Lion (21 page)

My mom walked over to me. “How are you doing?”

“Nervous,” I said. “These guys are going to ride all over us.”

“You’ll be fine.”

“I don’t think so. A lot of these guys are bigger than me.”

“That’s good. They can block the wind and rain for you, on the sides as well as in front.”

“I’d rather not think about the rain.”

“Why? Because of what happened to Peter?”

I nodded.

“I told you, forget about him until after the race.”

Phoenix, Hú Dié, and Jake pushed their bikes over to us.

“This is intense,” Phoenix said.

“No doubt,” Jake said. “We’re going to get slaughtered.”

“Speak for yourself,” Hú Dié said. “I am having a
great
time. I am not afraid.”

“You’re a girl,” Jake said. “In fact, you’re the
only
girl. They’re going to take it easy on you.”

“Then it will be their downfall.”

My mom laughed. “Hú Dié is right. Her being the only
girl may be to your advantage. They might underestimate all of you because you’re all dressed alike and hanging out together. You’re clearly teammates.”

“I think they’re already underestimating us,” Phoenix said. “I kind of thought we’d be mini celebrities, but these guys aren’t even looking at us.”

“So much the better,” my mom said. “It’s the sponsors you want the attention from, anyway, not the other riders.”

“Sponsors?” Jake said. “Where?”

“Everywhere,” my mom replied. “I saw their names when I signed you in. A few of them even approached me.”

“Really?” I said.

“Really,” my mom said, “but that’s all I’m going to say until after the race. I wasn’t going to mention it at all, but it sounds like you could use a little boost. Don’t worry about the other riders. Just stick together and work as a team. You’ll do well. I promise.”

“Hello, Mystery Teen Team!”

I turned to see DuSow heading toward us with his riders in tow: Philippe, Lucas, and, unbelievably, SaYui. He’d somehow survived being shot by Bo. DuSow wore a bright orange rain suit, while Philippe, Lucas, and SaYui were decked out in riding gear and pushing their bikes. None of the riders had any visible injuries. Even Lucas’s arm had healed. Apparently, the synthetic dragon bone worked.

DuSow must have seen me looking for signs of their previous wounds. “Everyone is one hundred percent,” he said, “except Lin Tan, who is perhaps seventy-five percent healed. However, he isn’t scheduled to race. He prefers to lie low, you know.”

“I know,” I said, glancing around. “Where’s Peter?”

“Ah, yes. Your coach. He’s a little … tied up at the moment. He won’t be joining us.”

I scowled. “You’re going to make us wait until after the race to see him?”

DuSow laughed. “You’re going to be waiting longer than that.” He lowered his voice. “Your friend from Texas having killed my doctor set my program behind. I’ve yet to find a suitable replacement. I’ve spent too much time keeping the police away and making up stories for all the gunshots people heard the other night. Peter will be staying with us awhile longer.”

“But that wasn’t the deal!” I growled.

“Listen to you roar, little lion. You are more than welcome to find me after the race.” He wiggled the fingers of his right hand at me.

I ground my teeth.

“Ladies and gentlemen!”
someone announced with a bullhorn.
“It’s time to get this party started!”

DuSow winked at me and left.

My mother shook her head. “I take it that was Mr. Poison Hand.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“I don’t believe that idiot!” Jake said. “What are we going to do?”

“Nothing for at least an hour,” my mother said. “Forget about what he said for now. We’ll get Peter back. Just focus on the race. If your attention wavers for an instant, you’re going to be in big trouble.”

I shook my head. “I can’t forget.”

“You have to,” she said. “Now, I need to go over to the spectator area. I’ll meet you at the finish line when you’re through.” She wished Phoenix, Hú Dié, and Jake good luck and then, to my horror, she leaned over and kissed my cheek before leaving the starting area.

I felt my face begin to burn with anger as well as embarrassment. At least the cool rain kept me from blushing. We lined up, and I wiped rainwater from my eyes. It felt a lot like tears. However, crying was the last thing on my mind. Revenge for Peter was all I could think about. My
dan tien
began to quiver, as though encouraging me to get off of my bike, find DuSow, and strangle him.

I took a deep breath and flipped on the handlebar-mounted light that Hú Dié had installed on each of our bikes. Phoenix said something, and so did Jake, but I didn’t hear a word either one had said. In fact, I hardly even heard the starter pistol when it fired.

CRACK!

The starter pistol sounded a lot like Bo’s rifle, which snapped me out of my daze. Riders began to hammer, and I hadn’t even clipped my feet into my pedals yet.

“Ryan!” Jake shouted. “Get with the program, bro!”

I clipped in and blasted forward, my anger releasing itself through my legs. I nearly ran over the two guys directly in front of me. One of them said, “Geez, you sure can pound, kid!”

That should have given me hope about our chances to do well in the race, but I found that I no longer cared about it. All I cared about was Peter.

I’d gotten separated from Phoenix, Jake, and Hú Dié, and it took me half a lap of the hilly one-mile loop to work my way up to them. There were about fifty racers in all, and they were all excellent riders. We rode closer to
one another than I thought possible. Whenever the guys around me would shake rain from their faces, it would hit me.

By the time I’d connected with the others, two different packs of four guys had broken away from the peloton.

“Want to make it three breakaways?” Hú Dié asked.

“Yeah!” Jake said.

“I’m game,” Phoenix said. “Lead the way, Ryan.”

My heart wasn’t really into it, but I pushed forward anyway, signaling for the others to fall in behind me. I was already riding pretty hard, and I had to push myself almost to the breaking point to pull us a noticeable distance ahead of the main peloton.

I put us fifty yards out, and I glanced down at my electronic display. It showed thirty-eight miles per hour.

And we were on a straightaway.

We reached a downhill run, and I saw the two breakaway groups riding neck and neck about seventy yards ahead.

What the heck?
I thought, and I began to hammer down the dark, wet hill.

“Ryan!” Phoenix shouted. “Slow down!”

I ignored him and glanced beyond the breakaway riders. I saw San Francisco Bay, and I was able to single out DuSow’s docks. My heart nearly stopped. Tied up to one of the docks was a boat.

Peter
, I thought.
How can I continue to ride when he is so close by?

“Ryan!” Phoenix shouted again.
“Slow down!”

I turned my gaze back to the breakaway groups and saw
that I was nearly upon them. I glanced down at my electronic display.

Sixty-one miles per hour.

Wet brakes squealed ahead of me, and I tickled my brake levers. It had little effect.

I did it again, and again, and again, drying them off. Finally, I began to slow. The breakaway riders made the next turn, and I cut my wheel to follow. I’d forgotten about how the wet pavement might affect my bike’s shortened wheelbase and nearly cut the wheel too far. I straightened it out a bit and swerved onto the next street.

“Easy,” Hú Dié huffed as she locked onto my rear wheel.

“Sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“You’d better start!” Phoenix barked. “Don’t take another hill at that speed again, or you’ll be riding without us.”

“Got it,” I said.

The two breakaway packs had merged into one, and we caught up with them as we reached the start/finish line, marking the end of our first lap. We blasted past the crowd huddled in the rainy darkness, and they cheered. A few even rang cowbells. I saw my mom jumping up and down excitedly, and of course, DuSow’s orange rain suit stood out like a sore thumb.

Once we were clear of the crowd, a rider cut out from the center of our twelve-man breakaway peloton and veered toward me. It was Lucas, and he was smiling like he had a secret. Before I could react, he lifted his leg exactly like Hú Dié had taught me for a side kick, and let fly. The perfect kick struck me in the hip, causing me to weave uncontrollably.

I began to lose traction and speed, and the next thing I knew, Hú Dié was beside me. She grabbed my handlebars, straightening me out and holding me steady as if I were a five-year-old riding without training wheels.

“Are you good?” she shouted.

“Yeah!” I shouted back.

She let go of my handlebars, and Phoenix and Jake pulled around me, forming a wall to protect me from further attack.

“That was Savat!” Hú Dié shouted. “A French martial art! Lots of kicks! Be careful around that guy!”

I nodded again.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Sure,” I said.

But I could tell that Hú Dié knew as well as I did that I was anything but okay. My head just wasn’t in the race. I needed to pull out before I hurt myself or, even worse, someone else.

I looked ahead and caught a glimpse of DuSow’s warehouse again, and I couldn’t take it anymore.

I shouted to Hú Dié, “I’m out! You’re going to have to pull the team from here.”

She looked concerned. “Dragon … you know?”

“No,” I said. “Mechanical failure.”

“Huh?”

“Falling off!” I shouted, and I pulled out of line. I rose up out of my saddle and hammered with all my might. At the same time, I wrenched my gearshift all the way down. My chain skipped and began to flap, skittering over the rear
wheel’s gear sprockets. I wrenched the gearshift all the way back up, and the chain suddenly caught. The transition from floppy and loose to guitar-string taut was too much.

SNAP!

My chain broke just like I’d experienced weeks ago on my mountain bike in Indiana. Except this time, I was ready for it.

I stopped pedaling as I swerved even farther to the side. Phoenix shot me a questioning glance, while Jake shouted, “We’ll win this thing for you, bro!”

And then they were gone.

I pulled onto a dark side street as the main peloton rocketed past. I was panting like a dog, trying to catch my breath. I always seemed to be more winded when I stopped than when I was riding.

I climbed off of my bike and saw that the chain had managed to wrap itself around my drive sprocket, so I freed it. I took a quick look at the chain in my bike’s light and found that the chain hadn’t broken, after all. The quick-release master link had simply popped open. I closed it back up, repositioned the chain, and hit the road again, heading for DuSow’s warehouse. I needed to get to Peter before the race finished and before DuSow realized I was gone.

I steered through the rainy darkness and caught a downhill slope toward the waterfront. I rode fast without encountering a single car or pedestrian to slow my progress, arriving in DuSow’s brightly lit warehouse parking lot. I zipped around the building to the dock and felt a jolt of excitement as I read the name on the back of the boat:
THE STRONG HOLD
.

I slowed and heard a splashing sound from the direction of the building.

I turned to see DaXing running toward me, sloshing across the pavement. I tried to veer away, but the ground was too slick. I went down.

I managed to kick myself free of the bike and pop onto my feet before he was on me. I dropped into a low Horse Stance and raised my right knee to my chest. Then I thrust the ball of my foot toward his liver with a powerful front kick. He was agile for such a large guy, and he twisted to one side, avoiding my kick and retaliating with a roundhouse kick of his own.

This was the same kick Hú Dié had taught me to catch, so I raised my arm and let his leg connect with my rib cage, just below my armpit.

Big mistake.

CRUNCH!

I thought I felt a couple of ribs crack, and what little air my tired lungs had managed to collect was forced out of my mouth. My body went into autopilot, though, and I completed the sequence of moves I’d practiced a few thousand times with Hú Dié. My arm wrapped around DaXing’s thick leg, and I took a giant step backward.

DaXing hit the ground. I released his leg and jumped onto his chest. My
dan tien
began to vibrate uncontrollably, and I formed hammer fists with my hands. I rained blow after blow on his face, head, and throat until he stopped moving.

I climbed off of him and watched his chest. He was still breathing. I was glad.

I hugged my aching side and ran over to the dock. There didn’t seem to be a captain or anyone else aboard, but I was hopeful that Peter was somewhere inside. The boat rose and fell steadily, and I got the rhythm down before jumping onto the back deck. I didn’t know a thing about boats, but this one didn’t seem too large. I headed to an enclosed cabin, but when I reached to grab the doorknob, the door flew open.