Hunt for Jade Dragon

by Richard Paul Evans

  “He’ll kill all of us,” I said. She didn’t say anything and I looked at her anxiously. “So you’re not going to help us?”

  She took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. “I think it’s crazy.”

  “You’ve already said that. Are you in or out?”

  For a moment she stood there looking uncomfortable, then she shook her head again. “All right, I’m still in. But if we somehow don’t die, I want double the money.”

  She turned and walked alone to the elevator. Taylor glanced at me and frowned, then stood and walked after her.

  “I told you we shouldn’t have brought her,” Ostin said.

  “It’s a little late for that,” I said.

  * * *

  Ten minutes later Ostin and I went up to our room. Even though it was barely afternoon I drew the blinds and we both lay on our beds. As usual Ostin fell asleep immediately. In spite of my exhaustion, I was so anxious that I tossed and turned for nearly an hour before I gave up and went to see Taylor.

  Taylor’s room was just three down from mine on the same side of the hall. I knocked softly. She smiled when she saw me. “What’s up?”

  “I couldn’t sleep. What are you doing?”

  “I was about to check out that mall next door. Want to go with me?”

  “Sure. What’s Nichelle doing?”

  “Nothing. She’s just listening to her iPod,” she said, shutting the door behind her.

  We took the elevator to the lobby. There was an entrance to the mall at the east end of the lobby, past the bakery.

  The mall was nicer than anything I’d seen in Idaho. It was four stories high and had a Tiffany and Cartier and other expensive stores I’d only seen in advertisements. We stopped to look at a diamond necklace in the showcase window outside Tiffany.

  “Isn’t that beautiful?” Taylor said, staring at the string of sparkling gems. She turned to me. “Did I ever tell you about the time Hatch offered to buy me a diamond necklace?”

  “No.”

  “My second day at the academy I went shopping in Beverly Hills with Tara. Hatch met us for lunch; then he took me to a famous jewelry store called Harry Winston to try on necklaces. The one I liked was like a hundred and seventy thousand dollars. For about five seconds I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world.”

  “Then what happened?”

  Her expression changed abruptly, revealing the pain she felt in remembering. “He touched me,” she said. “After they put the necklace on me, Hatch put his hand on my arm and I read his mind. It was the darkest, ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. It was the first time I realized how much evil he was capable of.”

  I took her hand. “I can’t imagine wandering through his brain. It would be like walking through one of those haunted houses they put up at Halloween time.”

  She nodded. “That’s exactly what it was like, except it was real.” We started to walk away from the window. “It’s never left me. It’s like once I go through someone’s mind, I have a connection with them.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s hard to explain. It’s like I understand them.” She looked at me sadly. “After I read his mind I felt dirty. In a way, I still do.”

  “He’ll never touch you again,” I said. “I won’t let him.”

  She kissed my cheek. “I know.”

  We walked around the mall for another hour. Taylor tried on a few blouses but couldn’t decide on anything. Joel had given me plenty of money so I could have bought her almost anything she wanted (except the diamond necklace), but I guess she wasn’t in a buying mood as much as a looking mood. When she finally tired of looking, we walked back to the hotel to get some dinner.

  We took the elevator to the tenth floor to the Shanghainese Dumpling Restaurant, which was exactly what the name said it was. A half dozen chefs behind a glass window rolled out dough into saucer-sized circles, added spiced meats or vegetable fillings, then crimped them into dumplings to steam in bamboo baskets. We ate chicken soup, ham fried rice, and three different types of dumplings. Halfway through our meal, Taylor dropped a dumpling into a bowl of soy sauce, splattering it on herself and the tablecloth.

  “I give up,” she said, picking the dumpling up with her fingers. “Forks are just better.”

  Once we’d finished our meal, our server brought us dessert, a little cake with sweet red bean filling. It wasn’t my favorite, but it wasn’t horrible either. Afterward I walked Taylor back to her room. As we got off the elevator she said, “You’re really worried, aren’t you?”

  “You read my mind?”

  “No. You’re ticking.”

  “Sorry,” I said, forcing myself to stop. Then I slowly shook my head. “I don’t know if we can really do this.”

  She looked at me for a moment, then said, “Do you remember what you said to us in the Amazon jungle?”

  “I said a lot of things.”

  “Just before we snuck into the Starxource plant you told us something your mother always said. ‘If you remember the why, the how will work itself out.’ Every time that I’ve been afraid or I’ve doubted, I’ve thought about that. You know, we’ve been worried about what will happen if the Elgen get the information, but there’s more to our mission than that.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Jade Dragon is not just a scientific formula. She’s a little girl. And she’s afraid. Could you imagine what it would be like to be unable to speak or hear and to be taken from your family and home by the Elgen?”

  “No,” I said. I looked back into her eyes. “You have a way of putting things in perspective.”

  “And you have a way of making me feel safe. I think I have a really great boyfriend.” She leaned forward and kissed me. “Now try to get some sleep. It makes me tired just looking at you.” She opened her door and went inside.

  I walked back to my room. The television was on and Ostin was lying sideways on top of his covers snoring. I figured that he must have gotten up and started watching TV, then fallen back to sleep. I turned the television off and lay back on my bed. In spite of Taylor’s encouragement, what we were up against frightened me more than anything I’d faced so far: more than the academy, more than the Peruvian army, more than the Ampere. Even more than the Peruvian Starxource plant with its two thousand guards. At least the Peruvian plant had been in the middle of a jungle. This one was completely out in the open with no place to hide.

  I still couldn’t sleep. It didn’t help that Ostin had his snore going. I wanted to smother him with his pillow. A little after midnight I went down to the lobby lounge and ordered a hot chocolate. About a half hour later Ben walked into the restaurant as well. He looked surprised to see me.

  “Michael, you are still awake.”

  “I couldn’t sleep,” I said.

  He sat down across from me. “I think you are jet-lag.”

  “Probably.” I said. “Why are you up?”

  “I could not sleep too. I am nervous.”

  “I’m not nervous,” I said. “I’m terrified.”

  He nodded. “Yes. I am also . . . terrified.”

  I exhaled slowly. “Do you want something to drink?”

  “Maybe tea.” He waved to a waitress, who came over to our table.

  “May I help you?” she asked in English.

  Ben answered in Chinese. “Wo yau yidyan cha.”

  “Ni yau hei cha, ma?”

  “Heide hau.”

  She looked at me. “Do you want more chocolate milk?”

  I shook my head. “No, thank you.”

  She nodded. “Okay.” She turned back to Ben. “Wo ma shang hwei lai,” she said, then walked away.

  Ben smiled at me. “She thought I was American.”

  “It’s the company you keep,” I said. I took a sip of my cocoa, then asked, “How did you get mixed up in all of this?”

  “Mixed up?”

  “I mean, how did you get involved with the resistance?”

  “Oh,” he said, noddi
ng. “After I complete my military service, I work at a computer shop in Taipei. My mother was a reporter for the Taipei Times. When the government made the announcement about their agreement with the Elgen to take over Taiwan electricity production, everyone was very happy. There was much celebration. But my mother was not sure. She began writing a story about the Elgen. She traveled to other countries where there are Starxource plants to do research. She even found guards who had left the Elgen and were hiding. She learn about Dr. Hatch’s plan to take over the economies of the countries they moved into. She wrote a long story about this, but it was never published. Her boss at the newspaper kill the story.” His expression fell with his voice. “Then someone kill her.”

  I set down my cup. “Someone killed your mother?”

  He nodded. “The Lung Li. The police said that it was an accident—she was electrocuted by dropping a radio into the bathtub. But my mother did not like baths because she had arthritis and had trouble getting into them. She only took showers. The day after she died a letter came to me from my mother. She wrote that a group called the Lung Li had been following her and she was afraid for her life. She told me that she was certain it had something to do with the story she wrote about the Elgen. She said if something happen to her, I should hide because they might kill me, too.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “How did you find the resistance?”

  “They find me. At my mother’s funeral there was an American man. He introduced himself as a friend of my mother’s. His name was Joel.”

  “I know Joel,” I said.

  “Yes, I have been working with Joel for three year now. He introduced me to the voice. Have you met the voice?”

  “No,” I said. “Have you?”

  “No. We only talk on the telephone.”

  “I don’t think anyone has met the voice.”

  “The Elgen now make almost all of Taiwan electricity. I fear that we are too late to stop them.”

  I took another sip of cocoa. “I don’t understand how people can be so blind to what the Elgen are doing. Don’t they care that someone will take their freedom?”

  “The Elgen are very clever. People are busy with their lives. It is like people are watching a show on an airplane—they do not know where the airplane is going, they are just watching the show.”

  The waitress returned with Ben’s tea and he stopped talking for a moment to drink. After he’d had a few sips I asked, “Did you ask the voice about our plan?”

  “Yes. He will call us back in the morning. Until then, you should sleep.”

  “I keep trying,” I said.

  “You must get sleep. We have difficult things ahead.”

  “I should go back.” I finished drinking my hot chocolate, then stood. “I’m glad we talked.”

  “Me too,” Ben said. “Wan an.”

  “Good night,” I said. Difficult things indeed.

  I woke the next morning to Ostin shaking me.

  “Ben just called,” he said. “We need to go.”

  “Go where?” I said, rubbing my eyes.

  “To the plant.”

  I sat up. “What time is it?”

  “Late. It’s almost eleven. Didn’t you sleep last night?”

  “Not like you did.”

  “I love to sleep. It’s like being dead without the commitment.”

  I pulled on the same clothes from the day before, and we walked out of our room at the same time as Taylor, Nichelle, Tessa, McKenna, and Ian. The hallway was empty except for the housekeeping staff who were cleaning rooms.

  “Where are Jack and Zeus?” I asked.

  “They’re already in the lobby,” Ian said.

  As we walked toward the elevator Taylor asked, “Should we split up?”

  “We better,” I said.

  Ostin, Ian, and I waited as the four girls went down on two different elevators. We caught the next elevator that opened on our floor; then we walked out of the hotel to the idling van.

  “Dzau an, good morning,” Ben said as we climbed in. “Are you tired?”

  We all looked as if we’d been woken in the middle of the night.

  “Lei szle,” Ostin replied.

  Ben started laughing. “That is very good.”

  “What did you say?” I asked Ostin.

  “He said he is tired to death,” Ben said.

  “He’s the one who slept,” I grumbled.

  * * *

  Ben weaved the van between several idling taxis, then pulled out of the hotel’s driveway. The weather was better than it had been the day before, with only a few passive clouds blotting a beautiful blue sky. There was also less traffic, and we made it to our destination in less than a half hour.

  As we neared the plant we veered off on a different road—one that led us to a coastal outcrop just south of the Elgen’s peninsula and the coast guard station. Ben parked the van at the end of a vacant tree-lined street near a small temple, and we walked, single file, along a stone path to the water, staying behind the trees to conceal ourselves. We could see the silhouette of the Starxource plant from its southernmost exposure. It may have just been the contrast of the clear sky, but the plant seemed to be emitting more steam than the day before. There was a large white-and-red fishing boat docked on the south end of the compound.

  “So that’s it,” Zeus said, his voice heavy with dread.

  “Yeah, that’s it.”

  Ben looked out through his binoculars for a moment, then pointed to a place about two hundred yards from the end of the peninsula. “I think that is where the Volta will anchor. I have found maps of the depth of the water in this bay. The water near the peninsula is shallow with reefs and sand bars. The size of the Volta will keep it from coming too close to the plant.”

  He handed me the binoculars and I looked out over the water, following the horizon to the end of the peninsula.

  “What is that boat doing there?” I asked. “It doesn’t look like an Elgen boat.”

  “It is a fishing boat. The local fishermen catch fish and bring them to the plant. They are there all the time, night and day, bringing tons of fish.”

  “Why do the Elgen need so much fish?” Taylor asked.

  “For the rats,” Ben said.

  “Of course,” Ostin said. “Remember in Peru the Elgen built their plant around a cattle ranch so they would have fresh meat to feed their rats. Here they’re on the sea, so they bring in fish.”

  “That is correct,” Ben said. “They have a very interesting process. They drop the fish in a large pool so the fish stay alive until they are fed to the rats.”

  “Is that the only pool?” I asked.

  “No. There is a pool inside near the bowl.”

  “How do the fish get from the pool to the bowl?”

  “There is an underwater pipe,” Ben said.

  “It’s a huge pipe,” Ian said. “Like ten feet in diameter. It’s located on the bottom of the pool on the side next to the plant. It goes about sixty yards underground into another pool inside, near the bowl.”

  “Then what happens?” I asked.

  “Hydraulic scoops lift the fish from the inner pool and drop them on the chutes that feed the rats,” Ben said.

  “How do they get rid of the water?” Ostin asked. “They can’t get water in the bowl or it could electrocute the rats.”

  “The scoops are like cages. Lift the fish but not the water. Then they pass through fans. When they reach the chute, they are dry,” Ben said.

  “How many fish do their pools hold?” I asked.

  “Maybe tens of thousands,” Ben said. “The pools and the pipe that connects them are as crowded as a Taiwan subway train at rush hour.”

  “Could we enter through the pool and go through the pipe?” I asked.

  “Not any easier than on land,” Ian said. “There are soldiers and guards watching the outside pool, and the four fences extend down into the pool and the pipe. Breaking in would be the same as aboveground, except you would be underwat
er, which means you’d be slower and couldn’t breathe.”

  “We could use scuba equipment,” Jack said.

  “We would still have to get into the pool without being seen,” I said.

  “What if we stowed away on a fishing boat and got dropped into the pool with the fish?” McKenna said.

  “There’s no way I’m going to get buried in fish,” Taylor said. “I can hardly stand swimming in a lake knowing they’re there.”

  Ian shook his head. “Even if it worked, you would still have to somehow cut through four fences underwater. There are guards on top and underwater cameras on each of the fences. It would not be easier.”

  I thought about it for a moment, then said, “Okay, then we stick with the original plan. We attack as they transport Jade Dragon to the Volta.”

  “Which they will have to do with a boat,” Ostin said. “Since, if Ben is right, they cannot dock the Volta next to the plant.”

  “Yes,” Ben said. “I am right.”

  Looking through the binoculars, I could see a floating aluminum-planked dock jutting out from the rock. There was a road coming out of the back of the plant that led to the dock. I handed the binoculars back to Ben. “There’s a small dock there. Is it the only one they have?”

  “They have the large dock for the fishing vessels, but for transport vessels there is only that one.”

  “So they’ll be taking her from there.”

  “What if they use a helicopter?” Jack asked.

  “They won’t take the chance,” I said. “They don’t know if Tanner is with us.”

  “We wouldn’t crash the helicopter with the girl on it,” Taylor said.

  “They don’t know that,” Ostin said. “In fact, we don’t know that.”

  Taylor’s forehead furrowed. “What are you saying?”

  “If it was a question between killing the girl or letting the Elgen get information from her, we’d have to kill the girl.”

  “I can’t believe you just said that,” Taylor said.

  “Don’t look at me like I’m crazy,” Ostin said. “Wouldn’t you kill someone to save a hundred million lives?”

  “I wouldn’t kill anyone.”