Steel Dragon Read online

  The pictures were arranged in such a way that as the new recruit craned her neck to take them all in, she saw the decades-spanning career before her. When she finally locked eyes with the captain, Juanita was reasonably confident that the girl understood that the woman before her wasn’t merely an appointee with political connections but a cop who’d worked hard to earn her current position in command of all the special operations in Detroit.

  Although truly—much as she hated to admit it—being a short Latina woman who’d put on a few pounds since she’d moved to working primarily behind a desk was usually enough to make people understand that she’d worked her way into this position. The few women who actually took handouts tended to look like…well, the attractive redheaded woman standing before her.

  “Is there a reason why you’ve accosted me in my office when we both know you have a mountain of paperwork to catch up on?” she asked coolly. That might have counted as a reprimand for some officers, but Juanita and Jonesy both knew it was fairly tame for the captain. Some officers complained about paperwork, but she genuinely didn’t mind it as long as it was done. Paperwork was the grease that kept the engine of the Detroit Police Department running smoothly.

  “Paperwork’s exactly why I’m here, Captain.” He obviously made no attempt at all to keep the hostility out of his voice. “This little princess thinks she’s SWAT because of a damn email, and I wanted her to get a reality check from the queen of protocol before she gets comfortable.”

  Juanita folded her hands in front of her. “Is that why you’re still here, Jonesy? Because being on SWAT makes you comfortable?”

  His expression darkened. “Damn it, Captain. Are you telling me you really did select her?”

  “She has a name, you know. Use it.” It was a power move, certainly, and perhaps a little petty, but she genuinely couldn’t remember the woman’s name at the moment. Chrissy? Christina? She’d been as frustrated as he was when the orders came in and hadn’t paid as much attention to the details as she would usually have done.

  That might’ve been too much, though. Jonesy turned bright red and betrayed his Welsh roots. “Sorry, ma’am. This is Kristen Hall, the new recruit who has been ordered onto our team via e-mail.” Ah…that was more like it. His words were formal enough, but the way he said “e-mail” made it sound like he was in the process of severing his own finger with a rusty hacksaw. It conjured an intriguing picture that almost made her smile.

  “I’m glad you’ve made her acquaintance,” Juanita responded with a smile she normally reserved for visiting politicians. It looked good in photos but he, better than anyone, knew exactly what it meant. “It’s good to meet you, Kristen. I like to put a name to an order. Your record from the academy is impressive enough, so I’m sure you’ve realized that I’m your boss, despite us not actually ever interviewing.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Captain Hansen. My dad told me all about you.”

  “Your dad is?” She hated to be rude but maybe she’d missed something in the girl’s family history.

  “Frank Hall?” Kristen stammered. “He was an officer on the force for over thirty years. He’s the reason I wanted to become a police officer.”

  “Ah. He never made SWAT, did he?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “That explains why I haven’t heard of him.” The young woman’s face fell when she said that but it couldn’t be helped. The captain continued. “Still, it’s good to know you have some kind of expectation for what police work can be. Normally, appointees who come with your kind of references don’t have any familiarity with police work. At least you understand that there will be long days and late nights in your future.”

  Kristen fidgeted for a moment before she replied, “Of course, ma’am.” It was obvious something was bothering her.

  “Is there a problem?”

  “Who the fuck are her references?” Jonesy interjected. Juanita had been waiting for him to interrupt. It was not Patrick Jones’ style to keep his mouth shut for long. Really, she was thankful. Him swearing meant she could tear into him without losing any face in front of Kristen.

  For a moment, she considered not telling the man anything—she also liked to use silence to make him sweat—but she relented. He’d find out soon enough anyway, and better to hear it from her rather than through the grapevine. “The email I got from Dragon Special Operations made it quite clear that they wanted Kristen on SWAT and that they would not take no for an answer. Not that they ever do.”

  “Dragon Special Ops?” He turned to Kristen, incredulous. “You’re telling me a fucking dragon referred you to the SWAT team? What, did one of them fuck your grandma or something and feel guilty enough to give you a job?”

  “Just because the grandmothers you can afford to pay to have sex feel bad after they’re done with you doesn’t mean that’s always how it goes.” She sneered and fixed him with a challenging stare.

  Juanita was careful not to let a smile show. Not many people—let alone women—could maintain verbal sparring with Jonesy, but she seemed capable enough.

  “Jonesy, I’d tell you to shut the hell up, but it looks like Kristen did that already.”

  “I… Damn it, Captain,” he muttered. She didn’t know if he was bewildered by the woman’s references or that a rookie had burned him with a multi-level bomb of an insult. “Dragon Special Ops? Really?”

  The captain raised an eyebrow at Kristen. She didn’t want the new recruit to think she’d won. “Indeed. It seems Kristen has friends in high places.”

  “With respect, Captain, I don’t. I bumped into a dragon at a concert, of all places. He told me to take some tests, and they sent me to the academy. I’d always wanted to be a cop, but I never thought I’d make SWAT, especially given my inexperience.”

  She let Kristen’s statement hang in the air for a moment. From the girl’s expression, she thought she was being honest. But if she really didn’t have a connection to the dragons, there must at least be something unusual about her, but what? She was too good a cop to jump to conclusions, however. She’d give it time and let the evidence reveal itself.

  What was important currently was making sure Jonesy understood that her place on his team was not up for debate. “See, Jonesy? What more could you ask for? She’s honest, down-to-earth, and doesn’t intend to have her friends light you on fire for wasting both her and your captain’s goddamn time.”

  “Captain?” Before, Jonesy had looked like the flames that powered his anger had been diminished. Now, he looked like he’d had cold water tossed on him. It made her proud that she could do that to him in only a few sentences. She used to have to scream at him loudly enough for the whole building to hear to get him to shut up.

  “In answer to your original question, no, Jonesy, I did not choose her to be on my force.”

  “Then—”

  “In answer to the question you were about to ask, yes, she is on your team.”

  “But—”

  “I don’t expect you to like it. But we both know I’d rather spend my morning writing parking tickets than concern myself with thinking about what you like and don’t like. What next? Do you plan to complain that Sergeant Goodman ate all the jelly-filled donuts?”

  “He does eat all the jelly-filled donuts.” He huffed petulantly.

  “And yet, somehow, you live with this injustice.” Juanita smiled at him. He swallowed, fear in his eyes. She continued, her voice saccharine sweet. “I expect you to live with this as well, Sergeant Jones, exactly like I expect you to get out of my office and get back to your job. And remember, Jonesy, if you don’t like it, you can always quit.” She smiled, crinkled her nose, and squinted her eyes just so.

  Jonesy scowled at her. They both knew he’d never be able to go above her head with anything because when he got pissed, he cussed people out, and when she got pissed, she merely smiled until she won. So, he simply scowled and stormed out of her office, no doubt to yell at Sergeant Goodman about eatin
g too many donuts. That was fine, though. Someone had to help the sniper keep the weight off, and his boss did not have time to babysit.

  Normally, that attitude would extend to fresh recruits as well, but Juanita thought she owed the newcomer a minute—or not the girl herself exactly, but the questions that her presence called into existence. “Please, sit.” She pointed at a chair in front of her desk. “So, if you don’t know a dragon, why are you here?”

  Kristen took the proffered chair. “Honestly, Captain, I hoped you’d be able to answer that question. When I told my dad I’d made SWAT, he was even more surprised than I was. He said I should have had at least a year on the force before they promoted me here. Okay, I did well in the academy—”

  “Not that well. I’ve looked at your physical examinations and you were top-notch there but still, you haven’t been tested under real conditions. SWAT’s quite different than regular police work. We like to select from those with experience that applies to the position.”

  “So, if it wasn’t the academy, why am I here?”

  Juanita pushed herself to her feet. When Kristen moved to follow, she shook her head. “Sit.” She paced slowly through her office as she spoke. “The only clue I have is that Dragon Spec Ops want you here. But it can be tricky to get into the head of all-powerful, ancient, shapeshifting dragons.”

  “Have you met one?” the girl asked. “A dragon, I mean.”

  She shook her head, then walked behind Kristen as she crossed her office. “No. The closest I ever came was meeting that senator.” She gestured at the framed photo. “There were rumors he took orders directly from a dragon, but we didn’t talk about that, of course. Believe me when I say that if I knew what the dragons wanted with you—or with anything, for that matter—I wouldn’t keep it a secret. You met one, though, and you went to one of their testing facilities. What was that like?”

  The captain moved to stand in front of the picture of her and the senator. She kept her back to Kristen. While she wanted the recruit to know her place, she also hoped to get her talking. Maybe there was a clue as to why she was there and she didn’t know it.

  The girl shuffled in her seat. “The physical tests seemed normal enough—not that different than the police academy anyway.”

  “You didn’t have to shoot an arrow into a target from a thousand paces or pull a sword from a stone?”

  Kristen laughed at that. Good, Juanita thought, let her trust me more than the dragons.

  “No, no feats of strength. But do you really think they would want people to do stuff like that? If you think about it, the last two times people rebelled, the dragons crushed us.”

  “Us?” she asked.

  “People, I mean.”

  “Right.” She returned to sit in her chair when she realized she’d rather be able to read the newcomer’s face than passive-aggressively assert her power. Besides, she’d made her point. “You said the physical stuff was normal. Was there non-physical stuff that wasn’t?”

  Kristen shrugged. “Maybe? I don’t know. They asked about the rebellions.”

  “What did you tell them?”

  “Essentially what I learned in school. That in the first rebellion, human mages made dwarves to fight against the dragons. They might have been able to stand against them since they’re stronger than people but instead, they made a deal with the dragons and they still own Canada because of it.”

  “What did they say about that?” She scratched her head. That was basically what the history books said had happened.

  The young woman laughed. “Nothing really. Honestly, it felt like I was taking a history test and barely passing. I got the sense that—never mind, it’s silly.”

  “You got the sense that?”

  Kristen straightened in her chair. “Well, like I said, this will sound silly, but I got the sense that they were fishing for details—like they thought I was hiding something from them. Like, for example, they kept asking me these weird questions about pixies.”

  “Pixies?” Juanita raised an eyebrow.

  “Yeah, pixies. Mages made them in the second rebellion, but they failed to overthrow the dragons even worse than the attempt with the dwarves.”

  “I’m familiar with the things. What did they ask about pixies?”

  “At first, it was only regular things like have I seen a pixie? If so, where? What do I see them doing? Stuff like that.”

  “Have you?”

  “Yes, actually. Hasn’t everybody?”

  It was the captain’s turn to shrug. “I suppose I’ve seen a few.”

  Kristen nodded. Juanita thought she looked relieved. “Right, so have I. I’ll see them sometimes if I get out of the city or if I go to Bell Isle. Pixies like greener spaces, I guess. I told the dragons that whenever I see them, they do what pixies always do—stare at me awkwardly with their big eyes that are all one color.”

  “Pixies stare at you, huh?” She tried to make the comment sound casual. In all honesty, she’d never seen a pixie sit still long enough to make out their eye color.

  The girl laughed and seemed to be completely oblivious about how odd what she had admitted was. “All the time. Brian—that’s my brother—used to joke about it. This one time, we were camping and one watched us build the fire. It started yelling at us about not needing kindling.”

  “Not needing kindling?”

  Kristen smirked. “Yeah, that’s pixies for you, right?”

  “I…suppose so,” Juanita said cautiously and filed the comment away for later. There was something to that, she was sure of it. “And you told this story to the dragons? What did they say to that?”

  Her face told the captain she believed every word that she was saying—she had been in enough interrogation rooms to identify a lie when she heard one—but there was definitely something unusual going on.

  “Nothing, really. They made notes and looked at each other and then asked me another question. That was really all they did for the entire interview. They asked some other questions about pixies too—like if they had ever listened to me or done magic for me, stuff like that—but of course they never have.”

  “Of course not,” Juanita said. At least she could relate on that point.

  Pixies were twitchy little things. She had never liked them. They could perform magic but were…odd. It was like they didn’t have the same relationship with reality that humans did, despite originally being made from people. They also didn’t have any kind of attention span. Pixies didn’t stare at people. They didn’t stare at anything because they didn’t sit still long enough. She had never heard of a pixie fixating on anything, let alone a human.

  There was something unusual about this Kristen Hall, but she couldn’t say what. Pixies focusing on her was certainly odd, but that didn’t exactly explain why she’d been chosen for SWAT. She might have felt differently if Kristen was able to get the pixies to do magic for her. Imagine being able to make an enemy’s weapon turn into a stick or better yet, disappear.

  Juanita took a deep breath and decided she’d do what she did for every complex case she’d ever been presented with. Pay attention, wait, and gather more evidence. She’d find out what was going on with her new recruit. Of that, she was certain. She only hoped to discover it before the dragons moved forward with whatever they were playing at.

  She looked at Kristen and realized she hadn’t spoken for a few moments. The girl tried not to squirm in her seat, but—despite being singled out by dragons and pixies—she obviously felt about as awkward seated across from her boss as anyone else did.

  The captain set her jaw. It was time for the ‘new kid’ speech. “Dragons or not, I want you to understand I won’t allow anyone to take it easy on you.”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to—”

  “Now’s the part where you listen.”

  Kristen nodded. She was impressed with that. Jonesy would have already whined about being told to shut up.

  “SWAT is serious,” she continued. “Lives are a
t stake here on a regular basis. In fact, that’s part of the job. It’s different for everyone, but you need to understand that you will see people die. Whether it’s a perp, a civilian who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or your own partner, you need to prepare yourself to face it.”

  The girl kept her mouth shut, but her jaw hardened at the mention of death. That was good. The fact that she didn’t look surprised meant that she had thought about this already.

  “On top of that, I expect you to stay in shape and stay sharp. I know you met Sergeant Goodman, but believe you me, his skills are the only reason I let his gut stay on my force. Sergeant Jones too. He may have a mouth on him, but he’s damn good at his job. I demand the same from you, do you understand?”

  “Yes, Captain. I appreciate being held to a high standard. I excelled in the academy because they pushed me, and I’m ready to work hard here as well. I was an honor grad there, and I hope to do even better here.”

  Juanita chuckled. “SWAT isn’t the academy, but if you come at it with that attitude, you might make it. Or you might wash out—which, honestly, would be fine with me.”

  “Excuse me?” That had thrown her for a loop.

  “If you decide this isn’t for you, you’re merely one less problem I have to deal with. Believe it or not, the city of Detroit keeps SWAT busy enough without me having to worry why Dragon Spec Ops sends me recruits I didn’t ask for.”

  Kristen clenched her jaw at that. The captain didn’t let her amusement show, but she already liked the newcomer. She seemed to have a steel heart, and when exposed to heat and pressure, she used it to make her stronger rather than let it melt her away. That was a good attitude to have in the motor city and an especially good outlook for the newest member of the Detroit SWAT.