“Screw him. I’m not planning to die just so some asshole can justify a line item on a spending bill. They’ve got one of the Decision Week scientists right outside. If I could get to him, I can find out what this thing is and how to kill it.” I looked around the opulent cave. The chaos of shelves, piles of furniture, and boxes made it difficult to see very far. “Do you have another way out of here?”

“I am afraid not. You see, this is my final home. This is where I plan to live out my days in peace amid my treasures. I had this site carefully selected and prepared for my comfort, then I flew in under cover of darkness and had the casino built on top of it. I plan on dying here, Mr. Pitt.”

“Why?”

“Why? An interesting question.” The dragon flexed his enormous body in a drastic imitation of a shrug. “Some of the hateful things that are said about my kind are, sadly, true. We do love our shiny things. A dragon has a pathological desire to amass a horde. It is an addiction, but one that I have learned to control.” The dragon nodded at his display of moon rocks. “I tried a twelve-step program once, but it did not work out…So I make the best of it. Can you think of a more appropriate place than Las Vegas to accumulate such pretty things?” The dragon’s head moved over me, engulfing me in shadow, but he was merely inspecting his treasures. He clucked disapprovingly, and one wing stretched outward, the tip of it gently dusting a display of delicate glass figurines.

“There is nowhere for me to leave to. My kind are dying. This world no longer belongs to us. The few of us that remain are a pale shadow of our once ferocious ancestors. The dragon gods began to die when the age of man began. You should have seen them in all their glory, Mr. Pitt. They were terrible and beautiful beyond all possible descriptors, but they were too magnificent for this petty age. The rest of us, their once-noble children, were feared and hunted nearly to extinction. The outside world has nothing left to offer me. If I come across something that strikes my fancy, I have it brought here to keep me company. I do love eBay.” The massive chuckle shook me again.

“That’s not what I—”