Dragon Girl

Jabberwocky

The flight wasuneventful; Janey and Gail arrived at the airport in Duluth at ten atnight and found a man waiting with a sign with their name on it asthey exited the landing area.

"Greetings Mrs.Richardson, Janey, I'm Jerry and I'll be your driver for theweekend. Here's a card with my pager, if you ever want to goanywhere, just page me I'll be there in ten minutes or less." Hegreeted the women and shook both their hands. He handled their twosmall bags and led them to the car, a Lincoln Town Car. He held theback door open for the ladies after stowing their luggage then tookthe driver's seat.

"Is Frost tryingto impress us or just has too much money?" Janey asked as shestroked the soft leather seat.

"To be truthful,he's a very generous man. He gives away cars all the time. Hetreats all his guests like royalty." Jerry said over his shoulderas he pulled out of the airport.

"I think I'dlike to be a fly on the wall at one of his parties." Gail said toJaney.

The ride was onlya little over a mile from the airport, but Jerry gave them moreinformation about Magnus Frost than they could discover from twohours on the internet. Most of Gail's questions about the man wereanswered in that short drive. Jerry took their bags in for them thentold the desk clerk that these ladies were Mr. Frost's expectedguests. The clerk called a bellman to take their bags and the key andhe led them to a room on the third floor after Gail signed in. WhenGail tried to tip the bellman he told her it was taken care of andwished them a good night.

They didn't havea room they had a suite. There was a mini refrigerator and amicrowave in the room and they found containers of Janey's favoritemeal in the fridge, some soda pop and there was Gail's favoritecoffee near the coffee maker.

"Wow, he did hisown homework on us, too." Gail didn't seem pleased.

"Relax Mom; I'msure he's just trying to be accommodating."

"Yes, and itmakes me suspicious."

"Well, after allthat Jerry said are you still not sure about him?"

"He was a realJabberwocky wasn't he?" Gail chuckled.

"He reminded meof Carolyn. I wonder if he ever shuts up." Janey laughed back.

"Well, I don'tknow about you, but I want to go to bed, dearest." Gail said andthen yawned.

"We'll getready for bed but if you don't mind, I'm a little keyed up fromthe flight, I'll watch TV for a while first."

The next morningJerry called for them at nine thirty to take them to the facility.

This time hewasn't all chatter, but still the perfect gentleman. He led theminside and found their guide for them then excused himself andreturned to his car.

"Mrs. Richardsonand Janey, my name is Anna Kelpin, I'll be your guide until aboutlunch time then I'm sure Mr. Frost will be free to continue thetour."

"Is guidingguests your only job here?" Gail asked.

"No, I'm oneof Mr. Frost's personal business assistants."

"One of?"Janey asked as they began walking from the austere main entrance downone of the long corridors.

"Mr. Frost hasseveral businesses and an assistant for each, and then he has hiscoordinator who arranges his personal schedule for all the differentmeetings."

"Which businessdo you run?" Gail asked.

"Next Factor ismy domain. I know more about this place than even he does."

"Then you arethe perfect guide." Gail commented.

"I suppose and Iunderstand you have some misgivings, Mrs. Richardson, let me put yourmind at ease, I'll show you everything you ask about."

"I'm mostlyinterested in what Janey will be doing here."

"Understandable.We'll begin with the testing facilities, in that case."

The entire morningwas used up exploring the different testing labs and Janey was reallyexcited by the time Miss Kelpin led them to the in house restaurant.

"Wow, a realrestaurant with cloth tablecloths and napkins, in a work place?"Janey was impressed.

"All personnelin this facility eat for free. Mr. Frost foots the bill. The food istop rate but not expensive like lobster and steak but no one has evercomplained." Miss Kelpin told them and bid them happy eating at thedoor and left them.

Over lunch theydiscussed what they had discovered about Mr. Frost from his driverand his administrative assistant. Janey had asked the morepenetrating questions as Gail was mostly concerned with Janey'swelfare with the staff.

"Mom, we'velearned that he was taunted and ignored as a kid. He began making hisfortune at fifteen and moved out of his parents house when he wassixteen, living on his own, with his own money from his investments.How many other people do you know where millionaires on their own atsixteen? Even Warren Buffet didn't start that early!"

"Apparently hisdesire to find other special children like you, but who have beenneglected or abused stems from his own childhood."

"I get that Mom.He genuinely wants to help."

"I'm beginningto see that, but I still don't get why he's working with HomelandSecurity."

"Mom, whatbetter way to keep the government from blindly lashing out atpsychics than to have them working for the government."

"I see yourpoint but your father and I did as much as we could to protect youfrom too much scrutiny as a child. Your special abilities startedshowing up as an infant. We moved from our second house to this onein another state because your pediatrician was getting suspicious. Idon't want you to be a lab rat, Janey. That's no life for achild."

"Mom, I won'tbe a lab rat in that I can't go home. You heard Kelpin, no one hereis under lock and key except the really deranged and they aren't inthis facility at all. He has his own hospital. This is right up myalley, Mom. You know I'm interested in psychology, maybe workingwith Frost is my introduction to a lifetime of work."

"Ok, Janey. Yousound excited and I haven't heard anything yet to make me thinkyou'd be in any danger here. Even how she explained some of thetests they will do with you sound pretty innocuous."

"Mom, I thinkI'll be ok here. Only question left to ask is if they'll take mypersonal cell phone away from me at any time."

"Why thatquestion?"

"If they take mycell phone, even if only for a few minutes, they can plant a trackingchip in it. Most planned cell phone services can track a phoneanyway, but mine is a prepaid and that means they can't track it.If they take my cell phone away, I can't call home whenever I wantand that will make mesuspicious."

"So you arewilling to chance this, even being several hundred miles from home?"

"Mom, if I needto and they won't transport me; I discovered that the bus lineswill send a "runaway" home for free. There is a bus terminal herein Duluth."

"You are sobrave, Janey. Your courage worries me sometimes."

 "You aren'tthe only one." Janey answered cryptically but didn't mention thedragon council. "I'll be fine, Mom, besides, Zelistuck will neverbe far away and you know the legendary strength of dragons." Janeypatted her mom's hand for additional emphasis.