He checks the memorized number against the one stored in his phone, then dials a 10-digit Utah area code number on Sarah's phone.  Does anyone answer?

"Hello?," says a female but completely unfamiliar voice.

"Sorry, I think this must be the wrong number."

He hands Sarah's phone back to her.

"So, where are we going right now exactly?"

"A garage where our family runs our patrols. We cover downtown. If we have to read someone in, they have to talk to our local branch and get them to sign on and know what they're responsible for. You... might be handled differently. Time travel or whatever might be a big deal."

He stares out the window.  He thinks.

Okay.  So we were in Berkeley.  Then we lost time, and we're in San Francisco, and dragons and vampires and werewolves are in a secret cold war.  And it doesn't seem to be going well, if dragons are running around loose in downtown SF.  And my emotional support human isn't at her phone number.  And it's April 20th, somehow.

He checks his bag further.

We're not missing cannabis, and my mind feels pretty clear, besides the shock.  Probably the date is a red herring, not *everything* is a sign.

"You think this 'whatever' might be relevant to the cold war?  That wouldn't be a great sign, for a situation that's already this precarious."

"The situation is basically under control. We're on call whenever there's a suspected clutch but that's not really that often, couple times a year, and the babies aren't signatories so we're allowed to kill them if they're threatening the masquerade because the signing dragons haven't kept them in line. We've been stalling for three centuries and the plan is one or two more, but an unprecedented phenomenon might mean we can knock em down early."

"How did you find out about this one? And, I guess, what would victory look like for you, what have you been stalling on?"

"We were backing the Manhattan Project."

"Oh."

He sits quietly and stares out the window, watching the city pass.

"Dragons get tougher with age. The young ones die to swords, the adults can probably match tank battalions, and the ancients cannot be harmed by any weapon ever made. Yet. And unfortunately the ancients are the ones who will never peacefully coexist with humanity or us."

"Also they do things like set up their junior cousins with fake clutches of hatchlings and then tipping us off. To justify killing them. Ancients are nasty selfish fuckers."

"That's terrifying."

Gene laughs. "Yeah. That just says you're thinking clearly."

"They're a bunch of Bronze Age god-kings who haven't noticed the world has changed around them and can't cooperate except at knifepoint. For good and bad."

"So if humans don't have any knife that can threaten the ancients, and the ancients will never coexist peacefully with humanity, what's maintaining the masquerade? What's the equilibrium here, what's maintaining the balance of power?"

"They take us - the semi-humans - somewhat seriously and they don't like having to hunt you in big numbers. We promised to keep them secret and not stop them hunting when they do."

"Grandpa said he had the idea the first time he saw a cannon smash a castle."

"So, you're currently under obligations to work for them, to cover up what they do, to keep people from finding out the danger they're in and what's really going on in the world, to not stand against them.  I'm pretty uncomfortable with that, but as you describe the situation, it seems like there's not a lot of better options available."

"Can you say more about what you mean by 'semi-human'?"

"Vampires are all born human. Werewolves either are born human or are the children's children of born-humans. And we're all psychologically human, with some little instinctual tweaks. We think of ourselves as part of humanity. Dragons... aren't. Even the ones who are our genuine allies aren't. They're loners, hoarders, predators -- the younger ones often have some modern sensibilities but they're not human."

"Zayeed down in SoCal likes us because our food and performance art are endlessly novel and beautiful and if we ever got wiped out or corralled into dragon-teen-84 we'd stop making more. And he's one of the less weird ones."

"So what are the other factions and powers involved here? Vampires and werewolves consider themselves part of humanity, but you also said earlier there's a three-way cold war going on? Are vampires and werewolves similarly terrifying to learn about in some way?"

"Did we? No, there's three factions, four if you count the informed humans separately, but only the two sides. We're... pretty minimally terrifying, given what you might guess from stories? Wolves are faster, stronger, heal quickly, and usually live about two centuries. Vampires are even faster, can turn to smoke, need to drink blood non-fatally about twice a month, and don't age. Mostly we just work through human organizations."