Abe stood on Hellboy's left and glanced at him from time to time as though afraid he might have to stop Hellboy from doing that very thing. Koh lingered behind them, slinking angrily back and forth like a guard dog waiting for the command to kill.
Professor Bruttenholm didn't hang back at all. He was the field leader of this investigation, and right about now Hellboy felt pretty pleased about that. The old man looked furious. For a moment, Lao seemed like his feathers were getting ruffled. Hellboy liked that. If they could rattle his cage, that would be a good start.
"Those helicopters should be back here, Mister Lao," Professor Bruttenholm said. With his white hair wild, the man looked a bit crazed and even more formidable than ever. He held his burned, bandaged arm down at his side.
"That is not their purpose, Professor," the man from Beijing replied.
Bruttenholm glared. "With those additional helicopters, we could evacuate almost everyone to Lhasa in a single trip, not only the injured. Every moment these people remain here, they are in danger. Rather than oppressing the local populace, your troops ought to be here keeping an eye on the ruins and preparing to battle the dragon when it surfaces."
"We're going to need weapons to destroy the big worm," Hellboy said, as if he were speaking to a child. He couldn't help himself. "Much as I'd like to just knock it unconscious, I don't think it's going to be that easy."
As he spoke, Stasia walked up, and he saw his own anger reflected in her expression. She stood beside him, her hand brushing his, but they didn't bother with any other greeting. They were unified in their disgust with Lao.
"There will be weapons. I have already reported these new developments to my superiors. More soldiers will arrive with the other representatives from your own organization. Your expertise will be utilized and appreciated--"
"Would you listen to yourself talk," Hellboy interrupted. "You're like a robot out of some lame sixties sci-fi show."
Lao flinched, and his expression hardened. Hellboy liked that.
"Your people are doing an admirable job evacuating the injured," Lao said. "At this time, the peacekeepers I brought from Lhasa must make Nakchu village their first priority."
"Peacekeepers!" Stasia sneered.
"We follow the Western example from time to time," Lao replied.
Abe put one hand on the butt of the gun he'd started carrying ever since surfacing from the lake.
"The village is already destroyed, you idiot."
Hellboy put up a cautionary hand. "Come on, Abe. Don't call the jackass names."
But there wasn't even time for the insult to sink in before he saw motion out of the corner of his eye. Stasia saw it too, and started to turn. But the dragon-men were swift. Koh lunged past her, transforming in midleap, crocodile jaws gnashing and fire spitting from his eyes as he reached for Mr. Lao.
Lao screamed.
Hellboy liked it.
But he knew that Lao dead would only mean some other heartless prick in his place. He snatched Koh out of the air, turned, and hurled him back the way he'd come.
The dragon-man hit the ground rolling and came up almost instantly, hissing and advancing again. He ignored Hellboy and the others, focused solely on Lao, speaking rapidly, spitting venom with each word.
"What's he saying?" Hellboy snapped at Lao.
The man from Beijing smoothed his suit, staring at the advancing Koh warily. "He says there are only forty-two left alive in his village. Keep him away from me, or there will be only forty-one."
Professor Bruttenholm moved toward Koh, his hands raised. "Be calm, my friend. We have only one enemy here."
Stasia laughed softly. "Right. Just not quite certain if it's the dragon or the snake here in front of us."
"No harm will come to the villagers," Mr. Lao said. "They will be held at Nakchu while an investigation takes place. Your friend, Koh, will have to return there as well and await the results of our investigation."
Abe stepped up beside Koh. "That's not going to happen."
Hellboy glared at Mr. Lao. "Come on, even you don't believe we'll go for that. You want an international incident, and all the worldwide media coverage that comes with it? Push us. Let's see how that works out for you."
Mr. Lao smiled thinly, but before he could reply, Professor Bruttenholm cleared his throat.
"What you fail to realize, Mister Lao," the old man said, "is that if you want to defeat the dragon, we are going to need Koh's cooperation. You said yourself that you needed the expertise of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. You do. Of course, if you'd prefer we leave you and your 'peacekeepers' to deal with the Dragon King yourselves, we'd be happy to do that."
The smile left Lao's face. "You have a plan to destroy the creature?"
Hellboy glared at him. "Yeah, well, some of us are actually thinking straight."
Stasia shot him a sidelong glance, one corner of her mouth curled up in a smile. Koh moved nearer to Lao, but Abe put a gentle hand on him, and the dragon-man allowed himself to be held back.
The BPRD chopper, with Redfield in the pilot's seat, lifted off with all of the injured onboard. The downdraft kicked up a cloud of dust, but Hellboy and the others did not turn their gazes away from Mr. Lao.
"We do, indeed, have a plan," Professor Bruttenholm replied. "Until the additional BPRD agents arrive to aid us against the dragon, however, our first priority is the safety of these people. Evacuating them as quickly as possible would speed us along to our goal of dealing with the Dragon King. We cannot wait hours for our pilot to return. Instead, a small team will escort the rest of the expedition to the ancient monastery to the east and hope that the Dragon King will not find them there, or, if he does, that its walls and cellars will protect them. Redfield will make as many trips as necessary to get everyone out of here."
Lao hesitated a moment, then lifted his chin and let out a long breath. He nodded magnanimously.
"I will bring one of my helicopters from Nakchu to aid in the evacuation effort, and half of my soldiers--"
"I thought they were peacekeepers," Abe muttered.
Professor Bruttenholm shot him a withering glance, but Hellboy smiled. Abe only got a chance to say it because Hellboy hadn't spoken up first.
"Half of my peacekeeping unit will be stationed here along with whatever BPRD agents remain to watch over the lake and guard against the creature's return."
"Mighty big of you," Hellboy said.
Stasia glanced at him. "Do you notice he can't say the word 'dragon?'"
Mr. Lao straightened his tie, ignoring them. He stared at Professor Bruttenholm. "If you insist on keeping custody of Koh, you will be held responsible for his actions. I do not think he can be trusted."
Abe cocked his head, studying Lao as though he were an insect. "Then we're even. None of us think that you can be trusted."
"Enough!" the professor said. He nodded to Lao. "I accept full responsibility for Koh's participation in this operation. I do this for your sake, sir. The young man may be our only hope."
Mr. Lao nodded in return, then turned and strode away, toward what remained of the camp. Hellboy, Abe, Stasia, Professor Bruttenholm, and Koh watched him go in silence. For a moment, Hellboy didn't know what the man was up to, but then Lao fished through equipment that had obviously come from his own tent and withdrew a long, black radio. He tested it a moment, then held it up and began to speak in Chinese. The language sounded melodic, even from the lips of this uninspired man.
Beyond him, in the camp, Hellboy spotted Tenzin next to one of the few remaining tents and felt grim satisfaction at knowing Lao would be overheard by someone who spoke his own language.
"Right, then, let's get on with it," Stasia said. She took her Yankees cap from her back pocket, perched it on her head, and pulled her ponytail through the opening in the back. Her face was streaked with soot, but her eyes were bright and intense.
"Abe, what were you saying about the lake when Lao interrupted us?" Professor Bruttenholm said.
The fins on his neck rippled as though he were underwater, and he glanced at Koh before focusing on the others.
"The water is heating up. And not just a little. It's getting hotter and hotter with every passing minute. Since this is no natural occurrence, there's no way to know how hot it will get, but most of the fish and plant life in the water will be dead soon."
"You were able to follow the dragon?" Stasia asked.
Abe nodded. "I followed it to the far southern end of the lake basin. There's an opening there, where the sandy bottom meets the more solid wall that comes down from the shore. That's where the Dragon King went in. I could still see the fire burning in there when I swam back.
"It gets worse, though. You'll recall I said the soil at the lake bottom was oddly loose. I believe that somehow, it is only a layer of detritus that covers the true bottom of the lake. There are hollows down there. Caverns, perhaps. I am less concerned about the lake's temperature than I am about what lies under it."
"You're thinking more dragons?" Hellboy said.
Professor Bruttenholm ran a hand over his goatee. "The legend does say that the Dragon King had many dragons who served him."
Stasia touched Hellboy's arm. A dreadful suspicion crept into her eyes.
"Perhaps we've been wrong," she said. "Perhaps the Dragon King's temple has been under the lake all along, flooded and covered over all those years ago."
"That's a pleasant thought," Hellboy said.
Koh hovered around them. He had reverted to his human face at some point, and he wore a frown as he tried to decipher their English. Hellboy glanced across the camp at Tenzin, realizing they'd need the guide to come along if they were going to be able to communicate with Koh.
"Here's an even uglier possibility," Abe said. "What if the one we saw is just one of the worker bees? What if it wasn't the king at all?"
"No," the professor said, "it's much too large to be a servant. Think how vast the caverns beneath the lake would have to be if this was only a small dragon, and the king had yet to be seen. I feel certain this is indeed the Dragon King. The legend suggests it, if nothing else. Still, no doubt we must accept that there could be others down there.
"Abe," he said, turning to the amphibious man, "did you discover anything else?"
"No, Professor."
The old man nodded. "Very well, then. You and I will remain here with what volunteers we might have from Dr. Bransfield's expedition, and however many soldiers Mr. Lao deigns to assign to this detail. Hellboy and Anastasia will take Koh and the guide, Tenzin, with them, and lead the rest of the expedition to the monastery."
Hellboy stretched his back, muscles and bones popping. He felt stiff. A walk would do him good. "Right. And then we go find the grave of the warrior midget."
"Monk," Anastasia corrected.
"Dwarf monk," Hellboy replied.
Professor Bruttenholm sighed. "Yes. The grave of Dwenjue. We'll fight legend with legend. And if that doesn't work--"
"We'll pummel it until it cries for its mommy," Hellboy finished.
"Something like that, yes."
It was late morning when Abe and a visibly exhausted Professor Bruttenholm stood just beyond the scorched remains of the expedition's camp and watched as Hellboy and Anastasia led nearly all of the survivors of the Dragon King's attack along the shore of Lake Tashi, toward the hills to the east and the mountain range beyond. Agent Meaney and Agent Rhys-Howard had gone along to help keep the evacuees organized.
Of the BPRD contingent, only Abe, the professor, and Neil Pinborough remained behind, along with Mr. Lao, Professor Kyichu, and three other members of the archaeologists' team. Those in the exodus carried most of the supplies salvaged from camp. The rest of them waited at the site of the attack for someone to come--BPRD reinforcements, Lao's peacekeepers, or the Dragon King himself.
Abe wondered which would arrive first.
"I do hope they'll be all right," Professor Bruttenholm said, his voice a low, thoughtful rasp.
"They'll be fine," Abe replied. "Hellboy's nothing if not durable. And he won't let any harm come to Anastasia."
The professor cast a brief glance at Abe. "It isn't physical harm that concerns me. It's this thing between them."
Abe blinked, about to speak, then he thought better of it. Instead, he just stood by Professor Bruttenholm, and the two of them watched as Hellboy, Anastasia, Koh, and Tenzin shepherded the frightened and lost away from the scene of the greatest horror of their lives. Hellboy and Anastasia walked close together, linked by some invisible bond.
One way or another, this whole thing was going to end eventually. They had no way of knowing how, or what would happen, but watching the two of them together, Abe understood the professor's concern. The Dragon King might be a threat to all of their lives, but there were graver dangers here than that.
Chapter 11
Hellboy felt like a pack mule. He carried backpacks full of food and radio equipment slung over his shoulders, as well as a canvas tent rigged up like a gigantic quiver--but instead of arrows, it was full of shovels and surveying equipment. He gritted his teeth at the weight of the burden but didn't complain. These people had seen their friends burned alive. They were looking to him to protect them. Hellboy wasn't entirely certain he could do that, but he'd try his damnedest, and in the meantime, he had no intention of letting on that he had any doubts.
So he lugged all their crap up the mountain and didn't say a word.
Anastasia was ahead of him on the switchback trail that had been worn into the steep hillside through millennia of footsteps. More than likely, they'd used horses and yaks up here as well, but the archaeological team didn't have any beasts of burden to carry their supplies. They just had their own hands, and Hellboy.
Koh and Tenzin were at the lead of this sorry parade, the dozens of expedition members following them, with Stasia, Sarah Rhys-Howard, and Tim Meaney bringing up the rear. Hellboy came last. He didn't mind. He put the weight of his burden out of his mind just by watching Stasia. She spoke to Sarah from time to time, and the two women were alternately grim, then smiling. He wondered if they were talking about him.
High on the mountainside--it was only a hill in comparison to the white-capped mountain ridges in the distance all around the circumference of the plateau--they continued their climb. Many times they had to rest. Most of the expedition were in excellent physical condition from all the time spent working on digs and traveling, but even they were not prepared for a three-hour hike across such mountainous country. Hellboy didn't like the idea of delaying a moment longer than necessary. He could picture in his mind's eye the infernal horror that would ensue if the Dragon King were to surface again and catch them on the switchback trail, and had to force the image away.
They rested, but he didn't allow them to rest for very long.
Above, he could see the end of the trail, the crest of the hill. Anastasia saw him glancing upward and smiled, dropping back to walk just ahead of him.
"Hello, handsome. You need help with your kit, there?"
"Yeah. Thanks for the offer, now that we're nearly at the top."
Stasia grinned. "I was socializing."
"You two were like a couple of hens."
"Girl talk," she confirmed. The thin air did not seem to bother her at all. The sun shone on her hair, still bright copper red despite the passing years. With all the death and horror around them, she'd never looked more alive.
Hellboy forced himself to turn his gaze away from her.
"What do you think is going to happen now?" Stasia asked.
He looked up, confused for a moment about what she was asking. "We're going to get these people out of here."
"And then?"
With all that he was carrying, it would be too much work to shrug. Instead, he cocked his head. "We cork the hole the Dragon King came out of, or kill it, if that's what it comes to, and if we can."
Anastasia stumbled on the path but caught herself. She took a few mor
e steps before glancing back again.
"What about Dwenjue? You think we're going to find anything?"
Hellboy paused, the exertion getting to him at last. The muscles in his legs ached. His tail dragged on the ground. His hooves kicked up dust, and sometimes the wind eddied it around so he couldn't help breathing it in. Beating up monsters was less work, any day.
"You know better than anyone. No telling what you're going to find when you start digging up old tombs. Story of my life."
As they reached the final switchback, the trail widened enough that they could walk side by side. They'd fallen behind quite a bit. From up above, Hellboy heard Frank Danovich calling down that they'd reached the monastery. The muscles in Hellboy's legs sagged a bit in relief. Almost there.
Stasia walked beside him in silence for several steps. It felt nice--it felt right--having her there, and he let himself enjoy her presence without questioning it or complicating it with too much thought, the way he'd been doing pretty much ever since they'd arrived. For the moment, it was just right.
"When I was a little girl--"
"In pigtails?"
She shot him a comically angry look. "Shush."
"Shushing."
"Just about to say, when I was a girl I thought so much of legend and mythology must have been real, somehow. That there was truth to it. I learned about God in school, and the set of legends that makes up modern religion, which tells us there's nothing to all those old stories. They're rubbish, we're told. But I liked the magic of legend, as a girl. I didn't want to believe in God if it meant I couldn't believe in Zeus and Odin and Kali.
"I grew out of it, of course. Became very serious, didn't I? Legends must have a source. That much, I knew. So I took it upon myself to discover the origins of legends. Archaeology was my only ambition. I wanted to know what the ancients dreamed about, what they fought about, what they feared. I wanted to know where the legends came from. There'd be weather patterns and great warriors and eclipses and cautionary tales at the genesis of legends, the template that creates a story that is altered by centuries of telling and retelling. The process fascinated me.
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