Of Cinder and Bone Read online

  “Moment of truth,” Jack murmured under his breath, stooping and placing the stethoscope’s diaphragm against the nearest egg.

  And he heard nothing.

  Frowning, he placed it against another part of the egg, further down. No heartbeat. He moved it a third time. Still nothing.

  He tapped the diaphragm against his palm a few times to confirm that it was working and moved to the egg next to it, his heart ricocheting off his ribcage with frantic beats. Silence.

  “Kamala?” he asked weakly, glancing across the table at her. “Come here.”

  She walked over, her voice low. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t hear anything. Go on. Listen.”

  She popped the ear pieces to her stethoscope in and lowered the diaphragm towards an egg. She paused, eyes closed, concentrating. She opened them a moment later, her face slack with disbelief. “It’s… gone. I can’t hear it either.”

  “This can’t be right,” Jack muttered. “We checked them an hour ago and they were fine. We haven’t changed any variables. They can’t all be gone just like that. Check the others.”

  They switched off. Jack examined the three eggs on one side of the table and Kamala checked the other three. They spent ten minutes turning them over and feeling them for weak spots or signs of life, but there were none.

  Jack shook his head slowly. “No. This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening.”

  Kamala came to his side, touching his arm gently. “Jack, look at me. Calm down. We don’t have all the facts yet. Maybe they’ve gone catatonic and they just need some sort of stimulus to get their vitals up again.”

  He pressed his hands to the table and tried to breathe, nodding. “Right. It’s not over until it’s over. I’ll swing past the veterinary hospital and see if they can spare an epi-pen. A small injection might do the trick. Stay here and watch them, will you?”

  “Of course.” She closed her hand over his briefly and then let him go. Then, she turned towards their group of spectators and forced on a smile.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, there has been a slight delay in our schedule…”

  Jack returned in a little under half an hour later with two shots of adrenaline. He and Kamala measured the amounts as carefully as possible and injected them into each of the eggs, in the nutrient sacs where the reptiles drew their sustenance. They waited.

  Forty agonizing minutes.

  “They’re gone,” Jack whispered. “I don’t… I don’t understand. They were right here, Kam. What did I miss?”

  She squeezed his hand. “Jack, this isn’t your fault. Maybe something went wrong and their health destabilized while we were out.”

  “All that work,” he said hoarsely. “Years’ worth. Just like that. Gone.”

  He shook his head again. “I shouldn’t have dragged you into this.”

  “You didn’t drag me into anything. I chose this. I chose you.” She caught his chin and made him face her. Fierce brown eyes blazed at him. “And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

  “This kind of thing can end a career. Let me take the blame. Please.”

  “It’s my career to end. We tell them together. End of story.”

  He shut his eyes at her words, shuddering slightly. “I’m so sorry.”

  “We’ll find our way again. I promise.” She stroked the side of his face before turning towards the increasingly uneasy spectators around them.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Jack said after clearing his throat. “I’m afraid that something’s happened. Our hatchlings have flat-lined. They’re… they’re gone.”

  A frigid hush fell over the room. The lead reporter stepped forward. “They’re dead?”

  Kamala nodded grimly. “Stillborn. We’re not sure how, but we’ve tried everything to resuscitate them and nothing has worked. I’m afraid we’ve lost them.”

  Edie’s hands rose to her mouth, and her eyes fell on her son. “Oh, honey.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” the reporter moaned. “I got pulled off a hot lead at the Mayor’s office for this crap and you’re telling me the whole thing’s off? Get a defibrillator and bring the little bastards back to life.”

  “Watch it,” Jack said very quietly.

  “No, you watch it, pal. Everyone’s been talking about you like you’re gonna save the world and yet here we are with nothing to show for it.”

  Jack stepped forward, gritting his teeth. “No one put a gun to your head and told you to come here. That’s three years of my life lying on that table over there, dead. Cry me a fucking river.”

  Kamala gripped his arm. “Jack.”

  The reporter snorted, not backing down even though Jack practically towered over him. “This was just a publicity stunt, wasn’t it? Something to get MIT some attention, since that’s where all the washed-up scientists go to spin their wheels and pretend like they’re making a difference. What’s the matter? The real world too much for you?”

  “The real world?” Jack laughed bitterly. “You’re about to find out how real the world can get.”

  “Jack!”

  “No, let him go, sweetheart. This’ll look good on the front page. I can see the headline now: ‘Failed Scientist Socks Award-Winning Reporter for Hurting His Feelings.’”

  Jack grabbed two handfuls of the guy’s shirt and a couple of people darted between them, shouting for them to cool off and separate.

  Crack.

  Jack froze.

  Crrrraaaaaaack.

  He craned his neck slowly towards the table.

  The furthest egg to the left had a fracture running down the length of it.

  Crick-crack.

  The egg wiggled once, twice. The fracture widened.

  Jack and Kamala stumbled towards the table together, their eyes transfixed on the tremors going through the lone egg. A moment later, a tiny green snout poked through a hole in the top and embryonic fluid oozed outward.

  Jack snatched up a box of gloves and handed it to Kamala, snapping a pair on, and then reached a shaking hand towards the creature. He lifted the small piece of shell that the dragon had stuck on his snout and watched slack-jawed as it sneezed and pushed its glistening, spindly limbs out. It was the size of a large gecko. The scales were leafy-green over most of its body, with paler shades along its belly, and dark green splotches along its spine. It had four limbs like a normal lizard, but two thin yellow membrous wings stuck out from its shoulders. Its head bore similarities to a bird, with a triangular head with bright eyes, its pupils thin slits like a snake. Each foot ended in pinpricks of claws and it had a set of needle-like teeth just barely poking out of its gums.

  “Kamala?”

  “Yes?”

  “You’re seeing this, right?”

  “I am.”

  Jack let out a thready, borderline manic giggle as the young dragon wobbled on its legs and let out a needy chirp, its yellow eyes focusing on the two of them after a moment. Jack cupped one hand and brought it forward slowly, his deep voice soothing.

  “Hey there, buddy. Welcome to the party. Nice timing.”

  The dragon chirped a couple more times and sniffed his fingers one by one. It nipped them, coughed, and then crawled clumsily into his arms. Kamala handed him a small towel and cleaned the little reptile off, smiling as it nuzzled its head against her touch.

  “She’s beautiful, Jack,” she whispered. “What should we call her?”

  “Pete.”

  She choked on laugh. “You’re such a sap. Hello, Pete. Welcome to MIT.”

  ~ * ~

  Getting privacy for a living, breathing dragon—the first anyone had seen since the 1400’s—was no small feat, but eventually Jack and Kamala were granted some alone time after scores and scores of photos and questions after the unveiling in the lab. They swaddled her up and drove to the veterinary hospital to start the physical examination, and the head doc
tor cleared out an exam room for them after plenty of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the staff and students.

  “Ready?” Jack asked as Kamala set up her laptop.

  “Ready,” she said, adjusting the webcam and tapping the Record button.

  Jack set the dragon down on the exam table. The reptile wriggled its way out of the blanket and immediately began to walk around on its shaky legs. Her black tongue flitted out every few seconds to taste the air and a thin film flicked over her eyes as she peered up at the lights in the ceiling.

  “First thing of note is her outward appearance,” Jack said. “So far, she’s definitely showing her relation to Komodo dragons, with her elevated breathing and how she ‘smells’ the room. We’re going to test her vision in just a little bit to confirm. Behaviorally, she hasn’t shown any aggression yet and she might even have imprinted on me and Dr. Anjali so far.”

  He scooped her up and placed her on the animal scale on the counter. “She weighs approximately two-point-four pounds.”

  Kamala handed him a flexible tape measure and helped hold her still as he measured her from snout to tail, and then from the top of her skull to her clawed feet. “She’s twelve inches long and six-point-five inches tall. Her wings measure at four inches long and two inches wide.”

  Pete sneezed. Jack grinned. “Apparently, she might have the sniffles. Kam, our dragon has the sniffles.”

  Kamala lifted her out of the scale and set her back on the exam table. “I noticed.”

  “It’s kind of adorable.”

  “Yes, it is,”

  “Kam.”

  “What?”

  “We made a dragon.”

  She struggled not to laugh at the giddiness in his voice. “Yes, Jack, I noticed.”

  He cleared his throat. “Right. Sorry. Back on track.” He walked over to the sink and poured water into an unused dish and brought it over. Pete climbed down from where she’d been walking across Kamala’s left shoulder and gave it an experimental lick. She then crouched and started drinking the water.

  “If her biology is like any other reptile, then my first guess is that she’ll want insects as a food source, possibly fish as well. We’ll start her off on crickets since they are small and probably easier on her digestive tract before moving through different kinds of solid nourishment. She’ll most likely swallow the food whole since her teeth aren’t much bigger than a millimeter each.”

  He retrieved a stethoscope for Kamala and held the dragon still while she used it. “Heart rate is an average of 120 bpm.”

  She walked over to the counter and retrieved a thermometer with a sensor in its tip, sparing the reptile an apologetic look as she lifted up her tail. Pete squeaked momentarily.

  “Temperature is 30 degrees Celsius.”

  Jack glanced at the webcam. “That’s 86 degrees Fahrenheit, for you heathen Americans out there.”

  Kamala snorted and uncapped a small syringe, cooing softly to the dragon. “This is going to hurt just a little, meri priya.”

  She felt along the length of Pete’s tail, which accounted for about four of her total twelve inches, until she found a vein and then stuck the needle in. Pete chirped again and wriggled, but Jack held her still until the blood was drawn.

  “Good girl,” he murmured, letting go so the reptile could get her bearings. “I’ll go grab her a snack and then we can see where we are for X-rays.”

  He started for the door, but then paused.

  “What?” Kamala asked.

  Jack turned. “You know how I utterly loathe selfies?”

  “Yes.”

  “I kind of think the situation warrants a selfie. Just one. And then we will never speak of it again.”

  Kamala bit her bottom lip to hide a smile. “Agreed.”

  She held her hand out to the dragon, which scuttled up her arm to burrow underneath her hair, and leaned into Jack’s shoulder as he held up his phone. Pete noticed his outstretched hand and decided to investigate, leading to a photo with her little face in the foreground and the two grinning scientists watching on in amusement.

  Jack handed Pete back over to Kamala and then left to inquire about when they could get the X-rays done. He returned about ten minutes later with a small doggy bowl full of dead crushed insects, which he set in front of the dragon on the counter. She sniffed them thoroughly and then began eating.

  Jack wrinkled his nose at the crunch-crunch noises she made. “Bon appétit. At least she’s got protein in her diet now. Anyway, they’re prepping the X-ray machine as we speak. In your medical opinion, what should we use to sedate her?”

  “Anesthesia should work just fine. I have an idea of how much to give her.”

  “So, gas or injection?”

  “Injection. She’s so small that they might not have a mask that will fit over her head. I doubt she’ll have an allergy to anything we give her, but that’s the safer option because I can control the dosage exactly.”

  A persistent humming sound interrupted them and Jack took his phone out of his pocket, glaring at it before finally shutting it off. “Seriously, this thing’s been going off non-stop since we left campus, and I don’t recognize eighty percent of the numbers calling me. I think we need to hire an agent.”

  “Not a bad idea. Maybe you’ll become the next Neil DeGrasse Tyson.”

  “Oh my God, don’t even joke about that. I’ll never be that cool.”

  “Well, you are also tall and good-looking. I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to turn you into some kind of poster boy for the scientific community.”

  “Yes, I’m sure to become the David Beckham of MIT. All they have to do is Photoshop some abs on me and we’re all set.” A knock came at the door and he nodded towards Pete. “They’re ready for us. Let’s get to it.”

  Considering the importance of their subject, Jack and Kamala got the X-rays back in an hour flat and studied the results while Pete recovered in a small cage near the other animals kept in the facility.

  “Skeletal structure is like we predicted,” Kamala murmured, tracing a fingertip over the pale, illuminated impression of Pete’s spinal column. “Light bones that should allow her to fly once her wings are strong enough. Heart is healthy. Lungs seem to have some kind of slight damage, which could account for her coughing and sneezing. Her scales should harden further over time.”

  “Yeah, I noticed that.” He reached behind him and held up a small plastic bag with little grey flakes inside. “She’s already molting. Very unusual for a newborn. Think it’s part of her accelerated growth?”

  Kamala nodded, examining the scales. “We’ll have to chart it daily until it normalizes. If that’s the case, then our projection of her final size is off by a lot. She could become the size of a young Komodo dragon for all we know.”

  “We’re gonna need bigger apartments.”

  Kamala shook her head. “Why am I not surprised that you want to keep her like a dog?”

  “What kid doesn’t dream of having a pet dragon?”

  She opened her mouth to reply, then shrugged. “Point taken. Still, we have to think bigger than that. The whole world will want to see her. Once she’s stable, we’ll have to consider her future. One where she’ll be safe and healthy, not a sideshow freak.”

  “Well, the wildlife preserve that lent us Sarah is definitely interested in her well-being. We’ll keep in contact with them as we move forward with further experimentation. I’d rather she be there with expert care than trapped in a zoo somewhere. You know, unless we go the John Hammond route and make a park full of dragons.”

  Kamala arched an eyebrow. “You do remember what happened at the end of that movie, right?”

  “Yeah, they ate Samuel L. Jackson, the bastards.” He stepped forward, pointing to the bottom of Pete’s jaw. “Now these glands here. What do those look like?”

  “Could be where the saliva is produced, but I’m not entirel
y sure. Her species hasn’t been documented as one that can produce fire. Perhaps poisonous sacs? After all, the Komodo dragon has a mouth full of lethal bacteria.”

  “Right. And look at the way her teeth are shaped. Hooks like a python for swallowing things whole. We should also consider putting eggs in her diet. Easy to digest once her mouth gets big enough to swallow them. The lab said they should be able to get the results of her saliva back in an hour.”