Five Ancestors Out of the Ashes #1: Phoenix

by Jeff Stone

  I ground my teeth and looked at my watch. It was 2:30 a.m., Sunday morning. “When would you send the first shipment? Today? Tomorrow?”

  Dr. V shook his head. “I need you to ride the best race of your life on Saturday. Potential sponsors will be here, watching. If you put forth a solid effort, I will have some sent out to him that same day via special courier. It will cost me plenty, but he will have it by Sunday, one week from today.”

  “That might be too late! He needs it before the race.”

  “Sorry. This is the best I can do. Your home telephone was bugged, you know, and I overheard him and PawPaw saying that a person can last one lunar cycle without it. He should be fine.”

  I glared at Dr. V.

  “I see that you are upset,” he said. “Do you need time to think it over?”

  “There isn’t any time.”

  “I’ll leave that decision to you. Now, I need you to empty your pockets. Place the contents on the table.”

  I was confused. Why was the headlamp charger such a big deal? I pulled it from my pocket and put it on the table.

  Dr. V rolled his eyes. “Your other pocket, Phoenix.”

  “It’s empty.”

  “Is it?”

  I put my hand into my other pocket, and my eyes widened. I pulled out the glass test tube that Hú Dié had filled with dragon bone earlier.

  “Your cousin—sorry, your girlfriend—slipped that into your pocket while she was squeezing the life out of you,” Dr. V said. “My best guess is that she planned to hide your unconscious body and leave you to wake on your own and make a break for it solo, using that headlamp to light your way. What a considerate young lady.”

  I scowled. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

  Dr. V laughed. “No? Then why are you so quick to deny it?”

  I didn’t reply.

  “It’s okay, Phoenix,” Dr. V said. “I never did believe that she was your cousin, and I’m glad you have no strong attraction to her. It will make things easier for you.”

  “What do you plan to do with her?”

  “Like I said, I could use more guinea pigs. I believe I’ll start with her.”

  “You can’t do that!”

  “Sure I can. People would come looking for you, but not her. I’ll just lock her up somewhere quiet. Visitors come to the United States from all over the world, only to disappear. They are called defectors. If anyone is suspicious of me, I will grant them full access to search this facility. I guarantee she will have been moved by then.”

  I glanced at Hú Dié and saw that she was staring at Bjorn’s lifeless body. She had fear in her eyes.

  I shook my head at Dr. V. “If you want me to ride for you, you have to promise to not give Hú Dié any dragon bone.”

  Hú Dié glanced at me. She seemed surprised and moved by my request.

  “Fine,” Dr. V replied. “So, we have a deal?”

  I thought for a moment. “One more condition.”

  Dr. V cocked an eyebrow. “A negotiator? Okay. What else do you want?”

  “I want to call my grandfather in a few hours, after he wakes up.”

  “You can call your grandfather, sure,” Dr. V said, “but you mustn’t share the terms of our arrangement just yet. You may only inquire about his health. I will allow you to call your grandfather again in a few days in order to discuss the dragon bone. Do we have a deal?”

  I reluctantly nodded. “We have a deal.”

  I was restless. I lay in bed in my Team Vanderhausen room, but sleep wouldn’t come. The incident in the lab and my recent long nap saw to that. Murphy drilling and pounding outside Hú Dié’s door down the corridor didn’t help, either. I checked the clock. It said 4:10 a.m.

  I climbed out of bed and turned on the light. Maybe a little exercise would help. I could tire myself out on the equipment in the training room, then try to get some sleep. I dressed, wishing my team riding kit had arrived. I had a feeling I was going to be on the saddle awhile. I considered putting on the custom padded riding shorts that Hú Dié had sewn for me, but I wanted nothing to do with anything made by her.

  I opened my door and saw Murphy attaching a large gate latch and keyed padlock to the outside of Hú Dié’s door. She wasn’t going anywhere. I wasn’t, either, but I tried not to think about it. I needed to remain here, for Grandfather’s sake.

  I ignored Murphy as I left my room, and he ignored me. I hoped he had a huge headache from Lin Tan pistol-whipping him. I walked through the dining and kitchen areas, then into the training room, flipping on lights along the way. I stopped to check one of the stationary trainers, spinning its resistance wheel and verifying that its rear-wheel supporters were assembled and ready to go. I had toyed with a few different models in bike shops before, and it looked to me like everything on this unit was operational except for the fancy computer projection equipment. I didn’t need that, anyway.

  I headed out of the training room, down the long corridor, and into the workshop. I grabbed the bike that I had ridden against Ryan and took it back to the training room, where I connected its rear wheel axle to the unit I had inspected. Next, I went into the dining area and found four empty water bottles on one of the shelves. I filled the bottles from a fancy water cooler and went back into the training area, placing one of the water bottles into the bottle cage on the bike frame. I put the other bottles on the floor within easy reach.

  I climbed onto the bike and began to spin. I started with an easy gear to warm up my legs, and then I shifted through increasingly difficult gears until I had run out of large sprockets. I rode the bike’s most difficult gear combination for more than an hour before I began to feel even remotely tired.

  It was going to take forever for me to purge the negative energy that had built up inside me.

  At the two-hour mark, I heard someone heading my way through the dining area. I flung sheets of sweat from my brow and looked over at the double doors as Dr. V stepped through them. He was dressed in a team riding kit.

  “Need to burn off a little steam?” Dr. V asked. “I don’t blame you.”

  I didn’t reply. I began to pedal faster.

  Dr. V grinned. “Go ahead, let it out. I use my bike to help me relieve my frustrations, too. I’m heading out on my morning ride now. Ryan will be joining me. I suggest you behave yourself. Murphy has finished his work inside, but he is watching your every move from his camper. If he sees anything suspicious, he’ll be here in a flash with that huge revolver of his.”

  I said nothing.

  “See you in an hour or so,” Dr. V said, and he left the way he’d come. Ryan walked past me a few moments later without so much as a glance.

  I continued riding at a hard pace until Dr. V eventually poked his head through the double doors again. His face was slick with sweat and road grime. “I’m back,” he said. “I’m going to shower off in one of the rooms. Ryan is still out riding.”

  Dr. V left again, and I glanced at the floor. There was a huge puddle of sweat beneath my bike, and all of my water bottles were empty. I’d never ridden this hard before. I kept at it, though, and after another twenty minutes, my legs began to cramp.

  That was it. I was toast. I crawled off the bike and wobbled on rubbery legs into the dining area to get a drink. There I found Dr. V mixing ingredients for a shake in one of the blenders. His hair was damp from his shower, and he was wearing a different riding kit. The man seriously needed to expand his wardrobe.

  “Care for a protein shake?” he asked. “It’s my own special recipe.”

  I looked at the counter and saw several banana peels and an open can of cocoa alongside several open containers of various powdered supplements. Banana-chocolate shakes were my favorite. I hadn’t eaten since yesterday afternoon and was hungry as well as thirsty.

  I looked at my watch. It was early, and Grandfather probably wouldn’t be awake, but I wanted to try to reach him. Dr. V owed me a phone call.

  “I’d like to call my grandfather first, like you prom
ised,” I said. “Then I’ll have a shake.”

  “Do you think this is a good time?”

  “It’s perfect.”

  “Okay. Just a minute.” Dr. V put the lid on the blender jar and pushed a button on the machine’s base. The blender roared to life, then stopped a few seconds later. Dr. V removed the jar and poured the shake into two glasses, which he set on one of the tables. “Let’s have a seat.”

  I sat on the opposite side of the table from him. He pulled a cell phone from one of the large outer pockets sewn into the back of his riding jersey and tapped a few buttons. He pushed the phone over to me. “You’ll use this phone instead of the facility’s landline. I just set the speakerphone. All you have to do is dial the number and hit send.”

  I dialed the number. It rang five times before someone picked up.

  “Hello?”

  I felt an unexpected surge of relief. It was great to hear a familiar voice. “Hi, Uncle Tí. It’s Phoenix.”

  “Phoenix!” Uncle Tí said. “Where are you?”

  Dr. V grabbed my arm and shook his head. He clearly didn’t want me to tell my uncle anything.

  I ignored Uncle Tí’s question. “How is Grandfather? Can I talk to him?”

  Uncle Tí took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Phoenix, but you can’t. He’s slipped into some kind of coma. You need to come home.”

  “What! When did this happen?”

  “Yesterday. He told me to expect it to happen, but he didn’t anticipate it occurring so soon.”

  I felt tears begin to trickle down my cheeks. They mixed with the sweat that was still streaming from my forehead. “I have to talk with him! It’s not fair. I’m trying my best.”

  “I know you are,” Uncle Tí said. “No one is doubting you. I’m doing my best, too. These things happen.”

  “How much longer do you think he has?”

  “I don’t know. I have no experience with his condition. He thought he would be okay if I could administer the … um, herb before Tuesday.”

  I looked pleadingly at Dr. V.

  Dr. V picked up one of the shake glasses and casually took a sip. He shook his head again.

  I hammered my fist on the tabletop. My shake nearly toppled off the table, and I grabbed the cold, heavy glass.

  “Are you okay?” Uncle Tí asked.

  I fought to speak through my tears. No words came.

  “Where are you?” Uncle Tí asked again. “My caller ID says it’s an unavailable number. Give me your phone number and I’ll call you back in a few hours. You need time to digest all of this.”

  Rage began to burn deep inside my skull. Sweat cascaded into my watery eyes, and I raised the cold shake glass to my face in an effort to cool myself down. The rim of the glass brushed against my nose, and I caught the scent of something familiar.

  Something old.

  Something ancient.

  I felt Dr. V’s gaze upon me, and I glared at him. He seemed amused. I sniffed the contents of the glass one more time, and the rage in my head exploded into a supernova.

  “Phoenix?” Uncle Tí said over the phone. “Phoenix! Are you there?”

  I hit the phone’s END button and slammed the heavy glass down on the tabletop. I stared at Dr. V. “You put dragon bone in this.”

  Dr. V grinned and reached behind his back. He pulled a stoppered glass test tube from one of his jersey pockets. The tube was full of grayish powder, and he shook it in my face; then he returned the tube to his pocket. “For the past week, I’ve been consuming it. Protein shakes seem to mask the taste better than anything else I’ve tried. I have to admit, dragon bone tastes horrible. Here’s to my expanding fortune—and immortality!”

  Dr. V raised the heavy glass to his lips, and a quote came to my mind, one that is often used in the cycling world but actually came from Indy car racing legend Rick Mears: To finish first, you must first finish. Grandfather was going to die while this cheating, thieving mad scientist sat in front of me, consuming the very substance necessary to keep Grandfather alive. What I was doing here—serving as a puppet in order to receive weekly dragon bone rations for Grandfather—wasn’t finishing. It was quitting, and quitting was worse than losing.

  I hate to lose.

  I dove across the table, driving the heel of my palm into the base of Dr. V’s upturned drinking glass. Dr. V choked and the bridge of his nose snapped as the thick glass rammed into his face. Blood squirted down to his chest and he toppled backward in his chair, his head bouncing off the dining area’s tile floor.

  I scrambled off the table and stood. Dr. V didn’t move. For an instant, I thought I had killed him, and I began to panic. But then I saw his chest rising and falling, and I knew he had just slipped into unconsciousness. Like Grandfather.

  I flipped Dr. V over and reached into his jersey pockets. The test tube filled with dragon bone had smashed, but I found a set of keys. I took the keys, grabbed his cell phone, and headed for the lab.

  I reached the corridor leading to the lab and saw that, thankfully, Murphy was gone. I paused before Hú Dié’s door. Although she had used me, I couldn’t leave her here. Besides, if Murphy really was keeping an eye on the security cameras, her fighting skills would come in handy. Murphy might be back here any moment.

  I flipped through the keys and found a shiny small one that looked newer than the rest. I tried it in the padlock affixed to the gate latch on Hú Dié’s door, and the key worked perfectly. I swung the door open and called out, “Hú Dié! Let’s go!”

  “Huh?” Hú Dié mumbled in a groggy tone.

  I switched on the light and hurried over to her bed. I grabbed her by the wrist and shouted, “Come on! We have to fight!”

  Hú Dié tensed at the word fight, and I let go of her arm. I jumped back as a whoosh of air blasted past my head. It was her elbow.

  “Don’t fight me, you idiot!” I said. “We might have to fight Murphy. We’re going to escape. Hurry!”

  Hú Dié seemed to come to her senses, and she rolled out of bed. She was still wearing what she had on earlier. She pulled her pink mountain biking shoes out of a suitcase. “We’re going to ride out of here, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  She put her riding shoes on and stuffed her passport in her pocket. “Where is Dr. V?”

  “Out cold on the dining room floor.”

  “Ouch.”

  We stopped before the locked lab door. I began to fumble with the keys. Hú Dié looked at me and said, “I am truly sorry about what happened earlier.”

  “Whatever,” I replied without looking at her. I selected a key and inserted it into the lock. The door opened on the first try. We hurried inside and closed the door behind us. I flipped on the lights.

  Hú Dié shrieked. “Ryan!”

  Ryan was lying shirtless and still as a stone atop the stainless-steel table. Dozens of wires ran from machines to his forehead and chest.

  Hú Dié raced to his side. “Ryan! Wake up!”

  Ryan didn’t budge.

  I hurried over to him and Hú Dié.

  “He’s not dead, is he?” Hú Dié asked. “I can see his chest moving like he’s breathing.”

  “I think he’s just asleep,” I replied. “He went riding with Dr. V this morning and must have come back here for tests or something. Dr. V lied and said he was still out on his bike.”

  “Dr. V lying, imagine that.”

  A muscle twitched in Ryan’s abdomen, just below his belly button.

  “Hey!” Hú Dié said. “Did you see that? It was right over his dan tien—his chi center.”

  I nodded. “That’s where a person’s life energy is supposedly stored. Maybe dragon bone somehow connects with a person’s chi.”

  “I know what a dan tien is,” Hú Dié said. “It’s also your absolute center of gravity and the spot where you feel butterflies—Hú Dié—in your stomach. Should we try and wake him? Or maybe tie him up so he can’t get in our way?”

  “We probably couldn’t wake him if we wan
ted to. We need to just go. We can call the police or something later.”

  I spotted the dragon bone vessels and ran over to them. They were still sitting empty on the same counter. Hú Dié’s hydration pack was also on the counter, as was the silk drawstring bag. I opened the bag and found that it was filled with pure white powder. It had no grayish tint. I stared at it.

  “Come on!” Hú Dié said. “Grab the dragon bone.”

  I raised my nose to the bag and sniffed. There was no odor. I looked at Hú Dié. “This isn’t dragon bone.”

  “Arrgh!” she said. “Of course it isn’t. Dr. V wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave it out in plain sight in those dragon-shaped containers. It was a trick.” She glanced at the wall of two-way mirrors and the door with the keypad. “I bet he keeps it in there.”

  I ran to the door and tried the handle. “Locked,” I said.

  Hú Dié howled and ran toward the mirrors. I jumped back as she threw both of her arms over her head, then slammed them into the section of mirrors closest to the door.

  The entire section exploded. Pieces of thick, mirrored safety glass sailed in every direction. Hú Dié’s momentum was so great that she tumbled headlong into the other room.

  I rushed over and poked my head into the space beyond. Hú Dié was on the ground, covered in safety glass.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  She stood and nodded, shaking the pieces from her clothes.

  “That was awesome,” I said.

  Hú Dié grinned weakly. “That kind of hurt. Grab the silk bag and backpack and get in here.”

  I retrieved the bag and dumped the contents into a trash bin beside the counter. The powder looked like it might be baking soda. I turned the bag inside out so that whatever it was wouldn’t contaminate the dragon bone; then I grabbed the backpack. Hú Dié turned on the lights inside Dr. V’s office, and she tried to open the door to the lab from the inside. It worked.

  I ran into the office, prepared to tear it apart, but that wasn’t necessary. There were several large glass vials containing grayish powder on a shelf above Dr. V’s cyclocross bike, which was leaning against the wall.