Jamie Reign the Hidden Dragon

by P J Tierney

  Jamie kept the throttle close to him and the Lin Yao putted along slowly. His lips drew into a thin line as he pondered his options. He could hardly tell Mr Fan that he needed the almanac so he could beat Jade in a fight. That wasn’t very Spirit Warrior-like. He thought about telling him Lucy’s theory about the missing children, but that would probably make him want to get back to Master Wu even faster. Jamie knew he should have come up with a plan before they left the marina.

  ‘Mr Fan’s not going to let us go anywhere with you so sick,’ he said to Wing.

  ‘What if I got sicker?’ Wing said hopefully. ‘We could divert to Sai Chun for treatment.’

  Jamie shook his head. ‘The closest thing to a doctor in Sai Chun is Old Mama Chow and her acupuncture needles, and trust me, you don’t want to go anywhere near those.’

  ‘We could tell him we need fuel,’ Wing said, then he looked over to the chart table. ‘It’s not the closest bay though, is it?’

  Jamie would never have believed he’d ever be making up excuses to get back to Sai Chun. But with every minute they were getting further away from the answers he so desperately needed.

  ‘Where’s Lucy?’ he asked. She was good at plans; she’d come up with something.

  ‘On deck, sulking,’ Wing said. ‘I don’t think she likes this boat very much.’

  Mr Fan must have noticed they were making very little headway. He came onto the bridge. ‘Everything all right?’ he asked.

  Jamie pretended to be checking all the levers. ‘Yeah,’ he said, then in a flash of inspiration he added, ‘But to be safe, we should do a full inspection of the engines. We don’t want to break down at sea. My dad could do it.’

  Mr Fan patted him on the shoulder. ‘Are you homesick, Jamie?’

  Jamie bit his tongue to stop from saying Sai Chun had never felt like home. He tried for a sad, pathetic expression instead.

  ‘Our duty lies at Chia Wu,’ Mr Fan said. ‘That’s where we need to be.’

  ‘Maybe my dad could meet us out here?’ Jamie tried, thinking he could get Hector to bring the almanac to them. ‘I could radio him the coordinates. You know he’s really good with engines.’

  Mr Fan looked at him intently. ‘Is there something worrying you, Jamie?’

  Jamie looked away; he’d never been any good at lying. ‘No. I just thought it would be a good idea, that’s all.’

  ‘The best idea is to get us back to Chia Wu,’ Mr Fan said, pointing at the chart. ‘Nor’-nor’-east.’

  Jamie set the course, feeling as dejected as Wing looked.

  Mr Fan had brought the cooler bag of antibiotics with him onto the bridge, and he pulled out a vial to give Wing another shot. There were freezer bricks inside that beaded in condensation as they warmed.

  Mr Fan shot Jamie a worried look. He didn’t have to say it; a few more degrees and the antibiotics would be useless.

  Jamie pulled the levers down to increase the tug’s speed. If they didn’t think of something soon, it would be too late. If only he could figure out a reason to return to Sai Chun that Mr Fan would accept. Where was Lucy? She could at least help instead of sulking over a stupid toilet. If he could get her up to the bridge without making it too obvious, they might still have a shot.

  ‘Um, Wing,’ Jamie said, ‘maybe Lucy would feel better up here — you know, if she’s feeling seasick.’

  ‘Up here?’ Wing scoffed. ‘It gets worse the higher up you are. She’ll be puking in an instant in this swell.’

  Jamie glared and pursed his lips.

  ‘Oh,’ Wing said, far too loudly.

  Jamie glanced at Mr Fan. He was staring out the window, but Jamie knew he must realise something was up. He wasn’t an idiot. He returned his attention to the controls and surreptitiously gestured to Wing to go find Lucy.

  Wing nodded and was almost at the door when there was a huge bang and the Lin Yao lurched, throwing the three of them against the control panel. The engines spluttered, then there was silence: no engine, no generator, nothing.

  They peeled themselves off the control panel. Wing looked pale and in pain.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Jamie asked him.

  Wing took a deep, shuddering breath. ‘Yeah, I think so,’ he said with very little conviction.

  ‘What happened?’ Mr Fan asked Jamie, who was trying the levers but getting no response. Then Mr Fan tensed and rushed for the door. ‘Lucy!’ he screamed as he scrambled down the ladder.

  Jamie flew after him. Lucy had been on deck. A lurch that big would have thrown her up against the solid steel bulkheads or, worse, into the water. Jamie barrelled into Mr Fan at the bottom of the ladder.

  She was gone. Jamie shouted for her, then rushed to the side to check the water. ‘Check the port side!’ he shouted to Mr Fan.

  ‘Lucy!’ they called, over and over again.

  ‘If she hit her head, she’ll be sinking right now!’ Jamie screamed as he pulled off his shoes.

  ‘View the water!’ Wing shouted from the bridge.

  Yeah, View, Jamie thought, close my eyes, concentrate, but all he could think of was the precious time he was losing while Lucy sank deeper and deeper. He tried to calm his breath, but adrenaline surged through him. He couldn’t make the sensation come.

  ‘Turn the boat around,’ Mr Fan said, giving up on Jamie’s attempts. ‘Get those engines started.’ Then he climbed up to the side of the gunwale and dived into the water.

  Jamie threw a life buoy out to Mr Fan, then he ran to the cabin, yanked open the hatch and slid down the rails — crashing smack bang into Lucy as she climbed up the other way.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Jamie shrieked. ‘We thought you were drowning.’

  ‘I was down below,’ she said, which made absolutely no sense to Jamie.

  He was about to question why she would be anywhere near an engine when she raised her eyebrows and looked down. Jamie followed her gaze to her hands: they were black with engine grease and held the frayed tail of a coil of electrical cables.

  His mouth formed a silent ‘oh’. Then he smiled.

  They retrieved Mr Fan from the water and Lucy let him embrace her, even though he was soaking wet. She was careful not to let her hands touch his robes in case they left telltale smudges of engine grease.

  When Mr Fan finally let her go, Lucy looked around and said a little too innocently, ‘Why have we stopped?’

  ‘Do you think we hit something?’ Wing asked.

  Jamie shook his head. ‘Um, no.’ He looked to Lucy for help, but she refused to make eye contact. ‘I think the engines might have seized,’ he said in a high voice that almost gave them away.

  ‘It seems strange that the electricals have gone as well though,’ Wing said.

  ‘Yeah,’ Jamie said. ‘Strange.’

  ‘Oh, great,’ Lucy said, throwing her arms up in a dramatic way. ‘How are we going to get back to Chia Wu now?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Jamie said as he glared at Lucy, ‘but without any electrical power we can’t radio for help.’

  Lucy looked stricken. ‘Oh. That’s not good, is it?’

  ‘No,’ Jamie said. ‘That’s not good at all. Maybe I should go below to see what actually happened.’

  Lucy cringed. ‘Um, yes, that’s probably a good idea.’

  Wing frowned at the odd conversation. ‘Are you two all right?’

  Jamie sighed. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘You two can help me.’

  The engine room was dark, stuffy and very dirty.

  ‘Whoa,’ Jamie said as his eyes adjusted. ‘Looks like no-one’s ever done any work on this engine.’

  Lucy patted him on the back. ‘Once again, Jamie, excellent choice.’

  Jamie swatted her hand away. ‘Don’t you have to go and pee yet?’

  She huffed and stuck her nose in the air.

  Jamie’s heart sank when he saw what Lucy had done to stop the Lin Yao. She’d yanked the main electrical cable from the control board and its end was now a splayed, frizzy tangle.


  Lucy said softly, ‘I thought you wanted an excuse to go to Sai Chun?’

  Jamie nodded and took a deep breath. ‘But without any power, I can’t get us there.’

  ‘I probably didn’t think this all the way through,’ Lucy said.

  Wing patted Lucy on the shoulder with his good arm. ‘Jamie will be able to fix it — won’t you?’

  ‘If I had some tools, I could at least get the radio working,’ Jamie said.

  They searched the engine room, then the bridge, and managed to scrounge together a few screwdrivers, a pair of pliers and some loose bits of wire.

  ‘It’s a start,’ Lucy said hopefully.

  They went onto the deck and looked through the storage bin. Mr Fan watched with a slightly bemused expression on his face.

  Jamie whispered to Wing, ‘He knows, doesn’t he?’

  ‘I don’t see how,’ Wing said. ‘You two were so subtle.’

  He stood up and flinched in pain. Mr Fan called him over for another antibiotic shot. As Mr Fan changed the dressing, Jamie saw the wound wasn’t healing. It didn’t seem to be getting worse though. He guessed Wing was at a tipping point: more antibiotics and he’d get better; stop the antibiotics and he’d tip the wrong way. And now they were drifting at sea without power, without flares and with a quickly warming cooler bag. If the antibiotics lost their effectiveness, that tipping point would come fast and it would be unforgiving.

  Jamie dug through everything in the tug’s hold — there had to be something they could use. He found the marker buoys and took them up on deck. Then he came across the code flags. He remembered the telepathic message from Jade and dug through them till he found the yellow and black quartered L flag. If a ship was flying that flag when it entered port, it meant there was disease onboard. Jade had gone to great lengths to send him the message so it must be important. Without really knowing why he was doing it, he removed the ensign flags from the aft gantry mast and hoisted the quarantine flag instead.

  He returned to the hold, where Lucy was still searching for tools. She held up every second item, asking what it was and if it would be useful.

  ‘Yes,’ Jamie said impatiently, ‘a self-inflating life raft might come in handy. The broken handle from a fishing rod? Probably not.’

  He politely suggested that Lucy might be more useful trying to call someone telepathically, preferably on the other side of the boat.

  Thinking about Jade reminded him of all the things she had said to him, particularly about moments and how quickly they pass, leaving a lifetime of regret. He saw Lucy sitting up against the side, squeezing her eyes shut in a desperate attempt at telepathy. He realised that in the moment he thought she was drowning, he had failed to help her. He lowered his eyes. No wonder Jade was always disappointed in him.

  Once he’d found enough tools, Jamie went back on deck with the frayed cable and began twisting the splayed copper together, strand by tedious strand. As he worked and the sun beat down, he became aware of a far-off noise. An engine, off to starboard.

  He peered through the glare off the starboard side. The Lin Yao had drifted so far north that they were no longer on any trade routes; there was nothing but open sea for a couple of hundred miles. He wondered what another boat was doing way out here. But whatever they were doing, one thing was sure: they’d have a radio. He grabbed the red ensign and waved.

  Gradually, the dark blur on the horizon took shape. It was hard to make out because it was heading straight towards them, but it looked long and narrow, like a river cargo boat. Rivercraft had a shallow draught to negotiate small inland rivers and were rarely seen this far out to sea.

  The other Warriors joined Jamie at the gunwale. ‘They must be lost,’ he said.

  The riverboat was on their direct course and coming at speed, approaching broadside.

  ‘Sound the horn,’ Wing said.

  Jamie held up the tangled mess of wires in reply: no power, no horn. He scooped up the lifejackets, threw them towards the others and said, ‘Get aft.’

  The boat was going so fast that a direct hit would shatter the Lin Yao’s hull and sink her. Jamie waved frantically. ‘Ahoy there! Dead ahead!’ he shouted till his voice was hoarse, but the boat kept coming.

  He screamed, ‘Abandon ship!’

  But the others stood paralysed. They couldn’t tear their eyes from the sharp, pointed bow heading straight towards them.

  Jamie shoved a lifejacket into Wing’s arms. ‘Jump,’ he said.

  He went back to midship. ‘Dead ahead!’ he screamed.

  He screwed his eyes shut as the pointed bow closed in, expecting a shudder and the sharp crack of the Lin Yao breaking open, then the roar of the sea gushing into her hull and across the decks.

  The hit came and it threw him across the boat. He felt a long, shuddering scrape as the bow of the rivercraft swung to port. The others had been thrown across the deck too and were sprawled up against the tug’s port side.

  ‘Brace yourselves!’ he yelled to them, knowing what was coming.

  The momentum of the turn swung the rivercraft’s stern into the Lin Yao’s side. It bashed the tug so hard, Jamie thought she would roll. She rocked from port to starboard, but remained intact and finally settled. Jamie breathed again.

  There was loud music coming from the riverboat and lots of laughter too. Whoever was steering put the boat in reverse and backed up to the Lin Yao, dousing them all with water and exhaust fumes.

  Jamie shielded himself from the spray and shouted, ‘Are you insane? Was there even anyone on the bridge?’

  As the rivercraft rolled in the swell it had created, Jamie heard the rattle and clink of empty bottles rolling around the deck. He knew the sound well. The crew were drunk, that much was obvious.

  A big man came to the side, laughing. He wore shorts and had a lot of tattoos. ‘Calm down, little dude,’ he said.

  His eyes flicked across the deck and stayed on Lucy far too long. The hairs on Jamie’s forearms tingled.

  He counted five crew on deck, and there had to be at least one on the bridge since someone had put the boat in reverse. He looked up to confirm it, but his gaze fell short and he froze.

  Mr Fan moved in close to him. ‘The washing line,’ Jamie breathed.

  Mr Fan saw it too: a line of clothes strung from the bridge to the crane. Between the boxer shorts and the socks hung three black T-shirts, each one bearing the yellow triangle of Zheng’s contract killers.

  A man stepped out from the bridge. He was smaller than the others, with a pointed beard and beady eyes that darted everywhere. His tongue flicked back and forth across his lips like he was tasting the air.

  Mr Fan bent to straighten the hem of his tunic, which was dishevelled from the fall. While his face was hidden from the other crew, he whispered to Wing, ‘Throw that dive buoy overboard.’ To Lucy, he said, ‘Get below now.’

  Mr Fan held his arm out wide to straighten his sleeve, concealing Lucy as she slipped through the cabin hatch. Jamie heard Wing at the port side of the boat, then a small splash as the buoy hit the water.

  ‘Ahoy,’ Mr Fan called out brightly as he dusted down the front of his tunic. ‘Anything we can help you with?’

  ‘You help us?’ the tattooed man answered. ‘Looks like you’re the ones in trouble.’

  ‘No trouble here,’ Mr Fan said. ‘Just me and the grandchildren waiting for my sons to come up from a dive.’

  ‘You dive here?’ the tattooed man said suspiciously. ‘There’s nothing down there to dive for.’

  Mr Fan swallowed.

  ‘Razorfish,’ Jamie breathed as loudly as he dared.

  ‘They’re diving for razorfish,’ Mr Fan called out.

  The tattooed man scanned the water for a dive buoy and seemed annoyed when he spotted it.

  The captain came to the stern. He put his foot onto the rail and leaned over his knee in what looked like an attempt to be casual, but there was something in his beady eyes that made Jamie very uncomfortable. He felt Jet sidle up t
o him and cling to his leg.

  ‘Where’s the girl?’ the captain said. ‘I saw a girl.’

  Mr Fan didn’t miss a beat. ‘In the cabin. She does the cooking.’

  ‘Bring her up on deck,’ the captain said.

  ‘She’s shy,’ Mr Fan said. ‘Best to leave her where she is.’

  The captain’s expression changed. ‘I said I want to see her.’

  Jamie noticed the crew tense. The men who were sitting stood up; those who were standing edged closer.

  Mr Fan called Lucy to the deck. She poked her head out the hatch, then climbed up the stairs.

  ‘You kids okay?’ the captain asked. ‘I could run you back to shore if you want.’

  Mr Fan clamped a vice-like hand on Jamie’s shoulder. ‘Oh, no, thank you,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t do without them.’

  The captain stared at Mr Fan a fraction too long. Then he smiled at Lucy. ‘You do the cooking, do you?’

  She nodded.

  ‘We’re looking for a cook, aren’t we, boys?’ he said, looking around to include his crew. They all nodded eagerly.

  ‘We pay well too,’ the captain said. ‘So what are you cooking now?’

  Lucy shifted from foot to foot. Razorfish!

  Jamie screamed silently to her. Say razorfish.

  She squeezed her lips together, then said, ‘Prawns.’

  Jamie tensed under Mr Fan’s hand. Prawns didn’t run this time of year. A dangerous look flared in the captain’s eye, but Mr Fan squeezed Jamie’s shoulder to let him know he understood.

  ‘Frozen, of course,’ Mr Fan said with a smile. ‘I do miss the fresh ones though.’

  The captain’s eyes narrowed. ‘Your generator’s not running — that can’t be good for frozen seafood.’ He put his weight to the gunwale to step over. ‘I’ll have a look at it for you.’

  ‘You don’t want to do that,’ Mr Fan said, holding out his palm.

  ‘Why not?’ the captain asked, waiting for the swell to roll the two boats together so he could board the Lin Yao.

  ‘Because,’ Mr Fan said, ‘we have not been entirely honest with you.’

  The rivercraft crew bristled; one cracked his knuckles while another stretched his neck from side to side as if he was limbering up.