Empire of the Dragon Page 35

  “There has to be a professional soldier out there that will refuse to kill children and old people for the sake of his masters in Siberia. I think that’s the only hope we have of getting the last of these people the hell out of here. Either Ryan has the bomb inside the mountain or he doesn’t, either way we need to get the rest out. Our lives be damned, that okay with you?”

  “Ah, Anya’s super pissed at me anyway, I think I would rather face the damn Russians.”

  “Sarah will still be hot, even if—”

  The HE round went off fifty yards in front of their position, drowning out Jack’s attempt at humor as they were both covered in dirt and debris.

  Collins stood up, Carl followed suit. They raised their hands into the air and just hoped they lived to feel the humiliation of surrendering to the very murderers they had been chasing. The first line of fifteen T-90s came to a stop as the two Americans became visible in the smoke of the battlefield.

  “Well, this is a first,” Everett said, just as he saw a Russian tank commander open his turret’s hatch. He looked over the positions in front of him and then he leaned back into his tank as suddenly a twenty-millimeter gun opened up on the surrendering Americans. Jack and Carl dove back to cover.

  “Well, that was short and sweet,” Jack hissed, as large tracer rounds flew past their heads.

  “Yeah, you have to hand it to the Russians, they do know how to parlay.”

  Tank crewmen and soldiers started spilling from their armored vehicles. They would finish off the defenders up-close and personal, thereby saving what heavy munitions they had left for mopping up the Chinese forces that were reportedly on their way.

  Jack cursed. Everett was angry, and the elders and teens resigned.

  Suddenly they heard a sound that was out of a dream. There was a whistling noise as if an aerial bomb was being sent to finish them off. Then a tremendous explosion rocked the survivors. They heard shouts in Russian as men were scrambling back to their tanks and vehicles. Collins sat up and chanced a look as the elders and teens started to cheer wildly. What Jack saw stunned him. A giant boulder had fallen directly onto the turret of the very tank which had opened fire on the survivors. Flames were licking out of vents and the turret and its massive barrel was lying like a crushed beer can.

  As they watched in amazement, more giant boulders fell from the skies over their heads. Tank after tank, personnel carrier after carrier, were struck by ten-ton missiles made of granite and sandstone. Tanks started moving, but the barrage was so heavy that the field was soon inundated with burning armor. Still, the cheers of the remaining survivors filled the night air as a meteor shower of pure power fell from the starlit sky. Stones the size of Volkswagens flew past the rising moon in a surreal display of might.

  “Damn, Jack, it’s the mountain, the boulders are coming from the side of the mountain!” Everett said as he scrambled for his binoculars. Collins stood up and viewed what magical power had come to their salvation.

  Boulders the size of large sedans flew and whistled through the air. Some hit the earth and rolled, smashing into and knocking over the tracked vehicles, while others came straight down and squashed the T-80s and 90s like bugs. Men and tanks were everywhere trying to dodge death from above. Even as attack helicopters raced to the scene, small stones and rocks flew through the skies like anti-aircraft fire. Men and machines were falling out of the sky.

  “I’ll be damned, I’m going to kill that woman!” Everett shouted, and then smiled over at Jack as he tossed him the set of binoculars.

  Jack focused on the area indicated by Carl. His heart almost burst from his chest with surprise and pride when he saw the small form of Sarah as she pointed out targets for the children of Shangri-La to aim at. He adjusted his sights and saw that Anya was doing the same. Then he saw the children as they lifted rocks and boulders with their Air Bending skills, and then as one would act as if shoving them into the sky. The movements of the boulders were shaky and unstable, but joined together as a group, the children controlled the heavy material with surprising ease. Rock after rock, boulder after boulder, came flying from the halfway point of the mountain. He even saw Charlie Ellenshaw jumping up and down every time a large rock smashed a Russian vehicle, turning to high-five children no older than five or six.

  Jack heard Carl cheering with the rest and he turned to see the last of the Russian armor fleeing the strangest battlefield they had ever seen. There were at least a hundred burning and smashed tanks and personnel carriers strewn across the plain.

  The battle for the plain of Shangri-La was over. The battle for the mountain would soon begin.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The Range Rover was overheating after dragging ‘Thin Man’ to its new and final resting place. Ryan and Farbeaux ordered everyone, with the exception of Lee who was driving, and the wounded Major Pierce, to exit the Rover. They had entered the mountain and followed a differing trail than the one they had taken the first time they had viewed the green and silverish asteroid the day before.

  Henri slammed his palm on the hood of the Range Rover and Professor Lee brought it, and the sled carrying ‘Thin Man’, to a stop.

  “Listen,” Henri said.

  “What?” Jenks asked. “I don’t hear nothin’, Frenchy.”

  “That’s the point, Master Chief, there are no more explosions from above.”

  Ryan kicked out at the bomb in its cradle. He knew what that meant. The defense of Shangri-La had collapsed. He silently cursed the fact that he had not died with his friends.

  “We must continue on with the plan. Professor, how far to the lowest level?” Farbeaux asked.

  “About a mile.”

  Henri waved the group forward. Ryan was tempted to abandon the mission and find out what happened outside, but the training Jack and Carl had given him made him realize the folly of the move. He cursed and then looked at Tram, who knew just what the navy man was thinking. They both followed the slow-moving bomb to its final destination.

  * * *

  Jack and Carl stood in front of Sarah, Anya, and Charlie Ellenshaw an hour later as they in turn stood in front of their small army, as the few teens and elders left alive embraced their salvation with hugs and tears.

  “You know my last act as your commanding officer is that I plan to court-martial your little ass, Captain.”

  “I respectfully decline the kind offer, Colonel.” Sarah looked at her wristwatch. “As of forty-five minutes ago, I am no longer an officer in the United States Army. So, Jack, you can kiss my ever-lovin’ civilian ass, with all due respect of course.”

  Collins couldn’t help it, he couldn’t hold the angry glare any longer. He smiled and nodded his head. “Whatever you say, Mrs. Collins.”

  “Well, now what do we do?” Carl asked, as he and Anya were assisting the smaller children in their naturally frightened state.

  Jack looked to the star filled sky. “Let’s just hope that Europa and Boris and Natasha have been watching. If not, we better get these kids marching out of here fast. This place is about to get real hot.”

  At that moment, they heard a familiar sound coming from the skies. It was the sound of propeller blades cutting through the air at tremendous revolutions. The whine of the turbines were unmistakable.

  “The Russians are coming back!” a young teen cried, as the frightened children clung to the remaining adults.

  Jack held up a hand as he listened. “Angels on our shoulders,” was all he said, and Carl was the only one to understand the relief in the comment.

  The group of survivors watched as the smoke-filled skies were suddenly a mix of swirling vortexes as the first of five U.S. Marine Corps Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft started settling to the ground. The loudness of the Ospreys was frightening and, at first, the children, teens and elders didn’t understand it was their salvation landing in front of them. As the first rotors of the lead Osprey wound down, a Marine Corps Crew Chief stepped out of his aircraft.

 
“Is there a Colonel Collins or Captain Everett here?” the man shouted.

  Jack and Carl, with Anya and Sarah close behind, approached, as the other four Ospreys settled to the earth. Jack nodded his head at the young crew chief. “I’m Collins.”

  “Wow, that was some wait we had. We’ve been hiding these ugly things on the other side of the divide awaiting orders.”

  “Orders?” Carl asked.

  “Yes, sir. We just received the Go-signal from National Command Authority to enter Mongolian airspace. I don’t know exactly who you people are, Colonel, but the President of the United States said to give you his regards, and that it’s time to come home.”

  Jack turned his head up and faced the high sky. He nodded his head, knowing that Boris and Natasha were relaying their satellite images to Nevada and Europa. He then turned to face Sarah and Anya, just as Charlie hissed under his breath, because he knew exactly what was coming.

  “Don’t even think about it, Jack,” Sarah said.

  “Doc, get these kids and elders the hell out of here. Sarah and Anya will remain here with us.”

  Sarah smiled and then nodded her head at Jack’s easy surrender. Jack saw the map sticking out of the green flight suit of the Marine crew chief. He pulled it free and then opened it.

  “What, Jack?” Carl asked.

  “Master Li Zheng said the southern exit is right here,” he jabbed the map at the southern portion of Mongolia. He looked at the crew chief. “Once the children and elders are in a safe zone, meet us here at the Great Wall. If we’re not there in two hours, we won’t be coming.”

  “What are you doing, Colonel?” the young Marine asked.

  “I’ve still got people on the ground. I’m not leaving them.”

  The crew chief nodded his head in understanding. “The President will be pissed, sir.”

  Jack smiled as did Carl, Sarah, Anya, and even Charles Hindershot Ellenshaw III, after hearing the naïve marine’s concern.

  “That, young Marine, is the natural state of affairs with this group.”

  * * *

  The lead personnel carrier stopped suddenly. The entire column came to a grinding halt.

  “Why have we stopped, General?”

  Cheng turned and looked at the ridiculously dressed man in the co-driver’s seat of the vehicle. The red feather at the apex of his ancient helmet and the bright red and black armor told the general in no uncertain terms that he was dealing with either a mad man, or a ghost from his nation’s past. He chose to believe in the former and not the latter assessment.

  “Our lead element is reporting that the pass is being blocked.”

  “What force is blocking it?” Qin Shi Huang asked angrily, expecting bad news about Russian aggression.

  The general listened through his headphones. “Is that all? Why have you stopped for a single man?”

  Emperor Qin Shi Huang felt his heart race when he heard the general’s complaint. Instead of anger, he smiled as he stood from his seat. He held out a hand and the colonel handed him his sheathed sword.

  “I will attend to this myself, General. Tell your men not to interfere with the man.”

  General Cheng lowered the microphone on his headset and watched as the strange man exited the vehicle. He only hoped that the man he faced would have the strength and the power to end this foolishness. He hoped deep in his heart never to see the man in ancient armor again.

  * * *

  Qin Shi Huang walked commandingly forward until he passed the first tank in line. Instead of ordering the tank crew to obliterate the man standing at the moonlit top of the pass, he smiled when he recognized the armor of the man confronting the column.

  “General Chang.” Qin Shi Huang half-bowed to a man he had grown up with and one that was a brother to his own deceased General Kang, lost these many years on the banks of the river that claimed his life.

  “Little Ying Zheng, you have failed to grow much since I last saw you.”

  Anger flared in Qin Shi Huang. His hand went to his sword but held firm at the hilt, as he calmed. He did not want to prematurely destroy the pleasure that was now at hand in eliminating an irritant of much of his life.

  “I beg your forgiveness, it is now Emperor Qin Shi Huang, is it not?” General Chang asked with a smirk. “I was always willing to proclaim you as such, just so you did not carry the same name as Master Li.”

  “For many years I was denied the opportunity to remove your head with my own sword. Now that time has come.” Qin Shi Huang drew the long, sharp weapon and held it at his side. General Chang followed suit.

  “Do you wish steel, or air, earth, fire, and water?”

  “You are not worth a demonstration of my ever-growing power, General. Steel will suffice, as I wish to feel my sword cutting through bone and sinew as I remove your head from your shoulders.”

  “As my new American friends would say, come and get some!”

  Qin Shi Huang charged with his sword raised high in the old ways of warfare. The steel gleamed in the moonlight as General Chang took up a position of defense with his own weapon raised high over his head.

  The two men met at the highest point of the pass only a quarter mile from the entrance to Charlie Ellenshaw’s mythical city of Shangri-La. In the moonlit night, the two swords came together with a loud clang.

  Crewmen from the lead tanks watched in amazement as the old world fought in front of the new. Two men in ancient armor met to do battle and it was as frightening as it was fascinating. They watched on as the larger of the two men fended off blow after blow from the smaller.

  “You remember your lessons very well, little one,” Chang said, as he stepped back to catch his breath.

  “Over two thousand years of training, General, that is what I faced while looking for the cowards who ran from my embrace. Now, where is my one-time brother?” He swung his sword as an accent to his question. The blade clanged off the blue armored chest plate of the General and he staggered back a step, a deep cut in the thickened and hardened leather.

  “Master Li Zheng awaits that embrace, my Emperor, but alas, you have to get through me first.” He pointed the sword to the north. “The entrance you seek is right there. All you have to do is kill me to gain entrance, and the Master will greet you with love, understanding and,” he swung the sword, barely missing the throat of the Emperor, “vengeance!”

  The General went on a furious attack, hoping to save the confrontation that he knew would end his Master’s life. Either way, he had fulfilled his last orders from Master Li.

  The attack was so furious that Qin Shi Huang tripped as he fell back. He hit the earth and tried in vain to get his sword up in time before General Chang hit him with the killing blow. The blade of the General came flashing down from above like a God seeking death and vengeance.

  The bullets struck him in the chest and face, throwing General Chang back three feet as his sword flew high in the air. The general hit the ground dead.

  Qin Shi Huang was furious as he fought to gain his feet. He turned and saw the machine gun on the forward-most tank still smoking as the gunner had seen him in trouble and ended the General’s assault. Just as the Emperor gained his footing, he saw General Cheng advance with his pistol drawn.

  Qin Shi Huang, with sword in hand, angrily used both of his hands, blade flashing brightly in the moonlight as he gathered the dirt and stones around him into a swirling ball of power before his own face, and then mentally pushed the rotating mass through the air, thrusting his hands forward until the small storm of earth hit the general and sent him flying backward. Then he turned and faced the tank that had cost him the life of General Chang. With a mighty intake of breath, Qin Shi Huang closed his eyes and then threw his sword at the frightened men watching from the armored protection of the tank. The sword moved so fast it was if the weapon had been fired from a cannon. The blade penetrated the turret with a clang and held firm just as the emperor raised his hands up and then, with a powerful blast of wind, sent the tan
k and its crew flipping over and over until the heavily armored machine fell to pieces.

  The pass was silent as General Cheng got to his feet. He was filthy, and his face had a series of cuts and bruises from the small man’s fury. He was stunned at the magical power that had been placed on display. His memories of the old myths and legends flooded his mind as Emperor Qin Shi Huang approached him. As amazing and unbelievable as it was, he knew immediately just who it was he was dealing with. He went to his knees and bowed at the small man’s feet.

  “My Emperor.”

  Qin Shi Huang looked from the man’s bowed head to the forces now under his command. He reached down and placed a gloved hand on the general’s head.

  “Telling you who I was would have had no effect on your beliefs, General. Demonstration has always been my way. You will order your armor forward to stop any Russian incursion that could reach the mountain. We will take the remaining infantry and we will enter the mountain from here. Is this clear, General?

  “My Emperor’s will.”

  “Come, let us end this, so I may finally take my divine place as the rightful ruler of the Empire of the Dragon.”

  * * *

  The winding tunnels had slowed them down far more than Jack had counted on. It had been an hour since the hostilities had ceased above ground, but that did not stop the feeling of impending doom that coursed through the minds of everyone.

  The tunnel system was a maze of twisting turns and dead ends. Sarah had said that it looked as if water had been the cause of the tunnels’ formation. She surmised that the asteroid had struck an ancient sea that used to cover most of Mongolia millions of years ago.

  Suddenly they broke out into a large open space and they were forced to stop and admire the natural beauty of the giant cave.

  “My God,” Sarah said as she looked out over the amazing sight. “This is where they get all of their food from.”