Matthew Reilly - The Great Zoo of China

—herfingers latched onto the garbage truck’s running board and they clung on tightly as her boots hit the roadway and bounced wildly.

The now driverless pick-up truck—with Red Face half inside it, half outside it—peeled away toward the rock wall on the left-hand side of the road. The dragon yanked its head out of the cabin and took to the air an instant before the pick-up hit the wall at speed and exploded in a ball of flames.

With CJ dangling from its left-hand side, the garbage truck thundered down the ring road.

‘ CJ! You still with us? ’ Hamish’s voice came through CJ’s earpiece. He must have appropriated Zhang’s.

‘Just!’ CJ called over the rushing wind.

Whump!

A dragon landed on the garbage truck right above her.

It was another red-bellied black prince. Its hind legs gripped the roof of the garbage truck while it hung upside-down on the side of the big truck, glaring at CJ. It opened its saliva-filled jaws in what could only be described as a broad, self-satisfied grin.

‘ CJ! I see it! ’ Hamish’s voice called. ‘ Go under! Now! ’

CJ didn’t bother to discuss her brother’s plan. She grabbed a pipe underneath the running board and swung herself under the speeding garbage truck, the Kevlar backplate of her jacket skimming against the roadway as—

—the garbage truck swept into another tunnel and—

— whack! Hamish swung the truck in close to the tunnel’s mouth, so close that the truck’s left flank hit the mouth of the tunnel, taking the dragon clean off it while the garbage truck continued on into the tunnel, with CJ safely underneath it!

The dragon fell to the roadway, bruised and confused, as the garbage truck sped away.

Then it shook its head, got back to its feet and took off, heading back into the fray.

In the garbage truck’s cabin, Hamish peered at his side mirror.

The creature was gone. But he couldn’t see CJ.

‘You still with us, Chipmunk?’

‘ I’m still here ,’ CJ’s voice replied. ‘ Thanks, little brother .’

‘Can you get to the cab?’

‘ I’ll try .’

Hamish said, ‘You know, this is some seriously crazy shit—’

The windshield in front of him exploded inwards. The black-fisted foreclaw of a dragon appeared immediately afterward, quickly followed by the upside-down head of a fourth red-bellied black prince.

‘Jesus Christ!’ Hamish yanked his head back, involuntarily pulling on the steering wheel as he did so, causing the speeding garbage truck to slam against the side wall of the tunnel and kick up sparks.

On the underside of the running board, CJ swung wildly with the unexpected swerve and a blaze of sparks flew up all around her.

‘Hamish! What are you doing?!’ she called.

‘I got a dragon problem of my own up here!’ Hamish yelled.

The dragon in front of him was trying—in a furious frenzy—to tear away the windshield and get inside.

Beside Hamish, Greg Johnson levelled his AK-47 at the dragon and fired a short burst.

The bullets pinged off the animal’s armoured forehead. The dragon barely noticed.

It roared and lashed out, knocking the assault rifle from Johnson’s hand.

As the garbage truck sped on, CJ used all her strength to haul herself out from under it and swing up onto its running board.

The running board—on which the zoo’s garbage men would stand as they went about their work—ran down the rear half of the truck.

CJ saw a steel ladder at the rear. If she could get to it, then she could climb up onto the roof and work her way forward to the cab.

As the garbage truck raced through the tunnel, swerving and weaving, she edged down the running board toward the ladder.

The fluorescent lights of the tunnel whizzed by beside her as she made her way down the side of the speeding truck.

CJ arrived at the ladder, grabbed a rung and hauled herself quickly up it.

She poked her head up over the roof—to find herself staring into the sinister smile of the dragon that had been knocked off the side of the truck earlier!

It was perched on the roof of the garbage truck, tail slinking behind it, its chin pressed against the roof so that its huge head was perfectly level with CJ’s face. It had been waiting for her. It was again grinning its smug, self-satisfied smile.

The dragon sprang forward, snapping, but CJ was quicker. She slid back down her ladder, dropping as the dragon’s jaws came together with a chomp, catching nothing but air.

CJ gasped as she hit the bottom of the ladder.

But she couldn’t stay here. The dragon on the roof would come over the side at any moment.

She turned to look forward just as— whack! —another dragon landed on the side of the speeding garbage truck, its claws piercing the steel wall like can-openers, blocking her path that way.

It was Melted Face.

This is insane , she thought. There were now three dragons on the speeding garbage truck.

And she herself literally had nowhere to go.

Nowhere, except—

‘Hamish!’ she yelled into her earpiece. ‘Open the rear loader!’

‘ What?! ’

‘Just do it or I’m toast!’

‘ Okay! ’

CJ edged back along the running board, just as the smiling dragon slunk down the same ladder she had used to escape it. Only two feet ahead of it, CJ swung around the rear of the garbage truck, hurling herself into its rear loader.

The rear tray stank. A hydraulically-operated steel plate—the truck’s compacter—lay before her. Right now it was closed, sealing off the truck’s internal hopper.

Smiley poked his head around the side of the truck, grinning malevolently.

‘Hamish…!’

Up in the cabin, Hamish was leaning as far back as he could in his seat. An inch in front of his nose, his dragon’s claw snatched and clutched, trying to get at him.

He scanned the controls of the cabin, looking for the switch that operated the rear compacter.

He saw it—a red button—and ducking under the snatching claw, quickly hit it.

With a mechanical clanking, the compacter began to open, creating a narrow opening at its base.

CJ dived for the gap as Smiley leapt around into the rear tray. CJ rolled through the small opening, through the remains of some stinking garbage. The gap was big enough for her but not for the dragon. She was clear.

‘Okay, Hamish! Now close it again!’

The dragon attacking the cabin rammed its head through the smashed windshield and roared loudly at Hamish.

Zhang recoiled. Syme ducked. Greg Johnson was frantically trying to regather his AK-47 from the floor. And with the dragon now right in his face, Hamish couldn’t reach the button that operated the rear compacter.