Build-A-Dragon Sequence

A BIOTECH RACE AGAINST TIME TO DEVELOP MILITARY-GRADE DRAGONS Brilliant genetic engineer Noah Parker is pitted head-to-head against the founder of Build-a-Dragon to design custom dragons for the military. Genetic engineer Noah Parker has at last landed the job he's long coveted: director of dragon design for the Build-A-Dragon Company. With a combination of genetic engineering and a cryptic device known as the Redwood Codex, he and his team can produce living, breathing dragons made-to-order. But sales of dragons have plummeted, and the Build-A-Dragon Company will have to find new revenue streams if it hopes to stay in business. A contract to develop dragons for the US military promises a much-needed lifeline. Yet the specs are more challenging than anything Noah has ever designed. Worse, he learns that a shadow company headed by former CEO Robert Greaves has stolen the dragon-making technology to make a competing bid. Noah's dragons will face off against those of his old adversary. It's a head-to-head design competition, with the ethical future of domesticated dragons hanging in the balance.

Genetic engineer Noah Parker helped domesticate dragons for use as pets and deployed them for the United States military. Now his team is tasked with designing dragons to tackle invasive species and other ecological problems. It's no easy job, especially because government approval requires the dragons have built-in failsafes to prevent them from reproducing in the wild. To Noah's surprise, the approval also requires the presence of an onsite observer-who happens to be his former rival from graduate school. Still, there are big problems to solve where dragons can help: from a plague of locusts threatening a precious desert oasis to a rat infestation in penguin nesting habitats in Antarctica. Every environment brings unique challenges, ones that Noah can only understand by going there in person. All that remains is watching to make sure dragons get the job done. Although the environmental control dragons are successful, the Build-A-Dragon Company starts to receive worrisome reports of wild dragons in places they should not be. Many of those point to a small Midwestern town where dragons have attacked livestock and even people. When Noah travels there to investigate, he finds the problem is far worse than they could have imagined . . .