Phoenix (21 page)

“You haven’t slept at all?” I asked.

“Not since the airplanes.”

“Were you too excited from your trip to the bike shop? Or are you worried about what we’re gonna do?”

“Both, I guess. There’s no way I could sleep, knowing what is about to happen. Sorting all this stuff helped to occupy my mind and my time.”

“You still want to do it?”

“In for a penny, in for a pound,” she said. “Let’s get it over with. The key is finished.” She unclamped the key and held it up to a work light. I saw that all the peaks of the key’s teeth had been filed to a uniform height. Hú Dié grabbed a rubber mallet and headed for the door I had just come through.

“What’s the mallet for?” I asked.

“It’s a bump key, remember?” she said. “I need something to bump it with.”

As we left the workshop, I told her about Ryan’s snoring and reminded her that dragon bone makes people sleep deeply.

“Let’s hope he stays that way,” she said.

“He will,” I said. “I still can’t believe he’s taking it.”

Hú Dié said nothing.

“So, how was your trip to the bike shop?” I asked.

The question seemed to perk her up. “It was great,” she said. “I was expecting more of a souvenir shop than an actual bike shop, but I was wrong. They have all kinds of bikes for sale, plus a great service area right in the middle of everything. The bike mechanics are like rock stars.”

“Rock stars?”

“Yes. Everyone can see everything the mechanics are doing. The service area has glass display cabinets around it with stools on the outside, and they have a great coffee and smoothie bar next to the service area. People can
grab something to drink, then sit down and watch the mechanics in action.”

“Cool. Is there anything else?”

“In the basement they have an indoor training area, plus a bunch of bikes on display that Armstrong rode in different races over the years. It’s like a museum of technological cycling advancements.”

“Maybe I should check it out.”

“You should. They sell gear for many different types of riding, including mountain biking. In fact, I bought you something.” We reached her room, and she opened the unlocked door. She unplugged a long black object from an outlet near the doorway and handed it to me.

I turned it over in my hands. It was a small, rechargeable headlamp that could be mounted to a helmet with a strap. “You bought this for me?” I asked. “For our escape?”

She nodded. “We can use it while we’re poking around, too.”

“Thank you! Where’s yours?”

Hú Dié looked away. “I could only afford to buy one.”

“Oh,” I said, embarrassed. I held the headlamp out to her. “Why don’t you keep it, then?”

Her face darkened. “It’s a gift. For you. From me.”

I felt myself begin to blush. “I’m sorry. I am such an idiot. Thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome,” she replied, still not looking at me. “Can we please do this?”

I slipped the charger into one of my oversized pockets and palmed the headlamp. “Okay.”

Hú Dié reached down and picked up a threadbare hydration backpack from the floor. She must have brought it in one of her suitcases. “This pack isn’t in as good condition as the one we left at Cangzhen Temple,” she said, “but it’s better than nothing. I took the bladder out to make room for the dragon bone, in case we find it and decide to escape tonight.”

“Good thinking.”

She closed the door to her room, and we walked to Dr. V’s office door. Hú Dié slipped the bump key partway into the doorknob lock and gripped the doorknob with one hand while pinching the key between her thumb and index finger of the same hand. She twisted the knob and key slightly, then tapped the key with the mallet that she held in her other hand.

I caught my breath as I heard metal pins within the lock jingle, and the key slipped a few millimeters deeper into the lock. I watched as Hú Dié kept the tension on the doorknob and key and tapped again. The pins within the lock jingled a second time, and the key slipped even farther into the lock. She repeated the process one more time, and the key went all the way in. Hú Dié turned the key and the knob simultaneously, and the door opened.

“Unbelievable,” I said. “That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!”

“You need to hang out in Kaifeng more,” Hú Dié replied. She stepped away from the door. “After you.”

I flipped on the headlamp and walked through the doorway. My breath caught in my throat again. This was not at all what I was expecting.

Hú Dié walked in behind me. “Oh, my goodness,” she said.

We were standing in a laboratory. I flashed the bright light around the room. It was about thirty feet square and filled with machines. Tiny lights blinked and computer panels glowed. There was enough light from the instrument panels that we probably didn’t even need the flashlight. Some of the freestanding equipment, like IV drips and oxygen tanks, I recognized from my visits to the nursing home. Other things, however, looked like gadgets from a spaceship flight deck.

A steel counter ran along two of the walls, containing a wide array of microscopes, petri dishes, and other items. Above one counter was a pair of windows covered with blinds. On the floor in one corner was what appeared to be a small kiln. Next to the kiln was a shelved cabinet containing fossilized bones.

“Look,” I said, pointing to the bones. “It looks like Dr. V is trying to make his own dragon bone.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Hú Dié said. “Check this out. I think I found his office.”

I turned to her in the eerie machine glow. She was staring at one of the walls, which contained a bank of mirrored windows and a door.

I headed for the office door, skirting a tall row of machines set in the center of the room, when I noticed a strange light atop one of the devices. I looked up and saw three skylights ten feet overhead. Mechanical blinds prevented any light from entering the room through two of the skylights, but the blinds over the third were partially
open. Moonlight trickled in. I could even make out a few stars.

I pointed up. “We’ll have a clear night if we decide to make a break for it.”

Hú Dié didn’t reply.

I glanced over and saw that she was now standing beside a stainless-steel table, next to one of the banks of machines. I turned my flashlight in that direction and headed toward her, and my jaw dropped.

There was a clipboard on the table like the one my uncle used at the nursing home. On the clipboard was a medical chart. Across the top of the chart was a name:
Ryan Vanderhausen
.

“No way!” I said, grabbing the chart and looking it over. “Dr. V is running experiments on his own nephew! And look … Ryan is taking
way
too much dragon bone compared with what my grandfather uses. It looks like he’s been using it for … six months? How can this be?”

“I have no idea,” Hú Dié said. “Let’s just do what we came here to do.” She went to one of the counters.

I shook my head and walked over to Dr. V’s office door. There was a keypad next to it. I tried the door, but it was locked. I was about to ask Hú Dié to come over and determine whether she could break in here, too, when a small light turned on across the room. Hú Dié called out, “Found it!”

I looked over and saw that she had switched on a short fluorescent fixture mounted to the bottom of a wall cabinet. Beneath the cabinet was a counter with two
dragon-shaped vessels. One was Grandfather’s. The other had to be PawPaw’s.

“Good work!” I said.

Hú Dié nodded. She reached into her pack and removed a large fabric bag.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“A silk drawstring bag,” she replied in an odd tone.

“What are you doing?”

“Those containers won’t fit in my pack. I need to carry the dragon bone somehow.”

“You want to take the dragon bone and escape right now?”

“Yes.” She opened the bag.

I began to walk toward her, when I noticed lights flickering behind the window blinds. I ran to one of the windows and poked my fingers between the blinds’ slats. I peered out to see an unfamiliar dusty pickup truck pull up less than twenty feet from the building.

“Someone is coming!” I said.

Hú Dié didn’t reply.

I stared at the truck. There was a long extension ladder in the truck bed, and the front of the vehicle was dented and scraped, with several strands of barbed wire clinging to the grill. The truck had gotten onto the property by busting through a fence. The driver and passenger got out, and my heart nearly stopped. “It’s Lin Tan and Meathead!” I gasped.

I looked back at Hú Dié. She stiffened, but still said nothing.

She didn’t even look surprised.

I felt the blood drain
from my face. Was Hú Dié double-crossing me? Had she worked out a secret deal with her crush, Lin Tan? She began to dump the dragon bone into the silk bag, and I realized that the bag looked just like the one Lin Tan had used back at Cangzhen Temple when he stole Grandmaster Long’s dragon bone.

I heard shouting outside and couldn’t resist turning back to the window.

It was Murphy. He had his gun drawn and was walking toward the rented truck. Lin Tan had a gun, too. The Texan and the Chinese cyclist pointed their weapons at one another, but Meathead sprang into action first. One of his hands was wrapped in heavy bandages, and I remembered that Hú Dié had smashed his hand with her elbow back at Cangzhen Temple. The injury didn’t seem to matter. He grabbed a section of the ladder from the back of the truck, and while Murphy watched Lin Tan,
Meathead thrust the ladder at Murphy. Murphy fired as the lowest rung struck his gun hand.

The bullet buried itself harmlessly in the side of the truck, and Meathead twisted the ladder. The ladder’s feet spun around, knocking the gun from Murphy’s hand. Murphy lunged to pick up his gun, but Lin Tan jumped on him and pistol-whipped him in the back of the head. Murphy’s body collapsed like a deflated balloon.

I turned to Hú Dié. The silk bag was now tied shut, and she was pouring the last of the dragon bone from one of the dragon vessels into a large glass test tube that she must have grabbed from the counter.

“What are you doing?” I shouted.

Hú Dié remained silent. She pushed a rubber stopper into the test tube.

I took a step toward her.

“Please,” she said finally. “Don’t make this any more difficult than it already is. Stay right where you are.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. “You really
are
psycho. You think I’m going to just let you walk out of here with my dragon bone?”

“
Your
dragon bone? What gives you any more right to it than me, now that someone else has stolen it?”

I couldn’t believe my ears. Then again, Hú Dié and her father earned their living as forgers of documents and bicycles. Their sense of responsibility was skewed. Why should I expect not to get tricked, too? I should have paid more attention to PawPaw’s warning.

“How long have you been planning to hang me out to dry?” I asked.

Hú Dié took a step toward me. “I’m not hanging you out to dry. Lin Tan doesn’t even know you’re here. Take this—” She held out the test tube. “Hide somewhere until I’ve left with those two goons. Use the headlamp I gave you. Escape to your grandfather.”

“I’m not going anywhere without
all
of the dragon bone.”

“Lin Tan and the other guy are not killers, but they may make an exception if they find you here. Leave now. Please.”

“I really am an idiot. I actually thought you were my friend.”

“I am your friend. It’s just that I have priorities. I need to help my mother.”

“Your mother? You said that she no longer lives with you.”

“She doesn’t. She lives in a nursing home, even though she is not that old. She has what you Westerners call ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Her nerve cells are wasting away, and she has lost her ability to walk or even move her arms and head normally. I want to see if dragon bone can help.”

“But … you can’t give her dragon bone.”

“Why not? Because she isn’t part of your grandfather’s little club?”

I ground my teeth. “Why didn’t you say something about her earlier?”

“Because it’s none of your business. It still isn’t, in fact. I don’t know why I’m wasting my time telling you now.”

Anger began to swell within me. “You never answered my question. How long have you been planning this?”

“A few hours.”

“What?”

“All of this just came together. That’s why I didn’t get any sleep. It’s too fresh in my mind, and the more I think about it, the worse I feel. Lin Tan and the other guy—his name is Bjorn—were downtown renting that pickup truck when they saw Murphy with me in the passenger seat. They recognized me from Cangzhen Temple and followed us to the bike store. After Murphy left, Lin Tan approached me inside the bike shop. It was the first time I’d ever spoken with him. I swear. He told me everything that he has gone through with Dr. V, from the beginning. He knew more than half a year ago that he might be suspended. However, Dr. V told him that he would cover for him if he did a few special side projects. That’s why he got involved.”