Chapter 6

The following character is mentioned or appears in this chapter:

Dukhor

The Timeless Monk, 5’-4’’ tall, 130 pounds, an older man, shaved head, tired brown eyes

Craig has the Narrative

While we had been gone less than three hours, on returning we found the house in disorder with six screaming infants.

“What’s wrong?” Mom asked immediately on entering the house.

“They all either need to eat or to be changed at the same time,” a slightly befuddled Dallas told Mom.

“You two go ahead and take care of your Sons, and I’ll help Jorani with her Daughters and mine,” she told Dallas and Doreen. In a few minutes, relative calm had returned to the house, and all of the male Familiars came out of hiding.

“I’m glad that’s over,” Al said. “I missed a part of my morning nap with all of that noise,” he finished and returned to the kitchen where he normally slept. The other Familiars went in search of their masters, or the ones they were watching presently.

Later that day, Dad and I had a meeting with Mom and Jorani.

“We still need to make a trip to Tibet to check on things,” I reminded them when everyone was seated comfortably.

“When?” Mom asked before Jorani could.

“Maybe tomorrow. Today is pretty much shot, and we’ll need to pick up a few things to take with us,” I told her.

“There are still some supplies there,” Jorani reminded me.

“Yes, but they are things that require cooking. I’m not much of a cook, but I can heat things up as well as anyone,” I told her.

“Who will be going with you?” Mom asked.

“I was considering Dad,” I told her.

“Keith thinks that he is being left out,” Dad reminded me.

“Yes, and Dad needs to be here to keep things running at the company. Keith or Steve would be better, and Steve has already been on several trips. Dallas will be glad to keep him home, except for his normal work schedule,” Mom told us.

“Will Doreen be all right?” I asked.

“Doreen is more competent than any of you give her credit for. Just because she doesn’t say a lot, you all tend to overlook her,” Mom told us.

“All right, I’ll take Keith with me,” I agreed. I went to talk to Keith after the meeting, and we picked up a few supplies for the trip.

A day earlier in Beijing, the General Secretary of the Politburo’s Standing Committee was briefed by his Security Chief.

“What have you learned?” the Secretary demanded when his Security Chief entered his quarters.

“Our technicians have gone over the the DVD very thoroughly. They are positive that all of it was shot continuously. There has been nothing added to it or removed from it. The beginning was apparently taken before the camera was put on a tripod. They are unable to explain the initial wavering of the image of the Dragons, but suspect that there may have been a sheer curtain or something similar in front of the camera, but that it was quickly removed and the image stabilized.

“The people visible at the end of the presentation are actual people, and they were standing in front of the actual Dragons. Again, nothing was added, subtracted, or changed in the image. There were no cartoons or other images added to the DVD,” the Chief of Security informed him.

“You are saying then that the message is original! That there really are Dragons!” the Secretary asked in a shocked voice.

“Yes, Excellency, that is the conclusion of those who inspected the DVD. They were most careful in their investigation,” the Security Chief assured him.

“Does anyone else know about this?” he demanded.

“No, Excellency. No one.”

“Keep this information and your people quiet. We will need to see how things develop in the next few days. Admitting that there really are Dragons would not be good presently ... maybe later though,” the Secretary said as he considered several alternatives.

The following day, the same day that Maddy visited the Major Demons, there was a full meeting of the Politburo. A number of disturbing items were brought up.

“There have been a number of disappearances of people over the past week plus,” the member in charge of Internal Security brought up during the meeting.

“That doesn’t seem surprising, given the destruction in our cities. Many people have perished in the fires and building collapses,” another member stated.

“These people were not government employees or other workers. They were people that State Security was monitoring. They were not located in areas that were destroyed or burned, and they vanished rather suddenly,” the first member continued.

“Many people have left the cities to visit relatives in the country because of the fires and destruction,” the second member countered.

“These people did not do that. My people have checked thoroughly. While checking, they have noticed that many other people have disappeared also,” the first member continued.

“What type of people were these?” the Secretary asked, becoming interested.

“They were mostly workers ... tradesmen. Construction workers, plumbers and electricians, plus other types of laborers. Additionally, a few professionals have also disappeared, doctors of various types, dentists, and engineers of various persuasions plus some miscellaneous job types,” the first member told him.

“And what conclusions have you drawn from this?” the Secretary demanded.

“We are still looking for those missing. We haven’t drawn any conclusions yet,” the first member told him before sitting back down. This discussion prompted another member to raise a point.

“There have been reports of missing building supplies and equipment. This came to light with the need for more supplies to repair the destruction. The reports have come from companies selling the supplies and from storage locations. There have also been reports of missing equipment such as generators, forklifts, and power tools of various kinds both large and small,” the new member informed the committee.

“Were the locations reporting these shortages in or near the areas destroyed,” another member asked.

“No, none of those reporting shortages were in those areas,” the new member replied.

“Could they have been pilfered and sold on the Black-market?” another member asked.

“It’s possible, but the shortages weren’t noticed until after the start of the destruction,” the new member told them.

“You are saying then that they were stolen either during or after the destruction started,” the Secretary stated.

“Yes, that appears to be when it occurred or was at least noticed,” the member replied. This had prompted the member responsible for Military Construction to also raise a point.

“We have received reports of missing mobile barracks buildings. With the destruction at the various Army and Air Force camps, there have been many requests for replacement barracks. When those in charge of the storage locations began to issue them, they discovered that there were a large number of barracks missing, and they have been unable to fill all of the requests that they have received,” the member informed those on the Committee.

“Where were these storage sites?” the Secretary demanded.

“They are located well outside of any of the cities that were attacked. There were no fires or destruction at the storage sites as there had been at the Military camps,” the member informed him.

“I sense a pattern developing from these reports,” the Secretary began, having made up his mind on the direction that he wanted to move the discussion. “In the DVD, the Dragons stated that they were removing their offspring from our lands. It is looking like they are the ones responsible for the missing people, and the supplies and equipment as well as the buildings. The question then is where have they moved them and the supplies? Also, how did they manage to do this without anyone noticing them? Were the security people in with them?” the Secretary demanded of those reporting, while the rest of the committee looked on in disbelief.

“Are you saying that you believe that fantastic story that was on that DVD that we viewed a few days ago?” a senior member of the Committee asked after a few seconds.

“The technicians have thoroughly examined the DVD and have indicated that it had no additions or tricks added to it. Given what was said about removing their offspring, can you come up with a better theory that explains all of the missing people and material?” the Secretary challenged him and the others.

“But where could they have gone with all of this and why has no one noticed?” a member asked.

“There is much open space in the western part of the country and in the mountains where few people live,” one of the other members pointed out.

“More importantly, how could they move all of these things and people without someone noticing?” another member demanded also. They were all interrupted by the Secretary.

“We must determine how these things were accomplished and where they have gone, but we cannot allow this search to interfere with rebuilding our cities, our government buildings, and our industries that have been destroyed by these Dragons,” the Secretary insisted. This seemed to give those present renewed meaning to their work. The remainder of the meeting was devoted to finding ways to accomplish what he had proposed. The meeting went on for a long time.

Craig still has the Narrative

Keith and I left the next morning at 10:00. It was just after 10:00 at night in Tibet when we emerged from the portal. We were only a little dizzy. Keith was immediately impressed with the cave that we emerged in.

“This place is huge. Is this where you were staying?” he asked as he looked around.

“No, we were staying two levels above the cave. The larger lake is fresh water. The smaller one is acid,” I told him. “The other portal goes to Lhasa and the area where Humans worked for the Dragons,” I added, pointing to the other portal. “The work area is inside of Red Mountain. The Potala Palace is built on the outside of the mountain. We’ll go to Lhasa tomorrow and check in with Tsepak on what the Black-marketeers know about what is going on in Tibet and the rest of China,” I told Keith.

“Meanwhile,” I added, “we need to go up to the nesting area where we had our quarters and get things set up.”

“You were living here?” Keith asked in a questioning voice when we reached the nesting level. He was looking around at all of the long dead Female Dragon remains that were still present in the multitude of nests on this level.