzzard. The black trucks were still present, the ones that spelled doom for her and her new mate. From the trail of mud leading across from the woods, the vehicles parked next to the trucks were responsible, so she could only conclude that Jamie was trapped inside one of them.

She sat still, observing the scene for any movement that could give her a clue as to Jamie's location amongst the vehicles, her mind turning over the possibilities within it as to her next course of action.

Should she attempt a rescue? It could be suicidal or even worse she could be caught and trapped like a lab specimen again, doomed to be prodded and poked at for whatever span of life the evil bastards in the convoy allowed her to eke out.

Should she abandon Jamie to his fate? They may even let him go if he stayed in human form. If he never gave into the anger within, she could monitor the situation from afar, and maybe one day he would just walk free and come back to her. That way they could escape the country on the trade winds and be free of the tyrannical arseholes who were determined to destroy the last chance of the draconic race. No she couldn't do that. She wasn't stupid. As soon as the lab technicians got hold of him they would start spectrum tests on his blood, and she knew that as he had already changed, his DNA would be obviously not a pure human. They would want to know why. He was probably strapped to a chair now being tortured for the information, and he may just crack and reveal her part in the conundrum.

What would be the consequences of Jamie breaking under torture? The end of her race? She would be the last one if they didn't manage to capture her as well. The surviving elders were all to old to be fertile (not that she fancied the idea of mating with her father or uncles) Should any of their seed still be viable, their offspring would probably be weak and sickly at best. The elders that gave her the serum for her choice of life partner, said it was last of its kind so she was to chose carefully or she would have no possible recourse but to die alone by herself with no children to keep the hopes of dragon kind alive.

Hang-on. What of Jamie and hers hatchlings? They would have no breeding stock to mate with, so surely it would only extending the race by only one generation. Where did the serum come from anyway? She remembered sharing a meal with one of the female elders, then falling deeply asleep. She had awoken a day later, a little stiff from inactivity and with no memory of anything untoward passing. Then the elders had summoned her and presented her with the vial and instructions on its use.

She thought back to that first time barely a few days ago with Jammie. She had still been a virgin, she knew it. After all he had popped her cherry...hadn't he? She snickered to herself for a second. What an absurd description for such a personal part of a females integrity. Humans were even having them sown back in again to give the appearance of their innocence when they were ashamed of their infidelities...Oh no! They couldn't have? Could they? She rubbed at her mid-rift in wonder. Had they violated her most sacrosanct of places while she was in that drugged sleep, repairing the damage to cover their subterfuge? It was wrong...It was unforgivable...It was she realised, entirely necessary. If she had been asked, would she have consented? She doubted it.

If it had been done to her, it could be done with the correct knowledge to her children. Why was it single chance shot though? She would have to confront the elders at the first possible opportunity. The question was would they capitulate and tell her? The whole affair would not matter unless Jamie was returned to her side. It may happen in fairy-tales where a couple of acts of intercourse produces children, but she knew that she hadn't been in cycle, so she was not carrying despite their combined enthusiasm.

She looked up sharply as the back of one of the steel containers opened up to admit a trio of humans along with some apparatus of dubious appearance. The door clanged shut again with an echoing thud that echoed across the open space to impact upon her eardrums. That one. Something in her mind twitched, telling her subconsciously that her mate and love was in that steel box. She scanned the car-park looking for hidden humans, planning her approach. To many were hidden in the parked vehicles, she would have to approach from above and hope that they were not looking at the sky.

Quietly she launched herself back under the woods canopy and stroked along the track for half a mile until she rose through a clearing into the open sky. She beat her wings strongly for altitude, then when at a height she knew she would appear virtually invisible, she circled until she was over the trucks. "Here goes nothing..." she muttered to herself and folded her wings into a step dive, dropping vertically out of the clouds...

****

One of men that wheeled the equipment over, plugging it into an outlet on the wall, a couple of lights turning on. Once once that was done both guards turned and left the container closing and locking the door behind them.

The vile smelling man walking over to the humming equipment and putting on a pair of rather thick looking rubber gloves then picked up two cables with what looked like wire wool attached to the end of each one.

Ian then asked again, "Where is Alida?"

Jamie, still staring at the man with the gloves, was getting scared. This was like a nightmare gone horribly wrong. Yet he was indeed telling the truth he truly did not know where Alida was. "I don't know where she is..."

Ian did not respond to that, and he gloved man started to walk towards Jamie, as he got closer he rubbed the two bundles of wire wool together and sparks flew between them the parts where the wool contacted with the other glowing red and melting, small bit of molten wool falling to the ground. Jamie's eyes widened then as he knew what was about to happen the currents of electricity running through the wires about to come in contact with his skin, causing all his muscles to spasm so fast that it would feel like his muscles were trying to rip themselves out of his body.

"Wait No! I don't know where she is," Jamie started pleading his voice getting slightly higher with the fear of what was about to happen. "Please no! I'm Telling the truth!"

"Where is she?!" Ian said again.

"I Don't..." Jamie started to say but one of the wire wool bundles was thrust onto his chest. It did not shock him though, as the other one wasn't touching him yet. "Ah No!! Please I'm telling the truth."

The bearded guy looked up to Ian, and just as Ian was about to nod someone banged on the door from the outside before opening it. He had an annoyed look on his face when he said sternly to the person that dare disturb him during this.

"Sir... it's here." The messenger said purposefully not looking in Jamie's direction. The Wool still touching his chest.

"Sound the alarm. Shot to kill. She can not be allowed to escape again!" Ian said suddenly moving towards the door.

Jamie' heart stopped when he heard that, 'Shoot to kill'..."Alida!"

A rage started to build inside him. It was like a fire had been ignited inside him and was spreading out through his veins, reaching every part of his body the feeling of pure power, pure strength. His vision started to blur as it was tainted slightly red. Growling he tensed, pulling at the ropes that bound him. The chair strained at the sudden pressure that was being exerted on it. Suddenly one arm of the chair that Jamie's wrist was tied to was snapped off with a loud detonation of sound, the fragment flying towards the dirty mans throat. Jamie clamped his hand around the neck of the scumbag, his eyes narrowed at the man.

Suddenly both pieces of wire wool were thrust into Jamie's chest, the crackle of electricity sounding around the room. Jamie was already starting the change though into the scaled version of himself and wasn't affected by the current of potent electrical charge. Standing up effortlessly, the chair splintering like it was wood not metal. He was still holding the neck of the guy that was trying to electrocute him with both the guys feet now nearly a foot off the floor.

A growl sounded from Jamie's maw as he finished transforming into the lethal black dragon. Bringing the man to within an inch of his tooth fill mouth, Jamie growled menacingly at the man before throwing him into the equipment that had been set up for him. The sound of the electronics being destroyed and the scream of the man now being electrocuted by his own equipment echoed around the steel container.

Ian stopped at the sound of growling... An in-human growling. He turned just in time to see his colleague dangling by his neck from the claws of a black dragon. The messenger slammed the door shut as he fled the scene. Ian's first thought was the memory that black dragons possessed unnatural abilities, even for the dragon kind. He was starting to get scared. He had lost so much trying to eliminate the black kind, and now there was another one in the same locked container as himself. He flinched as the man went sailing in to his own equipment like a rag-doll thrown from car window. He was paralyzed then, routed to the floor as the creature turned his luminous eyes to fix on him.

The growling emanating from the beasts throat was getting louder in volume. It drew in a deep breath and roared, the sound echoing around the enclosed space and rattling the lights in their holders. The shock-waves of the sound, sending vibrations through his own chest. The vibrations became to much for the light bulbs to handle, and they shattered in a bright flash of blinding luminescence, before complete darkness swallowed the creature.

The sudden blackness jolted Ian out of his hypnotic trance, and he turned to run for the exit, tearing at the locks handle. But before he had even managed to take a single step the sound of crunching wood echoed around the steel walls, and something hit Ian in the back. He was sent flying, the force of the impact throwing him fifteen feet away, still clutching fruitlessly at the door which shielded his impact on the car-park, and skipping him into on of the black Humvee wheels. Groaning he rolled over to see the container doors were missing, and the black dragon was standing just outside of it, looking up.