“Tommy, look out!” Gabe screamed.
16
INTERPOL
Anna and Mack rented a car at the airport and decided to stop at the Interpol office before checking into their hotel. A petite Chinese agent by the name of Li Jing Lee greeted them at the security desk. “Welcome to Hangshong,” she said and shook their hands.
“I assume our director filled you in on why we are here?” Anna asked.
“He did,” Li Jing replied. She handed Anna and Mack visitor passes on lanyards to wear around their necks. “Please, come this way.”
The security guard sitting at the front counter buzzed them through. Li Jing led the way down a long hall and opened the door to her office. “Please, have a seat,” she said and motioned to the two chairs facing her desk. She skirted around her desk and sat in a leather swivel chair. “May I get you anything? Tea perhaps?”
“Ah, no thank you,” Anna said.
Mack smiled and shook his head.
Li Jing opened a manila folder on her desk. She gazed at the file for a moment then said, “We have confirmed that Carter Wilde is indeed staying here in the city at Chang Empire Building.”
“Doesn’t that belong to the multi-billionaire Henry Chang?” Anna asked.
“It does,” Li Jing replied.
“It’s no wonder billionaires flock together,” Mack quipped.
Anna leaned forward in her chair. “Wilde is wanted in our country for supplying guns to a radical group responsible for the deaths of several federal agents.”
“By the radical group, you mean the Cryptos, am I correct?” Li Jing asked.
“That’s right.”
“Then you might be interested to know that Dr. Joel McCabe is also with him.”
“Well, what do you know,” Mack said. “We might be able to get two birds with one stone.”
“Dr. McCabe is on our Ten Most Wanted list for multiple murders and escaping from prison,” Anna said.
“You do know that Hangshong does not have extradition laws.”
Anna and Mack exchanged sideward glances.
“The director never mentioned that. So you’re saying you won’t allow us to take them back to the States?” Anna said.
“I didn’t say that. I’m saying I won’t be able to assist you in an arrest.”
“In other words, we’re on our own,” Mack said.
Anna turned to Mack. “I think Li Jing is saying she’s willing to turn a blind eye.” Anna looked at the Chinese agent to confirm her statement.
Li Jing nodded her head.
“Oh,” Mack said, realizing he let that one fly over his head.
Li Jing opened another file on her desk. “I looked into your missing persons report on Rong Tran. He is currently a student at university here. Or was until he went missing. He joins a number of open cases of young people disappearing in our city.”
“What, you mean abductions?” Mack said.
“I can’t say for sure.”
“Any leads?” Anna asked.
“We have narrowed it down to a few possible suspects,” Li Jing said. “One being Dr. Haun Zhang.”
“What’s his story?” Mack asked.
“Ten years ago, while teaching at the university, Dr. Zhang was a person of interest in the strange disappearances of five of his medical students. He fits our profile.”
“What happened with the case?” Anna asked.
“Nothing. There was no proof of wrongdoing and Dr. Zhang was never charged.”
“And the students?”
“They were never found.”
“Where is Dr. Zhang now?”
“Working for Henry Chang.”
Anna turned to Mack. “Looks like we have some digging around to do.”
“I’ll be sure to bring along a very big shovel,” Mack replied, shooting his partner a wry grin.
17
YIBIMINS
Mason and Ramsey had just left the eatery and were walking down the passage that would take them to the primate cages when Song pulled up behind them. “Could I get you two to help me?” she asked.
“What do you want us to do?” Mason said.
“We need to inoculate the Yibimins.”
“What are those?” Ramsey asked.
“They are some of Dr. Chang’s cryptids. She wants to be sure they stay healthy.”
Mason looked at Ramsey. “Dr. McCabe never had us vaccinate his creatures.”
“That’s probably why so many of them got sick.”
“Sure, we’ll help,” Mason said and climbed in the seat next to Song while Ramsey got in the back.
They headed down a tunnel that Mason was not familiar with. A section opened up and he saw a large containment with segregated cages filled with over forty white gibbon-sized monkeys.
Song stopped the electric cart and they got off. Mason and Ramsey walked up to the wire cages.
“Jesus, Mason, what the hell did they do to them?” Ramsey said.
“That’s barbaric!” Mason saw that every monkey was missing an arm, some the left, others the right ones.
“It is not what you think,” Song said. “They were created that way. We did not amputate their arms. Legend says Yibimins were born as twins, each having only one arm. If left-handed, it was known as a ‘throttler’ and was able to perform many tasks. If right-handed, it was a ‘basher’ as the arm was quite muscular. Neither of the twins liked each other and would fight to the death, leaving only one surviving.”
“But I don’t get it,” Mason said. “Why did Dr. Chang create both versions if she knew they would try to kill each other?”
“She didn’t,” Song answered. “Her Yibimins have learned to mate and have babies.”
“Holy shit,” Ramsey said. “McCabe could never do that.”
They heard two men suddenly arguing in Chinese.
A pen door flew open.
Mason, Ramsey, and Song watched in horror as two screeching Yibimins clashed, a single arm flailing the other. Vicious teeth gnashed and savagely tore into white fur until they were covered with speckled blood splatter like a paintbrush of red paint had flicked them.
Even though the throttler was raining down more blows, it was the powerful punch of the basher that put a quick end to the brawl. The left-handed monkey went down like a KO’d prizefighter, only instead of being rendered unconscious, the creature was stone-cold dead, its face resembling a bloody puddle that a boot had stepped into.
“That was brutal,” Ramsey said.
Song walked over and grabbed a towel out of a bucket of water. She opened the pen where the victorious Yibimin stood over its dead rival.
“What are you doing?” Mason said, rushing after Song.
Song turned to Mason and assured him by saying, “Do not worry. It is quite tame. They only fight each other.” She picked up the Yibimin and began wiping the blood off of its fur so she could examine its wounds. “While I’m holding it, Mason, would you mind handing me a syringe from that box?”
Mason spotted a metal footlocker with a medical insignia on the lid, positioned next to the fence. He went over, opened it up, and saw packets of already prepared hypodermic needles inside. Taking a syringe out of the hermetically sealed pack, he walked over to Song, and handed her the syringe.
Song jabbed the needle into the Yibimin’s thigh.
“Wow, it didn’t even flinch,” Mason said, duly impressed.
“I used to work in home care for the elderly before I became an animal keeper.”
“So you’ve given shots a million times.”
“Well, maybe not that many. Grab some syringes and we can get started.”
“What about me? What do you want me to do?” Ramsey asked.
“Would you mind taking those bags to the incinerator?” Song pointed to a flat cart of plastic bags with ‘DANGER HAZARDOUS WASTE’ stickers. “You can use the scooter. The keycard is in the tray under the steering wheel.”
“Sure thing.” Ramsey walked over and
picked up a number of bags with both hands. He carried them over to the back of the electric cart and deposited them in the rear cargo hold. He went back and got the rest.
Ramsey climbed behind the wheel and goosed the accelerator. The cart zoomed off at a brisk 5 miles-per-hour. A tunnel took him to the door outside the incinerator room.
He turned off the electric cart and grabbed the access keycard. After swiping the reader, Ramsey propped open the door with a yellow cone a maintenance man had left behind, and brought in the bags.
Even though Song had not instructed him to do so, Ramsey figured he was expected to operate the incinerator and burn all of the bags. He noticed two of the laundry carts were already partially filled with burn bags. As he hadn’t anything better to do, he decided to spend whatever time it took to dispose of all the bags, even though he had never operated the machine.
He lucked out, as there was an easy-to-understand instruction plate—in both Chinese and English—mounted near the loading door to the combustion chamber. He turned a switch and heard a loud poof as the gas jets shot out flames inside the steel housing. He pushed the button that raised the loading door. Already the combustion chamber was billowing heat.
Ramsey began with the bags he had lugged in. He tossed them one by one into the blazing fire. When he was through with those, he began grabbing burn bags out of the laundry carts, and throwing them in.
He snatched up a burn bag and the bottom ripped out. A pair of shoes and some clothing fell to the floor. Ramsey leaned over to pick it all up but paused when he saw a wallet sticking out of the back pocket of a pair of pants. “What the hell?”
Ramsey picked up the billfold and opened it up. He pulled out a MasterCard printed in English, a few yaun bills, some receipts. He was surprised to see a California DMV driver’s license with the name Rong Tran.
A noise caught his attention and he glanced up. The yellow cone was scooting out between the edge of the door and the jamb.
Ramsey saw a hand reach around and stop the door from closing.
A Chinese man in a white lab coat stood in the threshold.
“Hey, I’m Todd Ramsey. Who are you?”
“I am Dr. Haun Zhang.”
18
CARROT TOP
“You’re not going to believe this, but I found some guy’s stuff in one of the burn bags,” Ramsey said. “Here’s his wallet.” He showed the billfold to Dr. Zhang who was standing in the doorway of the incinerator room.
“May I see it?” Dr. Zhang asked.
“Sure.” Ramsey gave the wallet to the doctor.
Dr. Zhang scrutinized the contents. “Hmmm.”
“What do you make of it?” Ramsey said.
“It is curious. Perhaps he worked here and left his belongings behind.”
“Strange the guy would forget his wallet, don’t you think?”
“We should give it to security.” Dr. Zhang put the wallet in his coat pocket.
“All right. I’ll go with you.”
“Is that your cart outside?”
“I’m borrowing it. It belongs to Song Liu.”
“Perhaps you could drive us over. If you don’t mind, I must make a stop first.”
“Fine by me,” Ramsey replied.
Dr. Zhang gave Ramsey an odd look.
“What is it?” Ramsey said. “Something wrong?”
“Your hair. I don’t think I have ever seen hair so red.”
Ramsey let out a laugh. “Yeah, I know. People kid me all the time, say I look a lot like Carrot Top.”
“Who is Carrot Top?”
“He’s a comedian. Likes to smash things up on stage. Sort of like Gallagher.”
“I don’t know who that is.”
“Not important. Let me shut down the furnace before we go.” Ramsey spent a moment to read the instructions so he could safely turn off the gas flame. He waited for Dr. Zhang to step outside and closed the door behind him.
“So, where to?” Ramsey asked when they had climbed into the electric cart.
“Down that way and turn right.”
Ramsey wasn’t sure where they were going exactly as he followed the doctor’s directions but he had a feeling it was taking them toward the center of the underground facility.
“This is it,” Dr. Zhang said.
Ramsey put on the brakes and the cart came to a stop a few feet from a steel door.
Dr. Zhang got out. He slid an access card down the reader, opened the door, and glanced over his shoulder. “Are you coming?”
“Sure, why not.” Ramsey hopped off the cart and followed Dr. Zhang into a stark room with a table. He noticed a window and a metal chute on a wall. “What’s out there?” he asked and walked over to take a look.
Dr. Zhang came up behind Ramsey and stabbed him in the neck with a hypodermic needle.
“Jesus, what the hell?” Ramsey said, and spun around. He raised his arms to grab the doctor but for some reason his hands wouldn’t work. His fingers cramped and curled into claws. He staggered back as his vision became blurry. His entire body suddenly ceased up. No longer able to stand, he fell to the floor. Even though he couldn’t physically move or talk, he could still witness what was going on.
Ramsey was afraid he was going to shit himself when the strange man began to undress him. First he took off Ramsey’s boots and socks. Then he unbuttoned Ramsey’s shirt, and after managing to get it off, he unbuckled Ramsey’s belt and loosened his jeans and took them off along with Ramsey’s underwear.
Ramsey watched in horror as the doctor bundled up the clothes and boots and put them in a burn bag.
Just like Rong Tran!
He wanted to scream but his vocal cords were paralyzed like the rest of his body.
Ramsey felt completely helpless lying naked on the cold cement floor.
Especially when the doctor dragged him over to the wall, lifted him up, and shoved him headfirst down the metal chute. Even though there was no pain, he knew the impact of hitting the cement must have caused considerable damage to his face.
The dank room looked like a gargantuan compost heap inside a silo. Ramsey figured the deranged doctor would be coming in any moment to bury him in the huge mounds of dirt.
How can this be happening? He kept telling himself—his silent scream echoing inside his head. Surely this is all a bad dream.
But then Ramsey realized the nightmare had only begun when tree roots emerged from the dirt and advanced on him like a nest of slithering snakes.
19
CHANG EMPIRE BUILDING
After quick showers in their hotel room, Nora and Jack hailed a taxi and rode over to Chang Empire Building in hopes of talking with Luan Chang.
Once they arrived, Jack paid the driver and they got out of the cab. He craned his head back and gazed up at the monumental 100-story high-rise. “Looks like a damn suppository. Wonder what the architect was thinking when he dreamed this up?”
Nora gazed around at the surrounding buildings, which were more traditional in design. “Does stick out like a sore thumb.”
“That’s the rich for you. They’ll do anything to draw attention,” Jack said.
They entered the promenade of garish fountains and staggered rows of cherry blossom trees. People of all ages were sitting around the stone basins, conversing or just enjoying the brilliant sunshine on their faces, radiating down through the canyons of steel and glass.
A slight breeze misted Nora’s face as she passed a fountain with a giant stone carp suspended out of the water, the return flow arching from its mouth and back down into the reservoir pool. Thousands upon thousands of tiny, white, coin-shaped cherry blossom petals polka dotted the cement.
Entering the front lobby, Nora saw smartly dressed groups conducting business, seated around the cavernous antechamber. She noticed men in suits that were meant to blend in, but were obviously security guards, standing discretely by the entrance, elevators, and in the corners of the vestibule.
Nora and Jack walked up to the at
tractive Asian woman seated at the reception counter. “Hello, my name is Professor Nora Howard. And this is Jack Tremens. We would like to see Luan Chang.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No. Actually I’m a friend of Luan. If you’ll just call up and give her my name, I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to see us.”
“One moment,” the receptionist said and picked up the phone.
Nora and Jack waited while the woman conversed in Chinese with someone on the other end of the line. She eventually put the phone down and looked up, her face expressionless like a card player bluffing in a poker game. “If you would kindly have a seat, someone will be right down.”
“But didn’t you relay my message?” Nora said. “Surely, she remembers me.”
“Please have a seat,” the woman said curtly.
“Come on, Nora.” Jack guided Nora to the nearest available chairs.
“I don’t understand,” Nora said as she sat down.
“Too bad she wasn’t listed, we could have called instead,” Jack said. He sat in a chair next to Nora.
The elevator doors opened and a Chinese man in a dapper suit stepped out. Instead of going to the reception desk, he walked directly towards Nora and Jack.
“They must have us under surveillance,” Jack whispered.
“Professor Howard,” the man said. “My name is Kang Wu. I am the Changs’ liaison officer. How may I help you?”
“I was hoping to see Luan Chang. We were friends in college.”
“I am afraid she can not see you.”
“Why not?”
“For one, she is not here,” Wu said.
“Can you tell me where I can find her?” Nora asked.
“I am afraid I am not at liberty to tell you.”
“Hey, bub, what’s with all the secrecy?” Jack said, unable to contain the hostility in his voice. “We came halfway around the globe to speak to her. Now tell us how to find her.”
“I must ask you to leave,” Wu said.
“No! We’re not leaving until—”
“Jack, stop!” Nora grabbed him by the arm. While they had been arguing with Wu, Nora had noticed the security guards in suits closing in. Jack saw them, too.
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