Land Of The Thunder Dragon

by Dave Williams

  Skye was exasperated, “Maybe we should summon her.”

  “I know, I just don’t want to upset her unnecessarily. What if she is on her last jump?” said David.

  “What if we have to take that chance David? Tandin is just as important as anyone else here don’t you think.”

  “I hate that I am saying this, but, is that correct? The future of humanity is in the balance, what if Tandin is less important than others? What if we strand Druk here, and then we fail because she couldn’t jump? Look, I will wait another ten minutes,,,, hang on, I hear engines.”

  ***

  Raj and Lauren had decided to take Priscilla for one last run up the valley before dark. Druk had asked them to be the eye in the sky for a while, she had something else she needed to attend to. But they had had to land in order to re-fuel. With the Queens and Jack uncontactable, it had taken ages to get credit arranged for the fuel.

  “I don’t see why we couldn’t just drop them in to base camp by parachute again, and avoid all of this hiking crap,” complained Raj.

  “You just don’t get it do you?” Lauren responded. “The journey is just as important as the actual challenges they will have to face. What they learn now, while there is at least some support, will help them to be self-sufficient later, when there might not be any. But more importantly, they need to acclimatise. You can’t just take someone from two thousand metres to six thousand and expect them to live for very long.”

  “Ok, I agree with that,” Raj said, “I just feel pretty helpless. wait one. Incoming from David.”

  “Boy am I glad to hear your engines Raj, we’ve got a big problem down here.”

  “Go on David, I’ve connected Lauren, so she is listening in as well.” Raj replied.

  “Tandin senior has been attacked by a Tiger, he has severe lacerations and has lost a lot of blood, we have limited first aid gear and really need some help to get him out.”

  Lauren was flabbergasted, “A Tiger? Are you sure? Why would a Tiger attack him?”

  “Doesn’t matter right now Lauren. What can you do to help?”

  “I’m going to parachute in with a medical trauma kit David. Meanwhile Raj will contact Bhutanese authorities and arrange an Evac so you can keep going. Get a light or a fire going in a clear space near you, so I have something to aim for, it’s getting dark.”

  “OK, I will organise something pronto.” David cut the connection and Lauren headed to the cargo bay to get fitted out.

  “David?” Raj queried.

  “Yes Raj, I am still here. I’m just looking for a shovel so I can grab some coals from the fire inside.”

  “Great idea, get some help. But I just wanted to let you know that I will disappear for a minute while I gain some altitude for a safe jump, don’t panic when you see me flying away.”

  “No problems, be quick if you can, Tandin is in a really bad way.”

  Raj did some quick calculations. “I estimate that Lauren will be on the ground in about seven minutes. Meanwhile, keeping him warm and compression on any bleeding is the most important thing. I have put in a call to the army base that you passed through on your way up yesterday and they are putting together a rescue party. They will be coming by foot during the night, so be ready to receive them in the early hours.”

  “Grandpa Jack seems to know what he is doing Raj. He just doesn’t have the equipment that he needs.”

  “Well, Lauren is on the way with that. Start getting his sons used to the idea that Lauren will want to use their blood for a transfusion. They are the most likely ones to be a match. Failing that, she has plasma and IV fluids in the trauma kit. Now I am just lowering the ramp for Lauren to jump. Jumping in ninety seconds, I can see your flames David.”

  David looked around concerned, “Umm, I don’t think that’s me Raj. I’m only just coming down the steps with the coals in my shovel.”

  “Shit, Lauren, don’t jump, that’s not the target. Someone’s trying to throw us off. Who can hack our comms like that?”

  There was silence. “Too late Raj, I was already out the door. David, forget the fire, I will try to home in on your comm signal. Just stay where you are and get someone to watch your back.”

  David stood in the small frosty yard, he still didn’t have a shirt on. Luckily, he had connected Skye with the conversation and she came out with his blanket and the two twins to watch out. Obviously, someone was still out there trying to disrupt the mission.

  “I’m sorry guys, it’s really rude, but I don’t know your names yet.” David said to them meekly.

  “We are both Jasprit, David. I know that sounds weird but as we were born twins, our family couldn’t choose names, so we were both given the same name.”

  “Wow, that’s a bit confusing,” said Skye. “But nice to finally meet you anyway. Umm, you guys don’t happen to know your blood types do you?”

  Jasprit and Jasprit both looked at each other. “No, but when the army cadet training officer took blood tests from us, they did mention that we were the same blood type as Father. They just didn’t tell us what type it was.”

  Skye passed that information on to Lauren who was still trying to get a good line to David’s signal. She had jumped too early and while she knew where he was, it was looking like she wouldn’t make the distance. She could see the rogue fire in the other direction and wondered who was responsible for that bit of bastardry.

  “Guys?” said Lauren an the comm connection. I’m not going to make the distance to your clearing. I’ll have to drop into the river to avoid the trees. It looks like it’s flowing pretty fast, so can you get down there to help me out, I reckon I’ll drop in about a hundred metres up from your position. I’ll ditch the chute and float downstream to you.”

  One of the Jasprit’s grabbed a rope that was hanging on the gate post and they both bolted out of the yard, heading towards the river.

  The Paro river at this time of year was pure glacial melt water and just above freezing, in fact, at its edges in calm places, it was frozen.

  Lauren pulled on the chute control lines, trying to line up on the winding river. “Shit this is going to be cold,” She said to herself. “It will probably be me who needs the first-aid and evacuation now.”

  She zoomed in along the river that luckily was quite visible in the dark. Lauren looked out for a calm spot, that meant that there would be no rocks there. She fumbled in the cold to make sure she knew where the quick release was. It would be necessary to drop in from a few metres up. That would increase the chance of not getting caught up in her chute in the rushing water, a sure way to drown in these conditions.

  Lauren banked hard left around a bend and saw the best opportunity she was likely to get. She had her smart suit stiffen up to protect her still healing hip joint and it also injected a dose of preventative nanites, just in case she hit something she couldn’t see. She pulled the quick release at about five metres above the water, a little high, but it was now or never.

  The shock of the cold water took her breath away and she involuntarily inhaled a lung full of icy water as she was dragged under by the strong current. Her body wanted to eject the water, but she knew she had to fight that reflex as there was no air to replace it with at this moment. If only she knew she was to be going swimming, she would have taken a fifteen minute air tank with her. She forced herself to relax and let the current take her, it would eject her to the surface soon enough.

  But that didn’t happen, the current tumbled her over and over, her smart suit doing its best to protect her from the impacts of the rocks that she was being flung against. It was totally dark now, and Lauren could not tell which way was up, so there was no point in fighting it, she should conserve her energy as long as she could. But her body was screaming at her that it was time to breathe. Breathe now or die.

  Lauren decided that her best chance was to try to connect to David and Skye again, maybe they could get a bearing on her position. She made the connection just as a strong, wiry arm plunged in
to the icy water and a big strong hand found hers and tried to drag her towards it.

  Lauren’s head found air and her reflexes had her vomiting, coughing and trying to inhale some oxygen rich air all at the same time. “Dad?” Lauren gasped after regaining a little control of her breathing.

  “Well, you haven’t called me Dad for a long time Lauren.” said Grandpa Jack.

  “You deserve it today Dad, it’s usually me saving your arse.”

  They both lay on the slippery rocks, shivering and laughing together.

  “It’s lucky you didn’t lose the Trauma Kit,” Jack indicated to the front pack that was still attached only by the belly strap around Lauren’s waist.

  “Best we go and put it to good use,” Lauren said, dragging herself to her feet and re-attaching the arm straps. “Let’s run to warm up a bit. Show me the way Jack.” Lauren grinned at the look Jack gave her. But regardless, he launched into a good pace, as good as any fit thirty-year-old could.

  A sopping wet and cold figure leaned over Tandin, dripping on him as she checked his vital signs. He was going down fast.

  Lauren had been trained in advanced field first aid through her SAS training. Even though she had never officially been a member, Lauren had completed almost all of the training possible within the elite unit.

  She was about to do what any doctor would completely disagree with, but she had no choice. A direct blood transfusion is dangerous. But considering they had no means of keeping donated blood warm or clean, it was better to put in a direct line from the donor. The other problem was disease transfer, but given that the donors would be his sons, the risk was lower.

  When Lauren pinched Tandin’s skin, she could tell that he was seriously dehydrated by the fact that it took a long time for the skin to resume its shape, she had to hurry.

  “Sonam and Pema?” yelled Lauren nicely. “I need you to warm the two bags of Intra Venous fluids as close to blood temperature as you can.” She handed them over. “Tandin can’t afford the energy to warm them up himself.”

  She continued on, hooking Tandin senior and junior up to the first IV line, she would get that going first before she put the IV fluids line in the other arm.

  “Flynn? I need you to watch the gauge on this line, once it gets to seven hundred and fifty millilitres, turn the tap off. We don’t want to drain anyone too much.

  “Wayne? I need water for the blood donors, preferably warm with a little salt in it. At least one litre each and then make sure everyone else gets one too.”

  “Timothy. Find something for me to hang the IV bags on the other side of Tandin, and something to wrap them in once they are warmed up.

  “David and Skye? Come close, I need to talk to you.”

  Lauren checked that the blood was flowing from Tandin Junior, and then inserted another needle into the twins’ arms, prepping them for their turn to donate.

  As Lauren began prepping Tandin senior’s arm for the IV fluids, she indicated for Skye and David to come closer. She spoke quietly and calmly.

  “I want you all to prepare to leave tonight. As soon as the boys here have finished donating their blood, there is nothing more you can do here, and you have lost half a day.”

  Grandpa Jack was listening in and was about to object when Lauren gave him the look of death. He closed his mouth as quickly as he opened it.

  “This is an opportunity. Leave now. Just take your bed rolls and leave the ponies here. Whoever it is that is following and disrupting you, won’t be expecting it. This is an opportunity for you to skip ahead unnoticed if you go light and quick.”

  David was nodding his head in agreement, but the look on all of their faces was one of trepidation. They knew there were very real dangers out there in the forest at night.

  “The other reason I say this,” Lauren continued as the others all strained to listen in, “Is that, in about one kilometre, you will emerge above the tree line. They won’t be able to sneak up on you any more once you have cleared the forest. At four thousand metres there are no trees because it is too cold for them to grow. You’ll have a clear shot at getting to Jangothang by tomorrow night. Then, the fun will begin. I just got a weather update from Raj and Priscilla, it looks like the monsoon is forming a little early over the Bay of Bengal and the temperature at five thousand metres is going to drop to around minus ten degrees Celsius at night. That means that there is a serious chance of heavy snow in forty-eight hours from now onwards. The bottom line is this. You need to be off that mountain or in very good shelter by that time. We can get a chopper to get you out of Jangothang if you can make it back there. That’s at four thousand two hundred metres and has a cleared landing site. But I have a feeling you won’t be coming back that way.”

  David looked a little shocked at all of that information, but he realised that Lauren was right. “One question though,” David was thinking out loud. “Where the hell is Druk?”

  There was a loud crack of thunder overhead. “You called?”

  “I didn’t call you Druk, I just asked where you were.”

  Druk chuckled to herself. “I think the exact words were “where the hell is Druk”, with lots of power David. Therefore, I am here, what do you need?”

  David thought for a moment, he felt like he was not being told the full story and decided that he wouldn’t be the victim here. He spoke out loud so that everyone could hear, a feeling of determination coming over him.

  “We leave here in one hour. Druk, I want you overhead and quietly. Eye in the sky ok? I don’t want any more stuff ups like we had today. Everyone else, get your stuff together, and make it light. We’ll be travelling fast.”

  “Lurch, I need you to carry as much food as you possibly can, put a priority on food that doesn’t need to be cooked. We won’t be stopping until dark tomorrow.”

  Suddenly, the door creaked open and a head looked into the room, an embarrassed expression on it’s face. “Sorry,” the face said, I’ve been knocking but no-one heard me.”

  David looked exasperated, “How the hell did someone just sneak up on us un-announced?”

  Druk piped up, “Sorry, I was about to tell you, but you were ranting, anyway, he’s harmless.”

  The head spoke again, “I have a delivery for a Mr. Lurch?”

  Grandpa Jack looked up, “Ah, It’s here, my other delivery.”

  Grandpa Jack hopped off his chair and ran to the delivery guy and grabbed the long parcel he was carrying and handed it quickly to Lurch. “Here you are Mr. Lurch, I had Bazz make this for you.”

  Lurch took the parcel in his one hand and indicated to Grandpa Jack that he would have to remove the packaging.

  “Oh, yeah, right, I can do that for you young fella, no problem.” Grandpa Jack flicked a dangerous looking curved knife off his belt and removed the packaging in a flash.

  Glistening in the light of the flickering fire was a brand new arm, Flynn appeared alongside and said, “Here you go Lurch, I will fit that up for you.”

  There was a dull thud as the twin who was hooked up to the blood transfusion hit the floor. In all the happenings, no-one had been monitoring the blood flow and he had passed out.

  “Whoops.” Said everyone.

  Chapter 43

  “I Have No Words”

  As the small group gathered at the foot of the stairs in the dark and readied themselves to leave, the mood was good. The army rescue team had arrived a few minutes earlier.

  Lauren and the army team leader had agreed that they would allow Tandin to stabilise further until dawn, and that they would leave for the road-head once there was enough light to see the trail. They couldn’t afford to drop him again and open up his wounds.

  Sonam and Pema would stay at the house to look after the Jasprit who had been drained of too much blood and then make their way down as well, probably in a couple of days if the weather wasn’t too bad. They didn’t want to become a burden during the night run.

  Grandpa Jack came to chat with David. He had his bedrol
l slung over his shoulder. “I have a problem David. I feel torn between staying to look after Sonam and Pema and also to look after you and the others. But I also remember that I was told I must visit the Princess as well.”

  David indicated towards Grandpa Jack’s bedroll. “It looks like you have made your decision then. Let’s go do this.”

  Tandin Junior came up to them. He also had his bedroll slung over a shoulder. “Father and Jasprit are in good hands. We have decided that we will join you and help as much as we can. We have Father’s blessing.”

  “Your help will be appreciated Tandin.” David said. “What of the ponies? Will they be all right being left behind?”

  “Yes, there is enough feed here for a few days, and if we are not back by then, the Queens will take them down with them. They could ride them down if they prefer.”