Empire of the Dragon Page 9

  “My World War Two history may be a little lax, but I do believe the Americans did have a campaign to bomb the Japanese and their Chinese partners in Manchukuo, or Mongolia. Manchukuo was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia from 1932 until 1945 with the deposed emperor on the throne. That’s as far as my history goes, I’m afraid,” Professor James Anderson offered.

  “Okay, that still doesn’t help us to understand why this poor bastard is all the way out here in the east. The only valuable resource to bomb out here is sand and rock,” Sarah said as she reached down and lightly touched a small leather bag still strapped to the torso of the remains.

  “Well, I’m sure this man’s family back in the States will be grateful for you bringing him back home,” said Professor Lee. “Our most prioritized mystery at the moment is, what happened to our Mongolian guides. Even with them in our company this is still a very dangerous place. The locals,” he looked out of the open tent flap, “although we haven’t seen any, are still very hostile to outsiders.”

  “Maybe he has more information in here,” Sarah said as she lightly fingered the tie-down strap to the leather satchel. She eased it open and then reached inside. Her fingers felt the loose sand inside and then they touched something solid. She withdrew her petite hand and saw that she was holding a small nugget of stone, which had silverish and green streaks of color. She held the small rock up to the light and then handed it over to Professor Lee. “Have you ever seen anything like this? What is the green material, mold?”

  The smallish Lee took the sample and examined it. “It looks like silver ore. This,” he said rubbing his fingers together after touching the green section of rock, “I have no clue. It’s solid and definitely not mold. The flier must have thought it valuable enough to take from this place, but I see nothing valuable in its current state.” He handed the ore over to the Australian. He just shook his head negatively and handed the stone back to Sarah.

  “He has about a pound of it in here,” she said as she pulled out four more small samples.

  Anya was sorting through the ragged coveralls of the old flier. She pulled out three two-dollar bills, which elicited smiles from the small group. Next came a Swiss Army knife that was folded up and placed in a front pocket. She easily removed the shoulder holster and the rusted-out Colt .45 from the fraying leather. Then she suddenly stepped back. She swallowed, and pointed at the broken shaft sticking out from the skeletal remains of the pilot. The Australian pulled the shaft free of the fourth rib bone on the pilot’s right side. He held it up. It was an arrow. The large man looked around at the others and then placed the iron arrowhead on the table next to the body.

  “Well, I guess we now know the cause of death,” he said.

  “Professor Lee, as far as you know, did the locals still use bows and arrows in the forties?” Anya asked.

  “Not that I am aware of. I do know the Japanese had a hard time in this region. But from my understanding, they faced just bullets, not this,” he said as he waved his hand over the arrowhead.

  Professor Birnbaum took a small piece of the ore from the table and tried to break a sliver off. It came free easily. “Well, it’s not particularly a strong material. It breaks off like obsidian.” He moved the small sliver over to a gas lamp and held it just outside of the chimney for a closer look. The others watched the geologist as he examined it. As he did so, the flame surged through the glass chimney and the fire licked at the small sample of ore, actually bending the flame toward the nugget.

  Before anyone realized what had happened, the interior of the large tent came alive with a bright flash. The small sliver of ore became extremely hot as the Australian held it up to the gas light. Then it flared and shot from his fingers, tearing into his flesh. Before he could even yelp at the suddenness of the reaction, the sliver shot forth, slammed into the steel table, and then shot right through it and into the tent’s nylon floor. From there it burned its way through and into the sand. The ground erupted as the initial contact had not slowed down the exploding sliver at all. Finally, all was silent with the exception of Birnbaum hissing out his pain.

  The four scientists and an astonished Anya stood around the table in wide-eyed amazement. Sarah broke the spell when she reached out and slapped the remaining ore samples from the table as they lay next to the gas lamp.

  “I think we better examine the rest under a battery powered light next time,” Sarah said as she hurriedly placed a handkerchief around the middle and index fingers of Professor Birnbaum.

  “I have never seen anything like that in my life,” Birnbaum said as he nodded his thanks to Sarah.

  “Jesus, look at this bloody thing,” Professor Anderson said. He had his finger in the hole made by the sliver when it had shot from the large Australian’s fingers and into the steel table. The hole it made was ten times the size of the sliver itself. “If I didn’t know any better, I would have said that hole had been made by a .357 Magnum.”

  “We need to find out where this ore came from,” Sarah said as she carefully picked up the five samples from the tent’s flooring. “There is nothing like this reaction ascribed to any ore in the world.”

  “Maybe its properties have been enhanced by some form of refining,” Anya offered.

  Sarah held a piece up and looked closer. “No, this is unrefined ore. Whatever caused that reaction is fundamental to its raw state.”

  “Whatever this is, our Air Corps Captain thought it important enough to take. According to his satchel, it looks like he possibly chose those samples over food and water,” Sarah said as she had a hard time coming to grips with men and their take on what was important.

  “Or maybe he exhausted his supply of water and food. That would mean he had traveled quite a way from where he found this remarkable material,” Lee inserted.

  “Maybe,” Sarah agreed. “I’d like to try something,” she said as she picked up another small piece of ore. “Professor, hand me that coffee cup, please.” Birnbaum handed over the tin cup. Sarah placed the cup upside down on the steel table next to the worn leather boots of the old flier. “Professor, get another cup and put a small amount of lamp kerosene inside.”

  “You’re not going to do what I think you are…are you?” Anya asked as she stepped away from the table until her backside was touching the far wall of the tent.

  Sarah didn’t answer, but she did warn everyone to join Anya against the far wall of the tent. She dribbled a line of kerosene from the cup leading to the one she had placed upside down on the table adding one final drop of flammable fluid to the underside of the cup. She handed the fuel off to the Australian and then she scraped a few shards of the ore off with her fingernail. The amount was virtually infinitesimal and hard to see at all. She then placed the shards under the overturned cup. She removed the glass chimney from the lamp and then with a warning and worried look at the others, she lowered the flame to the line of kerosene and struck the fuel. In a flash, the kerosene ignited and ran toward the cup. Nothing. Sarah was just about to give up on her small-scale experiment when the cup suddenly exploded upward in a blinding light of exhaust. The cup moved so fast and with such velocity that it shot through the top of the nylon tent and vanished into the blue sky high above the Gobi.

  Anya saw Sarah and yelped out her concern. Sarah was on her ass and her hair was singed. Her face had smooth gray ash covering it and her eyes were as wide as saucers. Anya, along with Lee and Birnbaum assisted Sarah to her unsteady feet. Once they were all around the table again, they saw the large hole in the table’s top, the missing lower leg of the skeleton and the totally bent frame of the steel examination table. As one, their eyes traveled up to the top of the tent and saw the hole there. It was Sarah who laid voice to the word they were all thinking.

  “Wow!”

  * * *

  Jason Ryan topped the small ridge as his last call for Crazy Charlie Ellenshaw was still echoing off the base of the mountains. Of all the places in the world
for Ellenshaw to go wandering off, he had chosen one of the most dangerous terrains on the planet. The Gobi Desert, and the mountains that hemmed the great plains in, was different than any desert in the world. Compasses at times refused to work due to the magnetism of the surrounding rock. Mountains that seemed to move in the darkness of night, and the sands that covered massive holes in the desert that could swallow an entire division of soldiers without a trace. And the main fact has always been and will remain so for a thousand years—most Mongolians picked this particular area of the Gobi to avoid. The Mongol people, as they were throughout recorded time, feared little, but this part of their desert frightened them far more than any area of their desolate country.

  Jason stood with hands on hips and saw the barren landscape and all the areas where Ellenshaw could be hurt or injured. His only thought was that he was going to strangle to death the man with the crazed white hair and wire-rimmed glasses. He removed his sunglasses and scanned the area directly beneath the drop off when a sudden noise caught his attention. As he turned back to examine the way he had just come, Jason was shocked to see a small fireball rise into the sky and vanish high into the cumulus clouds that had gathered in the valley. He was still watching the trail of heat and smoke as it vanished. The epicenter, of whatever it had been, seemed to come from the area of the geological campsite. As curious as he was at the sight, Sarah hadn’t called him on his walkie-talkie, so he assumed they were alright. Besides, if he returned without Ellenshaw, Sarah and Anya would be the ones doing the strangling.

  He replaced the sunglasses to cut down on the glare of the moving air. “Charlie!” he called out and then waited for the echo of his voice to die down.

  “With the echo effect, I had a hard time pin-pointing where you were at,” came a voice immediately behind Ryan.

  Ryan jumped almost out of skin. “Damn it, Doc, you scared the crap out of me!”

  “Sorry, Commander. This place is a little eerie, isn’t it?” Charlie stated as he looked around the barrenness of the land.

  Jason shook his head at the garb Ellenshaw insisted on wearing. Ryan could handle the short khaki pants and the black socks sticking out from his brown boots, but the Pith helmet he wore was ridiculous. Crazy Charlie had obviously watched one too many Tarzan movies in his youth.

  “Doc, where in the hell did you get that funky-ass helmet?”

  Ellenshaw removed the Pith helmet and then looked it over. “It was issued to me by Logistics at the Group,” he said, confused as to the comment on his headgear.

  “Doc, next time you go and get equipment issued, come to me or Mendenhall before accepting. I think those pencil pushers down in the Logistics Department are having a little fun at your expense.”

  “Really?” Charlie said as he continued to look at the helmet. “I was wondering why I was the only one wearing one.” He shrugged his shoulders and then returned the helmet to his crazed looking hair and head.

  “Come on, we’ve got to get back to camp. We’re packing up and finally getting out of this Garden of Eden. Three quarters of the group has already left.”

  “I take it that you find the Gobi to be less than exhilarating, Commander.”

  “Doc, I’ve seen more excitement in an intensive care unit.”

  Charlie looked at Ryan with a curious look, as he didn’t seem to grasp that Ryan wasn’t enthused at all about being here.

  “Anyway, it seems you’ve drawn a blank on your theory, Doc, just like Europa’s on some mineral buried up here. We all make our mistakes.” Ryan looked around and then his eyes went to the large mountain in front of them. “Doesn’t look like there has ever been anything here, much less a lost city…what did you call it in your pitch to the Director? Oh, Shangri-La.” Ryan smiled and shook his head, trying his best not to laugh at the cryptozoologist.

  “It’s been my theory that the legend of Shangri-La did not originate in Tibet, or even China as most believe, but right here in Mongolia. The director saw some merit in the theory…I believe.”

  “It couldn’t have been that Doc Compton wasn’t just humoring you some?”

  Ellenshaw actually looked confused at the question. More to the point he looked hurt that Ryan would even suggest such a scenario. Jason saw this and slapped Crazy Charlie on the shoulder.

  “Nah, the director wouldn’t do that.”

  This seemed to give Charlie his faith in the world back. He perked up considerably. “Do you think we could talk Sarah into giving us a few more days in the area? I mean, it is a rare chance to examine the landscape inside a basically closed nation.”

  Ryan almost turned white at the suggestion of staying longer than was absolutely necessary. “Forget it, Doc. The eggheads down there didn’t find their copper and zinc, nickel and other exciting ores, so they’re done,” he half turned away, “and frankly Doc, so am I.”

  Charlie slowly nodded his head.

  “It’s not like you to give up on a crazy theory that easy, what’s up?”

  “Well, I guess I had better show you. I was hoping to stay longer to investigate, but since you and Sarah are anxious to get back home, I have no choice.” Ellenshaw reached into his front pants pocket and pulled out a small object. He held it out to Ryan.

  The item looked like a brooch. Ryan accepted the object and ran a thumb over the center piece. “Jade?”

  “Yes. Jade and gold. I believe it was a cloak bob.”

  “A what?” Jason asked.

  “A brooch that held the collar edges for a cloak…okay, a cape. They were very popular when capes were all the rage.”

  “Okay, its nice, Doc, but a cloak bob isn’t exactly the lost city of Shangri-La, is it?”

  “See the writing along the leading edges and just above the Jade?” Ellenshaw asked as he leaned over Ryan’s shoulder and pointed it out.

  “I see, but don’t understand it.”

  “Chinese, Commander. It’s Chinese. From the first dynasty.” Charlie saw the confusion in the small navy man’s face. “Does the name Qin Shi Huang mean anything to you?”

  “Maybe Huang’s Chinese take-out in San Diego?” Ryan joked.

  “Commander, he was the first sovereign ruler of China. The very first man named as Emperor, not king, but Emperor.”

  Ryan handed the brooch back to Ellenshaw. “That’s great Doc, you found something some weary traveler lost ages ago. That will surely make Sarah see the light as far as extending the mission. She’s already pissed Europa was wrong about something buried under the Gobi, so that means that Doctor Morales is bound to get a piece of her mind when she gets back along with you if you even suggest we stay longer. She wants to get back to check on the Colonel and Mr. Everett.”

  He could see that Ellenshaw took it personally that he would request something that would anger Sarah. Jason saw that he had done it again. The hurt in the Doc’s eyes was palpable.

  “Look, you can’t honestly have the opinion that there has ever been anything in this desert and mountain range larger than a hut used by Mongols. If there had been any city here at any time, Boris and Natasha, and a thousand other satellites would have found it by now. In recent years, the Chinese and the Russians have been pouring over this area looking for minerals. Your mythical city just isn’t here, Doc.”

  “There we go again. The same areas in Tibet and deep China are also examined by the finest scientific minds in the world, and no lost city has ever been found there either.”

  “Doc, come on, listen to yourself. They failed because a mythical city that has never been proven to exist has yet to be discovered? The reason is the mere fact that Shangri-La has never existed in Tibet or here. Come on. It’s a fanciful tale, Doc, but as far as I can see, that’s all it is.”

  “I…I…,” he stammered.

  “Okay, let’s go show Sarah your find and we’ll let her tell you no. If it were up to me, Doc, we could vacation here all spring, but alas it’s not up to—”

  The rocks they stood upon vanished beneath their feet. T
he next feeling both men had was the sensation of falling.

  * * *

  To set up the experiment they had to use the heaviest piece of equipment they had—an anvil used to break apart ore samples. It was close to two hundred pounds of weight. Next, Sarah had arranged the experiment to be conducted outside the tent for obvious reasons. With the reluctant help of Professors Lee Hong and, a far more enthusiastic, James Anderson, they had cut a hole in the direct center of the stainless-steel table, and then Sarah had the Australian Professor Birnbaum use a small arc-welder to place two small steel cables, they had cannibalized from their weather balloon restraint system, from the anvil to a tin cup. Sarah then placed another sliver of the strange ore under the cup and then placed that over the small exhaust hole they had cut. It was Professor Anderson who insisted on recording the event. He joked that it was for legal purposes for their manslaughter trial over Sarah’s untimely death. With that comment there were a few nervous chuckles from the group.

  “What is the goal here?” asked a Chinese professor from Shanghai as he glanced around the empty campsite as if looking for someone.

  “Hand me those night flares please,” Sarah asked the Australian. She accepted the flares and then duct-taped them to the edges of the steel table. “We’re going to see just how much power this ore has, and its potential speed. We have nothing here to measure velocity, so for now we just have to eyeball it. The flares will allow us to at least see the smoke trail and give us a ballpark figure on that velocity.”

  “This is why I don’t like Carl hanging out with you people too much, you scare me with your knowledge, and scientific blind bravery,” Anya said only half-jokingly.

  Sarah smiled. “Yeah, Jack hates me too,” Sarah answered, only she wasn’t just half-joking and Anya saw that in the sadness of her eyes. “Okay, I would suggest we all get as far away as possible. It’s my idea so I’ll take the risk of blowing myself up.”

  On that point, the group of geologists decided that Sarah was absolutely right. They moved away a hundred feet.