The big man chuckled, a first since we’d met. “Just saying it like it is. Same as you.”
A valid point. I did prefer honesty over vapid flattery.
I leaned close to stare at the words on the screen, most of which didn’t make much sense. I’d not had time to learn the English alphabet, something I’d have to rectify. Knowledge led to power.
Keanu pointed to a colorful square. “This YouTube video claims it’s got proof a dragon exists.” He clicked it, and a screen loaded, displaying numbers I could decipher and a few words. “What’s 404 mean?”
“Page not found.” Keanu pursed his lips. “Guess they had their video taken down.” He began typing and clicking some more. While he didn’t say anything, the grooves on his face deepened.
“Is there a problem?” I asked.
“Looks like someone scrubbed all the dragon-sighting videos.”
“As in cleaned them?”
“Kind of. They all seem to have been deleted from the internet.”
“Why?” The obvious next question.
“Only a few reasons I can think of. Copyright issues usually are the main culprit, but that mostly applies to movie studios and shit, sending their lawyers after folks posting clips of their stuff. Could be the person who posted about the dragons got called out for faking the videos and was forced to take them down.”
“Why do I get the impression you don’t believe either of those reasons?”
“Because it’s too thorough. Look, I’m not a genius when it comes to technology, but even I know when something goes viral, even if the original is removed, copies of it are always floating around, but in this case, it’s gone.”
“Meaning what?” I growled with impatience.
“Meaning someone with deep enough pockets for either some really good lawyers or a gifted hacker had every single one erased.”
Before I could ask “Who would do that?” it hit me. “The dragon depicted must have hired someone to protect them from discovery.” I paced on the desk. “Which leads to me wondering how I would contact them.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because, for one, it is always good to know who one’s competition is, and secondly, to temporarily ally myself with them. As I am still in the early growth stages, I’m vulnerable.”
“You think this other dragon would help you?”
“Maybe. We are territorial by nature. However, given we seem to have gone extinct for quite some time, it could be this other dragon might wish for us to align that we might pool our resources to subdue the humans.” And if she were female, she’d be very glad to know a male existed to fertilize her eggs.
“What resources? You ain’t got shit to offer,” Keanu rudely pointed out.
“On the contrary, my newest servant, Apollo Jameson, has graciously donated his wealth to my hoard.”
“Sure, he did,” a skeptical Keanu replied.
“Well, not quite yet, but it’s coming. I’ll be seeing him at dinner tonight and shall hammer out the details.”
“You think he’s just gonna give you his money?”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
Keanu snorted. “You really are just a baby.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I huffed
“You can’t tell someone rich like Apollo to hand over his cash and expect him to obey. The man is a business whiz. A self-made billionaire who didn’t get to his position by doing dumb shit like handing over everything he earned just because some little orange lizard told him to.”
“I am not a lizard, and you would do well to remember that before insulting me.”
