The Great Zoo of China (28 page)

They were in the swamp to the west of the casino hotel, the saltwater swamp that adjoined the freshwater lake.

A wooden walkway disappeared into the wall of reeds ahead of her. It was elevated about two feet above the waterline. It was a tourist boardwalk, designed to allow visitors to have a pleasant stroll above the swamp.

The only light came from the van’s headlights. Above the wall of reeds, CJ could see the top of Dragon Mountain. Floodlights illuminated it and the revolving restaurant at its peak glowed softly.

Syme and Johnson were pushed down the walkway; CJ was shoved after them, Hamish by her side. They were all covered by the three Chinese Army men: the captain and the two infantrymen. The two infantrymen brandished Type 56 rifles—the Chinese clone of the AK-47—and wore gun belts across their chests with extra ammo clips and grenades on them.

As she walked, CJ noticed one, then two, then three saltwater crocodiles stalking them in the brackish water beside the elevated walkway, moving parallel to them.

The crocs know what’s about to happen
, she thought.

The Chinese have done this before.

Then suddenly she heard a voice up ahead, a voice she knew: that of Aaron Perry.

‘Now, wait, wait, please, just wait a second, I’m sure we can—’ Perry was saying quickly, desperately.

CJ rounded a corner and saw Perry and Seymour Wolfe kneeling further down the walkway. A Chinese soldier stood with a pistol aimed directly at Perry’s face while another soldier covered Wolfe.

Blam!

The first soldier fired, blowing Perry’s brains out, and the young blogger’s body collapsed, flopping to the walkway before toppling off the edge and splashing into the swampwater.

Almost immediately, a big crocodile rushed in, snatched the corpse and took it roughly away.

CJ swallowed hard, horrified. This was what Colonel Bao had meant when he’d said that Wolfe and Perry should be taken to the ‘emergency departure area’. It was code for this place of execution.

‘Oh, this is
fucked
up
,’ Hamish said loudly. ‘I do
not
want to die this way.’

The Chinese infantryman behind him jabbed Hamish with his rifle and he kept walking.

‘We’ve seen too much,’ CJ said. ‘We can’t be allowed to leave this place alive. And there can’t be any evidence that we were ever here, either.’

Walking last of all, the Chinese captain must have heard her. ‘Dr Cameron is correct. This zoo is the future of China. Its existence cannot be tarnished by negative reports in the Western media. No-one can know what has happened here today and no-one will. All witnesses must be eliminated. Minister Hu was very specific. He ordered me to reunite you with Mr Wolfe and Mr Perry, and that is exactly what I will do.’

CJ recalled Ben Patrick’s words from before: ‘
To them this will just be seen as a setback, a necessary loss in their march toward their dream of a Great Dragon Zoo
.’

‘Now, listen here!’ Syme still seemed to think he had some influence. He turned as he walked. ‘I am the Ambassador to China from the United States of America! You cannot simply explain away my disappearance.’

‘But of course we can,’ Captain Wong said calmly. ‘Accidents happen all the time, Mr Ambassador. Car accidents, small plane crashes, hotel room drug overdoses.’

CJ turned. ‘Bill Lynch. He died in a light aircraft crash in China. It was you—’

Wong smiled. ‘Sadly, Mr Lynch witnessed a similar incident. Fewer deaths but ugly ones nonetheless.’

There came a scuffling sound from behind them, followed by a shrill male voice saying, ‘Don’t touch me, you fucking ignorant brute!’

Go-Go was pushed into view by a lone Chinese private.

‘Go-Go . . .’ CJ said as their eyes met.

‘CJ!’ Go-Go said, ‘Some dickwad told Colonel Bao that you and I knew each other, so the good colonel said I had to die with you. Couldn’t trust me to stay quiet. And you know what’—Go-Go spat at his guard—‘the dirty motherfucker was right! I
so
would’ve told.’

‘Thanks, Go-Go,’ CJ said.

But her mind was racing. The Chinese were about to kill them all and feed their bodies to the crocs. She had to do something fast.

She and Hamish were still walking side-by-side, CJ on the right, Hamish on the left, with the two rifle-bearing Chinese infantrymen behind them. Johnson and Syme were a few metres ahead of them.

‘Hamish,’ she whispered. ‘You still got your fanny pack?’

‘Yeah? Why?’

‘On the count of three, I want you to pull out your lighter, light it, and hold it out in your right hand at chest height.’

‘Why—’

‘Just do it and be ready to duck, okay? On three. One . . . two . . . three . . . Go!’

Hamish did as he was told, even though he didn’t know why. Quick as a flash, he dipped his hand into his fanny pack, extracted his Great Dragon Zoo of China Zippo lighter and held it out at chest height to the right of his body, flicking the cartwheel, sparking it—

—at exactly the same time as CJ spun on the spot and, moving like a Wild West gunslinger, drew a small can from her own fanny pack, aimed it at the two Chinese infantrymen behind her and fired it.

It was her complimentary can of hairspray.

But when fired through the flame of Hamish’s lighter it became a miniature flamethrower.

A horizontal column of fire lanced out from the hairspray can, lighting up the area as it engulfed the two Chinese soldiers. Their faces and chests were enveloped in flames . . .

. . . as were the grenades clipped to their weapons belts.

The two flaming infantrymen exploded in identical grenade blasts. They simply disappeared. One second they were there, the next they were gone.

By this time, CJ had hit the deck, pulling Hamish down with her. Blood and body parts went flying over their heads.

But then something that CJ had not intended occurred.

Damaged by the force of the blast, the section of the wooden boardwalk beneath them collapsed, and everyone on it dropped as one into the swampwater below, where the crocodiles were waiting.

C
J plunged into the foul-smelling swamp and for a brief moment her world went silent.

Then a line of fearsome teeth rushed past her, followed by a long pebbled body, webbed claws and a powerful tail. A flashing memory of a similar scene sent a wave of adrenalin coursing through her and she kicked out with her feet and they made contact with the bottom.

CJ stood, her head breaking the surface. The water was only chest deep.

As she resurfaced, she saw that the boardwalk was shattered in the middle, with spot fires burning at its edges. The burning flesh of the two exploded Chinese infantrymen had splattered the surrounding reeds.

Her companions—Hamish, Johnson, Syme, Go-Go and Wolfe—all surfaced nearby, equally horrified. Also in the water were the four remaining Chinese troops: Captain Wong, the two soldiers who had been about to kill Wolfe, and the private who had brought Go-Go.

CJ saw a look of panic on Wolfe’s face and she knew that he was about to bolt.

‘Wolfe! Don’t! Stay where you are! They go for the ones that flee!’ she barked.

Despite his obvious terror, Wolfe somehow obeyed. He stayed still while the two Chinese soldiers near him sloshed desperately through the water, trying to get back to the boardwalk.

Two crocs zeroed in on them immediately.

They were much faster in the water than any person could hope to be and they overwhelmed the hapless infantrymen, dragging them under with screams of horror.

CJ gasped at the speed of it.

Usually solitary animals, crocs sometimes hunted in a manner known as ‘mobbing’: at the sign of a lot of food—like, for instance, a herd of zebras crossing a river—they banded together. But they almost always went for the outliers of the herd, usually the slower or younger ones, or the ones that panicked and bolted.

Gunfire made CJ spin and she saw the private who had been guarding Go-Go firing his pistol at an oncoming croc. That croc veered away as the bullets hit the reeds around it but then the Chinese soldier was abruptly yanked under the surface. He disappeared in a spray of water, emitting a surprised shriek that was cut off when his mouth went under.

CJ snapped around—in time to see Captain Wong wading through the water right beside her, his face twisted in fury, his 9mm pistol coming level with her face. At the exact same time, she felt a surge of water and in an instant CJ knew that the captain’s sudden movement had captured a croc’s attention.

She grabbed Wong’s gun hand in her own and hip-tossed him, jujitsu-style, right into the path of an inrushing crocodile.

The big croc—and it was indeed a big one—clamped its mighty jaws around Wong’s head. Then, with incredible ferocity, it yanked the captain away from CJ and she fell back into the water, to find his 9mm pistol now held dumbly in her own hand.

CJ spun to see the croc rolling over and over in the water, still gripping Wong by the head, flinging his body like a rag doll: this was the death roll. A crocodile didn’t suffocate you with a bite to the jugular like a lion did. No, it rolled you until you drowned. Then it ate you at its leisure.

CJ stepped slowly away from the death roll taking place right in front of her. She saw the others over by the semi-destroyed boardwalk.

‘Everybody, move slowly and together back to the boardwalk. We
must
stay together. No running and no breaking away from the group.’

And so that was how they moved—slowly and tightly together—back toward the boardwalk.

By now at least five crocs were feasting on the four Chinese soldiers with perhaps six more watching from the reeds.

Gliding through the chest-deep water, CJ whispered, ‘Head for that side.’ She indicated the end of the exploded boardwalk farthest from the van that had brought them here. ‘There could be more Chinese troops on the way to make sure we’re dead.’

The group reached the end of the damaged boardwalk.

‘One at a time,’ CJ said. ‘Keep it slow. No sudden movements. No splashing.’

Syme went first, followed by Wolfe, Johnson, Go-Go and Hamish. Hamish and Johnson then scooped CJ out of the water together with a single powerful lift.

They all now stood on the boardwalk, gasping and soaked. The spot fires were beginning to peter out.

‘What now?’ Hamish asked.

CJ said, ‘I can’t say I’ve been in a situation like this before but I don’t think it’ll be long before someone comes to see why these assholes haven’t come back. We gotta move and we gotta move now.’

She glanced at Greg Johnson, seeking the opinion of the only person there who she thought might actually have been in such a situation before.

Johnson nodded. ‘They’ll come checking soon.’

‘But where do we
go
?’ Wolfe asked.

CJ bit her lip, looked out into the darkness.

Across the lake Dragon Mountain loomed large, a black shadow against the cloud-filled sky. Around it was the megavalley, dotted with hills, forests and waterfalls, and infested with dragons.

She tossed the dead captain’s 9mm pistol to Johnson. ‘Here, you can use this better than I can.’ Then, to the others: ‘We go into the zoo. And if we can stay alive long enough, we figure out a way to get out of it.’

The most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.

—YANN MARTEL, LIFE OF PI

(KNOPF, CANADA, 2001)