The Curse of the Dragon God (25 page)

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Authors: Geoffrey Knight

Tags: #Mystery, #Suspense, #Adventure, #Gay

BOOK: The Curse of the Dragon God
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Will’s eyes skimmed the control panel. He found the button for the landing gear and punched it, hoping the wheels of the jet might buffer the landing. A red light flashed on a screen, along with the word
Malfunction
.
“Hold on to something. This is gonna get rocky.”
“I can’t,” Bradley said, hands still tied behind his back. He fixed his feet against the control panel instead.
The jet sliced the air, low and fast. It cleared the first watchtower by mere feet.
Will tilted the nose up as hard as he could. The tail of the plane hit the walkway of the wall first. The craft jolted and slammed down on its belly—hard.
On both sides, the wings tore centuries-old bricks off the high walls on either side of the walkway before the wings snapped off completely, flinging into the air and crashing down the mountain slopes to the left and right.
With the wings gone, the fuselage of the jet torpedoed along the section of the wall like an unstoppable missile. The nose of the plane tore up stone and debris and sent it flying into the air, smashing through the windshield. Will and Bradley ducked. A large chunk of brick shot into the left tail jet, which exploded in a puff of black smoke.
The nose of the plane slammed into a small stepped section of the walkway, destroying the steps and the nose of the jet, sending the plane bouncing in the air, heading straight for the second watchtower at the end of the strip.
Stealing a glance through the shattered windshield, Will saw the watchtower approaching fast. There was no point in steering anymore. Quickly he grabbed Bradley and pulled them both out of their seats.
He threw Bradley into the cabin. Bradley landed on top of the unconscious Mya. Will threw himself on top of Bradley, just as the jet slammed into the solid watchtower.
The nose and cockpit caved in completely in an eruption of smashed glass, twisted metal, and flying bricks, bringing the jet to a halt with a high-impact jolt. Instantly the cabin began to fill with smoke.
As the battered plane gave one last groan, Will pulled himself to his feet and was about to help Bradley up when he saw the gun in his face.
Chad was conscious and holding Mya’s pistol, aimed directly at Will’s head.
“Open the door!” Chad ordered. “Get everyone out! Now! And don’t try anything stupid or I will kill you. And this time I mean it!”
Slowly, Will raised both hands in the air, then backed toward the jet’s exit. He put his shoulder into it, coughing through the smoke, and pushed open the door. As the smoke poured out, Chad waved Will out of the way so he could be the first out of the smoldering wreck.
Outside, it was freezing. The mountain wind was howling. Chad kept the tiny weapon trained on Will and Bradley as they removed the unconscious Mya and Xi from the jet. Then he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and made a single call.
“Richard. Change of plans—again! Bring the chopper here.…No, I don’t know where the hell ‘here’ is, somewhere along the Great Wall! Just follow it north and look for the fucking smoke!”
XIV
Beijing, China
JAKE HAD KEPT A LOW PROFILE AT THE AIRPORT IN DUBAI. All the gumshoe tricks were clichéd, but they worked. Hiding behind newspapers. Sidestepping to browse a dutyfree stand. Turning away at just the right moment to take a pretend phone call. All to avoid the distracted, impatient glances of Richard Conrad, who treated everyone from the checkin assistant to the smiling purser as his own personal servant, there to attend his needs and otherwise be ignored.
Richard was seated at the very front of the plane. Jake asked for a seat in the very back row. Upon arriving at Beijing Capital International Airport, he had to make haste through the terminal so as not to lose sight of Richard, who was the first person off the plane.
With only a single carry-on bag, Richard bypassed the baggage claim and breezed through customs. Jake got his passport stamped and raced to catch up. He saw Richard talking on his cell phone and making a beeline not for the main exit, but toward another door with a sign above it that read: “Private Connections. Cargo. Charters.”
Richard approached the uniformed guard at the door and spoke to him, producing his passport and several other papers. The guard scrutinized them, spoke into a two-way radio clipped to his lapel, waited for a response, then nodded and waved Richard through the door.
Jake pulled his passport from his pocket and made his way through the crowd.
“I’m with him,” he said matter-of-factly to the guard, flashing his passport, not breaking his stride.
The guard broke it for him. Barking sternly in Chinese, the uniformed man stepped swiftly in front of Jake, halting him immediately and placing a hand on his holster. Jake backed up right away, hands raised. “Whoa—it’s okay. Wrong door, my mistake.”
Rather than push the lie and cause a scene, Jake turned and quickly slipped outside, away from the guard’s suspicious gaze. He briskly made his away from the terminal building and followed a chain link security fence that enclosed a number of giant hangars. Through the wire he caught a glimpse of Richard being escorted across the tarmac by three airport guards toward one of the hangars. Several ground staff were already hauling open the hangar bay doors to reveal a black helicopter waiting inside.
Jake sized up the fence as well as the decision whether or not to pursue Richard. He glanced at his watch, the tracking device blinking red on his wrist. The grid indicated that the signal was here in Beijing and moving fast through the maze of streets.
As Richard signed several clearance forms and stepped aboard the chopper alone, taking the pilot’s seat, Jake turned away from the fence and back to the streets, hailing the first cab he saw.
The pedicab carrying Luca and Shane sped through the streets in a beeping blur and turned down a narrow deserted road, the driver laughing all the way. “Beijing Betty gone bye-bye!”
“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Luca asked, leaning over from the backseat and trying to draw the driver’s attention to the map.
Without even looking, the driver pointed ahead and said, “Zhang!” At that moment he pulled up in front of a high steel gate. Above the gate was a sign that read “Zhang Terminal.”
As they thanked their trusty driver and stepped out of the pedicab, Luca eyed the seemingly impervious gate while Shane looked left and right, scanning the high concrete wall that stretched far into the distance on either side of the gate.
“How the hell do we get in?” Luca asked.
“I’m not so sure we even want to. This place looks like a prison. Or an insane asylum.”
“So what are we gonna do now?”
“Stop the bomb, that’s what.”
“Great plan. If only we knew where it was,
what
it is, and
how
to stop it!”
But Luca was already staring down the nearly empty street. Something else had caught his eye. “Perhaps
he
does.”
Shane turned to see a thin, swaggering figure stumbling down the pavement toward them. In his hand was a brown paper bag, into which he reached and pulled out a bottle. With his one eye, the man had to focus hard on the open neck of the bottle to get it to his lips.
Luca realized quickly that the drunk with the eye patch hadn’t seen them yet, but it wouldn’t take long. Grabbing Shane by the arm, Luca hauled him swiftly across the street and crouched behind a mound of garbage covered in flies.
They watched as the drunkard made his way to the gate and juggled the brown paper bag while rummaging through his coat pocket for a key. Instead of a key his fingers found a large serrated knife, which he pulled out, stared at intently, decided it wasn’t what he was looking for, and chuckled to himself before replacing it. Eventually he found a long, rusty skeleton key and after several attempts slid it into the lock on the gate. He turned it and pushed the heavy old gate open, but as he did so he lost his grip on the bottle in the paper bag. He dropped the key but caught the bottle inches before it smashed on the ground.
He laughed again. Then he stumbled through the gate. It slammed shut behind him with a heavy clang.
Luca and Shane both stood and stared at the key still lying on the ground in front of the gate. And both of them smiled.
XV
The Great Wall of China, North of Beijing
CHAD TOOK CARE OF THE KNOTS HIMSELF THIS TIME, FIRST tightening the ones binding Bradley’s hands, then retying the rope behind Will’s back, securing it tightly around Will’s slippery, bloody wrists. Then he noticed something red and flashing.
Chad seized Will’s wrist, bringing up his forearm so hard and fast that Will grimaced at the armlock Chad put him in.
“Mya!” Chad screamed, anger now ever-present in his voice. “Why the fuck is the tracking device still flashing? And why is it now located at the Zhang Express Terminal?”
Mya shook her head. “It’s impossible. We cut it out of him.”
“Well, somehow it’s managed to find its way home!” Chad bellowed. He snapped up his phone once more. “What the fuck is that psychopath’s number?! We need to tell him he’s got company!”
Unable to stop himself, Will let out a relieved laugh.
Furious, Chad tightened the ropes even more and leaned in close from behind, breathing in his ear. “I wouldn’t be so amused if I were you. If your friends have come looking for you and the Professor, then the body count just went up!”
In the distance the sound of chopper blades filled the sky as Chad made his call.

 

The sun began to sink into the mountains as Richard spotted the trail of smoke that twirled and looped in the cold wind. He followed the wall to the plane wreck and with confident, reckless care he set the chopper down on top of the watchtower.
Richard stepped out of the chopper, its blades still whirring. He looked down at the shattered jet on the wall at the foot of the tower. “Chad! Did you do that? One of these days you’ll take up my offer to teach you how to fly!” he said mockingly.
As the others made their way up the watchtower, Richard opened the rear cabin door and Mya and Xi shoved Will and Bradley into the helicopter. Xi strapped the captives into place, then took a seat next to Mya, who nursed a bloody bruise on her face with one hand and kept her gun in the fierce grip of the other.
As a stern and humorless Chad climbed into the front passenger seat of the chopper, he glared at Richard, who was now strapping himself back into the pilot’s seat. “I don’t fly. I’m flown. Which is exactly what you’re gonna do if you still want your piece of the pie. Now get us to Beijing!”
Richard smirked. “I never thought I’d say this, but when there’s this much money at stake, you’re the boss.”
With a slight pitch, then an adjustment, the chopper lifted off the unsteady, ancient surface of the Great Wall, swooping left into the sky as it headed back for Beijing.
XVI
San Francisco General Hospital, California
ELSA HAD STOPPED CRYING LONG AGO. A STOIC RESOLVE had set in once again, and the headstrong German was making up a list of things that the Professor needed to fix around the house on San Sebastián to make it more livable and safe. Elsa needed something to keep her mind occupied.
“There’s a squeaky step on the porch, I’m certain of it,” she told Sam, noting it down with a pad and pen. “It could be rotten. If someone falls through it, they could break a leg! Or twist an ankle! And if I’m not there, who else knows how to set a splint or pop a knee back into place?”
“Elsa, Eden’s going to be fine,” Sam said, trying to calm her down, though his own stress levels were rising with every hour.
“I’m not talking about Eden! I’m talking about the house! And those trees! So many palm trees around the house! What if there’s a storm? Coconuts could come crashing down on our heads!”
“Elsa, that’s enough, okay?” Sam began pacing once more.
Elsa shook her head, furiously making notes. “No, Sam, you don’t understand. Accidents happen.”
“Not to Eden, they don’t! Don’t you get it? This wasn’t an accident at all. This was planned. It was premeditated! This was terrorism!”

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