Matthew Reilly: The Great Zoo of China

Bao nodded at CJ. ‘Dr Cameron. You are a survivor, I will grant you that. But now it is time for us to restore control. A battalion of troops is on its way here from Chongqing in helicopter gunships. That force will arrive in a few hours and it will bring the remaining dragons into line.’

With those words, Bao calmly drew his pistol. ‘You, however, will go no further.’

CJ threw a horrified look at Minnie. ‘You’re gonna kill this little girl, too?’

Hu Tang strolled toward the edge of the stage, gazed out at the magnificent sight. A few dragons could be seen flying across the valley, specks against the sky. CJ got the distinct impression he was looking away so he would not have to see the executions that were about to take place.

‘She will tell someone eventually,’ Hu said, ‘and we cannot have that. This zoo is bigger than a few individuals, even a child. It will rise again and it will be the glory of the world.’

He nodded at Bao. ‘Kill them both and take the dragon away for re-education.’

‘You callous motherfuc—’ CJ breathed.

She cut herself off when she heard it.

Beep-beep… beep-beep.

She didn’t even have time to react.

The next moment something red and black leapt up from below the roofline and took a slashing bite at Hu Tang’s face, and the front of the Communist Party man’s head spewed blood and suddenly Hu Tang turned and CJ saw that he no longer had a face .

The dragon had bitten off his fucking face!

From forehead to jaw, Hu Tang’s face was now a mess of pulp and exposed bone. It was perhaps the most hideous thing CJ had ever seen.

Hu’s body collapsed to the stage, convulsing, not dead but not quite alive either, and standing there in his place was the one dragon who had pursued CJ since all this had begun: the prince-sized red-bellied black dragon she had christened Red Face.

Bao and his troops didn’t know or care for CJ’s history with Red Face and they immediately opened fire on the dragon. In the face of their fire, Red Face took flight, disappearing as quickly as he had arrived.

Colonel Bao looked impassively down at the still-shuddering body of his old boss, Hu Tang. ‘How unfortunate.’ He fired a bullet into the faceless head and the body went still.

Then he turned his pistol on CJ and Minnie.

‘You know something, Dr Cameron? Just before your mentor, Dr Lynch, died, he said something to me about you.’

‘You were there when Bill Lynch died?’ CJ said.

‘I was the one who let a dragon tear him apart,’ Bao said. ‘He said you were tougher than he ever was. This may indeed be so, but in the end, you will die just as he did. It is time for you to make peace with your god, Dr Cameron, because you have nothing else to call on.’

‘ She might have this, Colonel ,’ a voice said abruptly over their radio earpieces.

A man’s voice.

Greg Johnson’s voice.

Bao spun, searching for the source of the voice. CJ did, too, but she couldn’t see Johnson anywhere. She’d been kneeling beside Lucky. Now she stood, searching for the CIA agent.

‘ Down here ,’ Johnson’s voice said. ‘ In the Halfway Hut .’

CJ and Bao both looked out at the watchtower positioned midway between the main entrance building and Dragon Mountain.

A tiny figure could be seen inside its struts, standing on a platform just below the Hut’s cable car station, beside a large device the size of a small car.

‘ Dr Cameron may not have anything to call on, Bao, but I do. I have your thermobaric bomb. ’

Bao’s eyes went as wide as saucers.

‘ I’ve reset the detonation sequence ,’ Johnson said. ‘ It’s mine now. I have to destroy this place and everything in it .’

‘You would kill yourself to destroy this zoo?’ Bao said.

‘ Yes .’

‘You’re bluffing.’

‘ I’m wounded, I’m pissed off, and I have absolutely nothing to lose ,’ Johnson said. ‘ You can’t control these animals, Bao. I’ll blow us all to kingdom come to protect the world from these monsters. And if you think I’m bluffing …’

Down at the Halfway Hut, Johnson held his radio close to the thermobaric bomb and flicked a switch on its detonation panel. A timer came alive, beeping with each tick:

10:00… 9:59… 9:58.

‘…think again. You have ten minutes to make peace with your god, asshole.’

As this exchange took place, CJ edged over to the lectern on the stage. Unseen by her captors, she flicked on its control panel.

Bao raged. ‘This is insanity!’

CJ saw the button on the lectern that she was looking for, one she had seen hit during the trick show. With the power back on in the zoo, she hoped it still worked. She slammed her finger down on it.

Immediately, the pyrotechnic flame-dischargers arrayed around the stage launched tongues of fire into the air. White smoke enveloped the stage.

And then everything happened at once.

CJ took two bounding steps and hurled herself into Ben Patrick, knocking him off the stage into the front row of seats and sending the Taser unit flying from his hands.

The two closest Chinese soldiers raised their guns at her only to be swept off their feet by a whip-cracking yellow dragon’s tail. Lucky, groaning and weakened, had risen to her elbows and lashed out with her powerful tail, sending the pair of Chinese soldiers flying off their feet.

The third and last Chinese soldier opened fire at Lucky, but Lucky sprang at him and, with a fearsome swipe of her foreclaw, slashed his throat. Blood spurted and the man hit the ground, killed instantly.

Minnie screamed.

In the haze of smoke, CJ now dived at Bao, crash-tackling the colonel, punching his gun hand, sending his pistol skittering away.

They went sprawling toward the vertiginous northern edge of the stage.

Bao’s legs dangled off the rim, four hundred feet above the world, while his chest still lay on the stage, his hands desperately gripping onto the lapels of CJ’s heat suit, the only thing he could cling to.

But Bao was much heavier than CJ. His weight was slowly pulling her closer to the edge as well.

‘At least we die together!’ the Chinese colonel spat as their combined death-slide continued.

CJ struggled desperately but she could do nothing to release Bao’s grip on her.

The edge came closer.

Then with a lurch, Bao’s body dropped completely off the rim, and CJ—still held by him—found herself perched precariously on the edge, her head and shoulders overhanging it, staring down at the four-hundred-foot drop!

She searched for a weapon of some sort, something she could use to undo Bao’s grip, but she found nothing. Not even Lucky could help; she was on the other side of the stage.

‘Let’s fly to our doom…’ Bao said.

‘Not… today…’ CJ said grimly as she grabbed the one thing she could think to use: the saltwater crocodile’s tooth attached to the leather cord around her neck. She reached inside her protective suit, yanked on the tooth, snapping its cord, and held the big sharp tooth tightly in one fist.