Here Be Dragons: Three Adventure Novels Read online

  Behind them, a door slammed followed by a sultry voice with a remarkable, yet understandable, Scandinavian accent.

  “Good afternoon, gentlemen,” said the polished voice behind them. The two men turned around. Travis and Adam were both dumbstruck at the sight of Thyri. She had an imposing stature, at least five foot ten inches tall, a slender, fit body, “waist length” blond hair and a beautiful face. She was dressed in black leather pants and a white lace blouse with fire engine red lipstick. She reminded Travis of the vampire movies from the eighties where the female vamps were always bombshell types dressed in Victorian clothing.

  “Ahh, there you are,” Adam said, trying to regain his composure. “I hope we weren’t imposing.”

  Quickly, Travis turned on his ‘Professional Travis’ persona and extended his hand to her.

  “I just wanted to thank you in person for the trip, before the jetlag puts me into a coma,” he said. “I’m Travis, by the way, Travis Monnahan.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Thyri replied, taking his hand and shaking it daintily. “I was just on the phone with Xenia. The connection was so bad that I wanted to finish up with her before I answered the door.”

  “Understood,” Travis replied, smiling broadly at her.

  He was quite pleased when she returned it with the prettiest smile he had seen in quite a while.

  “Well, it was a pleasure finally meeting you,” Thyri said, reluctantly taking her hand back. “Be absolutely sure that you enjoy yourselves in London. I want this trip to begin on a high note for all of us.”

  Thyri reached into her shirt pocket and took out a tiny envelope.

  “Open it.”

  Inside was a black credit card with his name on it.

  “It will be valid the entire time we’re in Europe. There’s enough money to buy our way out of any trouble, if needed.”

  “Well...” replied Travis, stunned to see this fabled credit card. “That may come in handy.”

  This type of card had a minimum one million dollar credit line. Travis didn’t know much about the Russian economy, but he did know one thing. You could add a few more zeroes to that number when you started talking in Rubles. Certainly, if the group needed anything at all on the trip, there was more than enough money to take care of it.

  “Just please, don’t cause any legal trouble. That’s all I ask.” Thyri paused and looked around the hall for a second. “Some of us don’t exactly understand this concept.”

  “She got arrested, big deal,” inferred Adam, assuming Thyri was referring to Fiona.

  “No, far from it!” retorted Thyri.

  It was the first time that Adam had heard her raise her voice from its normal calm demeanor.

  “She was extremely disruptive and the most hurtful part was that the protest had nothing to do with her, or us. It’s as if she was walking by them and just decided it was a good idea to get herself involved. I know she’s passionate about the environment, but a violent protest about greenhouse gas emissions over London? She wasn’t just part of the blockade around that park, mind you. She chained herself to the gate, while the police tried to remove them from the scene. None of the local protesters resisted as much as she did. I don’t mind taking care of the expenses for this excursion, but I’d rather not have to finance your legal defense.”

  “Well said.” Travis agreed.

  “Anyway I’m off to Mayfair for a bit of retail therapy; it’s been months since I’ve been to London. If I don’t see you this evening at dinner, I’ll meet you all downstairs in the morning for breakfast. We’ll talk more about the flight to St. Petersburg, go over the paperwork, and make sure everything is arranged with Xenia.”

  “Sounds good. It was a pleasure meeting you.”

  “In need of any company?” Adam interjected, clearly feeling left out of the exchange.

  “I’ll be fine, thank you,” Thyri replied. “I find it degrading to friends, forcing them to watch me indulge myself while they end up helping to carry my shopping bags.”

  It was a clear shoot down and luckily for Travis, Adam didn’t press the issue.

  Travis knew they weren’t going to meet up with Thyri later. He wanted to pass out for a few hours. He also didn’t want to talk to Adam any longer than was required for the rest of the day; that was proving to be quite exhausting. He walked down the hall past her door, not really sure where he was going, knowing Adam would go on talking to her for a minute about some ridiculous topic before realizing that he’d left.

  “Don’t act like I couldn’t tell what that was about,” Adam confronted Travis. “You think she’s hot, I can tell. You wanted in.”

  “Nah it’s not that. I’m just tired and more than just a little hungry as well. You guys have had at least a day to catch up to the time zone.” Travis responded.

  “Alright, let’s head to the bar, that’s where the girls were heading when I saw them last.”

  Adam and Travis walked into the elevator.

  “I could use a tasty beverage.”

  “I thought so, buddy.” Adam excitedly replied back.

  The two men entered the hotel’s lounge. It was empty at that time ofday, there was only one person sitting at the bar. She was a bit older than Travis and Adam, but she had luxurious black hair that hung down past her shoulders. She displayed a certain air of professionalism with the black suit she wore. Travis was a bit taken aback; she looked completely different than the picture he’d seen online. In fact, they hadn’t done her any justice.

  “That’s Savannah, right?” he whispered to Adam.

  “Yeah’” Adam answered, as they continued walking towards the woman at the bar. “Don’t let those stunning looks fool you though; once she opens that mouth and starts talking, everything in the universe becomes a sudden bore.”

  “Didn’t you say there was another girl here?” Travis asked, as he scratched his beard. That was a habit that he couldn’t stop even if he tried; Travis always wanted to know about the ladies. Sometimes it annoyed Adam, but even he had to admit that unlike him, Travis was always lucky with the fairer sex.

  “Hmm...”Adam paused for a moment, looked at Travis for a second, and then looked around the bar. “Yeah. I don’t see her anywhere right now. We can worry about that later. I think you’ll like Savannah; she’s got a cute accent.”

  “Are you making mention of my accent again, Adam?” the woman snuck up on the men while Adam surveyed the room. “You must be Adam’s editor friend. He’s told me quite a bit about you. I’m Dr. Savannah Summers, charmed to meet you.”

  “As am I,” Travis replied, shaking her hand. “Dr. Travis Monnahan.”

  Apparently, Savannah was equally as surprised by his southern drawl as he had been by hers; a true southern belle.

  Travis ordered a drink, but he did not intend to drink much. He immediately asked the waiter for a menu.

  “So Savannah, how good is your Russian?” he decided to ask her; for the first time he found himself unsure of what to say next. “I mean, I don’t doubt your skills, I was really just wondering since I don’t speak the language at all.”

  “Of course,” she said, and took a sip of her drink. “I’ve studied it for ten years, so I think we’ll manage. This isn’t my first time going to Russia either. I actually got my masters in Moscow.”

  This is how Savannah attempted to show off her credentials to what she suspected was a very successful editor of a very established national magazine. He was pretty lucky to share the same first name as the real editor of the publication, Travis Hughes.

  “I think Adam told me that.” Travis lied. Adam never said such a thing, but Adam stayed silent.

  “So, what got you interested in Kitezh?” she asked him, as she sipped her drink.

  “Well you know, I heard about the legend, about the city that could turn invisible, quite a while ago. I honestly can’t remember when that was,” he commented. He almost let a laugh slip out after he said ‘honestly’. “I found it extremely fascina
ting. So when I found Xenia’s thread on the forum, of course it just blew my mind that people were really out there talking about it. I’d heard about people seeing a huge structure vanishing and reappearing in different locations around Lake Baikal and I couldn’t help but think of the connection.”

  “I know what you mean,” she replied. “The lake is the deepest in the world and enormous, who knows what those people could have seen. I’m looking to debunk it, in the unlikely chance that it is real, then that would be just peachy, don’t you think?”

  “It’s weird; the legends, books and plays I’ve read don’t say anything about the city being spotted in Lake Baikal, or even being invisible all the time. It was only said to be invisible when attacked. However, the eyewitness reports kept saying it was ‘flickering’.”

  “Yes, they did,” she agreed. “I wondered if I was the only one to find the use of that word strange.”

  Just as she was about to signal the bartender for a refill, the waiter came back with the menu for Travis. She ordered a refill.

  “Yeah, flickering. That’s how Xenia described it. ‘It was flickering like an old television set’, is what she’d said.”

  “Weird,” Savannah replied. “I don’t know what to believe, but it’s certainly worth the look, don’t you think? Quite a few people have reported seeing the same all over the cities on the shore of the lake.”

  Thirty minutes later, he had practically inhaled a generous basket of fish and chips. Travis was satisfied; it had been delicious. It was at that timehe realized just how many drinks Savannah’d had. There were at least two Jack and cokes, both doubles, but that was just the drinks that he noted. There was no way of knowing how many drinks she’d had before he and Adam arrived, but he guessed it could be substantial and he was pretty impressed that she showed no obvious signs of impairment.

  The food had refreshed Travis immensely; he hardly felt the fatigue that had plagued him earlier in the afternoon. He still felt that he should probably go up to his room and get some sleep, but he thought that he could handle just one more drink.

  “Fiona!” Savannah exclaimed, standing up as another woman entered the hotel lobby.

  She was accompanied by two very big men, with imposing faces. One of them held her by the arm in a manner that suggested they wouldn’t be letting go of her easily.

  “Oh, hello Savannah darling,” she said, wrestling her arm away from the man and going over to hug her friend. They gave each other that European ‘peck-peck’ on the cheeks and smiled at each other.

  “I thought you’d been bailed out of jail last night,” Savannah whispered to her. “Who are these morons?”

  “Oh, these blokes here?” Fiona continued in her thick London accent. “They’re just a of goons that work for Mickey Large. He owns the bail bond place my Matthew got the bail money from. You know, after I chained myself to that gate down on The Mall last night?”

  “Are you kidding me, Fiona?” Savannah said, on the brink of losing her temper. “The Mall? Why not the Victoria Memorial then? So Matt stood security for the bail. What could you do to piss off your bail bondsman in less time than it takes most people to get up for work in the morning?”

  “Well, he called me and Matt in there this morning to give us the talk about how nobody jumps his bonds,” she explained.

  “Well that’s fair enough, but what did you do Fiona?”

  “I sorta told him that he was gonna lose on the bail money anyway cause I wasn’t gonna be ‘ere for the court date.”

  “Are you mentally retarded? Why would you tell a “well known” London gangster that you intentionally planned to skip town?”

  “What was I supposed to do?” she replied with a perplexed look on her face. “It’s the truth, ain’it? So now he wants a word with you. All o’ yous.”

  Travis and Adam looked at one another apprehensively.

  She was a pretty girl. A pretty, blond girl. A pretty, dumb, blond girl! Travis thought to himself as he wondered about what he had just heard.

  “Boys, I don’t know what kind of trouble she’s in, but these aren’t the type of men you can say no to; especially if you want to continue enjoying the natural function of your legs.In the meantime I’ll call one of my solicitor friends.”

  The two men looked at each other, and Travis shrugged. He’d much rather continue having the use of his legs.

  ***

  The two men showed all four of them into the back of a large black SUV. It was no secret that Fiona was to blame or the predicament they were in. This trip had started to take the same strange trend it had before Travis left the United States. Meanwhile, Savannah spoke rapidly into her cell phone in what he assumed was Russian, none of them in the vehicle understood what she was saying. When she hung up, she turned to Travis and Adam and updated them, completely ignoring Fiona.

  “Mishka says he’ll get the court date suspended until we get back from Russia,” she announced. She turned to Fiona in disgust and continued, “It’s not a big deal but you’ve got to go to appear in court tomorrow morning so the judge can make a ruling. Don’t get it twisted, Fiona, I’ll be taking you down there myself.”

  “Oh, come off it!” she retorted. “All of a sudden everybody’s going on as if I’m some sort of irresponsible teenager.”

  She fell silent when she looked around her and saw all their looks of surprise.

  “We’re here,” one of the men advised.

  The sedan pulled into a dingy garage that was located in the east side of London.

  “Get out and stay close to me. Do anything stupid and we make you smart real quick,” the baldheaded one, John, said as he cocked his gun. In his desperate attempt to show off some prowess, he accidentally caused the bullet that was already chambered to go flying out. Travis couldn’t help chuckling softly at the mishap. The other gangster, “black haired” Ken, insulted his friend for making such an amateurish mistake causing them both to look incompetent. As stupid as it had made the men look, the four remained keenly aware that the mere fact they had guns marked the two goons, and their boss Mickey Large, as dangerous criminals; England still enforced stringent anti-handgun laws which made it virtually impossible for private citizens to own and license a firearm.

  The six of them stepped into an elevator and listened to the generic elevator music as it rose to an upper floor. The elevator was decorated with a lavish gold colored trim. As it rose higher into the building, light poured in from glass on all sides. Travis was stunned to see that they were in the midst of a high class restaurant. The elevator continued to rise, and eventually came to rest at the top floor, which was a special bar for VIPs.

  The elevator opened to reveal a pale man with “fiery red” hair. He was dressed rather stereotypically like a British version of Hugh Hefner and clearly seemed to be brandishing about as much money. He wore a dark, paisley smoking jacket and silk pajama pants that were both much too baggy on his slender frame. Travis couldn’t help realizing the stark irony of the ensemble compared to his sharply dressed employees, but there was no way he would allow himself to say it to Mickey’s face. Someone that obviously imbued with power, and who had the confidence to dress like that in the middle of the day, in public, wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

  “You three, over there,” He said, with a very thick Irish accent.

  Adam later told Travis he’d thought he sounded like Sean Connery, but on crack. Mickey’s demeanor went from an intimidating version of Sean Connery, to a very smooth and polite one.

  “Would you care for tea or a stiff drink?”

  Savannah immediately responded to his offer.

  “Certainly,” she said, putting on her most pleasant smile. “Pour me a triple of whiskey. Make it Jack.”

  “The lady wants whiskey! And a triple she says! What a class act, a southern lady indeed,” Mickey said, laughing. “Whichever one of you sorry bums gets to end up with her is gonna be very lucky.”

  The Irish man laughed, and walked over
to the bar and got behind it. He grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels and threw the bottle at one of his bartenders.

  “Well, are you just gonna stand there texting your mum all day or do some frickin’ work? Get her a bloody drink! Amateurs!”

  He inched his way over to Fiona, and looked at her in a way that made even Travis uncomfortable.

  “You gotta problem, Mickey?” she asked boldly. “You keep looking an’ I’m gonna have to charge you by the minute.”

  The man wasted no time drawing back his hand and slapping her across the face. They all flinched visibly at the suddenness of the assault. Savannah took a daring step in Fiona’s direction, but one of Mickey’s men stepped in front of her with her drink and shook his head sternly. Savannah stared back at him intensely for what seemed like a minute, but in the end she took the drink and managed to thank him.

  “You little...!” he shouted at her. “Unbelievable!”

  Mickey turned to his enforcers that were gathered in a little group at a corner table. “

  “Can you believe the nerve o’ this one?”

  He turned back to Fiona and continued, “You come into my place of business with that piece o’ shite brother o’ yours and threaten me with bond jumping? D’ya think I was just gonna let it slide, just like that?”

  He laughed sarcastically and nodded at Adam, Travis and Savannah. The ‘black haired’ man named Ken herded the three towards a table and made them sit down; beers appeared on the table almost immediately for Travis and Adam.

  “I love my business, Fiona. My bail bonds are my life blood. Normally I would have just waited for you to jump and then sent one of my bounty hunters after you. Have you ever been stalked and caught by one o’ them, girl?”

  There was complete silence in the room; no one uttered a single word. They didn’t have to; they all thought the same thing, at the same time.

  Mickey Large was completely crazy.

  “What do you want from me?” she asked him, trying to stand up to him defiantly.

  “I don’t want a thing, my dear! Not one thing from you!” he yelled before he continued. “I thought about this whole thing for a minute, then I decided it wasn’t how I wanted to ‘andle it. You see, bounty hunters are expensive and the only one I still use has a tendency to think every mark is a dead or alive one. Needless to say, I don’t get many bonds paid up when he gets a job.”