Dragon007 snippet/scene
I'm really not sure about this scene:

Gellaznim and Ciznougloth were working on one of green-red's eggs. With the power they needed pooled between them, Gellaznim Looked into its snake and found the pieces that Ciz had to Move. Piece by piece, modification by modification, they turned the natural snake into something new and better.

They had just reached the most complicated modification when Canlazloth came into the hatchery. He stood a respectful distance from them, but his shadow fell across the egg and broke the thread of Gellaznim's thoughts. He looked up.

"I didn't want to disturb you," said Canlazloth. "But there's something you need to know. It affects the whole centre."

Gellaznim sighed. They were trying to repeat the modifications that had worked so well with orange-green, and they had almost finished work on that egg. But the interruption, and the break in his concentration, could too easily mean that the dragon that emerged from the egg would be a mutant. If it did, he would blame Canlazloth.

"Could it not have waited until we finished?"

"Once I've explained it to you, you'll understand why I didn't want to delay."

Gellaznim sighed. The damage was done now; hearing what he had to say couldn't make it any worse. "Explain it, then."

"I think it would be better to talk in the guardroom. We could be overheard too easily here."

It wasn't enough to interrupt them; Canlazloth had to drag them across to the guardroom and keep them from the eggs even longer. He got to his feet, fuming silently. Ciz laid a gentle hand on his arm. "Steady," he said. "We'll hear him out and be back to work soon enough."

In the guardroom, Canlazloth didn't even wait for them to sit before he started speaking. "Late last night, the telepath on duty picked up a high-power telepathic transmission somewhere near here. It was too brief for us to fix it precisely, but we know it came from somewhere within Pasellee."

Ciz gasped, but Gellaznim couldn't make any sense out of the information. "What does that mean?"

"There's a spy operating in Pasellee," said Canlazloth.

That dragged him into full awareness, as if he'd dived into a bath of meltwater. Of all the threats that could swoop down on them, a spy was the one most to be feared. A spy who learned the dragons' weaknesses and reported back to Rikseillon could ruin them all: the dragons would be useless as a weapon and their research would come to an end. All their work would count for nothing.

Canlazloth was still speaking. "We've searched house-to-house through Pasellee. We detected no telepath powerful enough to have made the transmission, which means our spy is skilled at concealing himself. Checking idents would flush him out, but we'd have to check every ident in the village with the flesh-memory in Berven. It would take moons, and moons are the one thing above all that we don't have."

"Could he have seen the dragons?" Ciz asked. He sounded perfectly calm, but Gellaznim picked up the sliver of worry on the edge of his thoughts.

"It's impossible," said Canlazloth. "Access to the centre is strictly controlled. No-one's been here without authorisation since that ... incident last summer - we're certain of that. My hypothesis is that last night's transmission was a preliminary confirmation that he was in place and awaiting instructions."

"In that case, don't we just need to make sure he can't gain access?" said Ciz.

Canlazloth shook his head. "Any security - even ours - can be breached by a skilled enough attacker. We cannot keep him out indefinitely; as long as he remains at large in Pasellee, he is a threat."

Gellaznim shuddered at the thought of what that threat might become. "What do you suggest?"

"First of all, we will tighten security so he can't gain access quickly or easily. Your apprentices will have to remain here, at the centre, for instance. And there are too many security protocols already in place that aren't always enforced. We need to start enforcing them immediately."

"The apprentices won't like that," said Ciz. "Especially not the juniors. They spend their days putting out fires - they all but live for the chance to go down into Pasellee for a drink."

"You'll have to tell them it's a temporary measure until the spy is caught," said Canlazloth. "It might encourage them to give us any help they can."

Gellaznim didn't like the sound of that. "I'm not having my apprentices taken away from their duties to hunt for spies. If we let this spy interfere with our work, aren't we playing into his hands?"

"I'm not suggesting they leave their duties," said Canlazloth irritably. "Just that if they have any information that might be of use to us, they should come forward."

"Are you saying they wouldn't come forward otherwise?" Gellaznim demanded.

Ciz patted his arm again. "It grows straight, 'Nim. If we all do our part, we'll catch the spy and things can go back to normal."

"I'll need your authorisation to increase the standing guard. If I juggle with the shifts, it shouldn't cost significantly more. And I'll need authorisation to arm the guards and empower them to take action as necessary."

Gellaznim barely heard Ciz giving his agreement. Canlazloth was saying he would give the guards instructions to shoot anyone who looked like a spy. His head spun; everything was moving much too fast. He wanted to get back to the eggs, the only thing in the whole situation he was sure he understood. "Yes, of course. Do whatever is necessary."

"We also need to make more enquiries in Pasellee," Canlazloth said. "There are various people in the village known to have sympathy with Rikseillon; we'll bring them all here for questioning. Not in the hatchery, but somewhere in the centre."

"Use our sitting room," said Ciz. "It's not like we're using it."

Canlazloth turned to Gellaznim, waiting for his agreement.

"Yes, of course," he said again. "You understand these things, and we don't. We have other things to concentrate on. You may as well have a free hand to do whatever you feel is appropriate." #

I'd welcome anyone else's opinions, particularly on the relationship between Gellaznim and Ciznougloth. Also, Lindsay thinks the way Canlazloth is talking reads like "We'll tighten security, but first we'll have a cup of tea." I think it just reads like he's explaining to two civilians who have to authorise anything he wants to do, but that could be me making excuses.