Chapter 1

“Nathan! Phone!” I heard my mom yell from in the house.

I had spent the morning sitting out on the balcony working on my laptop. There was almost a breeze out there and our side of the building was in the shade during the mornings, so it was cooler. Our apartment’s air conditioning was not exactly state of the art, even after I’d messed with it a bunch, so that little bit of difference made it much more livable.

“Hello?” I said into the phone while grabbing the cold glass of orange juice mom put down in front of me.

“Nate! Its Mike Melville. How ya doing?”

Not too bad,” I answered, smiling at the trace’s of New York that you could still here in his voice. “Just messing with the laptop and trying to stay cool. What’s up Ishmael?” Mike got tagged with the ‘Ishmael’ nickname because we’d just finished reading Moby Dick in our English class when he came through the door his first day and was introduced by Mrs. Delgado as ‘Mr. Melville’. So of course, we just called him Ishmael, and it stuck, at least as a greeting. Mike and I were friendly, but we weren’t friends, and he ran mostly with the rich kid crowd, though I think he was bottom fringe rich, not mega rich like some of them.

“Well, you’re the mad genius of our school, right, and so I’ve got something I need to show someone and you’re the only one I know who might be able to make heads or tails out of it. Can you come over?”

I glanced back at my laptop out on the patio and sighed. “Sure, I’m not doing anything I can’t save for later. Two problems though,” I told him. “First, I have no drivers license and no car. Second, even if I did, I don’t know where you live, except that its somewhere up in Gatewood, right?”

“Ah, sorry, yeah, I live in Gatewood, but that’s not where I’m at, I’m down at the river by the docks. I was thinking you lived just up the street in the Morrison Apartments.”

“Yeah, I do. The Morrison is only a couple blocks away, so I could come down there. What’s the address?”

“I’m calling from the Stern Wheel Cafe, so how about meeting me here?”

It took me ten minutes to get to the cafe. I’d went to put my laptop away, but then decided to take it, along with some of my other tools. The cafe had seen better days, but they made really good french fries, and their club house sandwich was one of my favorite treats whenever I had the money to afford it. Mike was sitting in a window booth near the door with a seven up and a straw in front of him and another one in the empty spot across from him. I slid my backpack off and slid it onto the bench seat and slid myself in after it. Mike nodded to the soda silently, so I took a sip and settled back.

“Okay, I’m here,” I told him with a smile. “So since you’ve never struck me as the mystery and adventure kind of guy, why does this seem like a mystery and adventure?”

“Hah! You’re right,” Mike laughed and shook his head. “I’ve never been the mystery and adventure kind of guy, but I’m thinking that’s changed.”

“So what made you change?” I asked innocently. Like I said, Mike and I were friendly, but not friends.

“My grandfather died three months ago,” He said somberly. Crap, I knew that, but had forgotten.

Still... “I’m sorry, I’d forgotten about that, but how did that make you decide to change?”

“When he died, he left me something in his will, and now that the judge says everything else is settled, I finally got to see what he left me. At first I just thought it was money, because I got handed a key to a safe deposit box at First National. Dad had to go with me, but once we were there he let me open the box in private. Grandpa and I had always been pals, so dad let me have my moment with Grandpa’s last wish for me, I guess. It was nice.”

“Cool, so what was in the box?” I figured this must be where the mystery started, so I was anxious for details.

“Well, despite dad telling me that most people didn’t use their safe deposit boxes to hold money, there was a bunch of money, neat bundles of hundred dollar bills, along with a nice wooden box with 20 fancy gold coins in it. Besides the money there was a big fancy key and an envelope with a note to me and an official looking deed to a property down here by the river.”

“How much money?” I asked. It was the obvious question, I thought.

“Ten bundles, and each bundle was ten thousand dollars, so one hundred thousand dollars.”

“Wow, and I bet those coins are worth a lot too! Was the key for the property down here?”

“Exactly, and that’s where you come in. I went there three days ago and had a look. What’s there is interesting. Very interesting. But way outta my league. You wanna go see it?”

“Well yeah!” I laughed. “After the big build up, you think I would say no?”

The river part of town has what must be a mile of docks and warehouses. Mike took me to a small one that looked more like a bomb shelter than it did a warehouse. Instead of faded wood and chipped paint the entire thing looked to be made of steel and concrete, but the concrete seemed to have a greenish tint to it and the steel was black and looked wet, even though it was dry when I touched it. It looked like it had been coated in an enamel paint, but when I touched it I could tell it wasn’t paint, or at least not normal paint, more like the powder coat kind. More mystery, and we weren’t even inside yet! The fancy key fit a lock and the door rumbled open very quickly without Mike having to push it at all. It was very thick and the inside edge gleamed like chrome or polished stainless steel. It looked like a bank vault door to me.

Inside, lights came on as the door closed automatically behind us. There were stacks of stuff in neat rows along both walls and down the middle of the space. Everything was covered with canvas cloth tied down with rope. Towards the back it looked like there was a moving van and an old car, a big bulky four door sedan.

“Look like what you expected?” Mike asked.

“Mostly,” I answered. “That door is kind of unexpected, and all the concrete and steel, or whatever it is makes this place seem more like a bunker than a warehouse.”

“Yeah, I thought so too, but still not too weird?”

“Nope, cool but not weird so far.”

“C’mon then,” he motioned towards one side and I followed him to a door. He pushed a button and the door opened. I followed him through and realized immediately that we were in an large elevator. There was a single button in the usual place and Mike pointed at it. “If I push the button, it takes us up to the top floor, which is set up as a sort of office and apartment. There’s three bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, office and bathroom with a shower but no tub. Everything’s a little dusty, but it looks pretty nice, but I’m not the interior decorator type, so what would I know about that, right?” I nodded. Guys our age usually let our parents worry about that sort of thing. “If we’re upstairs, pushing the button brings us back here.”

“But...?” I asked, because the way he said it, there had to be a but.

“But if I push the button three times in a row, quickly, we go down,” And he did, and we went down.

A long way down. The door opened and Mike motioned me out and when I stepped out I was in a dimly lit space, smaller than the warehouse floor we’d seen upstairs, but with what looked like twenty foot ceilings. The floors and ceiling were the same greenish concrete. I looked all around, but couldn’t see much in the dim light.

“Interesting?” Mike asked from behind me.

“Yeah, but...”

“Wait for it...” Mike laughed as he stepped over to where I could see a big switch on the wall. He put his hand on it, gave me a waggle of his eyebrows and a grin and threw the switch.

The sudden glare of lights blinded me for a moment. It was very bright, white light, not like the yellowed lights in the warehouse. When my eyes adjusted, what was in front of us finally registered. The long skinny wings, the helmet, the green and gold colors.

“Oh My God!” I shouted. “Your grandfather was The Dragonfly???”

The Dragonfly. The region’s first and only superhero. He flew on his skinny dragonfly wings, had two ‘arm cannons’ that shot several varieties of a sticky, bubbly glue that hardened on contact and immobilized pretty much anything with moving parts. It could be overpowered, but not easily, according to the old news articles we’d all read growing up. His exploits had become part of the local history, so we even learned about him in school. He’d disappeared thirty years ago, long before Mike or I were born.

“The Dragonfly!” I gushed again, then had a thought. “Wait a minute. Your family moved here just a few years ago. How did you wind up being the Dragonfly’s grandson?”

“We lived in New York, but Dad was born here in Riverside. Dad moved to New York after he married my mom and we lived there ever since. Once Grandpa got sick, Dad decided we had to move back to be nearer to him, since he refused to leave Riverside. Now I guess we know why.”

“So your mom and dad didn’t know?” I asked.

“Mom didn’t, that I know of. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Dad, so I don’t know if he ever shared it with her.”

“That makes sense I guess. So what have you found out down here in three days?”

“Not much more than what you know already. Grandpa prepared well, it would seem, he left more behind than just this place and the safe deposit box. When I saw what he had prepared for me ... well that’s when I decided to call you. C’mon there’s more we need to see.”

I followed Mike under and past the Dragonfly suit and through another door. There was another huge wall to wall desk with multiple flat screen monitors and several comfortable looking high backed leather swivel chairs. There were several keyboards sitting on the desk and a few keyboard panels built into the desk as well. Behind the long desk was a wall to wall window that looked down on another space, much larger than the one were were in. Through the window I could see more green and gold, wrapped in glittering transparency. It took a moment to focus on what I was actually seeing before I blurted out.