into the backside of the dragon. A minute later the dragon had backed up and swatted the overpass with its tail, sending Mara tumbling into the air and onto its back. The clip ended with the dragon leaping into the air and flying away with Mara holding on for dear life.
Her face reddening, Mara said, without looking from the screen, “Jeez, that couldn’t be me.” After a talking head appeared on screen, she gave Bohannon a wide-eyed, tight-lipped look and tilted her head toward the end of the hallway. “That must be a scene from a movie.”
He followed her around the corner, where she stopped and turned to him. “How long is it going to take the authorities to figure out who I am?”
“The television stations will figure it out before any authorities do. All they have to do is ask viewers to call in and identify the woman in the video, and someone who recognizes you will dial in for their few minutes of fame. Happens all the time, well, without the lightning bolts and dragons,” he said.
“Is it possible they might think the video is a hoax?”
“I don’t see how. It’s their guys who shot the video. They probably have even more of the dragon chasing them in the air.”
“What am I going to do?”
“Stay out of the waiting rooms. Most everyone else around here has been too sick or too busy to watch. For now, just keep your head down and let’s go check on Mr. Ping.”
Mara craned her neck around. “Where would they have him? I wish I hadn’t burned up Sam’s phone, or I could call him.”
Bohannon handed his phone to her. “You can call him on your mother’s phone. She gave it to him, before she left with the patrol car.”
It took Mara a moment to remember the number, since she was used to just tapping it on her contact list. After one ring Sam answered and said they were wheeling Ping into a room on the second floor. Mara hung up and pointed to a bank of elevators ahead of them at the end of the hall.
* * *
Sam stood outside the elevators when the doors to the car carrying Mara and Bohannon arrived on the second floor. The walls of the alcove were lined with boxy chairs and small end tables, a makeshift waiting room. Paranoid, Mara looked around for a television and locked onto the flat panel mounted on the wall to the left of the elevators. Sam noticed her concern with a smile.
“Oh, you’ve seen the news, I take it,” he said, flopping down into a chair.
“We just saw a clip playing in the waiting room downstairs but didn’t hear what the reporters were saying,” Mara said.
“Don’t worry. You’re getting good press. They are calling you the Milwaukie Dragonslayer. They seem to be really curious about how you throw those lightning bolts though. You might need to issue a press release or something to avoid confusion.”
“Shut up. This isn’t funny.” She looked at the ceiling and took a deep breath. “I’ll worry about that in a minute. How’s Ping?”
“They couldn’t find anything wrong with him, other than missing a bunch of blood, so they gave him a couple units and rolled him into the room. The nurse said he’s still recovering from shock, but it looks like he’s stable and going to be okay.”
“What room is he in?”
“He’s in 217, but the nurse won’t let you in there. We’re not relatives, and it’s the middle of the night.”
Mara rolled her eyes. “I think you can prompt them to let us in the room. I don’t want to stay out here all night.”
“Look, if you want, I’ll prompt the nurse to let you in the room, but there’s no point in staying. He’s out for the night and probably most of tomorrow, according to the nurse,” Sam said.
Mara lowered her voice and said, “What if he turns into the dragon again? One of us needs to be here.”
“Go take a look at him. I think you’ll agree, he’s not going anywhere, and I think the dragon has had enough for one night,” Sam said.
CHAPTER 39
Late the next morning, Mara sat hunched over a bowl of cereal, a spoon in one hand and a cup of coffee in another, puffy-eyed and pale under an unruly nest of auburn hair. Cam’s head was across from Mara on the table, where a place setting should have been, lying sideways on his left cheek so