"Trouble?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. Cordoned-off area, security guards swapping war stories," Benny said, smiling. "The fact that you're here."

The Gamalian Dragon — a jewel-encrusted statuette captured by the Imperator Gamaliel from the Knights of Jeneve at the legendary Battle of Bocaro.

When Bernice Summerfield gets asked on an expedition by Gamaliel's descendant, Romolo Nusek, it is an offer her department can't afford to let her refuse. But, as usual, there are a few problems.

For one thing, Nusek is an evil warlord out to consolidate his power by any means necessary. For another, there's a body in the Theatrology building — and the dead man had an appointment with Benny's old friend, the mysterious Irving Braxiatel. Most worrying of all, the Gamalian Dragon, one of the best guarded and most valuable archaeological relics in known space, seems to be lying in a battered Gladstone bag on the floor of Benny's bedroom.

Aided only by Braxiatel and historian Nicholas Clyde, Benny must unravel the dragon's ancient mystery before the warlord's plans reach completion — and an assassin closes in for the kill.