Dragon Conjurer 4, page 12
I didn’t even dream of my playful lovers on the flight back to the Academy. I was out like a rock, and I felt like I’d only just passed out when my eyes suddenly opened to a blindingly bright light coming through the window of the plane.
Then Captain Silva’s voice crackled over the loudspeaker. “Welcome home, folks! If you have any complaints, I’m Captain Silva, and you can go fuck yourselves!”
Nala and Nick chuckled through their yawns, and Steffi and Elisabeth, who had been asleep on either of my arms, blinked awake.
“Are we here?” the redhead on my left murmured sleepily. She rubbed her eyes and yawned the squeakiest, cutest yawn I’d ever heard.
“Good morning, sleepyhead.” I smiled and kissed the top of her head.
We taxied down the hangar for a few more minutes before the plane came to a rest. My team and I filed down the walkway and found the landing area much less chaotic than it had been when we’d left several hours earlier. I spotted one team unloading their plane a few bays down from us, and over on the other side, I saw two different teams getting ready to embark. Otherwise, the hangar was empty.
“Burkhard says he’s ready for a mission debriefing,” Silva called out to us from the cockpit as we walked away from the plane.
“Do you think he’d mind waiting just twenty minutes?” Steffi groaned. “I’m all sweaty, dirty, and exhausted.”
“Don’t shoot the messenger.” The older man shrugged.
The fairy-girl let out an exasperated sigh and ran a hand through her hair. Her usually wavy locks had been matted down during her nap on the plane, and bits of dust and desert debris had gotten caught in her pink tendrils.
She was still sexy as hell, but I could tell she was tired and probably wanted to get a shower.
I made a mental note to join her whenever she got one.
Our haggard team pretty much stumbled up to Burkhard’s office, but we did our best to debrief him thoroughly despite how worn out we were. He expressed concern about the possibility of more monsters working together, and he even apologized for how exhausting the mission had been. There had been no reports of any other monsters being in the area, so the headmaster had no way of knowing we were going to face so many foes.
As part of his apology, and as thanks for how efficiently we eliminated the threat, Burkhard told us to take the evening off, and he added that we didn’t have to attend our classes tomorrow if we didn’t want to.
When we left the office, we paused in the hallway as we decided what to do next.
“I’m going down to the cafeteria,” Nick stated and began to head for the elevators. “You guys can meet me down there, or not. I don’t care. I need food.”
“He’s getting hangry again.” Steffi snickered once the nymph was out of earshot. “Best leave him alone with his food.”
“So, what’s the plan, then?” Nala asked.
“Well, I actually have some things I’d like to check out in the library,” I said as we headed for the elevator. “But I’m covered in sweat, blood, and imp funk, so I’m gonna hit the showers real quick before I get to that.”
“What are you studying in the library?” Steffi asked and tugged on a messy pink tendril.
“Something about those gargoyles didn’t feel right,” I replied. “I want to see if I can do some more digging into monster social structures.”
“Can we come with you?” Elisabeth asked innocently.
“Sure.” I smiled down at her. “Why don’t you girls get washed up? We’ll meet up to go to the library after.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to join us?” Nala said as she sent me a sexy smirk.
“There’s a good chance I’ll pass out if you get me going in a hot and steamy shower again,” I laughed, and Steffi giggled in agreement while Elisabeth blushed bright red.
The four of us parted ways to wash up as soon as we reached our dorms, but the whole time I washed off, the image of Steffi and Nala drenched and on their knees at my feet forced itself into my mind. I could hardly believe all that glory had just happened a few hours ago.
Then I realized I’d also defeated a coven of vampires at dawn today, gotten a very enjoyable physical from Dr. Hastings, and talked to a Siguanaba as well. The weight of this long ass day started to press heavy on my tired shoulders, but still, my curiosity was only gaining steam.
I had too many unanswered questions to even think of rest, and as soon as I was clean and in a fresh cadet uniform, I met up with Steffi, Nala, and Elisabeth. The three of them still had wet locks and blushing cheeks from their showers, and they smelled like a cloud of fresh and tasty fragrances as they skipped up to me and all placed kisses on my cheeks.
I took a deep breath of their sweet scents and wrapped my arms around the three of them at once.
“To the library we go.” I grinned.
It took some maneuvering for us all to make it there since Nala really wanted to snuggle against my side, and Steffi loved holding my hand. Elisabeth seemed eager to get closer to me, though, and my pixie dream girl insisted on swapping places with her along the way so I could escort the foxy redhead on my arm.
When I opened the immense library doors, I was met with the warm smell of books and the comforting sound of silence. The librarian smiled at me as we entered, and I waved as I guided the girls up to the front desk.
“Good evening, Mr. Cooper,” the librarian said.
“Good evening, Mrs. Wright,” I replied with a smile.
“What can I help you with today?” The middle-aged woman readjusted her glasses, and the blue streak in her hair shined in the fluorescent lights that buzzed above us.
“Where might I find information about monster sociology?” I asked.
“Monster sociology?” Mrs. Wright furrowed her brow and tapped her neon-painted fingernail against her chin. “Did you have a particular class of creature in mind? There’s research specifically for magical creatures, non-magical creatures, bi-pedal monstrosities, aggressive folk monsters, passive folk monsters…”
The librarian trailed off with a patient smile.
“Oh, uh…” I’d never heard of most of those terms in my life. “I was looking for broad access. Just all of it.”
“All of it?” The librarian raised her eyebrows.
“I’m in the mood to compare and contrast,” I clarified.
“Ahh, of course, Mr. Cooper,” Mrs. Wright said with a nod. “Let me see what I can find.”
As the librarian turned to tap away at her keyboard on the other side of the desk, I glanced down at Elisabeth and watched the French girl take in all the sights and smells of the immense room.
Her cute button nose and light freckles made her look younger than she was, but the muscles that hid within her wiry frame revealed the secret strength of our redheaded teammate. She also had the chest and hips of a woman in her prime, and something about her supple lips hinted at how sultry she could certainly be if she wanted to.
The redhead caught me staring at her and smiled up at me with a playful glint in her eyes. Then I discreetly moved my hand from around her shoulder, down to her backend, and gave it a gentle squeeze. The French girl gasped softly and blushed, and I raised my eyebrows at her as she gently bit down on her plump bottom lip.
Holy shit, I wanted her.
A second, firmer squeeze to her tight little ass made the French girl lean into my side, and her fingers trailed down my chest until they rested lightly on my abdomen. She had me locked in her glittering gaze as I studied the way her teeth embedded in the pink flesh of her lip, and suddenly, the rest of the world seemed to fade from my registry.
There was only the sweet smell of Elisabeth, her warm back end in my grip, and the way her slender fingers traced little circles lower and lower down my torso.
“Well…” Mrs. Wright turned back to us, and I snapped back to the issue at hand. “It looks like a broad and complete access to all files isn’t available on the student computers, I’m afraid.”
“Could you make an exception?” Steffi asked with a sweet smile. “Dylan is kind of the subject of a very important research study being conducted by Dr. Hastings. He was given access to the second level of the monster containment area, and I believe that also grants him permission to access the corresponding level of the restricted section here in the library.”
“Oh, really?” The librarian cocked an eyebrow and glanced over our group.
Steffi nodded. “Yes, he and Dr. Hastings have been conversing with sentient monsters today, and now we’ve just returned from battling a three-monster attack against hive-minded gargoyles. There are many studies Dylan needs to complete with regards to these very important circumstances, especially since he’s expected to report back to Dr. Hastings about his findings in the near future.”
I tried so hard not to smirk at my fairy-girl’s clipped but sweet tone. She could certainly lather on the details in the most tactful way when she needed to.
“Well, in that case,” Mrs. Wright continued as a curious smile played at the edges of her mouth. “I think Dylan will need to talk to our resident monster expert.”
“Resident monster expert?” I asked with a furrowed brow. “Do you mean Dr. Hastings? Because… we’ve spoken with her already today.”
The middle-aged woman leaned forward and clasped her hands under her chin while resting her elbows on the desk.
“No, Mr. Cooper,” Mrs. Wright replied. “You will visit with the SEEKR.”
My ears perked up as her eyes glinted.
The who?
Chapter Seven
The librarian stepped out from behind the front desk and motioned for the four of us to follow her. The middle-aged woman led us through the maze of bookshelves, and I had to hold myself back from stopping every few seconds to check out all the intriguing titles we passed.
I didn’t miss my old college life, but it felt good to be back in a learning environment and surrounded by more books than I’d ever be able to read.
I’d been a fan of libraries for most of my life. There was something I found comforting about the quiet, musty air, where all you could hear was the ticking of a clock and the periodic nose sniffling and foot shuffling from the other patrons. It was a place where I could be alone, where I was free to discover new things and escape to other worlds, all for the low, low price of absolutely free.
I hadn’t always felt like this, though. It wasn’t until my mom left, and I was alone with my grandparents that I started to see the value of stories. I’d always been a pretty smart kid, but once my grandfather started telling me stories of American folktales, that’s when I actually started to appreciate books.
And the rest was history.
My grandparents introduced me to the power of books, and then I went to UC Berkeley to continue learning about stories and culture, found out all the stories were true, and was recruited to make sure mythological creatures stayed mythological.
I was living the dream, and I knew my grandparents, wherever they were, were proud of me.
After a couple minutes of winding through the never-ending maze of bookshelves, the librarian stopped in front of a large metal door. I glanced over my shoulder at the nearby books and saw their spines were dusty and a few were even adorned with a bit of cobwebs that fluttered in the slight air movement our group’s walking had caused. Clearly, this part of the library wasn’t super popular, and I made a mental note to explore the area the next time I stopped by.
“Would you mind turning away while I enter the combination?” Mrs. Wright asked. “Until I get confirmation from Headmaster Burkhard, the passcode to the restricted section is off-limits, even to you, Mr. Cooper.”
The three girls and I swiveled around and listened as the librarian punched in the code. Steffi squeezed my hand, and I smiled over at my pink-haired lover.
“Alright,” the middle-aged woman continued as we heard the heavy clanging sound of the huge steel door unlocking. “Come in.”
When I turned back around, I was greeted with a wall of darkness. The door was open, but I couldn’t see into the room, and as Mrs. Wright stood to the side and motioned for us to enter, I inched forward slowly.
“No need to worry, Mr. Cooper,” the librarian said with a smile when she saw my reaction to the doorway. “There are no monsters in here.”
I swallowed and continued forward into the darkness. My vision was unable to adjust, so I walked along blindly, but as my footsteps echoed around the dark room, I could tell the plush carpet of the main section of the library was replaced with tile in the restricted section.
The three girls followed behind me, and then Mrs. Wright trailed along after them. When the librarian entered, she closed the door behind her, and for a moment, I was surrounded by a darkness so absolute that I couldn’t see Elisabeth, even though I could feel her standing beside me.
At least, I thought it was her. It was too dark to tell which of my girls was closest to me.
After the briefest milliseconds of complete darkness, there was a little clicking sound, and then the room was doused in dim, warm light. We were standing in a moderately-sized square room that was twenty or thirty feet across. The walls of the room were black and shiny, like they were covered in glass, and I glanced down at the floor to see that my ears had correctly identified it as tile.
What caught my attention was the large, cylindrical console in the exact center of the room. It was almost a foot in diameter, reached all the way to the ceiling, and had a small screen on one side.
“Everyone, meet SEEKR,” Mrs. Wright said warmly and gestured to the screen-covered tower.
I glanced over at my teammates to see if they had any clue what was going on, and Nala and Elisabeth shrugged and reflected my own confused expression.
Steffi, on the other hand, looked like a kid in a candy store.
The pink-haired girl had a wide-eyed, open-mouthed grin across her face, and she held her hands against her cheeks like she’d just opened the door to a surprise birthday party.
“SEEKR,” the librarian continued, “or ‘Scholar of Examination, Elucidation, Knowledge, and Research,’ is our proprietary artificial intelligence program here at AIMM.”
I let out a low whistle, and Steffi started quietly squeaking in her excitement.
“They compile and filter all the information that comes through our doors.” Mrs. Wright paced slowly around the room as she explained. “They control all the systems that keep our facility running smoothly, and they monitor monster activity all across the globe by anonymously communicating with GPS satellites and government intelligence agencies and scanning for anomalies in the data.”
“Nice,” Nala chuckled with an eager grin.
“You know the monster simulations that you use in the training areas?” the librarian asked. “The monsters, their movements, their attacks, the environment… All of it is thanks to SEEKR here.”
Mrs. Wright gave the console tower a gentle pat, and Elisabeth sent SEEKR a sweet bob of her head.
“Thank you for your service,” the redhead lilted in her French accent, and I felt my heart hop into my throat from the cuteness.
“They are the brain of this facility,” the librarian concluded. “And they house all the information you could ever need.”
Holy cow.
I glanced at Steffi to see if she was still awe-struck, and the fairy-girl looked like she had died and gone to heaven. Her mouth was hanging slightly ajar, and when her wide eyes sparkled, I couldn’t tell if it was just the lighting, or if the pink-haired beauty had actually gotten teary-eyed over the incredible piece of technology sitting in front of us.
“Let me show you how it works,” the middle-aged librarian said with a smile.
Mrs. Wright pressed in on the wall of the cylinder just below the screen, and part of the metal shell flipped down to reveal a keyboard. After logging into the system, the librarian showed us how to access the unrestricted database. Then she quickly ran a test search to demonstrate some of the machine’s other functions.
“Watch this.” The blue-haired woman smirked.
The database entry for rock trolls popped up on the monitor in front of us. Mrs. Wright pressed her index finger to the screen, and she whipped her hand to the right like she was trying to wipe something off its glass face. To my amazement, and the amazement of the gasping girls beside me, the information seemed to follow Mrs. Wright’s finger, and it flew off screen and appeared on the wall to our right.
No wonder it had looked like the walls were covered in glass. They were huge computer screens.
“The walls are touchscreen monitors,” the librarian explained. “This way, you can have all your documents at your fingertips, and see images up close and in exquisite detail. Go check it out.”
I walked up to the wall and reached out to touch it, and when my finger made contact, a file folder appeared on screen directly in front of me. My three teammates stepped up beside me and watched as I made an inverse pinching motion with my fingers like I was zooming in.
The file folder opened up and revealed a virtual stack of files divided by tabs with labels like “Habitat,” “Diet,” and “Behavior.”
I flipped through the files until I found one labeled “Combat,” and then I swiped upward.
The file popped out from the folder and opened up on the screen in front of me, and I was able to leaf through the individual pages like I was reading a Kindle. All of the navigation controls were super intuitive, and I attributed that to SEEKR’s AI, since every interaction contributed to its knowledge base.
“Neat, isn’t it?” Mrs. Wright asked as I skimmed over the vast amount of information at my fingertips.
I nodded vigorously.
Steffi wasn’t the only one who was excited, now.
Back at school, I’d done most of my research on tiny tables in cramped study rooms, hunched over dusty old books, or by churning through an unorganized mess of blurry microfilm.
But this… This was some Tony Stark-level tech, and I couldn’t wait to dig in and get my hands on all the information the four floor-to-ceiling monitors could display.
