"Nice to see you again Tank," declared Tim cheerily.
Tank just turned his head and nodded, provoking a look from Richie that nearly turned him to stone.
"Anyway, can't hang about I'm afraid," put in Richie, all smiles. "We're off for something to eat. Nice to see you out and about again Pete, and of course we must catch up when you're back at work."
Peter nodded.
"That would be great."
"Good to see you both," stated Tim pleasantly, as Richie quite literally dragged him towards the exit.
Tank hung his head low and said nothing.
Tim and Richie swept through the double doors, out into the cold night air. A very difficult silence enveloped the two friends back inside. Peter had no idea of what to say. It had all been such a surprise. As both drained their glasses dry, Peter piped up,
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Could it be any more awkward?" huffed Tank. "I wanted to tell you of course. But I didn't know where to begin. And I most certainly wouldn't have brought you had I known she was going to be here. Do you have any idea of the trouble she's going to be in?"
'That,' thought Peter, 'is the million dollar question.'
To be honest, he could have done without all this at the moment, but part of him was at least glad that he'd found out what Richie had been up to. In a way, it was better to know than be kept in the dark.
Suddenly turning to Tank, checking that no one was in ear shot, Peter declared,
"Oh God, what if June and Mildred find out about Richie?"
Tank's forehead creased in confusion.
"How would they find out?"
Leaning in close to his friend, so that he could whisper really lightly, Peter said,
"You must have heard that some of the King's Guard can read your deepest thoughts telepathically?"
Tank let out a great big belly laugh that attracted the attention of the few people remaining in the bar. After a few moments to catch his breath and wipe away a few tears from his eyes, he turned back to a very disappointed Peter.
"It's a myth. Something the King's Guards put around to keep everyone on their toes."
"How can you be so sure?"
"While it is possible to share your thoughts with someone telepathically, the key word here would be share. Another dragon cannot just roll in and take somebody else's thoughts without their consent. It's simply impossible. Trust me Pete. You do remember who my employer is, don't you? If he's told me once, he's told me a million times."
Feeling a little better on hearing that Gee Tee the master mantra maker had endorsed what Tank had just said, he still wasn't a hundred percent sure and knew that dropping off to sleep tonight and leaving his mind unguarded was going to worry him senseless. The sooner June and Mildred left, the better, even more so than before, now that he knew about Richie's secret indulgence.
Both returned their empty glasses to Janice, who seemed to be getting more disappointed by the second that Peter had taken more notice of Richie than he had of her. Tank dropped his friend off at home, with neither of them mentioning Richie on the journey back. Having waved Tank off, Peter trudged up his path to the front door, trying not to think about Richie getting it on with a human, for fear that either of the crazy old women waiting up for him would sense it. As he put his key in the lock and turned it gently, all he could think was,
'It's going to be a long ten days.'
2
Ice Breaker
Clapping his black, top-of-the-range gloves together in an effort to keep his hands warm and pulling another bitingly cold breath of air reluctantly into his lungs, he watched, fascinated, as even bigger icebergs floated into view. Not at any point during his long life had he experienced cold like this. Even with all his expensive thermal equipment, he still shivered painfully almost all the time. The most depressing thing was that he was still well over one hundred miles away from his destination, meaning that it could only get colder still. Knowing he should go back inside; it would be warmer of course, but the other passengers were driving him mad. Also, he had to acclimatise to these barbaric conditions and quickly. As well as a physically prepared body, he would need his wits about him, at least that's what he told himself as his crisp breath appeared before him as he exhaled and drew in another distressing lungful of freezing air.
Looking over the side at the decidedly beautiful but deadly sea, he cursed his luck for being given this of all assignments. What was the council thinking? Did they not realise what a waste of his valuable skills this was? Anger welled up inside him. A hundred years in the King's Guard, and here he was being sent to look for some lost scientists.
"Oh and by the way," the council had said, "if you see any sign of the mysterious and long lost naga community on your travels, could you report back immediately." Banging the wooden rail in frustration, his hand throbbed through the expensive gloves. So now he was a diplomat, as well as a glorified scientist babysitter. Pulling his furry hood closer around his stubbly cheeks, he sighed in frustration, almost ready to go back inside.
'All my infiltration, fighting and weapons training and it comes down to this,' he thought, taking one last look over the rail. 'Where did I go wrong? Have I offended somebody on the council? If I have then no one's ever said anything to me about it. I've always carried out my missions with dedication and exact precision, and never failed at a single one. I can't believe I'm stuck here at the arse end of the world doing this,' he mused, walking up the deck to the nearest door that led inside, before going through it. 'The sooner I unearth these scientists the better, and boy, am I going to give them a hard time when I do find them, for dragging me all this way, in these atrocious conditions. Not even allowed to travel by plane, because of my cover and the equipment I'm carrying,' he reflected, closing the metal door behind him as the much warmer air wafted across his exposed face.
Born Dendrik Ridge, just about everyone called him Flash. Having joined the King's Guard straight from the nursery ring, which in itself was quite unusual, he'd found out the reason he'd been selected from one of his instructors, who on his death bed had confessed to him that they had gone through a phase of recruiting young dragons with behavioural difficulties, particularly ones with short tempers who had a tendency to use unnecessary violence. Flash had been astonished to learn all this from his former instructor, and after a prolonged period of mourning that hit him pretty hard, he redoubled his efforts at the training, vowing to channel his volatile temper into his work, eventually coming out top of his class, enabling him to eventually be offered a place in the very secretive Crimson Guards. While the King's Guards were considered to be the most elite troops in the dragon world, answering only to the council, the Crimson Guards were one step above all that again. In times gone by, the king would have a number of agents that would carry out missions on his behalf, some sanctioned by the council, some not (so called 'shadow missions'). In the past five decades or so, that had all changed. On the king's orders, the anonymous Crimson Guards had been brought into being by one of these former agents; the dragon in question had been lost on a mission many decades ago, or so rumour had it. Flash had been part of the Crimson Guards for over four decades.
Flash's current mission was to recover the scientists that had gone missing on not one, but two, previous expeditions to Antarctica. They'd been working for the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) at a base called Antarctic Station Casey, one of four permanent bases Australia has in the area. Their cover story included studying the effect of climate change and its impact on the wildlife and vegetation in the immediate area. Little had been known about the disappearance of the scientists, only that both parties, on separate occasions, had gone missing in bad weather, and contained dragon members only, not that the humans of Casey Station knew this. With the frigid Antarctic climate varying between 9.2°C and -41°C with winds gusting around 100kph, occasionally reaching 160kph, the two groups disappearing in bad weather wasn't as far-fetched as it seemed. However, for two groups to go missing, a month apart, containing only dragon members, was... odd! Of course the dragons would be limited by not being able to use any of their magical abilities due to the extreme cold, so from that point of view it could be possible, but still... it was ever so unlikely.