Jackal (4 page)

The skinny Asian man that Phoenix had choked groaned
and slowly sat up, brushing dirt off of his face. I noticed a large bruise forming there, as if he’d been punched.

“Ooooohhh, dear me,” he said in perfect English. “I am so light-headed.”

“Take shallow breaths,” Phoenix said. “If you breathe too deeply, you might pass out again.”

The man nodded, and I glanced over at Hú Dié, Ryan, and Raffi. They’d formed a wide circle around the short, fat Chinese guy. He’d said that he meant us no harm, but my friends obviously weren’t taking any chances. That was another thing I hated about dragon bone. Violence followed wherever it went.

Phoenix pulled a fancy pen from one of the pockets in his cargo shorts and handed it to the skinny man. “You’d better be careful with this. I thought it was a knife.”

The man rubbed his jaw. “Is that why you socked me?”

“No,” Phoenix replied. “I socked you because you were stalking me and my friends. I choked you because of the pen.”

“I apologize if you thought I was a stalker. I can assure you, this is not the case. I simply wanted to speak with you and your friends, and with Jake in particular.”

“Then why didn’t you come talk with us back at the main track?” Ryan asked.

The skinny man stood on shaky legs. “To be honest, we were taken aback by what we saw. We followed your van to the track from downtown San Francisco—which I’ll admit is rather like stalking—but we only wanted to talk with you about road bike racing. Once we saw what Jake could do on a BMX bike, well, that changed our plans. By the time we
were ready to approach you, you’d already headed for this patch of woods. We intended to follow you by driving along the same path you took through the field, but then we saw a proper road leading here. It meant a bit of a hike through the woods on foot for me, but by taking the road, our vehicle wouldn’t disrupt the fields. We were being considerate of the landowners.”

“You should learn to be more considerate of
us
,” Phoenix said.

“I see that now. Your kung fu is very good.”

“What do you
really
want?” I asked. “If this has anything to do with dragon bone—”

“Dragon bone?” the skinny man asked. “Dear me, no. We’ve come to discuss bicycle racing. Specifically, you racing for a Chinese national team. You
and
your friends, Jake.”

“Huh?” I said. “Hú Dié is the only one who is Chinese.”

“Exactly. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ling, and this”—he gestured toward the short, fat guy—“is Mr. Chang. He is the head of a special committee that has been set up to try to popularize bicycle racing in China. China is a powerhouse in many professional and Olympic sports, but bicycle racing is in its infancy in our county. Hundreds of millions of Chinese people ride bicycles every day, but few actually compete on them and fewer still do it outside of Asia. It’s rather silly, to be honest, but the simple truth is that most Chinese people don’t know about the opportunities available to race bicycles, whether it’s road bikes, mountain bikes, cyclocross bikes, BMX bikes, or velodrome bikes. It’s Mr. Chang’s job to fix that.”

“What does this have to do with me?”

“We need a poster boy, Jake. We’re going to focus on recruiting kids, and who better to celebrate than a boy who just beat a field of adults? Never mind that you are not a Chinese citizen. The fact that you’re American will actually
help
our cause. You are the perfect candidate. Not only can you ride, but you also have the perfect look. Your appearance is consistent with that of a California surfer. Everyone loves a surfer, especially Chinese girls.” He winked. “You’ll have more girlfriends than you’ll know what to do with.”

I felt myself begin to blush.

“He is right, Jake,” Hú Dié said. “About the girls, and about bike racing. I have been wishing my entire life that bike racing was more popular in China. I would love to be able to race every summer weekend like you guys do here in the States.”

Mr. Chang pointed to Hú Dié and said something in Chinese. This time, she was the one who blushed. The fat man grinned.

“What did he say?” Raffi asked.

“Mr. Chang complimented my looks as well as my riding,” Hú Dié said. “He also complimented Ryan and Phoenix. He is certain we would all be famous across China.”

“What do you have in mind?” I asked.

“We want the four of you to race together,” Ling said. “We’d like a poster team as much as a poster boy, if we can have it. In addition to your all-American surfer looks, Jake, Ryan has the powerful European physique, Phoenix has his unique green-eyed, red-haired Chinese/Caucasian appearance, and Hú Dié is clearly strong yet possesses a classic Chinese beauty. You are not only a talented bunch, you’re a
marketing dream. I wouldn’t be surprised if your fame were to spread beyond China, across the entire world.”

I saw a glimmer in the eyes of all three of my friends. Even Raffi seemed stoked.

“Yo, Jake,” Raffi said. “If this dude is for real, you should seriously consider his offer.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. It sounds too much like work to me.”

Raffi snapped his fingers. “That’s right. I forgot. You hate to work. Otherwise, you’d be the one wearing the BMX jersey with all the sponsor logos instead of me.” He rolled his eyes. “Don’t hate me for this, Jake, but you’ve got to stop being so lazy. You could really do something with this.”

“You don’t get it,” I said. “I worked really hard the past few weeks, learning to race road bikes. It was fun, and I won a race. Big deal. I’m already over it. You probably don’t know this, but first place in that race came with a professional sponsorship. I told them that I wasn’t interested, and they were glad because they didn’t want a kid. I’d rather ride a BMX bike or even a mountain bike instead of a road bike, any day. Road bikes are kind of … boring.”

Ling grinned. “That’s exactly what we were discussing in the parking lot. We drove out here expecting to invite you to China as a four-person road racing team. However, seeing you ride BMX broadened our focus. I recalled reading stories of the four of you racing mountain bikes in Indiana as well as Ryan and Phoenix training for cyclocross in Texas. We’ve decided that we’d like the four of you to participate as a team in a road race in Shanghai this Saturday. Afterward, we’ll arrange for all of you to participate in different types
of cycling races throughout the rest of the year, depending upon your interest level and skills. The four of you already have a fair amount of media exposure in China because of your victory the other night in San Francisco, combined with your brush with gangsters in Chinatown, which was all over the Chinese newspapers. We can use that. You will be stars. You’ll be asked to sign more autographs after the race than the rest of the participants combined. I guarantee it.”

“I don’t care about being famous,” I said, “especially if it has anything to do with those Chinese gangsters. I don’t even care about winning races. I just want to have fun with my friends.”

“It sounds like it
would
be fun, Jake,” Phoenix said.

“Yeah,” Ryan said. “It would be a riot.”

I sighed and looked at Hú Dié. “What do you think?”

She smiled. “It would be my dream come true, but this is not about me. What do
you
want?”

“I just want to ride my bike, bros,” I said. “I don’t care about racing. I want to go home and chill with you guys for the next two weeks. That’s all the summer vacation we have left.”

“Think of it this way,” Ling said. “If you accept our offer, your summer vacation will
never
end. You’ll be enrolled in an American-style school, but you won’t be there much. You’ll be too busy racing and making public appearances. Your schedule will be like that of college athletes.”

“Hang on,” I said. “How long do you expect me to stay in China?”

“At least one year. More than likely, two or three.”

“That’s insane! No way.”

“It’s not that insane,” Ryan said. “I spent six months training in Belgium. The time flew by, and even though my uncle was a jerk, I still had a lot of fun. Living in a foreign country is cool.”

“It
is
cool,” Phoenix said, “especially China. I was only there for a few days, but I could tell that it would be neat to live in a big city like Shanghai if I had some friends to hang out with.”

“And I would be there to translate for everyone,” Hú Dié said. “Oh, Jake! We would have the best time ever!”

I shook my head. “I’m still not feeling it.”

Ling removed a business card from the pocket of his suit jacket and held it out to me. “Why don’t you take a day and think about it? We can’t wait any longer than that. The Shanghai race is coming up fast.”

“What if I say no?” I asked. “Would my friends still be able to join your team?”

“No. We need a winner, Jake. You won the race. Our plan won’t work without you.”

“Hey,” Phoenix said. “I have an idea. How about Jake only commits to a week in China? It would be like a trial run. We all go and do the race, and Jake gets a chance to see how he likes it.”

“Hmmm,” Ling said. “Just a moment.” He turned to Mr. Chang, and they spoke in Chinese for a minute. Ling turned back to us and said, “We could do one week.”

I took the business card from Ling. “I’ll think it over. Don’t get your hopes up, though.”

Ling nodded. “Remember, I’ll need your answer by tomorrow night, at the very latest.”

“Okay.”

Raffi pulled a cell phone from his pocket and tapped the screen. “Yo,” he said. “I hate to be a party pooper, but don’t you all have a plane to catch?”

Ryan glanced at his training watch. “We don’t actually fly out until really late, but it does look like our hour is up. Bummer. I guess I’ll have to find a BMX trail somewhere in Indiana to see if I can fly like you guys.”

“You’re welcome to come back here anytime,” Raffi said. “All of you.”

“Thanks, bro,” I said. “I’d like to do that, especially if I take a pass on China. Any chance we could all come and crash at your place over fall break or something?”

“Are you kidding me?” Raffi said. “My mom still asks after you, even though she knows we lost touch. Your friends seem solid, too. You’re in.”

“Awesome,” I said. “Did you change your phone number when you moved?”

“Nope,” Raffi said. “I still have the same digits. So do my folks.”

“Sweet. I’ll be in touch.” I turned to Phoenix, Ryan, and Hú Dié. “Come on, guys. Let’s go home.”

The rest of
the day flew by, and we boarded the plane to Indiana without any drama. I buckled in for the four-and-a-half-hour overnight flight, sitting next to Ryan and his mom. Less than fifteen minutes after takeoff, they were both sound asleep.

I wasn’t surprised. It was midnight, and half the people on the plane had already nodded off. I’d forgotten to charge my computer tablet after using it at the airport, so I flipped on the overhead light and poked through the seat pocket in front of me for something to eyeball. I found a copy of a San Francisco newspaper from the previous day. One of the headlines read:

SEARCH FOR CYCLIST’S BODY CALLED OFF

I frowned and unfolded the paper to take a closer look.

I folded the newspaper and shoved it back into the seat pocket. What horrible news. It seemed every time I turned around, dragon bone reared its ugly head. The stuff wasn’t mentioned in the article, but that was only because Ryan, his mom, Phoenix, and I, along with several others, had done such a good job of conveniently forgetting to bring it up to investigators. The truth was, both DuSow and Lin Tan were dead because of dragon bone, and so were lots of other people. I’d argued with Phoenix that telling the police was the best way to get dragon bone out of our lives for good, but in the end I caved to his pleas that we all keep our mouths shut.