Authors: Geoffrey Knight

Tags: #Mystery, #Suspense, #Adventure, #Gay

The Curse of the Dragon God (35 page)

The train rounded a tight, icy bend, then veered away from the imploded mountain mines, snaking its way swiftly through the Shandong mountains toward Beijing.

On the coal car, trying to find his balance on the rolling, tumbling chunks of coal, Shane watched as Xi came for him with his shovel, climbing onto the coal heap and raising the spade high until he was within swinging distance.

Whoosh!
He sliced the air with the shovel, aiming for Shane’s head.

Shane ducked and lost his footing, sliding onto his back.

Xi plunged the sharp flat blade at him.

Shane rolled and the blade dug deep into the heap, splitting apart chunks of coal while Shane scrambled for the engine compartment, desperate to find a weapon of his own. He reached the front of the coal car and leapt into the engine with Xi clambering over the coal pile close behind him. The heat pumped out from the open furnace and Shane’s frozen skin instantly began to thaw, then perspire. He looked around frantically for a second shovel, a loose pipe, anything, but there was nothing but a few rocks of coal.

With a loud clomp Xi leapt from the coal car to the engine.

Shane looked quickly down at the coal on the ground, then down at his own body, or more precisely, the studded leather codpiece he was wearing. Quickly he pulled it off, stripping himself naked.

Xi charged with the shovel.

Shane snatched up a hunk of coal, stuffed it inside the codpiece, and then, holding on to the straps, swung the leather thong over his head like a slingshot, firing the chunk of coal straight at Xi.

The first rock hit Xi square in the nose, breaking it at the bridge and forcing him backward in a head-spinning stagger.

Shane took a step closer to the blazing furnace and grabbed another piece of coal.

Xi shook his head and returned for another charge.

Shane fired the second rock, this time hitting Xi directly in the throat, smack against his Adam’s apple. Xi clutched at his neck with one hand, coughing and spluttering, then lunged at Shane with more speed and force than ever.

In front of the raging furnace Shane already had his third black rock at the ready. He twirled the sling.

But this time Xi was ready for him, swinging his shovel like a bat as the chunk of coal came at him.

Thunk!
He hit it hard and head on, still in motion, charging at the naked cowboy and sending the rock firing straight back at him.

Shane dropped flat to the steel floor, ducking the flying piece of coal.

Xi did not stop, rushing at Shane, shovel raised high.

Shane looked for another rock. He found one, but his fingers fumbled with the sling. The chunk of coal fell, bounced, and rolled directly under Xi’s charging feet.

Xi’s foot slipped out from under him. He reeled forward, stumbling and crashing, swinging the shovel wildly as Shane rolled out of the way, glancing behind him just in time to see Xi tip and tumble headfirst through the large cast-iron opening of the blazing furnace. The fire hissed and spat, engulfing Xi and his agonized screams.

Shane caught sight of the remaining silver grenades still strapped to Xi’s belt as flames consumed him. “Oh, shit!” he muttered. He leapt up, running for the rear of the open engine compartment, but his feet only carried him so far. The explosion did the rest.

The blast was deafening. The squeal of the metal from the engine ripping and twisting away in orange-peel strips was ear-piercing. And the wave of intense heat that emanated from the blast was flesh-melting.

But Shane only felt the heat for a fraction of a second before the shock wave picked him up and hurled him straight out of the engine compartment, sending him flying over a corner of the coal car and sailing naked into the snow-covered forest by the side of the tracks.

With a grunt he broke several lowlying branches and hit the ground hard and fast, rolling down a short embankment. He tried to pull himself up, but the train thundered away without him, shooting a lava burst of fire into the night from its erupted stack.

Shane heard hurried steps in the snow and turned to see an elderly couple from a nearby shack, rushing through the blizzard to investigate the commotion. They saw Shane, naked, bruised, and covered in snow and coal dust, and simply stared wide-eyed.

Shane quickly covered himself with both hands.

“Howdy,” he offered awkwardly with a coy wave of one hand. Then with a broad-shouldered shrug he said, “It’s a long story.”

The blast shredded the sides of the engine compartment completely and shot a vertical jet of fire into the night. At the same time the front wheels of the engine left the tracks, pointing the ruptured nose upward, pouring on the speed. When the wheels slammed back down on the tracks, the train was moving at almost twice the speed it was before.

It was as though the train itself had transformed into the wrath-filled dragon god of the underworld, possessed by the spirit of Fucanglong, tearing down through the serpentine curves of the mountains, ready to destroy the city that now lay in its path.

In the master carriage everything rocked with the sudden burst of speed, including the crate holding the zidium bomb. The crate tipped, and the silver ball rolled out of the wooden box and knocked gently against the back wall of the car, then continued to roll free like a giant pinball over the carpet, tempting fate. Its fail-safe mechanism assessed the risk level of every bump, just waiting to switch into defense mode and reset the counter to a 10-minute countdown.

The explosion of the engine knocked Mya off her feet and sent Bradley rolling across the floor of the exhibition carriage, the red velvet curtain unfurling and spitting him out. Mya hit the floor and dropped the gun. It slid up to Bradley. He grabbed it, but Mya already had one of the sacks of diamonds in her fist and struck him across the face with it before he could aim the pistol at her. The seams of the black velvet bag broke and hundreds of tiny diamonds burst through the air.

Bradley fell backward but didn’t let go of the gun. He picked himself up, expecting Mya to fight him for it. But she had more important things on her mind.

The cabinet door was open and Mya’s hand was already inside the display cabinet, snatching the Eye of Fucanglong from its delicate perch.

Bradley fired off a shot.

The glass of the cabinet shattered.

But Mya was gone, unlocking the door of the car, taking the Eye and the black velvet bags full of diamonds with her, running back to the master carriage, back to protect her delicate, deadly bomb. She slammed the door to the car shut behind her, then Bradley heard a click as the door between cars was locked from the outside.

Doctor Cyclops opened the incisors of the rib-cutters as wide as they would open, but as he lowered the sharp teeth toward the base of Luca’s throat, the naked Italian suddenly jerked his hand as hard as he could, pulling the rope long and tight and far enough to hook it around the lower incisor of the cutters.

That’s when the engine exploded, jolting the car.

The already unsteady doctor lurched forward, accidentally snipping the cutters shut and severing the rope clean.

Luca’s arm pulled free, then swung straight into a punch that hit Doctor Cyclops in the face so hard it knocked the eye patch off his head. He fell to the floor and stared up at Luca screeching, his one eye full of anger. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!” he shrieked. But Luca managed to untie his other hand and was already working on the ropes binding his ankles.

Doctor Cyclops rose unsteadily, pulling himself up the wall, coming face-to-face with the rusted saw that hung there.

Luca threw the ropes loose and leapt off the bed, only to feel the jagged teeth of the saw come down on his shoulder and sink themselves into his flesh. Doctor Cyclops yanked the saw back, ripping a deep gash in Luca’s shoulder. Luca caved to his knees, where he caught sight of the rib-cutters.

Before Doctor Cyclops could make another hack in his flesh, Luca jumped up, rib-cutters in hand. Doctor Cyclops squealed and ran, making a beeline for the front door of the car, racing onto the landing between the bedroom carriage and the exhibition carriage. He tried to open the door to the next car, but Mya had already locked it from the inside to prevent anyone from disturbing her while she filled her bags with diamonds.

Doctor Cyclops turned in a panic. Through the open, swinging door of the bedroom carriage he caught sight of Luca storming toward him. The doctor had nowhere to go but up. He dropped his saw onto the rushing tracks below, grabbed the rungs of the ladder to the roof, and flew up it as fast as he could.

Chad whipped Will with the length of chain again.

More blood burst from Will’s lips. More pain. More reason to get up. He struggled to his knees, his arms quivering.

Chad smiled and whirled the chain in circles above his head, enjoying the heavy, whooping sound it made, when suddenly there was a deafening blast. Up ahead, the dark sky lit up in a bright orange burst as the engine exploded, followed by a tower of flame and a jolt as the entire train rocketed down the tracks, knocking Chad off his feet.

Already down, Will clung to the flatbed car, watching as Chad lost his chain and tumbled dangerously close to the edge of the platform before grabbing hold of a landing skid on the chopper and pulling himself up.

As Will pulled himself painfully to his feet, Chad unstrapped the last remaining chain tying the chopper down, hauled open the cabin door, and climbed inside, locking the door behind him.

In the pilot’s seat he glanced at the helicopter’s instrument panel, trying to think back, back to the hundreds of times he’d seen Richard or Xi fly this damn thing. His eyes danced frantically. Fuel, Airspeed, Np, Rotor Nr, Tail Rotor, KIAS … “
Fuck!
”

Then he saw it, a switch labeled simply
Engage.
Chad flicked the switch and the bird fired up.

Outside, Will heard the slow-building whir of the engine, then the sound of ice sliding off the rotor blades as they began to spin faster and faster.

Then he heard a more disconcerting sound: A grind and crunch. A quavering whir, the sound of something wrong.

Chad looked through the rear panel of the fuselage to the tail’s boom and saw the cable trailing from it. Worse still, he saw it tangle itself in the tail rotor blade. As the blade continued to spin faster and faster it began to chew up the long, flickering cable, winding it in. Sparks burst from the churning rotor blades. Smoke began to pour from the tail as well as the engine mount just behind the fuselage.

Will looked through the windshield at Chad and shouted, “Shut it down!”

But it was too late. Quickly Will pulled back, trying to get as far away from the chopper as possible, the terrible grinding sound of the churning cable getting louder and louder.

Doctor Cyclops crabbed his way along the rooftop on sliding hands and feet until he heard the sound of the chopper fire up.

“Don’t leave! Don’t leave without me!”

It was enough to launch him to his feet and stumble his way toward the rear of the car’s rooftop.

Behind him Luca hurried up the ladder and sprang onto the roof.

Cyclops looked back and whimpered, then continued his precarious race toward the rear of the car, seeing the blades of the chopper spinning madly—seeing Chad alone inside the cabin, his face lit up by the glow of the instrument panel, his hands desperately trying to shut the chopper down. Now the smoke was beginning to fill the cabin.

Behind the train, the cable snapped tight between the rear of the car and the tail of the chopper as the hook snagged on the rear coupling of the flatbed, but the tail rotor continued to spin, trying to reel in the hooked cable.

When the end of the cable wouldn’t come to the tail rotor—

—the tail of the chopper pulled itself down to the end of the cable. With a bang the tail’s boom dropped down hard, lifting the front of the helicopter clear off the flatbed.

Inside the smoke-filled cabin, Chad tried to find the door handle through the choking smoke, but all he could do was scream.

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