Hunt for Jade Dragon

  “Anything suspicious?”

  “No. She just ate her pastry, then rolled over and went to sleep.”

  At that moment Nichelle came walking down the hall from the elevator. She glanced furtively at us, and then kept walking toward the front door and went outside.

  Less than a minute later Ben walked into the lobby. He looked at me and nodded, then went back out. I looked around at everyone else to make sure they’d seen him; then we individually started toward the door. It took about five minutes before everyone was in the van. Tessa and McKenna were the last out.

  “Do you really think this pretending we don’t know one another is necessary?” Tessa asked as she climbed into the van.

  “We don’t want to find out,” Ostin said.

  “It is better to be careful,” Ben said.

  “I’m hungry,” Taylor said.

  “I have a breakfast surprise,” Ben said, then added, “It is not fish noodles.”

  “Thank Buddha,” Tessa said.

  Ben drove out of the hotel’s driveway, down the street toward the harbor, and then several miles up the coast before we turned off on a side street and parked outside a small open café. “We will eat breakfast here,” Ben announced, shutting off the van.

  An elderly man was sitting on a stool in front of the restaurant using the longest pair of chopsticks I had ever seen—at least twenty inches—to lift long bread sticks from a vat of boiling oil. We went inside the café and sat down.

  “What’s for breakfast?” Tessa asked. “Monkey-brain mush?”

  Ben looked at her quizzically. “They do not make mush from monkey brains.”

  “Glad to know,” Tessa said.

  “We are eating syau bing yo tyau. It means ‘little cookie oil stick.’ ”

  The man brought over plates with sesame-seed-covered biscuits and a plastic basket with long golden sticks of deep-fried bread.

  “How do you eat this?” Taylor asked.

  “Fold the oil stick into the sesame cookie, then dip into dou jiang,” Ben said.

  “Dough what?” Taylor asked.

  “Sorry,” Ben said. “Soy milk. He has not bringed it yet.”

  “Brought it,” Ostin corrected. “Brought it yet. ‘Brought’ is the past tense of ‘bring.’ ”

  “Sorry,” Ben said. “My English is poor.”

  “Quit correcting his English,” Taylor said. “It’s embarrassing.”

  Ostin looked at her quizzically. “How else will he learn?”

  The old man returned and set out a bowl of hot soy milk for each of us. Ben folded one of the oil sticks into a cookie, then dipped it into the milk. The rest of us followed his lead. I thought it was pretty good.

  After we had eaten for a few minutes, I asked Ben, “What’s our plan for today?”

  He glanced around, then said, “I will take you up to the Starxource plant to prepare.”

  “Have you been there before?” Ostin asked.

  “Many, many times.”

  “We were told the Taiwanese army is helping guard the plant,” Jack said.

  “This is true. There are many patrols of soldiers. We cannot go as close as I used to.”

  After breakfast we drove north along the coastal road, past flooded rice paddies and old concrete buildings, some surrounded by bamboo scaffolding. It began to rain and Ben turned on the windshield wipers.

  “That takes me out,” Zeus said.

  “It rains a lot here,” Ben said. “Especially now.”

  “Would have been good to know before I came,” Zeus said.

  A few minutes later Ostin asked Ben, “Have you ever seen the Lung Li?”

  A shadow crossed Ben’s face. He hesitated for a few moments before saying, “Yes, I have seen the Lung Li.” From his tone I could tell that he didn’t want to talk about them. It was maybe another twenty minutes before he said, “We are getting close now. We must be very careful. This is a public road, but the Elgen watch this area because it is near their plant.”

  Through the slapping windshield wipers we could see a fenced-in harbor with dozens of boats docked inside. “Is that it?” Jack asked.

  “No. That is the Xing zheng yuan Hui an Xun fang Shu.”

  “I was just going to say that,” Tessa said.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  “It is the Taiwanese coast guard,” Ben said.

  “They’re not going to be helping us,” Ian said.

  Ben shook his head. “No, they will not. They will help protect the Elgen. The Elgen give them their electricity.” He pointed off into the distance. “The Starxource plant is there.”

  The Elgen’s Taiwan Starxource plant was made of concrete and surrounded by tall fences—though, from where we were, it was hard to tell how many. As I looked at it my stomach turned and I felt myself twitching. I hoped Taylor wasn’t reading my mind because the only word that I could think of was “impossible.”

  Away from the coast the land rose slightly and Ben drove about a quarter mile past the plant, then up a dirt road that led into a bamboo forest, and doubled back toward the plant. A few minutes later he pulled over and said, “We will hike back through the forest so we can look at the plant. We must be very careful. This many Americans here is very suspicious. If we are found we will tell them we are a member of the American Animal Protection Society and we are here to help the civet. Do you understand?”

  “What’s the civet?” Zeus asked.

  Instinctively we all turned to Ostin. He was obviously used to it because he immediately started talking. “A civet is a nocturnal mammal that is native to the tropical forests of Africa and Asia. It looks like a cross between a dog and a leopard, but its face looks like a raccoon.”

  “You’re making this up, right?” Tessa said.

  Ostin looked at her blankly. “No.”

  “That is right,” Ben said, draping a pair of binoculars around his neck. “They are endangered and some have been found in this area. Recently some have been hit by cars. It is very upsetting to some people.”

  “Roadkill,” Jack said.

  “Which is what we’ll be if the Elgen find us,” Tessa said.

  It was still raining, and everyone except Zeus climbed out of the van and followed Ben to a small, overgrown path surrounded by tall, junglelike foliage. Walking in single file it took us nearly ten minutes to reach a clearing in the forest that looked out over the plant.

  “It is there,” Ben said. “Be very quiet.”

  We looked out over the expansive compound spread out below us. The plant was situated at the end of a peninsula that extended out from the mainland about two hundred yards, the back and sides of the plant facing the ocean. The landscape outside the fence and concrete was tropical, with palm trees and thick vegetation.

  There was only one road in and out of the facility and it passed through four twenty-foot-high electric fences topped with razor wire. The main wall around the facility was concrete with large V-beams supporting more lines of razor wire. The concrete walls had been painted to look like the surrounding foliage. About every hundred yards along the perimeter were concrete octagon-shaped watchtowers with a 360-degree exposure. This compound made the Peruvian plant look like an amusement park.

  “They added two more fences in the last month,” Ben said. “I think it is your fault. Because you broke the plant in Peru.”

  “It looks like a prison,” Jack said.

  “Yes, it was a prison,” Ben said. “The Elgen buy the facility from the government four years ago. Then they added more electrified razor wire, motion-sensor devices, and cameras.”

  “Is that all?” Tessa said.

  “What are those tents and buildings outside the fences?” I asked.

  “They are new. I do not know.”

  “They look like army barracks,” Ian said. “There are soldiers inside.”

  Ben looked out with his binoculars. After a few minutes he slowly lowered them. “It is the army. They must have decided to statio
n around the plant.”

  “You’re freaking kidding me,” Tessa said. “We’re supposed to pass through an army camp, climb over four twenty-foot electrified fences and a twenty-five-foot concrete wall, with cameras, watch towers, and motion detectors, and not be seen?”

  Ben looked at her stoically. “Yes.”

  Jack shook his head. “That’s impossible.”

  “It’s even worse than that,” Ian said.

  “What’s worse than impossible?” Jack said.

  “There are landmines in the spaces between the fences.”

  “How many landmines?” I asked.

  “Hundreds, maybe thousands. They’re everywhere.”

  “There’s no way to get in there,” Taylor said.

  “Not without a helicopter,” I replied.

  “This is a no-fly zone,” Ben said. “They will shoot anything near.” He pointed toward one of the turrets. “They have big guns.”

  “Anti-aircraft guns,” Ostin said.

  “Of course they do,” I said.

  “Maybe they’ll have a public open house,” Tessa said sardonically. “Or a tea.”

  Ostin scratched his chin. “I would doubt that. The security con—”

  I put my hand on Ostin’s shoulder to stop him. “She was kidding.”

  Ostin looked at Tessa, then said, “Oh.”

  “How can you be so smart and still be so dumb?” Tessa said.

  “How can you be so rude?” McKenna said.

  “Stop it,” I said. “We’ve got enough to worry about.”

  “Look,” Ben said, handing me his binoculars. “It is a food truck. You can see them enter.”

  “Maybe we could stow away in one of those trucks,” Taylor said. “Isn’t that how you got into the academy?”

  “Just before we were captured,” Jack said, grimacing.

  I raised the binoculars. A small white van was moving slowly down the plant’s long asphalt drive toward the building. The vehicle was stopped at every checkpoint and surrounded by guards and dogs before moving on to the next.

  “They’ve got some kind of X-ray thing going there,” Ian said. “They’re scanning the truck.”

  I lowered my binoculars. “So much for stowing away. It looks like they’ve created the perfect defense.”

  We all stood there solemnly. Taylor put her hand on my back. After a few minutes she said to me, “What are you thinking?”

  “Why do you ask when you’ve already read my mind?”

  She exhaled. “All right, sometimes I just like to hear you say it. So you think it’s impossible too.”

  “I know it’s impossible. Even if we miraculously made it past the army, we would never make it past their checkpoints. And then we’d be captured. Houdini and David Copperfield combined couldn’t pull that trick off.”

  “We made it out of the Peruvian prison,” McKenna said.

  “We had inside help,” Ian said. “And it wasn’t nearly that protected.”

  “And we still almost got killed,” Jack added.

  “Small detail,” I said. I turned to Ostin. “What do you think?”

  “I think the odds are definitely not in our favor.”

  McKenna took his arm. “What if we shut down the plant? Then they wouldn’t have electric fences or surveillance cameras.”

  “How would we do that?” Tessa asked.

  “Same way we did in Peru,” McKenna said. “We shut off the water supply.”

  “I don’t see any pipes,” Ostin said. “They probably have them running underground into the ocean. And after what we did in Peru, they probably have them guarded.”

  “They’re difficult even for me to see,” Ian said. “But it looks like there are pipes going deep into the ocean. Way too deep to reach.”

  “Could we clog them?” McKenna asked.

  Ian shook his head. “How?”

  “No,” I said. “That still wouldn’t get us in. And remember Joel said not to shut down the plant.”

  We were all quiet again. Then, for the first time since we’d arrived, Nichelle spoke. “If you think you can break into that place, you’re crazy. They’ll catch us.”

  “Thanks for the encouragement,” I said. “Any ideas?” I asked Ostin.

  Ostin thought for a moment, then said, “I think Nichelle’s right. The only way to win this game is to not play it.”

  “What?” I said.

  “Sun Tzu said, ‘There are roads which must not be followed, towns which must not be besieged, positions which must not be contested.’ This is precisely what he was talking about. If we attack this place we’ll fail.”

  “Are you saying we should just give up?” Taylor asked.

  “No, I’m saying that we should choose to fight on grounds favorable to us.”

  “I’m sure they’ll agree to that,” Jack said.

  “What are you thinking?” I asked Ostin.

  “They’re going to be moving Jade Dragon out of the plant to the Volta. That’s when they’ll be most vulnerable. That’s when we should attack. Instead of breaking into an impossibly guarded fortress, we attack them outside of the fortress.”

  “You can bet that will be some armed parade,” Ian said.

  “We stopped the Peruvian army to rescue you guys,” Tessa said. “And that was just two of us.”

  “They’ll be better prepared than the Peruvian army,” Ostin said. He rubbed his chin, then said, “But we still have one advantage. Hatch probably expects us to be here, but he doesn’t know for sure that we’re here. We need to let them know that we’re not.”

  “What do you mean?” Tessa said. “We are here.”

  “Sun Tzu said—”

  “Wait,” Jack said, raising his hand. “Who is this Sun guy you keep talking about?”

  “Sun Tzu,” I said. “He’s an ancient Chinese general. He wrote a book about war strategy called The Art of War. Ostin’s been studying it.”

  “Oh,” Jack said. “That’s legit.”

  Ostin continued, “Sun Tzu said, ‘All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.’ ”

  “Your point?” Tessa said.

  “Right now, Hatch and the Elgen are most likely focusing all their attention on this plant. The last thing they’re expecting is for us to attack another plant.”

  “That’s the last thing I’m expecting,” Jack said. “Why would we attack someplace else? This place is bad enough.”

  “If we attack another plant, they’ll think they’ve been tricked and that we had no intention of attacking them in Taiwan. Then their security will be down and we’ll rescue Jade Dragon as they try to move her to the Volta.”

  I looked back out over the plant. “That makes a lot more sense.”

  “This part about attacking another plant,” Taylor said, “we can’t send all of us, or no one will be here to rescue the girl.”

  “Right,” Ostin said.

  “So you’re talking about splitting us up?”

  “Exactly.”

  Taylor looked at me. “Into what groups?”

  “We can figure that out later,” I said. “First we’ll have to get the voice to approve of the plan, but it makes sense. When it comes right down to it, what other choice do we have?”

  Ian shook his head as he gazed at the plant. “Not that one.”

  “We must leave,” Ben said. “We have been here too long.”

  We headed back to the van. As we climbed in, Zeus looked at us all expectantly. When no one spoke he said, “So, how was it?”

  I was ticking pretty badly and everyone was silent.

  Zeus frowned. “That bad?”

  “Worse,” Tessa said. “Much worse.”

  * * *

  We were quiet during the drive back to our hotel. After seeing the place, I wondered if they had purposely not told us more at the ranch. Our preparation hadn’t begun t
o prepare us for what we were facing. Nothing could. Even with Ostin’s plan, the chance of rescuing Jade Dragon seemed far less likely than us being caught trying. The idea of that sent chills through me. We’d escaped from the Elgen twice before. It was unrealistic to believe that we’d be that lucky again. I hadn’t felt that discouraged since Cell 25. It didn’t help that we were all so jet-lagged.

  As we approached the hotel, I caught Zeus up on Ostin’s idea about creating a diversion by attacking another power plant.

  “Who do you think should go?” he asked.

  “I’m thinking you and Tessa.”

  Tessa looked at me. “Us?”

  “Your powers are perfect for attacking the plant,” I said. “With your help, Zeus will able to ignite the explosives from a much greater distance.” I turned back to Zeus. “Besides, if it rains here we won’t be able to use you anyway. That is, if you’re okay with the idea.”

  Zeus and Tessa looked at each other, then Zeus said, “I’m good with it. I just don’t like the idea of leaving you guys here hanging.”

  “If the diversion works, it will do more to protect us than you could here.”

  “Then I’m in.”

  “I’m in too,” Tessa said.

  “Okay. Now we just need to see if the voice agrees.”

  When we got to the hotel Ben pulled the van up to the far side of the driveway. It had stopped raining. “There is no need to meet early tomorrow,” he said. “I know you are tired, so we will talk after I hear back from the voice. Remember, do not be in a big group.”

  “We’ve got the routine,” Tessa said.

  “I will see you later.”

  Zeus and Jack went in first. We waited about a minute in between each group. Like before, Ostin and I were the last to leave. Before going to our room, we stopped at the bakery in the hotel lobby and got cream-filled pastries that looked a little like footballs with cream inside. Then we sat at one of the tables in the lobby restaurant. We weren’t alone. Taylor and Nichelle were sitting on the other side of the restaurant. We both ordered a bowl of hot noodles and orange Fanta to go with our pastries. While we were eating, Nichelle walked over. She stood in front of me with her arms folded.

  “Vey.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You know this whole thing is insane, right? I said I’d help you, but I didn’t say I’d commit suicide. If Hatch catches me helping you, he’ll kill me. If I’m lucky.”