Major Yoshimori Fuhito, United Oil Corporate Security Force, hated meetings with his boss. He told himself that it was merely the indignity of taking orders from a non-human. Had anyone reminded him of his grandmother’s tales of fierce Dragons and what they did to naughty children, he would have laughed. A trained ear might have detected the false note in that laughter, for Fuhito did, of course, recall every gory word that his soba-san had to say on the subject. Sitting in a briefing, watching Haesslich’s huge, golden form draped over the dais at the end of the room, he could almost hear the old woman’s voice.