Dragon Deception Read Online Free Page B

hesitant, as if he were still unsure of his place in the world. The picture had been taken before Dane had finally relented and Nickel had become a permanent fixture at Dane's office. 'Ron was clinging to Mercury's arm and grinning widely, and Chrome was standing on Nickel's other side glaring sullenly at the camera.
    Daisy had only gotten the one shot before the kits started wandering off to play in different directions. Dane had a copy at his office too.
    The computer beeped softly to let Mercury know it was finally on. He input his password and settled into his chair to begin sorting through his work email. Most of them were junk or the usual reply-alls that accidentally went viral. Mercury had to delete all of those first before he could get to work on the real emails.
    "Mercury, if I might have a word?" a voice asked from outside the cubicle. Mercury jumped in surprise and a fizzle of magic sparked between his fingers. He quickly moved his hands away from his keyboard and mouse so he didn't fry another motherboard. His work computer wasn't as sturdy as Dane's spelled laptop.
    "Director Stockton!" Mercury gaped, standing up abruptly when he saw who had interrupted his work. Ames Stockton was the Director of the Federal Bureau of Supernatural Investigations. He was so far above Mercury on the food chain in terms of work that he should be locked in his office on a pedestal while peons like Mercury did his personnel fetching. Stockton was a big man, tall and thickly muscled. There wasn't an ounce of extra fat on his body, but Mercury had little doubt he had to go up a suit size or two in his shirts just to accommodate his shoulders. His skin was dark and his eyes sharp with intelligence as he looked at Mercury.
    "This way, please," Stockton said, waving his arm towards one of the conference rooms. Most of Mercury's coworkers were probably still fighting through the crush of people downstairs trying to get through security, but enough people poked their heads around their cubicles to see what was going on that he knew the gossip would be flying once he was out of earshot.
    "Is something wrong?" Mercury asked as he obeyed Stockton's directions. There were two other people that Mercury didn't recognize in the conference room and a very large stack of papers covering one end of the long table. Mercury walked inside. Stockton followed and closed the heavy door.
    "Nothing is wrong, per se," Stockton began as he took a seat at the head of the table. He gestured that Mercury should sit too, so Mercury pulled out a chair further down the table and perched awkwardly on the edge. "We just have some questions for you."
    "Okay?" Mercury asked, wondering where this was going and if he should be contacting Dane to break him out of the office.
    "As you know, we performed our usual extensive background check prior to your hiring," one of the other men Mercury didn't recognize said. "Because you were raised in a government-funded foster home, you have a Social Security number and identification we can track. School records, work locations, etcetera. Except one day you simply vanished and only reappeared three years later. You explained the missing time as going dragon in your interview. You realized you needed time to embrace your cultural heritage by spending time in the wild. There were people who believed your story, enough that you were hired, but those few who still had concerns kept digging."
    He pulled a piece of paper off the top of the stack and pushed it across the table for Mercury to see. It was a print out of a news article from eight years ago. "Terrorist bombing! Government lab set on fire by a terrorist calling himself Quicksilver." Mercury could make out the destroyed remains of the lab that had held the water dragons captive in the grainy photo.
    "You were living in Chicago at the time of this attack and the facility in question was only ten miles outside the city. You did not arrive at work on the day this attack occurred