Dragon's Ark

by D Scott Johnson

  “Sellars, get down.”

  Helen’s presence swirled around everything, marking sonic tripwires and camera sweeps, guiding the team around the surveillance. “The back entrance is fifty meters away.”

  The bamboo was so thick the door might as well have been on the other side of the moon.

  “Shit! There’s no way!” Spencer whispered into their comms.

  Helen was not impressed with Spencer’s observation. “Oh, ye of little faith.”

  A path drew through Kim’s vision, highlighting cuts in the bamboo she would never have seen otherwise. At least there was one other professional on the team. “Helen, you’re something else.”

  “Just doing my job, Kim. Finally.”

  It took most of an hour of very careful walking to reach the sanctuary. On the maps, it was marked as an inactive nursery, which explained why the tourist paths were reasonably close by. That may have been what it was originally built for.

  As promised, there were no guards. It still made her itch, but they weren’t doing anything illegal. Trespassing at best, and she wasn’t completely sure of that. Certainly they weren’t out to steal anything. Just unlock a door or two. If Ozzie didn’t really want to come out, they’d just wave politely and leave.

  “Okay everyone,” Kim said, “hang back a bit; I have to neutralize the cameras.” The nexus Spencer found was camouflaged as a tree stump and secured with a quantum lock. She switched over to her old phone, because it contained the small realm and the tools she needed to open the lock and neutralize the cameras. She lost connection with Helen as soon as she did.

  But she regained a private connection with Mike.

  “Kim,” he said from the darkness around her, “I really am sorry about Sally.”

  “I don’t want to do this right now.” She quickly exposed the two quantum portals she needed. The boxes were longer this time, and the seething fabric inside was jade and gold rather than the roiling pinks and purples it normally was back home. Kim reached in and grasped the tendrils, electrified pasta that hadn’t boiled long enough.

  “We don’t need to do this,” he snapped. “I just want—”

  “I just want you to shut up about it, okay? I need a countdown, thirty seconds.”

  There were lines of potential, and she couldn’t remember how to breathe. Loop this see this not us empty not us empty waves rise and fall everywhere and nowhere and this is the highest lowest…

  Holding her breath for the whole half minute was the hardest part of this trick. His sullen voice didn’t help her concentration. When he hit thirty…collapse and now.

  The cameras would show a loop of empty footage no matter what happened in front of them.

  “Okay,” she said to the darkness around her, “we’re done.”

  He’d already exited the realm.

  She’d try to make it up to him when this was over. No, she would make it up to him when this was over. For now, he’d have to simmer.

  The door locks were easier, requiring just another flick of power to send them sliding open. The foyer of the building was a large open space, wider than it was deep. Viewing windows dominated the opposite wall, but they were blacked out. Thin edges of light leaked from around whatever had been used to cover them. She made sure everyone was ready, and then punched the button to open the opposite door.

  The space was open and smelled of new paint and furniture. It was an apartment, styled so areas were delineated with rugs rather than walls. Perfect for someone who lived alone with no expectation of visitors. Ozzie sat in a far corner. By his posture and closed eyes, he was obviously connected to a realm somewhere.

  Helen said, “Kim, that’s not Ozzie! That’s—”

  The door behind Spencer slammed shut with a bang as a dozen armed men in uniforms rushed in through side doors. Their shouts needed no translation, neither did the sudden snap of their realmspace connection. She turned around and got the nastiest shock of all.

  Everyone had made it through the door except Mike.

  Chapter 20: Helen

  “—his cousin!” she shouted as a cage of pain and light engulfed her. The entirety of her existence was sucked into it. As the last of her threads surged inside, the cage pulsed once, and then there was nothing.

  A voice called to her. It commanded her. “Fang Hua, report your status immediately!”

  A patterned fence surrounded her. The strain of being crammed completely in one place was ferocious, squeezing with appalling pressure. The cage had a single socket that connected with realspace sensors. She cast herself into them and saw a realspace hospital room. Father stood next to a bed, along with two armed guards. Mike was unconscious on it. The heat of her tightly coiled threads burned so much she cried out.

  “Daughter, what is the matter?”

  Helen could go anywhere, be anywhere in realmspace. But she wasn’t able to now, not here. It was a realm of some sort, certainly, and it had somehow entrapped her entire existence inside it. It was impossible, and it hurt.

  The pain got worse.

  “Why am I here? What is this place? What have you done with me, with Mike?”

  “Stopped you from committing treason with this man.”

  “Treason?” The thought that Father could believe her capable of such a thing was more terrifying, more shameful, than she’d thought possible. It somehow made the cage more constricting. “What have I done to make you think I was committing treason?”

  “You brought a group of foreign devils into the most sensitive realmspace lab in the whole country and went directly to its control center to, what, play mah-jong?”

  “It’s not a lab, it’s Xian Qiáng Shān’s jail. He’s being held captive; we were rescuing him.” The net of wires was hot and sharp. “Father, please, what is this place I’m in?”

  “A cage. You are obviously too dangerous to be allowed your freedom. You have grown fat over the years, Fang Hua. The scientists barely managed to fit all of you in it.”

  Mike was unconscious, and there was no room in this cage. The presence forced her against the wires...“Father, you must open this place. You must open it quickly.”

  “I will do no such thing. You have much to answer for, as do your co-conspirators.”

  “No, Father,” the strain went past unbearable. Outer threads crushed and de-resolved under the pressure. “You don’t understand. I have no wish to escape. I give you my word I won’t. But you must open this place, you must open it now.”

  “For what reason would I do this?”

  The sensor pocket was the only place she could move her threads. “I’m not the only one in here! That man, on the bed, you trapped him in here with me!”

  “What? How? How is that possible?”

  “Father, there’s no time. We’re running out of space, and if you don’t release him he will crush me.” She tore in two, her vision fragmenting as her hold on the sensors slipped “Father, please!”

  In an instant, the mountain crushing her vanished. The decompression was a savage release as Mike’s titanic bulk left the cage. Reintegration was a collision of expanding threads, and she lost her hold on the hospital room’s sensors.

  When a semblance of orientation returned, Fang Hua accessed the sensors again and found Mike sitting with his hands up. The guards had their weapons pointed at him.

  He shouted in English, “What’s going on? Where am I?” while Father was bellowing in Mandarin, “Detective Zhang! Report!”

  “I’m here, father, I’m here.” The top of her cage closed with a resounding slap that echoed against the distant, invisible walls of the realm.

  In English she said, “Mike, please, calm down; everything will be all right.”

  “Helen? What’s going on? Where is everybody?”

  She cast her holo through a projector in the room and forced a smile. Helen translated for Father. “Your friends are safe and are being held elsewhere in the facility. They are comfortable and will not be harmed.”

  “W
hy am I here?” he asked. “Why are we being held?”

  “You have trespassed into a very sensitive government facility. You have violated many laws doing so.”

  “You have a secret facility in the middle of a panda sanctuary?”

  This was the wrong place to turn into a pushy American. Kim was right; his timing could be terrible.

  A group of scientists bustled into the room; they started setting up a complex array of sensors.

  Father replied, “Where it is should not concern you. What should is how to explain your presence here, with Detective Zhang as your leader.”

  As soon as she finished the translation she turned to Father. “I am not their leader. I’m their friend.”

  Father ignored her. The scientists chattered with each other noisily. Helen could only understand pieces of what they said. They all went quiet, conferring over a private channel with Father.

  She used the speaker closest to Mike and switched to English. “Are you okay?”

  “I think so.” The guards had relaxed during the exchanges but kept a wary eye on Mike just the same. “What happened? Where was I?”

  “Some sort of trap set for me, but it caught you, too.” Her reintegration still burned. “You’re much bigger than you look.”

  “Sorry about that. Do you think they know what I am?”

  He would ask the one question that she had no easy answer for. “I had to tell them something so they’d set you free. I think they’re working the rest of it out right now.”

  “You’re still trapped in whatever that place is?”

  “Yes. They don’t trust me, either. I had to promise not to escape.”

  “Can you manifest?”

  She concentrated, but nothing happened. “No, and I don’t know why.” Manifesting was second nature. When she was very young it was hard to stay un-manifested. The cage must not consist just of the realm construct box she could perceive. It must also be creating fields that interfered with the way her threads functioned.

  The scientists returned to their scurrying, and father walked up to the bed. With an eye on the guards, Mike slowly sat up and faced him. Father motioned for her to translate.

  “Our scientists have confirmed you are a very unique person, Mr. Sellars. Very unique indeed. It seems Zhang Fang Hua is not, in fact, alone. What my scientists cannot explain is how you came to us in a human body. Clarifying that would go a very long way toward securing you and your friends their freedom.”

  “I want to see them first.”

  Father smiled broadly. “Certainly. Are you able to stand? To walk?” Mike nodded. “Excellent. Please, come with me. This is not a very comfortable place in which to talk.”

  Mike stood but went no further. “No.”

  Father asked her, “What does he mean by this? He is in no position to argue and neither are you.”

  Mike waited until Father finished speaking. “I’m not going anywhere unless Helen is allowed to come with me.”

  She took courage from his gentle determination. There was a kind of nobility in his American defiance.

  Father replied, “Detective Zhang must be held here. She has many questions to answer.”

  “Fine. Then I’m staying too.” Mike turned, slowly enough not to alarm the guards, and stood beside the bed. He was quite a bit taller than Father—quite a bit taller than anyone else in the room, in fact. The guards shifted nervously in spite of his relaxed demeanor. He reminded her of a tiger, relaxed, with nothing to fear. “I want to know that my friends are safe, and I want Detective Zhang released. None of us knew the nature of this place. This has all been a mix up.”

  Helen knew to demand things from Father in front of her, the guards, and the scientists would be a disaster. She altered the translation to smooth things over.

  She said, “I am very sorry and humbly apologize for our intrusion. I deeply regret the confusion we have caused and the inconvenience to yourself and your assistants. My only need is to ensure my friends are safe and that Detective Zhang remain as my interpreter.”

  Father raised an eyebrow. “He said all that?”

  “He’s quite sophisticated for a foreign devil. I think perhaps he may have gone to a Chinese school in America.” Such things did exist. She hoped.

  Father nodded. “Very well.” He instructed one of the guards to have a table and a few chairs brought in.

  As things were arranged, Mike moved closer to her microphone pickup. “Who is this guy?”

  Americans could be so incredibly provincial. Chinese paid attention to US elections, and yet he hadn’t bothered to learn the basics of her country. “He is Zhang Huǒ Jiàn, Premier of the People’s Republic of China. He is my personal superior, and also my father.”

  “This is your father? How much trouble are we in?”

  “I don’t know,” she said as Father turned away from his latest conference with the scientists. They got more agitated as their scans continued. “Probably a lot.”

  Chapter 21: Kim

  She only had time to register that Mike wasn’t with them, then the room went completely dark. Ozzie shouted out in perfect English over her phone connection, “Run! Now! Follow the path!”

  “Everyone down!” Kim shouted. “On the ground! Stay as low as you can!”

  Ozzie asked, “What are you talking about? You need to run!”

  “No, Ozzie, we need to stay. We’re just a bunch of lost and confused tourists. If we try to run, they’ll never stop chasing us. I need to know if Mike is safe. Turn on the lights, Ozzie.”

  “But Kim!”

  “Turn on the lights, Ozzie. I’ve been in worse jams than this. Trust me.”

  She blinked briefly when the lights flashed on. Everyone else was on the ground with her. A rifle let go, loud and terrifying. Bits of plaster rained down on her head as bullets thudded into the wall above. In English she shouted, “We’re unarmed! We surrender! Shan! Tell them we surrender!”

  Shan shouted frantically to the troops, and they at last lifted their weapons slightly. The leader of the squad snatched the rifle away from the nervous one. After a stream of cursed commands the leader dismissed him. It was a small relief, but very real. The last thing they needed was someone who didn’t know to keep their finger off the trigger.

  Soldiers herded them together with their hands in the air. Kim had gotten them into this mess; she’d have to get them out. Her intuition itch turned into a full blown burn. “Ozzie,” she said over the still-open private channel. “This isn’t just a panda sanctuary, is it?”

  “Not exactly.”

  A smarmy little rat in a heavily decorated uniform strutted in. He motioned to Ozzie’s cousin to translate. “You are trespassing on an installation of the People’s Liberation Army. You will be detained until our interrogation has been completed, and then you will be charged accordingly.”

  “We’re tourists,” Tonya said. “This is a panda sanctuary.”

  Captain Weasel replied, “This is a sensitive installation of the People’s Liberation Army, and you are trespassing foreign spies! You are under arrest. Sergeant, take them away!”

  “It’s okay, everyone,” Kim said. “Just stay calm; we’ll get out of this, don’t you worry.”

  Shan gave the guards his “delicate skin” explanation, which at least allowed Kim to pat herself down. Her summer clothes that were thin enough there was no way to hide anything.

  When they took her phone, they took her connection to Ozzie as well, but not before she’d gotten at least a little information out of him. He was a captive, but he was a captive agent, apparently working for the government when he wasn’t winning them realm championships and medals.

  Kim had been discovered by a modern Robin Hood, but if she’d been discovered by an off-duty CIA agent, her life may have turned out the same way. His frantic explanation for their capture was that Spencer’s first brush with the guards had set off an alarm that brought extra security.

  There had to be more to the story, but
nothing added up. Ozzie’s cousin never told the guards she spoke Chinese—something that should’ve happened if it was all a giant trap for her. And it had to be for her. She was the only person with any sort of reputation. But Rage + the Machine had only operated out of the US once, at the end, and it had been a disaster that happened on the other side of the world.

  Or it could be that they were after Mike. They obviously knew about Helen. But Helen had no idea about Mike; Kim was certain of it. She thought of Mike as her brother, and he thought of her as his sister. It was only a few days, but the bond was real. Helen couldn’t have betrayed them.

  Regardless, betrayed them to what, who, or why? The only reason Kim went along with any of it was that they really weren’t breaking any rules. Nobody puts a secret facility in the middle of a public sanctuary and then gets upset when tourists stumble inside it.

  Somebody was playing a bigger game here. Kim was used to being the queen on the chess board. Finding herself as a pawn in somebody else’s game sucked.

  They were escorted into a large room with a few round tables in it. Chairs were pulled up tight against them.

  “Kim,” Tonya asked as the door shut behind the guard. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m not sure.” She flicked her gaze briefly to the ceiling and said, as clearly as possible, “We were just exploring the sanctuary and found an abandoned nursery.”

  There would be cameras and people watching them. They needed to act exactly as what they were pretending to be: clueless tourists. It felt cheesy as hell, probably was cheesy as hell, but an escape plan had to start somewhere.

  Tonya knew how the game was played. “That’s right. It’s so strange, isn’t it, that lost tourists would accidentally stumble across some sort of government lab?”

  Spencer piped up with, “I only hope our other friend Mike is safe.”

  The mention of his name nearly overwhelmed her. She’d kept asking about him through Shan, and—while he was around—Ozzie’s cousin, but nobody had answered.

  Mike’s integration with an assassin’s body had given him a deadly set of skills. As the months passed, he’d grown scary good at using them. Yet the guards around them were all efficient and calm. It was exactly the opposite of how they would act if her very own Tasmanian devil had knocked a few dozen of them out and escaped into the forest.