The Dragon Conspiracy by Lisa Shearin Page B

seated.”
    Ian spoke for the first time in about five minutes. “May I stay, ma’am?”
    “Of course.” She glanced at me. “If you do not mind?”
    “Mind?” I turned to Ian. “Why wouldn’t I want you here?”
    My partner looked uncharacteristically uncomfortable. It was kinda cute. “It isn’t . . . personal?”
    I coughed back a chortle. Ian was serious, and I didn’t want to laugh at him. “No more personal than the two of
us
having a chat. Me and Ms. Sagadraco will just be looking at each other. You won’t hear a thing. We will. That is, if it works.” I looked back at our boss. “Are you ready, ma’am?”
    I felt a push behind my eyes.
    “Always.”
    I froze and my eyes went wide.
    “I take it that means you can hear me?”
my dragon boss asked.
    I managed a series of tiny nods.
    “Is it working?” Ian whispered.
    “Oh yeah,” I whispered right back, not taking my eyes off of Ms. Sagadraco.
“So, how am I able to do this?”
    “I’ve never heard of it manifesting in a seer. However, there are not many dragons left, and it is a rare gift, so perhaps you are merely the first.”
    “Oh wonderful. I’m a trailblazer.”
    “Actually, it is wonderful. Especially if we can also communicate over distance. Do I have your permission to try later?”
    “Could you give me a call on my phone first? It might not be quite so . . . startling that way.”
    “Of course.”
    She glanced over my shoulder at Ian. “That went exceptionally well,” she told him out loud.
    He looked from me to the boss and back again. “It worked?”
    “Perfectly,” she said.
    I went with more nods and what I hoped wasn’t a freaked-out rictus of a smile.
    There was a soft tap on the door. It opened a crack and Caera Filarion stuck her head in.
    “I’m sorry to interrupt, ma’am. Mr. Moreau wasn’t at his desk, and I knew you’d want to hear this.”
    I went still. “Ben?”
    “Oh yeah. But don’t worry, he’s fine. He simply has more horsepower under his hood than we thought possible.”
    Vivienne Sagadraco beckoned with a bejeweled hand. “Come in, Agent Filarion.”
    Caera did and closed the door behind her.
    “It’s rather too soon for your team to have a full report,” the boss noted.
    “We’re still testing Mr. Sadler, but I knew you’d want to know that our preliminary results indicate that Ben Sadler is at least a level ten gem mage.”
    That was confusing. “I thought the scale only goes to ten.”
    “It does. Tall, blond, and beautiful you brought home with you is testing off the charts—all of them.”
    “So he’s not a newbie?”
    “Oh, we’re pretty sure he’s just coming into his power.” Caera bit back a snicker. “He has absolutely zero control. We had a test gem that’s been especially responsive to mage stimuli in the past. He blew out every light and electrical outlet in the infirmary, and that was from simply looking at the thing. Bob from Research was observing the test. Unfortunately he was standing in front of an outlet; now he’s sporting a bad perm.”
    Ian chortled. “So Ben Sadler was telling the truth.”
    “In my opinion, yes. He was open to our questioning and forthright in his responses. Mac, you saving him from that harpy made our job infinitely easier,” she told me. “He trusts you. Ian? Uh, not so much. Ben sees his talent as more of an incurable medical condition, and we’re the only available specialists. Unfortunate that he perceives it that way, but it’s a normal human reaction.”
    Ian turned to the boss. “Ma’am, you said that Viktor Kain is a gem mage. Do you think he could sense a like talent?”
    “Definitely.”
    “If he really thinks we’re behind the robbery, you ordering us to get Ben Sadler out of the museum would play right up his paranoid alley.”
    “Because he would believe that I would be using Mr. Sadler to activate the diamonds to do whatever it is they can do.”
    Ian nodded.
    “So what’s next?” I asked. “We