Hunt for Jade Dragon (20 page)

“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.”

“He'll kill all of us,” I said. She didn't say anything and I looked at her anxiously. “So you're not going to help us?”

She took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. “I think it's crazy.”

“You've already said that. Are you in or out?”

For a moment she stood there looking uncomfortable, then she shook her head again. “All right, I'm still in. But if we somehow don't die, I want double the money.”

She turned and walked alone to the elevator. Taylor glanced at me and frowned, then stood and walked after her.

“I told you we shouldn't have brought her,” Ostin said.

“It's a little late for that,” I said.

* * * 

Ten minutes later Ostin and I went up to our room. Even though it was barely afternoon I drew the blinds and we both lay on our beds. As usual Ostin fell asleep immediately. In spite of my exhaustion, I was so anxious that I tossed and turned for nearly an hour before I gave up and went to see Taylor.

Taylor's room was just three down from mine on the same side of the hall. I knocked softly. She smiled when she saw me. “What's up?”

“I couldn't sleep. What are you doing?”

“I was about to check out that mall next door. Want to go with me?”

“Sure. What's Nichelle doing?”

“Nothing. She's just listening to her iPod,” she said, shutting the door behind her.

We took the elevator to the lobby. There was an entrance to the mall at the east end of the lobby, past the bakery.

The mall was nicer than anything I'd seen in Idaho. It was four stories high and had a Tiffany and Cartier and other expensive stores I'd only seen in advertisements. We stopped to look at a diamond necklace in the showcase window outside Tiffany.

“Isn't that beautiful?” Taylor said, staring at the string of sparkling gems. She turned to me. “Did I ever tell you about the time Hatch offered to buy me a diamond necklace?”

“No.”

“My second day at the academy I went shopping in Beverly Hills with Tara. Hatch met us for lunch; then he took me to a famous jewelry store called Harry Winston to try on necklaces. The one I liked was like a hundred and seventy thousand dollars. For about five seconds I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world.”

“Then what happened?”

Her expression changed abruptly, revealing the pain she felt in remembering. “He
touched
me,” she said. “After they put the necklace on me, Hatch put his hand on my arm and I read his mind. It was the darkest, ugliest thing I've ever seen. It was the first time I realized how much evil he was capable of.”

I took her hand. “I can't imagine wandering through his brain. It would be like walking through one of those haunted houses they put up at Halloween time.”

She nodded. “That's exactly what it was like, except it was real.” We started to walk away from the window. “It's never left me. It's like once I go through someone's mind, I have a connection with them.”

“What do you mean?”

“It's hard to explain. It's like I understand them.” She looked at me sadly. “After I read his mind I felt dirty. In a way, I still do.”

“He'll never touch you again,” I said. “I won't let him.”

She kissed my cheek. “I know.”

We walked around the mall for another hour. Taylor tried on a few blouses but couldn't decide on anything. Joel had given me plenty of money so I could have bought her almost anything she wanted (except the diamond necklace), but I guess she wasn't in a buying mood as much as a looking mood. When she finally tired of looking, we walked back to the hotel to get some dinner.

We took the elevator to the tenth floor to the Shanghainese Dumpling Restaurant, which was exactly what the name said it was. A half dozen chefs behind a glass window rolled out dough into saucer-sized circles, added spiced meats or vegetable fillings, then crimped them into dumplings to steam in bamboo baskets. We ate chicken soup, ham fried rice, and three different types of dumplings. Halfway through our meal, Taylor dropped a dumpling into a bowl of soy sauce, splattering it on herself and the tablecloth.

“I give up,” she said, picking the dumpling up with her fingers. “Forks are just better.”

Once we'd finished our meal, our server brought us dessert, a little cake with sweet red bean filling. It wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't horrible either. Afterward I walked Taylor back to her room. As we got off the elevator she said, “You're really worried, aren't you?”

“You read my mind?”

“No. You're ticking.”

“Sorry,” I said, forcing myself to stop. Then I slowly shook my head. “I don't know if we can really do this.”

She looked at me for a moment, then said, “Do you remember what you said to us in the Amazon jungle?”

“I said a lot of things.”

“Just before we snuck into the Starxource plant you told us something your mother always said. ‘If you remember the
why
, the
how
will work itself out.' Every time that I've been afraid or I've doubted,
I've thought about that. You know, we've been worried about what will happen if the Elgen get the information, but there's more to our mission than that.”

“What's that?”

“Jade Dragon is not just a scientific formula. She's a little girl. And she's afraid. Could you imagine what it would be like to be unable to speak or hear and to be taken from your family and home by the Elgen?”

“No,” I said. I looked back into her eyes. “You have a way of putting things in perspective.”

“And you have a way of making me feel safe. I think I have a really great boyfriend.” She leaned forward and kissed me. “Now try to get some sleep. It makes me tired just looking at you.” She opened her door and went inside.

I walked back to my room. The television was on and Ostin was lying sideways on top of his covers snoring. I figured that he must have gotten up and started watching TV, then fallen back to sleep. I turned the television off and lay back on my bed. In spite of Taylor's encouragement, what we were up against frightened me more than anything I'd faced so far: more than the academy, more than the Peruvian army, more than the
Ampere
. Even more than the Peruvian Starxource plant with its two thousand guards. At least the Peruvian plant had been in the middle of a jungle. This one was completely out in the open with no place to hide.

I still couldn't sleep. It didn't help that Ostin had his snore going. I wanted to smother him with his pillow. A little after midnight I went down to the lobby lounge and ordered a hot chocolate. About a half hour later Ben walked into the restaurant as well. He looked surprised to see me.

“Michael, you are still awake.”

“I couldn't sleep,” I said.

He sat down across from me. “I think you are jet-lag.”

“Probably.” I said. “Why are you up?”

“I could not sleep too. I am nervous.”

“I'm not nervous,” I said. “I'm terrified.”

He nodded. “Yes. I am also . . . terrified.”

I exhaled slowly. “Do you want something to drink?”

“Maybe tea.” He waved to a waitress, who came over to our table.

“May I help you?” she asked in English.

Ben answered in Chinese.
“Wo yau yidyan cha.”

“Ni yau hei cha, ma?”

“Heide hau.”

She looked at me. “Do you want more chocolate milk?”

I shook my head. “No, thank you.”

She nodded. “Okay.” She turned back to Ben. “
Wo ma shang hwei lai
,” she said, then walked away.

Ben smiled at me. “She thought I was American.”

“It's the company you keep,” I said. I took a sip of my cocoa, then asked, “How did you get mixed up in all of this?”

“Mixed up?”

“I mean, how did you get involved with the resistance?”

“Oh,” he said, nodding. “After I complete my military service, I work at a computer shop in Taipei. My mother was a reporter for the
Taipei Times
. When the government made the announcement about their agreement with the Elgen to take over Taiwan electricity production, everyone was very happy. There was much celebration. But my mother was not sure. She began writing a story about the Elgen. She traveled to other countries where there are Starxource plants to do research. She even found guards who had left the Elgen and were hiding. She learn about Dr. Hatch's plan to take over the economies of the countries they moved into. She wrote a long story about this, but it was never published. Her boss at the newspaper kill the story.” His expression fell with his voice. “Then someone kill her.”

I set down my cup. “Someone killed your mother?”

He nodded. “The Lung Li. The police said that it was an accident—she was electrocuted by dropping a radio into the bathtub. But my mother did not like baths because she had arthritis and had trouble getting into them. She only took showers. The day after she died a letter came to me from my mother. She wrote that a group
called the Lung Li had been following her and she was afraid for her life. She told me that she was certain it had something to do with the story she wrote about the Elgen. She said if something happen to her, I should hide because they might kill me, too.”

“I'm sorry,” I said. “How did you find the resistance?”

“They find me. At my mother's funeral there was an American man. He introduced himself as a friend of my mother's. His name was Joel.”

“I know Joel,” I said.

“Yes, I have been working with Joel for three year now. He introduced me to the voice. Have you met the voice?”

“No,” I said. “Have you?”

“No. We only talk on the telephone.”

“I don't think anyone has met the voice.”

“The Elgen now make almost all of Taiwan electricity. I fear that we are too late to stop them.”

I took another sip of cocoa. “I don't understand how people can be so blind to what the Elgen are doing. Don't they care that someone will take their freedom?”

“The Elgen are very clever. People are busy with their lives. It is like people are watching a show on an airplane—they do not know where the airplane is going, they are just watching the show.”

The waitress returned with Ben's tea and he stopped talking for a moment to drink. After he'd had a few sips I asked, “Did you ask the voice about our plan?”

“Yes. He will call us back in the morning. Until then, you should sleep.”

“I keep trying,” I said.

“You must get sleep. We have difficult things ahead.”

“I should go back.” I finished drinking my hot chocolate, then stood. “I'm glad we talked.”

“Me too,” Ben said.
“Wan an.”

“Good night,” I said.
Difficult things indeed
.

I
woke the next morning to Ostin shaking me.

“Ben just called,” he said. “We need to go.”

“Go where?” I said, rubbing my eyes.

“To the plant.”

I sat up. “What time is it?”

“Late. It's almost eleven. Didn't you sleep last night?”

“Not like you did.”

“I love to sleep. It's like being dead without the commitment.”

I pulled on the same clothes from the day before, and we walked out of our room at the same time as Taylor, Nichelle, Tessa, McKenna, and Ian. The hallway was empty except for the housekeeping staff who were cleaning rooms.