Matthew Reilly - The Great Zoo of China

‘Really?’ CJ said, cocking her head. ‘Mr Hu, putting a couple of electromagnetic domes over this valley is a very sensible idea. But putting little sonic shields on all the vehicles, buildings and people makes me think that your dragons have attacked the vehicles, buildings and people before. In fact, if these animals respect those domes and shields then by definition it means they have been stung by them in the past. Animals don’t fear electromagnetic domes and sonic shields because they can see them. They fear them because they’ve been hurt by them. Are you seriously telling me that your dragons have only taken the odd snap at a truck or building and not a human being?’

‘Yes, that is what I am telling you,’ Hu said with a straight face.

CJ stared back at him. ‘Right. So it’s like Chinese GDP figures, then.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Never mind.’

After dessert was served, the group returned to the cable car and resumed their aerial circuit of the zoo.

Departing Dragon Mountain, the cable car ventured eastward, passing through the smaller pinnacle that CJ had seen earlier, before turning north again.

Hamish nudged CJ and pointed off to the right. There, nestled atop a chasm cut into the eastern wall of the crater, was an enormous monastery built in the style of the old Taoist monasteries found in central China.

This one had three levels, all with pointed roofs and wide balconies overlooking the high chasm. A pack of yellowjacket dragons had taken up residence in it: an emperor, two kings and one prince lay on its broad balconies.

Zhang said, ‘Our monastery is obviously a homage to the famous Purple Cloud Temple in the Wudang mountains of Hubei province.’

‘Obviously,’ Hamish said, raising his camera to take a few shots.

Moving away from the side-chasm, the cable car began a gradual descent that brought it low over a long straight waterfall.

Several large rocks protruded from the waterfall’s lip, while some flat-topped rock ledges jutted out from the face of the falling curtain of water. On these rocks and ledges sat a dozen olive-green prince-sized dragons.

‘Green river dragons,’ Zhang said. ‘They love the water. We can’t keep them out of it.’

Voices in the master control room, speaking into radios:

‘ North waterfall team, stand by. Guests are en route. ’

‘ North waterfall team, ready .’

‘ Prepare for fish release. In three, two, one …’

The cable car passed across the face of the waterfall, level with its lip, within twenty feet of the olive-green river dragons on the ledges—when suddenly the dragons saw something in the water and they leapt into it with whip cracks of their tails.

‘Look how fast they go!’ Perry exclaimed.

CJ was thinking the same thing. They had moved with astonishing speed, far faster than any crocodilian she had seen.

The cable car moved past the waterfall, now rising higher again, and CJ glimpsed the freeway-like ring road that ran around the circumference of the valley. It was artfully concealed, disappearing every now and then into tunnels cut into the rock wall.

Shortly after passing the waterfall, the cable car arrived at an open-air station that serviced a hotel-like building at the northern end of the valley. Flashing lights blared WELCOME TO THE DRAGON’S TAIL CASINO!

It reminded CJ of the Bellagio in Las Vegas: it had beige walls, immense columns and Italian-style windows.

The cable car, however, did not stop at the casino. It only slowed as it passed through the station before continuing on, gliding around the northern edge of the lake, moving past a second broad waterfall which also had river dragons perched on rock ledges jutting out from its lip and face.

As their cable car moved away from the second waterfall, CJ saw four silver Range Rovers emerge from a garage at the base of the casino building and speed along a gravel road that ran parallel to their cable car.

Hamish saw them, too. ‘Nice wheels. Range Rover Sport.’

They could just make out the occupants of the cars: the four Chinese Party men in their freshly bought outdoorsmen outfits.

‘The big kahunas,’ Hamish observed.

The four silver Range Rovers zoomed alongside the cable car for a short time, kicking up dust clouds behind them, before their road curved northward and they peeled away. Their gravel road, CJ saw, wrapped around some dramatic cliffs—covered with dragons—that formed a kind of natural screen in front of the northwestern corner of the crater.

CJ stopped herself.

It wasn’t a natural screen at all. This entire valley had been sculpted by thousands of Chinese workers for the specific purpose of building a tourist playground. Those cliffs—and the screen they formed—were there for a reason.

‘Looks like the big shots are on a very different tour from us,’ she said.

Hamish turned to Zhang. ‘Yo, Zhangman. Where are those dudes going?’

Zhang smiled. ‘Our esteemed Party officials are about to enjoy a very special section of our zoo, which you will see later. Forgive me if I don’t tell you what it is now. I don’t want to ruin the surprise.’

‘Oh, okay. Cool,’ Hamish said.

Everyone else in the cable car was focused on the dragons on the dramatic cliffs. The cliffs, CJ thought, had been well designed: the dragons lay on high ledges or sat perched on striking peaks. It seized the attention. It was a postcard shot and Hamish duly took many photos of it.

While all this was happening, the cable car travelled over a broad swamp filled with reeds and, it appeared, many large crocodiles.

‘Why the crocodiles?’ CJ asked Zhang.

Zhang said, ‘Crocodiles are the only surviving members of the archosaur line in the modern world. Large crocs lived back in the Triassic Period. We thought having some of them around would be good for the dragons: a reminder of the world they used to live in.’

‘Those are saltwater crocs,’ CJ said, ‘which means that’s a saltwater swamp. I thought you said your dragons don’t like salt water.’

‘They don’t.’

‘But that swamp adjoins the lake and there are dragons in the lake. How does that work?’

‘Well spotted, Dr Cameron,’ Zhang said. ‘We cheated a little. You can’t see it, but just below the waterline is a Perspex barrier that separates the saltwater swamp from the freshwater lake.’

‘Do the crocs ever venture out into the lake?’ Perry asked.

‘The larger ones do, but not the smaller ones,’ Zhang said. ‘The dragons, on the other hand, always avoid the swamp. They hate it. When it comes to salt water, they’re like cats: precious and fussy.’

When it was about halfway across the swamp, the cable car turned southward and soared grandly out over the lake, travelling twenty feet above the surface.

It was now heading back down the western side of the valley. CJ saw the enormous main building way off in the distance ahead of them, dominating the southern end of the valley, perhaps ten kilometres away.

On the nearby western wall of the crater, she saw about twenty dragons of various sizes—but all clustered in small groups of the same colour—alternately sitting on or moving around the crater’s rocky wall.

The voices from the master control room came through a tiny earpiece in Hu Tang’s ear: