Phoenix (25 page)

Bones stumbled in a tangle of legs, dust, and fur before tumbling end over end, as Hú Dié slammed on her brakes.

I turned my bike around and headed for Hú Dié. I watched in horror as Bones jumped to his feet and began to stalk toward her. The dog was snarling viciously, lines of saliva cascading from his jowls.

Hú Dié climbed off Ryan’s bike and crouched behind it, holding the bike in front of her like a shield. She switched the tire pump to her right hand, raising it like a club. Was she actually going to war with this huge dog?

I heard a piercing whistle in the distance, and Bones froze in his tracks. I looked toward the training facility and saw a massive cloud of dust heading our way. I also heard hooves pounding against the dry earth.

“Murphy is coming!” I shouted to Hú Dié. “He’s riding Theo!”

Hú Dié glanced back toward Murphy, while Bones remained still as a statue, his eyes locked on Hú Dié as though she were a treed opossum.

Murphy approached, and I saw that he held a length of rope in one hand. He began to swing the rope over his head, and a loop formed in midair. He was planning to lasso us like stray calves.

I considered what I knew about horses and bicycles. On multi-use trails, bikers were legally required to yield to horses because horses were instinctually prey animals. To a horse, a bicycle racing toward it was no different from a bear or wolf.

I was still pedaling, so I steered toward Theo and willed my legs to give me all they could. As I neared the horse, Theo’s black eyes widened with terror. Murphy tossed aside his lasso and gripped the horse’s reins with both hands, and I rose out of my own saddle, pulling up and back on the handlebars.

My front wheel lifted into the air a few feet from Theo, and the horse lost his mind. He reared up on his back legs, pawing at the air with his powerful front hooves. Murphy was tossed from his saddle, the reins slipping from his hands. I shifted my weight forward and leaned to the side, slamming my front wheel back down to the ground while swerving around the frightened animal. I managed to hold my line without falling off the bike.

I looked back and saw that Murphy had landed on a pile of rocks, probably headfirst. It didn’t look as if he would be getting up anytime soon. That was what he got for not wearing a helmet.

Bones yelped and ran over to his master as I headed for Hú Dié. Theo bolted into the hills.

Hú Dié climbed back onto Ryan’s bike and was clipping into the pedals when I reached her.

“That was genius!” she said.

I nodded. “You weren’t so bad yourself. I guess I owe you one.”

“Not a chance. I am so far in the hole with you, I might never see the light of day. I—” She stopped in midsentence and stared toward the training facility parking lot. “I don’t believe it. Murphy must have woken Dr. V and cut him loose.”

I turned and saw a black SUV lurching over the uneven ground toward us. I felt a welcome burst of adrenaline. My weary legs were going to need it. “Follow me!” I said. “I think I know a way to lose him.”

I rode hard back toward the cyclocross course, reaching it near the first hill with Hú Dié at my side. We blasted over the hill together and cruised along until I saw what I was looking for—the narrow side trail I’d noticed when I’d raced against Ryan. I hoped it would be too narrow for the SUV.

I turned onto the trail, and Hú Dié asked, “Where does this lead?”

“I have no idea.”

“Do you have that GPS unit with you?”

“No. It wouldn’t help us, anyway. It only contained maps of China.”

Hú Dié cursed, and I heard an engine roar.

“We should split up!” Hú Dié called out. “You stay on the trail.”

“No!” I said. “
You
stay on the trail. I’ll risk going off-road.”

Hú Dié began to argue, but I pulled off the trail first. I raced parallel to her for a bit to see what Dr. V would do, when suddenly Hú Dié screamed and went sailing through the air over her handlebars. It was as though an invisible force field had stopped her bike while she continued forward.

I cut my wheel hard to the right and slammed on my brakes, skidding sideways over the packed ground. I pulled my right foot free of its pedal cage and rammed my heel into the earth, bringing my rear tire around 180 degrees so that I was now sliding backward.

BOOM!

My rear tire exploded upon impact with a barbed-wire fence that I didn’t see but guessed was there because of what had happened to Hú Dié. My bike came to an abrupt halt, but I managed to keep myself clear of the fence.

I stepped out of the other pedal cage and threw the bike down, then carefully slipped between strands of wire that were obscured by a row of scrub trees and bushes. On the other side of the fencerow was an enormous farm field. I could see towering irrigation equipment and mile after mile of waist-high green plants. I ran to Hú Dié, who was lying on a bed of what I supposed were soybeans.

She groaned and sat up. “What happened?”

“You hit a barbed-wire fence,” I replied. “I didn’t see it, either, until I was right on top of it. Did you break anything? Are you cut?”

Hú Dié quickly looked herself over. “I’m fine.” She patted one of the dense green plants beside her. “These really helped cushion my fall. The earth here is nice and soft, too. Is Dr. V—”

The approaching roar of the SUV’s engine answered any questions about the location of the black truck. I watched through the fencerow as the vehicle cruised parallel to the fence before reaching a gap between two trees and crashing through. The SUV turned toward us and tore across the farmland, moist clumps of soil churning up from beneath the truck’s knobby four-wheel-drive tires.

I ripped the pack from my back and pulled out the shimmering silk bag of dragon bone. I stepped in front of Hú Dié and held the bag before me like a talisman.

Dr. V slammed on the SUV’s brakes, and the truck slid over the slick vegetation before stopping thirty feet from Hú Dié and me. He leaped out with his rifle raised.

I glanced over at Hú Dié and heard a shout: “IT’S PAYBACK TIME!”

I turned back to Dr. V, but he was no longer looking in our direction, and I realized that he hadn’t spoken.

It was Ryan.

The big kid was racing toward us all atop Dr. V’s cyclocross bike. He was shirtless, but he wore a helmet
and riding shoes. He had crossed through the gap in the fence made by Dr. V’s SUV.

As Ryan bore down, he roared like a lion. I prepared to leap to my left to avoid his charge when, inexplicably, he veered right. I watched in utter confusion as Ryan plowed straight into Dr. V. The force of the impact knocked Dr. V flat onto his back, sending the rifle sailing into the tree line. Ryan had already unclipped his feet from the pedals, and as he ditched the moving bike on top of his uncle, the chain slipped off. However, the bike’s pedals and large drive sprocket continued to spin, digging into the side of Dr. V’s head and leaving him unconscious in a pool of blood.

Ryan’s momentum kept him sailing forward until he slammed into the ground. Hú Dié and I rushed to his side, and I expected to find him out cold, but instead he was thrashing about, clawing at his bare abdomen. He was shivering despite the warm morning air, and the flesh across his
dan tien
was undulating wildly, as though something were attempting to crawl out of his body. His eyes were blurry and his gaze was unfocused, but he managed to turn his head toward me and gasp, “Phoenix, make it stop. Please.”

“Hang in there, Ryan,” I
said. “We’ll get help.”

Ryan took several deep breaths, his stomach still spasming.

“This is bad,” Hú Dié said.

I glanced over at Dr. V. Amazingly, he was still breathing.

“We need to call 911,” I said. I pulled Dr. V’s cell phone from my pocket and made the call, describing the facility’s location as best I could with Ryan’s help. The dispatcher said it would be twenty minutes before help arrived, because our location was fairly remote. I thanked her and hung up.

Ryan looked at his uncle, then looked away. “Is he going to make it?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “Dragon bone is mysterious stuff. You do know he was taking it, right?”

“Yeah.”

Hú Dié stood. “We should go back to the facility before the police and ambulances arrive, Phoenix. Maybe you should wait here, Ryan.”

Ryan shook his head. “I’d rather not be alone right now.”

“What about your uncle?” I asked.

“I don’t think he’s going anywhere. Besides, we can’t do anything for him. I also need to open the front gate. My uncle has a hidden switch in his office that’s difficult to describe.” Ryan grunted and stood, his stomach roiling as though it was cramping and uncramping. He was tough. He began to jog quickly, but in an awkward, hunched-over posture, clutching his stomach.

I shoved the silk bag filled with dragon bone into the backpack, and Hú Dié and I chased after Ryan. When we caught up with him, I said, “Thanks a million, Ryan. We owe you big-time.”

“No,” Ryan replied. “My uncle needed to be stopped. I had no idea how crazy he was until I watched him shoot Lin Tan and Bjorn.”

“You saw that?” Hú Dié asked. “How?”

“I hacked the security camera system. My Internet connection is on the same feed.”

“But Phoenix said you were asleep.”

“I was, until you guys woke me without knowing it. There is a silent alarm on the door to my uncle’s lab that alerts his home computer, as well as his cell phone. I hacked that, too, and set an alarm of my own to wake me if you guys broke in there. I figured you would at least try. I would have done the same thing.”

“I didn’t know you were a hacker,” I said.

“There is a lot you don’t know about me.”

I nodded. “I guess you’re right. Maybe I’ll get a chance to find out once we get back home? I’m really sorry Jake and I never invited you over to hang out. The truth is, I’ve always been embarrassed about how small my house is. No one besides Jake has ever seen it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. There is something else I should probably tell you, too. After your dad passed away, Jake and I didn’t know what to say to you anymore, so we said nothing. Stupid, I know. I apologize.”

“Thanks for telling me,” Ryan said. “I appreciate it.”

“Thanks for listening,” I replied. “Things are going to change between us, I promise. That is, if you still want to be my friend.”

Ryan smiled. “I’d like that.”

“Maybe we could do some training rides together,” I offered.

Ryan’s smile faded. “I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“The security cameras have audio. I heard my uncle say that I’ll never be a great rider. Maybe he’s right. I can’t beat you, even when I try cheating with a powerful substance. I’m done.”

“Listen,” Hú Dié said, “I hardly know you, but I can tell that you’re not the type of person who gives up easily. Forget what he said. I also know a lot about riders, and you’re
good
. We’ll get your stomach sorted out, and you’ll be winning races, I promise.”

“You think?” Ryan asked.

“Definitely,” I said. “
My
uncle can probably help with your dragon bone situation. My grandfather can help, too, if we can get him some more dragon bone in time.”

Ryan glanced at the pack on my back. “You have it, don’t you? I was only pretending to be asleep on that metal table in the lab. I heard everything, and I saw some of it, too.” He turned to Hú Dié. “That was great, the way you took out Murphy.”

Hú Dié grinned. “He had it coming.”

“Speaking of Murphy,” I said, slowing down. “Look.”

We reached the spot where Murphy had fallen off his horse. There was some blood on the rock pile, but there was no sign of him or Bones.

“Keep your eyes peeled,” I said, and we continued on.

We got to the training facility and saw that, thankfully, Murphy’s truck was gone. We hurried through the open workshop door, past Lin Tan and Bjorn’s pickup, and on to the lab. The lab door was open, and we rushed inside. Ryan went into Dr. V’s office and popped a hidden panel inside a desk drawer.

“That’s strange,” Ryan said as he flipped the switch to open the gate. “I thought the switch would have already been flipped by Murphy since he is gone—”

The outer side door to Dr. V’s office suddenly burst open and Murphy strolled in, a different pistol held out in front of him. I rushed for the main lab door and heard claws scrambling down the corridor. Bones was coming from that direction, boxing us in. The dog bared his fangs and leaped at me, and I swung the door with all my
might. It latched closed an instant before the animal slammed against it, snarling. Bones began to howl.

“Now he’s really not going to like you, Phoenix,” Murphy said. “If you behave, I’ll be sure to kill you before I let him rip you to shreds. Go stand in the center of the lab. All of you.”

Ryan left the office and joined me in the middle of the lab, but Hú Dié didn’t budge from her position near the stainless-steel table.

Murphy walked out of the office, into the lab. “Move it, Hú Dié,” he said.

She looked over at me and said, “I’m sorry for the way I treated you.” I saw her eyes turn cold.