Matthew Reilly - The Great Zoo of China

‘So what we were told on the tour about there being no fire-breathing dragons at the zoo was a lie,’ CJ said.

‘You were never supposed to see the masters, so think of it as a half-truth,’ Patrick said.

‘Seems to me that this place is filled with half-truths,’ CJ said. ‘I repeat: how do I stop them?’

‘Let me be clear, CJ. It’s not just fire that they breathe. It’s a liquid acid-based fire. If that acid-fire touches your skin, it’ll eat right through your flesh and your bone. If it sprays over you, it’ll turn your entire body to mush. It’s not a pretty sight. I’ve seen it.’

‘For the third time, Ben, how can I stop them ?’ CJ said.

Patrick said, ‘There are two protocols in place in the event that we lose control of this zoo. The primary protocol for use in the event of a total security breakdown involves the detonation of several thermobaric bombs at strategic locations around the zoo. A thermobaric bomb creates an oxygen vacuum that will kill every living thing within a very wide radius. That is the last-resort plan.’

CJ didn’t feel the need to tell Patrick that she was already aware of the three thermobaric bombs held somewhere at the zoo.

Patrick went on. ‘There is a secondary protocol, however, that doesn’t go as far as that. It involves the implants in the dragons’ heads, the chips in their brains that emit an electric shock if a dragon comes into contact with one of the electromagnetic domes.

‘When we train the dragons, we use what we call “training units” to trigger those implants. Pain is a swift teacher.’

CJ recalled the trick show and the moment during it when Red Face had baulked at doing a trick. The trainer Yim had held up a yellow handheld remote and Red Face had performed. Yim had been threatening the dragon with a shock. CJ also now knew why Red Face had smashed that same remote to pieces when Yim had reached for it in the waste management facility moments before her death.

‘Lucky’s trainer had a yellow remote,’ CJ said. ‘Is that one of these training units?’

‘Yes. As you will have seen, each dragon has an alphanumeric ID code branded onto its left thigh. You enter a dragon’s code into the training unit and then you can shock that individual dragon.’

‘How many of these training units are there and where can I get one?’

‘There aren’t many, maybe five or six, kept in the Birthing and Nesting centres, since that’s where we train the young dragons.’

‘Shocking them is a temporary measure, Ben. How about killing them?’

‘Let me finish,’ Patrick said. ‘Those implants in each of the dragons’ heads were equipped with a second capability for use in the event that a dragon or dragons got excessively violent or out of control.’

‘Yes…’

‘Each implant contains two grams of the plastic explosive PVV-5A inside it; not a lot, but enough to blow a dragon’s head apart from the inside.’

‘Now you’re talking,’ CJ said. ‘So how do we detonate these implants?’

Patrick said, ‘A regular training unit can’t detonate those chips. It requires a special detonator unit. And there are only two detonator units in the whole zoo. They look exactly like the training units, only they are red, not yellow. For obvious reasons, both of these detonator units are kept inside high-security safes, the combinations for which are known only to a few senior people.’

‘Who?’

‘Director Chow, Colonel Bao… and me.’

‘Why you?’

‘Because Chow is just an administrator and Bao is simply muscle,’ Patrick said dismissively. ‘By virtue of my research, I know more about these dragons than anyone else at this zoo; more than anyone else alive, for that matter.’

‘So where are the safes?’ CJ said.

‘The first is at the military airfield to the southwest of the zoo. That airfield is basically the zoo’s second command centre; you could run the whole place from there. I imagine that’s where Colonel Bao has gone, if he’s still alive.’

‘That’ll be tough to get to. And the second detonator unit?’

‘It’s inside the Nesting Centre.’

‘Of course it is,’ CJ said. ‘Where exactly?’

‘Bao has an office there, inside the observation booth overlooking the main chamber of the Nesting Centre. The main chamber houses the master dragons and the opening to the dragons’ original nest.’

‘What’s the combination to the safe?’ CJ asked.

‘9199,’ Patrick said.

CJ nodded, memorising the code. She started walking around the side-turned truck, peering at some objects on the floor near it.

As she did so, she said, ‘Ben, they knocked out the inner dome by trashing the generators and cutting the main power cable. If they go after the outer dome, how will they go about bringing it down?’

Patrick said, ‘The inner dome only had one set of laser-emitting emplacements. Since it’s a back-up barrier, the outer dome has two sets. The first set of emplacements is at the airfield. The second set is over by the worker city to the northeast, on the opposite side. Both sets of emplacements are fed by separate main power lines, so if one set of emplacements is cut, the other set still maintains the dome.’

‘Tell me more,’ CJ said from behind the truck. ‘Describe them for me, so I know them when I see them.’

Patrick shrugged. ‘There are fifteen emplacements in each set. They project the outer dome both into the sky and into the ground, forming a diamond-like shield around the zoo. Each emplacement is made of nine-foot-thick concrete. They are each about the size of a house but they look like World War II pillboxes.’

‘Is there, like, a central pillbox?’

‘Yes. Of the fifteen laser emplacements, one is paramount: the middle one. It alone is connected to the external main power line—it then onsends power to the other emplacements. If that central emplacement is destroyed, all the emplacements on that side of the zoo will lose power.’

CJ reappeared from behind the truck, carrying a helmet, some weapons and a roll of duct tape.

‘These dragons can sense electrical impulses,’ she said. ‘They’ll be able to spot the large amounts of electrical energy entering those central emplacements. They’ll go for them.’

She put on the helmet. Taken from the body of a Chinese commando, it was a lightweight model with a flashlight mounted on one side and a flip-down visor. CJ tore off the arms of her special UV glasses and duct-taped the glasses onto the fold-down visor.

She also held a Russian-made ROKS-5 flamethrower. She wriggled the flame unit’s propane tank onto her back while she gripped its gun-like nozzle in her left hand. She taped an M79 pump-action grenade launcher to her MP-7 and slid the combined weapon into a thigh holster. Finally, she used the duct tape to crudely affix her battlefield display unit to the left forearm of her leather jacket.

It was an ad-hoc uniform to say the very least, but CJ Cameron suddenly looked ready for battle.

Patrick said, ‘A flamethrower? You ever used one before?’

‘No. How hard can it be? You aim it and pull the trigger. Hell, I made my own earlier,’ CJ said. ‘And since I can’t talk to the dragons in the Nesting Centre, I thought fire might be a language they understand.’

‘You’re not seriously going into the Nesting Centre right now ?’ Patrick said.

‘Somebody has to. And I’m going to need help.’

‘You want me to go with you? Are you out of your fucking mind? There must be forty red-bellied black dragons in there! Plus the masters! We won’t last ten seconds. I won’t go—’

‘I will go,’ a soft voice said.