Empire of the Dragon

by David L. Golemon

  Jenks shook his head and then gestured toward the terminal and the street beyond. “Well, we better get our asses off to the land of Genghis Khan, Toad, we wouldn’t want to miss all of the fun. I love traveling with you slack-jawed gurus, you’re always so much fun.”

  Major Will Mendenhall felt absolutely worthless as he said his goodbyes to his friends. His new duties were killing him slowly inside. He watched as Everett and Jenks, with Henri moving away in another direction, head off to the real world—a world that was no longer Will’s.

  * * *

  The dark-haired man watched the Americans leave and then waved his car to the curb. Once in the blue colored Citroen sedan, he checked in electronically with Director Vassick to inform him that the Americans had arrived and were now on the move north.

  “Where to, sir?” the driver asked his new boss.

  “The airport. I have a date in a different desert.”

  After fifteen years of studying the enemy, the reborn Jack Collins had a very important mission to fulfill, and it was time to get serious.

  * * *

  Headquarters MI-6, 85 Albert

  Embankment, London, England

  The heavyset man with the bowtie greeted his assistants in the outer office with his gruff ‘good morning’ as he had every day, six days a week for the past eighteen years. As always, his head was angled downward in deep thought as he read a communique from his operations department. As he strode into his modest office, he waved his assistant in without looking up. She knew the mood immediately. The head of the intelligence arm of Britain’s MI-6 was worried about something he had been informed of at home earlier that morning.

  “Would you like tea, Lord Durnsford?” she asked as she came in with her archaic notepad and pen.

  “If I had wanted tea I would have procured it for myself,” he grumbled as he placed the report down on his desktop and then waited for her to take a seat. “Put away that pad. Nothing of this goes to paper, is that clear, Ms. Jennings?”

  Without answering, she simply placed the notepad on her lap and folded her hands over it.

  “I am about to commit a crime.”

  The assistant had worked for Lord Durnsford even before the Overlord Operation. Durnsford had overseen the United Kingdom’s end of things as he worked closely with other officials from every nation. Durnsford had been instrumental in forming the alliance that had virtually saved the world from the Gray invasion with the Overlord plans in Antarctica. The event had aged the old gentlemen countless years, and those years were now well-worn and etched deeply into his face. With his statement about committing a crime, the assistant was nonplussed. Lord Durnsford committed crimes every day of his professional life in order for him to cut through the red tape and the bureaucracy of intelligence gathering, with a government that was prickly when it came to what Her Majesty’s forces were up to in the world of espionage. In other words, what the Prime Minister and the Queen didn’t know, surely would not hurt them.

  Durnsford reached into his top drawer and dialed in a code for his combination lock for the small safe. Before he pulled out the small, black notebook, he looked up at Ms. Jennings. “I’m sending you on a field assignment.”

  The woman’s eyes lit up. “Is it dangerous?” she asked with mock excitement.

  “Only if you are observed. Then if you are, I will strangle you myself when you return. So, yes, it could possibly be dangerous.”

  “I see. I’m meeting someone you want no record of meeting.”

  “I knew there was a reason I keep you on. Precisely.”

  “Parameters of said assignment?” she asked.

  “You are meeting a man for lunch at an Indian bistro. You know him, we have worked closely together before. After you finish your lunch, order the chicken curry by the way, it’s very good, then after you finish your curry, you will stand up as you make your goodbyes to the gentleman, lean in and whisper, and I mean whisper mind you, the Khan has awakened.”

  “The Khan has awakened,” she repeated.

  “Leave the bistro, return here.” He started to reach for his small black phone book. He stopped and looked up over his half-moon bifocals. “Well, that is all.”

  She stood with her notepad and then looked at Lord Durnsford. “Should I go armed?” she asked with hope brightening her blue eyes.

  Durnsford took an intake of breath, exasperated. “Woman, this is Great Britain, not bloody Syria. The man is a Colonel in the SAS. I don’t think he will be inspired to shoot my assistant. That would not be a well thought out career move, now would it?”

  “Let’s just hope he loves his career,” she said as she turned and walked out of the office disappointed.

  Lord Durnsford shook his head, but he did offer a smile at the enthusiasm of some of his people. He removed the black book from the safe and then flipped through the pages. He found the number he was looking for. He picked up the phone and then punched in one number.

  “This is the Router,” came the squeaky voice on the other end of the line.

  “Secure for overseas.”

  “Yes, you have a secure line. Use number five-oh-six.”

  “Thank you,” Durnsford said as he punched the button indicating 506. When he heard the scrambler squeak and squeal, then the dial tone, he knew his call was as secure as MI-6 communications could make it. He punched in his chosen number and then waited.

  “Gold City Pawn,” came the voice from over five thousand miles away.

  “Yes, I would like to speak to the manager about a silver tiara pawned last year.”

  “Was this a pawn item, or a sell item, sir?”

  “Pawn,” came the coded reply.

  “One moment please, I’ll connect you with the manager’s office.”

  Lord Durnsford smiled at the simple way the Americans had of security. Rather antiquated in his opinion, but he knew the man he was about to speak to never trusted in the technology concerning the protection of his most obscure and top-secret agency. He heard the chirps and clicks as the phone was sent to the man’s private and scrambled line.

  “Compton,” said the voice of the man Durnsford had become very close to over the years.

  “Niles, old boy, good to hear your voice,” Durnsford said.

  “Lord Durnsford, you’re in the office a bit early today.”

  “You and I never really leave our offices, old man, you of all people should know that.”

  At the Event Group complex underneath Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, Niles Compton couldn’t stifle the yawn. “I take it you have had the same results on your end about this Russian shadow government as I?”

  “Niles, at least you got a chance to get into the Oval Office and speak your piece. I was turned away from 10 Downing after only twenty minutes of debrief with the Prime Minister. Our official government stance going forward is…well, we have no official stance. No proof, no stance.”

  “We’re just two voices crying out in the wind. Oh, the C.I.A. and N.S.A. believe us, but without proof any Senate oversight would butcher them if they go after Russia with what we have.”

  “Same here, old boy.” Durnsford cleared his throat. “Uh, Niles, that’s not the real reason for my call. It seems one of my people has gone and got himself lost.”

  “I know the feeling,” Niles said as he was starting to suspect that Durnsford had eyes on the situation thanks to placing a tag on his own Department 5656 personnel.

  “The Mongolia thing, well I—”

  “Oh, for Christ’s sake, Willy, you tagged my field team in Mongolia, didn’t you?”

  “You know the game, old man. We have never been impaired with an overabundance of trust. But no, my man is there on his own. He has no idea who your people are. Or he didn’t to being with. No telling what he knows now. I don’t employ idiots, as I am positive you do not. Nonetheless, we have lost contact with our boy.”

  “Well, join the club. Our tracking and health implants on our people have gone offline. How many ta
gs do you have with the field team?”

  “Just the one. Very experienced, and a man who knows his limits on who are the bad guys and who are the good.”

  “That’s good to know, you sneaky ghost bastard.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment. However, to the point. Our man’s signal ceased at 0125 this morning. Yours?”

  “The same. I believe we can safely say our field team has been discovered.”

  “Yes. Now, may I assume your team was there for the same purposes as our man?” He again cleared his throat. “What I mean to say is, it had nothing to do with the mineral content of the Gobi Desert?”

  “Only one mineral, to be specific.”

  “Then your satellites picked up the same buried secret as our own?”

  Niles was silent for a moment. He toyed with a paperclip on his blotter as he thought. Durnsford was a close friend, but as a friend he had learned to keep his Lordship at arm’s length. He made a quick decision.

  “We suspect that our Slavic friends may have also penetrated the geological dig, but for other reasons, at least at first. Europa was able to use Boris and Natasha to track the Russian’s communication from the mountain range the field team is at. You can guess where that communication ended up. And one hint, it wasn’t Newark, New Jersey.”

  “Ah, this would explain our current situation somewhat.”

  “This thing just may blow up in our faces, Willy. I’ve spoken to the president. He’s ready to send a SEAL team in with an Air Force commando unit if necessary. But, I have to find my people first.”

  “Yes, I am in the process of doing the same. I’m putting Colonel Mayfield on alert notice and getting he and his Special Air Service team into Ulaanbaatar within the day. I will not lose one man to those imposter bastards in Siberia. After what they did to that innocent Russian cruiser crew, I don’t care if the Queen orders me bloody-well hanged.”

  “Okay, First Lord. I’ll ask the President to get our teams coordinated and they can rendezvous in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar. Sometimes it pays to have a lame duck president in office. He doesn’t really care who it is he pisses off. He’s kind of like Jack Collins on that one. I take it that your superiors will not be so pleased if your S.A.S team were discovered invading Mongolia? May I suggest our teams coordinate, that way you could possibly use us backward Americans as your excuse for being in country?”

  “Understood, old boy. Not a good plan, but when it comes to cover-ups, I’ll go with the American angle most times.” He paused a moment. “I have one more subject to broach. May I take it you received the same video feed from Mongolia that we received?”

  Niles wanted to chuckle. Lord Durnsford and his people were light years ahead of the rest of the world when it came to intelligence gathering. He knew if someone had a secret, that very secret would be on the desk of Durnsford within the day.

  “Yes. Virginia ran the numbers with Europa for estimating the speed demonstrated in the video. I’m hesitant to describe her words and theory.”

  “Which one, Ms. Pollock’s or that damnable criminal element you call Europa?”

  “Both. They can be that irritating.”

  “Then I take it your analysts have come to the same conclusion as our physics boys?”

  “Faster than light space travel.”

  “Now we know why our semi-red friends are interested.”

  “Explains a few things, yes.”

  “We’ll speak again, Doctor, when our forces meet up in Ulaanbaatar.”

  Lord Durnsford hung up the phone and checked his watch. He shook his head as he realized the world’s most dangerous game was once more afoot.

  The race for a possible fuel source that could create faster than light space travel had begun.

  * * *

  Altai Mountains,

  Mongolia

  Sarah felt her knees go weak. She allowed her legs to do their own thinking as she slowly eased herself down onto the soft carpet of grass that lined the well-worn path leading down into the hidden city. She stayed that way while Professor Birnbaum made his way toward Anya who could not take her eyes off the scene far below.

  “Can you bloody well believe this? A garden of Eden hidden underneath the most inhospitable desert on the planet. This is the most spectacular sight I have ever seen.”

  Anya felt the words she wanted to speak stick inside of her closing throat as the view below overwhelmed her senses.

  “This will change the world as we know it,” Anderson said as he finally felt his insides straighten themselves out after Sarah and Anya’s assault.

  Li Zheng looked at his son just as Anderson put words to his astonishment. The rebuke was apparent, and the younger Lee could not hold his father’s eyes.

  “Somehow I believe this unfortunate outcome may have been perpetuated by you, my son. Could it be your youthful exuberance and natural instinct for rebellion has brought our people to this? The outside world has now invaded the sanctuary that was the hope of our and their futures,” he nodded his head at the circle of newcomers to his city. “We needed time to acclimate the planet to our existence. Now we have no time. I believe you have achieved the outcome you have argued for since you were but a child. That outcome may have destroyed not only our home, but the people in it.”

  Professor Lee lowered his eyes.

  “Your silence speaks volumes, my son. We will speak of this later.” Li Zheng turned and walked away down the grassy path just as twenty children from the city ran up to greet him. The younger Lee watched as the love of Li Zheng’s people was apparent.

  Sarah felt two strong arms lift her up from the trail. She stuttered at first when she saw Jason Ryan.

  “You don’t need to say anything.” Ryan steadied Sarah as he turned and looked down into a valley that could not possibly exist in natural geological terms. “Hell, what could you say? How do you explain this?”

  “The truth about the myth of Shangri-La, is that the legend itself always defied a scientific explanation. Never once did any ancient people or nationality actually lay claim to the story.” Sarah turned and saw Charlie as he stood with hands on hips as if he were surveying heaven itself. He reached up and pushed the Pith helmet back on his head as he surveyed the scope of the valley through his bottle thick wire-framed glasses. He looked up and saw the unnatural sunlight as it was seemingly being filtered through solid stone. Stones, giant boulders, that had been laid as if by the hands of an ancient master-builder. There was not one inch of open space between the placements. It was if he were looking at a giant geodesic dome a half a mile above their heads. He finally looked at Sarah and Ryan as Anya joined them. “You non-believers constantly forget the lessons that were taught to you by the two smartest people on the planet. Every myth and legend have a basis steeped in fact. If you forget that, you lose the very science that you seek.”

  Sarah remembered the words of not only Niles Compton, but the man who taught the director those very same words, Garrison Lee. Now the truth of that statement was staring her right in the face.

  “I apologize, Charlie. I for one will never laugh at one of your theories again. This…this…I can’t begin to tell you how impossible this is, even though I am looking straight at it. I am a geologist and I can say with no doubt in my mind at all…this cannot be here. Yet—”

  “Here it is,” Ellenshaw said as he smiled and then nudged Ryan out of his way as he placed his thin arm around Sarah’s shoulder and hugged her. “Now, shall we do what we do best?”

  “If you mean we are free to pee our pants, I’ve already accomplished that,” Ryan said as he was still looking up at the impossibility of the ceiling structure high above his head.

  “No, no, my boy. Shall we head down there and ask a few questions on just how this could be?”

  The four Department 5656 personnel, with Birnbaum and Anderson following, started down the trail into the mythical city of Shangri-La.

  * * *

  The five waterfalls that ringe
d the city brought fresh water from someplace that Sarah knew to be geologically impossible. The water tables of the Gobi could not support such a volume of liquid water. She suspected it may spring from giant pockets of trapped ice. Very few people knew the Gobi, while hot most days of the year, could be brutally cold during some of the rainier months. Any rainfall could be theoretically trapped in the substrata and then melt to create small falls of water. But the size of the five surrounding waterfalls vehemently denied that very theory. The volume was just too great.

  The group of newcomers watched the citizens of this underground metropolis as they came forth from their daily chores to greet Li Zheng and his son. Special attention was paid to Lee as the group supposed he had been gone the longest. The people looked happy for their return. The colors and manner of dress was astounding. Simple robes of red, orange, white, blue…rainbow colors of homespun-weave that looked as if they were a throwback to ancient Chinese culture. Some men were shaved bald, and Charlie suspected a religious group of some kind. While others had long, short, even braided hair, it seemed that many Asian cultures were represented. The children were laughing, and the newborn babies looked content in their mother’s arms. There were vendors, where it was noticed by Professor Birnbaum, that no form of monetary compensation was offered for the fruit, or the jewelry, nor even the abundance of western goods, like T-shirts or jeans, as the people gratefully just gave these things to the passerby in exchange for something as small as an apple, or a bag of what looked like sugar. The professor figured they were on the simplest of monetary systems here—the time-honored tradition of bartering.

  Teenage children approached the visitors and then stood surrounding them in a circle. The move wasn’t hostile, just one of curiosity. One girl about the age of thirteen approached Sarah and Anya and reached out and felt the denim jeans they both wore.

  “These are Wranglers. 714s? They’re not supposed to be on sale for another year,” she said as if jealous of the advanced styles the two women were wearing. The girl with the most beautiful dark eyes they had ever seen, smiled, and then moved off as other teens came closer. They had beautifully designed glasses and they held them out to the newcomers.