Dodge stared back at the ancient Chinese villain, a puzzled expression crossing his face.
Two black-clad thugs dragged Ho Xu-tan along the ground. His head swam with strange, alien thoughts. The ground seemed far below him and his legs felt like they had stretched like elastic in their effort to reach it. The sky closed cold blue fingers around him and his thoughts drifted in a different world. He tried to coordinate himself enough to look at his captors, but saw that their faces were completely blank! Not just their expressions, their faces. No eyes, noses, mouths, nothing!
He chuckled. How could they see where they were taking him? A small, urgent voice began to nag at the back of his head, but Xu-tan was in no mood to listen to it.
He was dragged towards the edge of the river. To Xu-tan the water looked like smoked glass and to his amazement he could see the vague form of his own face looking up at him. Xu-tan chuckled again. Far away he heard a voice.
“He’s a heavy bastard!”
Xu-tan felt himself pitch forward. He seemed to drop from the sky and fall forever towards that inky surface. But when he landed he felt a searing pain shoot through his knee. It brought him out of his fugue a little. Looking down he saw that as he had fallen from heaven, he had landed on an old piece of rusted pipe. It had punctured the skin underneath his kneecap.
The small voice buzzing at the back of his mind grew louder and clearer.
“If you don’t pull yourself together, you’ll be sitting with your ancestors before morning. You are going to die!”
It took him a few seconds to realise that the voice had come from his own throat.
“Give him another injection and then dump him in the river!” an alien voice echoed around his head. He felt a pair of hands grip him under his armpits and haul him to his feet. Through a strange, undulating mist Xu-tan saw a human figure walking towards him; a figure with red eyes and an enormously wide mouth full of needle-sharp teeth. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to concentrate. This wasn’t real! It couldn’t be real!
Xu-tan opened his eyes again and realised that the demonic figure was just a man after all - a man with a syringe in his hand. He scrambled against the fog that was obscuring his thoughts. He had not fought his way out of a Japanese compound all those years ago to be killed by these insignificant worms! Narrowing his eyes he focused on the syringe as it approached his flesh. In one swift move he spun around. The sudden manoeuvre caught the man holding him by surprise, and he ended up with his back towards his companion. Xu-tan crouched and sprang backwards. His assailants crashed into each other. The man holding his arms gurgled and fell forward, the syringe thrust into the back of his neck at the base of his skull.
Xu-tan rolled forward, snatching up the metal pipe which he had fallen onto. He thrust it forward and felt grim satisfaction as it punctured the other man’s sternum. He gaped at Xu-tan in a mixture of horror and surprise, and then pitched forward.
“What do you mean, ‘blame me’?” Dodge sneered.
“When you breached my fortress all those years ago, you threw my plans into disarray. The Japanese started shelling my castle before I had managed to gather all my belongings. One of them exploded my storeroom, destroying all of my supplies. Since then I have been searching for a replacement source, and for that I need access to the world tree of Norse legend.”
Dodge started to laugh.
“Do I amuse you, Mr Danger?”
“Don’t take it personally Yue,” Dodge snickered, “but I think you’re barking up the wrong tree!”
Yue Tiansiang smiled, but it didn’t reach his snake-like eyes. “What I do in an hour’s time will neither concern nor interest you, Mr Danger! Enjoy your eternity!”
The villain turned and stalked away from the edge of the pit. Reptilia hung back for a few seconds and then approached the edge.
“Mr Danger, you may need these in the afterlife.” She threw his holster into the pit. It landed uselessly at Dodge’s feet. “Perhaps if you can placate the dragon you may live a little while longer.”
With a tinkling laugh Reptilia also turned and left the bound captives to their fate.
A few seconds passed and then Dodge heard the turning of gears and cogs coming from deep within the walls. The dragon’s jaw started moving towards him. Susan gasped. “Dodge ...” she began.
“I know, I’ve got one on this side too.” he said through clenched teeth. Suddenly both sides of the jaw sprouted sharp metal daggers each about twelve inches long - daggers that looked like teeth.
“I just knew that was gonna happen.” Dodge muttered under his breath.
Yue Tiansiang and his entourage left the depths of his subterranean lair and emerged into a dirty, dilapidated alleyway. His guards left the safety of the doorway first. Tiansiang followed as soon as they deemed it safe.
A large, sleek Rolls Royce pulled up and one of the guards opened the door for Tiansiang.
“Set the explosives! Mr Danger is about to cost me another home.” He climbed painfully into the car. Reptilia joined him in the back seat.
“What now, father?”
“Now we find out where Danger has hidden the Runestones,” he leaned forward to speak to the driver, “take us to the Palks in Port Wallace and have my men search Danger’s hotel room. Our time in Wallace is at an end.”
Silently the luxury car pulled away into the night.
The jaws of the death trap rolled slowly but inevitably towards them. Dodge pondered the origin of Reptilia’s cryptic comment as Susan wriggled frantically against her bonds behind him. He could feel his getting tighter as she struggled. He rolled his eyes and starting doing some mental calculations.
The machinery wasn’t moving particularly quickly, but that just meant their final death would be slower and more painful. He figured he and Susan only had about five minutes before the lethal spikes pierced their flesh.
Now ... how the Hell did he placate and tame this particular dragon?
“Dodge, the ropes are too tight! What are we going to do?” Susan shouted.
“I’m workin’ on it!” Dodge snapped. Many cultures had stories about taming dragons; golden bridles, various plants, tricks but nothing that helped right now! Unless…
“Susan, how’s your singing voice?” he called.
The metal teeth were about three and a half feet away and rolling closer by the second.
“I beg you pardon?”
Dodge twisted his head around to look a Susan. “Many fairytales and myths talk about placating wild beasts with music. Unfortunately when I sing I sound like a tomcat in heat. So I’m afraid it’s up to you, honey!”
“Wh-what will I sing?” she stammered.
“You know, I don’t think that’s important right now! Just sing!”
Susan weighed the options. If it worked then they’d both be alive. If it didn’t work then her embarrassment wouldn’t last long!
“C’mon honey!” Dodge barked. “Don’t be shy! Pretend you’re the new star of the Pink Pussycat!”
Susan took a deep breath and started singing softly and uncertainly, “Thanks for the Memory”.
The dragon’s jaws continued to close in.
Tiansiang’s men set timers on a series of bombs throughout the cavernous rooms of the subterranean lair, ensuring the entire place would be completely flooded when they went off.
Susan’s voice grew stronger and louder.
The jaws were still closing.
Dodge held his legs up, supported by his bonds and attempted to halt the deadly trap, but the machinery was too solid and heavy. He felt his knees fold beneath their weight and force.
Susan continued to sing, desperation giving her voice strength and timbre. However the machinery still wasn’t stopping. Dodge began to think he had made a big mistake.
Dodge blurted out the last line in his own unmelodic style. The spikes actually started picking up speed.
“Dodge, you’re not helping!” Susan snapped. He grinned apologetically despite the fa
ct the spikes were almost upon them!
A moment of silence passed between them, the only sound the grinding of the approaching machinery.
“Susan, sing the last line yourself.” Dodge looked at the sharp blades; only inches away from his chest. Susan closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Susan hit a high note and held it for what seemed like minutes. The purity and clarity amazed Dodge.
The sound filtered down through a metal pipe which amplified it. When it reached the end of the tube it had been modified into a perfect tone which shattered a glass bubble, releasing a lead ball. The ball dropped into a hole beneath the bubble and rolled into a metal funnel. Its momentum sent it shooting through the funnel and into a collection of cogs and gears. It landed in the exact middle of the spring mechanism powering the gears and closed the jaws.
With a loud screech the jaws stopped dead, the blades touching Dodge’s chest.
Dodge sighed and started using the edges of the teeth to cut through the ropes around his chest. Within a few seconds both he and Susan were free from the stake. Dodge picked up his gun.
“I wonder why they called this the Dragon’s Jaws?” he muttered.
“What, the giant pointy teeth didn’t convince you?” Susan retorted.
“I’m sure there’s more to it than just teeth.”
At the bottom of the pit he looked up. Directly above them, running across the ceiling was an old metal pipe, a leftover from the warehouse above. Then he felt his foot slowly sink into the floor with an ominous click.
Dodge looked down at the pressure pad he had stepped on.
Liquid started flowing into the bottom of the pit. Dodge knelt down and examined the stuff, wrinkling his nose as horrified realization dawned on him.
Gasoline!
Suddenly he realised why the trap was really called the Dragon’s Jaws.
Somewhere beneath them a small wheel turned against a flint, and a spark ignited a single jet of flame. It started to heat some copper pipes and in turn the floor underneath the pit.
In a few seconds the gasoline would ignite.
Dodge could feel the heat increase beneath his boots and he rolled his eyes. This was not turning out to be a good day...
Dodge’s heavy leather boots protected the soles of his feet, but Susan’s thin shoes were not suited to this kind of treatment. The fumes began to rise.
Dodge reached into his jacket – right where the Steamsmith had hidden a new gadget – a coil of microfilament rope with a grapnel on the end! He blessed the mad young inventor and swung his arm in an arc. The grapnel lashed around the pipe and held securely.
“Susan, we have to get out of this pit now!” The gasoline was really heating up, the fumes catching in his throat.
“Dodge, what’s that smell? It’s like petrol!” Susan looked at him in concern. He stared back, his expression telling her everything. She ran over to him and threw her arms around his neck.
With Susan clinging to him, Dodge started climbing up his rope. It was thin but very strong and he knew it would hold their combined weights. However that didn’t concern him. They had to reach the edge of the pit somehow. “We need to swing across,” he told Susan.
Grasping the rope tightly, he tried to reach the edge with one foot, but it was Susan who managed to stretch out far enough to touch the edge. She kicked against it, pushing them away and giving them both enough momentum to swing back. Then she leapt from Dodge’s arms.
Below the gasoline began to bubble.
Dodge swung back out across the pit, gagging from the fumes, his eyes watering. Then he released the rope and landed beside Susan. He stumbled and she had to catch him.
The gasoline caught fire below them.
Parts of the floor started sliding under other parts. A gust of air rushed up from the depths of Yue Tiansiang’s lair, sending a surge of flame shooting up from the pit, enveloping the Dragons’ Jaw death trap. Dodge and Susan backed away across the room, watching as the ceiling above the pit blackened and charred. The skin on Dodge’s face began to feel tight and raw from the searing heat.
“Jesus, that was a bloody close one!” Dodge gasped.
Susan smiled with relief.
Suddenly the muffled sounds of explosions echoed through the underground chamber. The explosives that Tiansiang’s men had planted were beginning to ignite.
Dodge grabbed Susan’s hand and they started running along the corridors of the abandoned lair. The continuous rumble of far-off explosions accompanied their escape.
Another explosion sent vast amounts of river cascading into the lair. The deluge smashed Tiansiang’s throne and ornamental urns and dragons into matchwood against the walls. Priceless silk tapestries and oriental rugs disappeared in the flooding. Yue Tiansiang’s elaborate and opulent throne room was completely destroyed.
The Stewart River was reclaiming Tiansiang’s entire lair. Yue Tiansiang had ordered everything sacrificed in an attempt to obliterate Dodge Danger!
Dodge and Susan tore through the corridors, heading for the tunnel that would take them to safety. The bombs had stopped but the explosions continued as ceilings and walls caved in. Dodge and Susan sprinted for their lives. Then a ceiling collapsed up ahead, and a torrent of water came cascading through the corridors before them. He grabbed Susan’s hand again and they turned, trying to outrun the flood of cold river water. Another explosion sounded in front of them. Dodge and Susan skidded to a halt.
“Dodge?” Susan looked at him.
“Take a really deep breath.” He managed a reassuring smile before ... the water hit them!
It was a curiously painless experience. A vast expanse of cold, numbing liquid enveloped them. Dodge felt himself pulled forward then dragged upwards. His limbs had no power, strength or meaning against the formidable deluge. He felt his hand brushing against Susan and he tried to grab her, but then clutched at cold nothingness.
The floodwaters carried them up from the subterranean tunnels and into the river itself. Susan could see Dodge floating in the water and swam towards him, convinced that he had drowned. She grabbed his arm and struggled towards the surface.
Dodge found himself surrounded by darkness and realised that he had been totally absorbed into the trunk of that enormous tree. He could hear nothing apart from his own heartbeat. He felt a terrible, all-consuming fear as large as the world itself.
Dimly he realised it didn’t belong to him, but to the tree!
An odd thought struck him. The Wolf was released and the tree was afraid!
Dodge tried to move, but his entire body seemed to be cocooned within the giant plant’s substance. The sensation of being cradled by something so much larger and stronger began to comfort him and he closed his eyes.
Images of violence and destruction raged through his mind.
He saw jungle-bound Buddhist temples torn apart by explosions, African people starving in arid deserts, European cities set on fire with powerful weapons of destruction. People dying! Cities dying! Fire! Plague! Famine! He tried to twist his mind away from these images, but the more he struggled, the greater they became.
He saw terrible acts of violence occurring all over the world. The climate seemed to be in the grip of frightening and unnatural forces. The ground was torn asunder by fierce geological upheavals.
Yggdrasil was afraid!
Ragnarok was coming!
Suddenly the tree vomited him out and he sprawled on the ground. He immediately felt vulnerable and very, very small.
“Jesus, what was going on?” Dodge screwed his eyes shut. He didn’t know where he was. He wasn’t even sure what reality he should be in.
He felt as though someone was playing with his mind, and if it continued much longer, he would snap under the pressure.
“Rest easy, adventurer.” a voice filled his mind. It seemed to have three parts. Dodge scrambled to his feet and turned around.
Three women stood at the subterranean spring. One appeared old beyond belief, stooped a
lmost double, her face lost within the shadows of a deep hood. However Dodge could see her eyes twinkling with mischievous malevolence. The woman standing next to her had a round and cheerful face, and a ruddy, healthy complexion. She smiled maternally at Dodge. The third woman was a young and awesome beauty. Her golden hair cascaded down her back to her buttocks and her eyes appeared as blue as Arctic ice. All three wore uniformly drab grey cloaks and seemed to be looking at him as one.
He recognised the crone, the mother and the maiden.
“You are in no danger. Immediate danger, that is. The tree was merely showing you what was to be! What will be! What might be!”
“Where am I?” Dodge croaked through a dry throat.
“You are here and you are there! The wolf has been unleashed!”
Dodge turned and glanced at the tree roots that twisted and knotted through the ground all around him. Most still appeared whole, but some had cracked and others looked like they had been chewed by something.
“Nidhoggr the serpent is succeeding! The tree has no strength! The twilight is near!”
Dodge looked up at the tree. It trembled violently, billions of leaves rustling in a mournful cry.
“The wolf is abroad!” the Norn intoned as one. Dodge whirled back around to face them, but they had vanished.
A voice echoed throughout the cavern.
“Dodge! Dodge Danger!” He felt an increasing pressure around his shoulders and an immense feeling of coldness washed across his body. He closed his eyes and fought against the chill.
Dodge felt rough warmth surround his body. He squeezed his eyes closed. The mighty ash tree needed him. A gentle hand stroked the side of his face.
“Dodge, come on! Please open your eyes!” Susan pleaded.
Reluctantly he gave up his dream and obeyed her. Susan was looking wet and bedraggled, but most importantly alive. She smiled with undisguised relief. Dodge struggled to sit up. They occupied a small boat in the middle of the Stewart River. By the sky Dodge surmised that it was almost dawn. Both he and Susan were wrapped in heavy coarse blankets.
Dodge Danger Page 6