Dragon Sword Read Online Free PDF Page B

launched a couple of new satellites,” Howe says, damp and
minimally purple. “We’ve trained one of them here on Moonglow, your
lab, and the area around it. It monitors large, moving masses.
Nothing can really hide from it. Everyone authorized to be in the
zone will have their own transmitter. Here.” He holds out what
looks to be a kind of lingo-spot to Eli’s father.
    “ A leash. I’m not wearing
it.”
    “ I’m afraid you’ll have to. If you
want to enter or leave the zone. Stay inside the lab, though,” Howe
says with a shrug, “and suit yourself.”
    “ How nice that I have a
choice.”
    “ Well, that’s just it. We want you
to think of this as something that protects you. And will protect
Eli, when he returns. It will all be complete when the final link
is turned on.” Howe now holds out a small control pad to
Sandusky-sire, who won’t take it. “I thought I would come over and
make a celebration of it.”
    “ Yippee.” It’s not a happy
sound.
    “ I would’ve thought you’d like the
extra security, given the high-level work you’re doing
here.”
    “ I’ll feel secure when my family’s
together, Howe. And when you leave us alone.”
    “ Well, we’ll see what we can do
about the ‘left alone’ part.” Howe takes the controls and pushes
one with his thumb. “There, that signal turns on the link to the
satellite, which should already be focused—”
    But he doesn’t finish the sentence.
I experience immediate tympanic distress as alarms go off, while a
bright light explodes overhead, like a small sun going
supernova.
    “ What’s that!?” Sandusky-sire
yells.
    “ That,” Howe shouts back, “is what
happens when there’s an intruder!”
    I leap away, hoping not to be
discovered. But I don’t get far at all before I hear the whirring
motors of flying machines coming in my direction.
     
     
     

Chapter Five
     
    Eli: Po
    December 24, 1941 C.E.
     
    “ You Dan?”
    The cab driver looks up at me. I
guess not. He doesn’t match the picture.
    “ No, I’m Dang.” He draws out the g . “Charlie Dang. You’re not”— he looks down at a slip of
paper —“Margarite?”
    “ I’m her…one of her students. I’m
Eli.” “Well, I’m supposed to take her”— another glance at the paper
—“to Golden Gate Park.”
    “ What? ” I didn’t like the
sound of that. “Why would she want to go to the park?”
    “ To the museum there. The de Young.
For the fundraiser. The party, you know.” He gives me a quizzical
look. “Why do you care what your teacher is doing on Christmas Eve?
Where are your parents?”
    “ They’re…out of town. She’s looking
after me. Wants me to meet her there.”
    I stand there, shivering. An actor
from One Man’s Family strolls out of the hotel, smoking a
pipe and waving at someone across the street.
    “ So you getting in or what?” It’s
cold, and I don’t know what else to do, so I slide in the back.
“I’m confused, kid. So this Margarite isn’t coming?”
    “ No. I’ll catch up with
her.”
    “ All right.” Charlie Dang throws
the car in gear. “A kid oughtta be with his family on Christmas
Eve, though. Are your parents gone because of something to do with
the war?” He’s looking at me in the rear-view mirror.
    “ Pretty much.”
    We drive through the fog awhile,
and I don’t feel like talking. What am I supposed to say, really?
That neither I nor my parents have even been born yet, and I’ve
come back in time almost eighty years to try and find my
mom?
    We’re stopped at a red light. I
hear the clanging of what must be a cable car, but I can’t see
anything in the mist.
    “ Po. ”
    He says it so suddenly, I almost
jump out of the seat.
    “ What?”
    “ Po. ” The cab is moving
again, almost gliding, since we can’t see anything around us, and
Charlie Dang is pointing out the window. “On nights like these, I
always think they’re out there.”
    “ Who’s out there?”
    “ Po. In Hawaii, where I grew
up, po