Matthew Reilly - The Great Zoo of China

‘Okay, right.’ CJ thought for a moment. ‘Damn it, I need more people…’

As if on cue, there came a crackling sound from a nearby battery-operated CB radio, hanging from a hook.

‘ Chipmunk, this is Bear. Do you read me? This is the 20 at 20 call. I tried at 3:20 but got no answer. Do you copy? ’

It was Hamish.

CJ snatched up the radio. ‘Bear, I’m here!’

The voice at the other end lit up. ‘ Chipmunk! You’re alive! ’

‘Only just. Where are you?’

‘ I’m in the waste management facility. Syme is still with me but we lost Wolfe. We had a couple of close calls and our escapes weren’t exactly works of art, but you know what Dad used to say, you’ve got to fail a few times before you succeed. ’

CJ blinked suddenly at his words.

‘You’ve got to fail before you succeed…’ she said absently.

An idea began to form in her mind.

She snapped out of it. ‘You called at just the right time, Bear. The dragons are about to bring down the outer dome and we have to stop them.’

‘ How about we just leave this clusterfuck of a zoo to the punks who built it and get the hell out of here? I don’t particularly like the idea of saving their asses while they’re trying to kill me . ’

‘There’s another nest, Hamish. A bigger one,’ CJ said.

There was silence at the other end of the line.

CJ added, ‘The Chinese only found a small nest. If the dragons get out, they’ll go and wake the other nest and then there’ll be a whole lot more dragons. The entire populations of any towns or cities near here will be slaughtered. Then the dragons will fly away and open more nests and it’ll be an exponential expansion, a plague of dragons. We can’t let that happen.’

Over in the waste management facility, Hamish swallowed hard.

‘Okay. What do you need me to do?’ he said.

‘ Can you get to the military airfield? ’

Hamish was standing near the huge barred external gates of the waste management facility. Through them he could see the many lights of the military airfield a few miles away across a flat plain.

He turned back to face the waste management hall, searching for a vehicle he could use… and he found one.

‘I think we can do that, yes,’ he said with a grin.

‘ I need you to get to that airfield and protect the emplacements there. There’ll be about fifteen of them and apparently they look like concrete pillboxes. You won’t be able to hold the dragons out forever, but I need you to hold that dome up for as long as you can. ’

‘What about you? What are you doing?’

‘ I’m going to the worker city ,’ CJ said. ‘ Oh, and Hamish? ’

‘Yeah?’

‘ There are two new dragons and they, well, breathe fire ,’ CJ said.

‘Of course they do,’ Hamish said wryly. ‘CJ, how do you know about this bigger nest and all that?’

‘ I’ve been talking to a dragon ,’ CJ said simply. ‘ Gotta fly now. Out. ’

CJ clicked off, thinking. ‘Sometimes you have to fail before you succeed…’ she said.

She pursed her lips in thought. Then she turned to Li. ‘You,’ she said.

‘Me?’

‘I need you and one of those cable repair trucks. And I need you to come with me to the worker city. You up for it?’

Li thought for a moment. ‘You really think the dragons will grow in number if they get out of here? That they will open other nests?’

‘Yes,’ CJ said. ‘And then the dragons they release will open more nests. The numbers will get very big, very fast.’

Li nodded. ‘Then I will come with you to the worker city.’

CJ turned to Minnie. ‘As for you, little one, we have to keep you out of harm’s way till this is over.’ She took the little girl’s hand and led her to a barred cage in the corner. ‘You’ll be safe here. Just do not leave this cell until I come back to get you, okay?’

‘Yes, CJ,’ Minnie said.

CJ grabbed another flashlight, some food and some water from a nearby office and gave it to Minnie before she closed the barred door over her face.

Then CJ returned to Lucky in the exam room.

The dragon was standing now, testing the staples and stretching its wings. When expanded, the great leathery things almost filled the room.

‘Lucky good?’ CJ asked.

Lucky mewed. ‘ Lucky strong… White Head good human …’

‘Lucky… fight?’

The dragon turned to face CJ, a look of steely determination on her expressive face. ‘ Lucky… White Head… fight. ’

Lucky soared high above the rectangular valley that contained the Great Dragon Zoo of China with CJ and Li on her back. It was almost five in the morning—an hour till dawn—and deprived of any kind of electrical power, the zoo was now just a shadowy collection of blackened landforms and buildings. The rain had stopped and the storm clouds had passed, leaving a beautiful star-filled sky and a glorious full moon above it all.

After about ten minutes of flying, CJ spotted a cluster of man-made structures a few miles beyond the northeastern corner of the zoo.

The worker city.

Seen from the air, it appeared to jut up from the plain: a few blocks of apartment buildings and office towers, warehouses and parks, and, snaking its way through them, a winding river. A couple of bridges spanned the river.

It was, to CJ, yet another example of China’s amazing ability to simply build whatever it needed. The Chinese needed a miniature city here, so they’d just built one.

Several buildings were still under construction. Hammerhead cranes towered above them while the exposed levels of unfinished towers lay open to the elements.

There was only one problem.

The city was on fire.

Fires blazed all over it: from the upper storeys of buildings, to the shops at street level and overturned cars and buses.

The master dragons had been through here.

Unlike the zoo, the worker city still had power thanks to its external main power line. Amid the many fires, building lights glimmered and the streetlights were on.

Staying high, CJ peered into the urban chasms.

It was strange to see city streets so deserted and empty. Car alarms wailed, calling for owners who would never return. There were no people in sight.

The worker city was now a ghost city.

And then she saw the first dragon.

A huge grey emperor lumbered up onto the tallest building of the worker city and perched itself on the summit. There in the orange firelight, it raised its snout to the heavens and roared.