Hunt for Jade Dragon

To my Allyson, You are a joy and a blessing in my life.

The ES
Faraday

Port of Callao Harbor, Peru

“T
his is a cattle ship,” Hatch shouted, throwing his half-full glass of Scotch against the wall. “Do you hear me? I'm living on a stinking cattle ship!”

“Yes, sir,” his servant said, scrambling to clean up the mess. Even though she was accustomed to Hatch's volcanic temper, his outbursts still frightened her.

After the Electroclan sank the
Ampere
—the Elgen's luxury superyacht—Hatch and the remaining Elgen onboard had taken up residence on the
Faraday
, the Elgen troop ship and the largest boat of the Elgen fleet. “Vey and his terrorist friends will pay for this,” Hatch grumbled. He reached for his glass before remembering he'd just thrown it. “Hurry and clean up that mess,” he said to his servant, who was still on her knees collecting shards of glass in the palm of her hand. “Then get me another drink.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied.

Someone rapped lightly on the door.

“Who is it?” Hatch said.

“It's Captain Welch, sir. I have a report.” Captain Welch was the head of the Elite Global Guard and one of the few Elgen allowed to speak directly to the admiral.

“What are you waiting for, EGG?” Hatch said.

Welch saluted as he entered the room, forcing himself not to look at the woman kneeling on the ground. “Excuse the interruption, Admiral. But we've captured the Chinese girl. Jade Dragon.”

“Where is she?”

“She's in the custody of the Lung Li. They've smuggled her out of China. They're now in Taipei on their way to the Starxource plant.”

“Have they gotten her to talk?”

“No, sir.”

“Why not?”

“There's a problem.”

Hatch's eyes flashed. “I don't want
problems
, EGG. I want
results
. Make her talk. Threaten her. Threaten her family. Threaten her dog if you have to.”

“Sir, I'm afraid it will take more than threats.”

“Then torture her!”

“We don't think she'll understand torture.”

Hatch pounded his fist on his desk. “What is there to understand about torture? Quit talking in circles, Welch.”

“The girl is deaf and mute. And she's autistic. It's unlikely that she'll make the correlation between the pain we inflict and the information we're trying to get from her. Torture may have a deterring effect.”

The servant set another glass of scotch in front of Hatch, which calmed him. He took a drink, then said, “This
genius
we've captured is a deaf, mute, autistic child?”

“Yes, sir. She's an autistic savant.”

He nodded slowly. “A
savant
. How did we not know this?”

“We knew little about her except the brilliance of her work, sir.”

Hatch pondered the predicament, then said, “Get her to our scientists on the
Volta
. They'll know what to do with her.”

“Shall we fly her there?”

“No, the
Volta
is already at sea. Have them change course to Taiwan. And find an expert on autism. I want someone who knows how to make the girl talk, so to speak.”

“Shall we leave her in the custody of the Lung Li?”

He shook his head. “Not just the Lung Li. I want my Eagles to personally guard her.”

“Your Eagles?”

“My Glows,” he said. “Quentin will be in charge.”

“Where are the youths, sir?”

“They're in Beverly Hills. I want them in Taiwan by the day after tomorrow, except for Torstyn and Tara. I'm going to need their services in Switzerland.”

“Yes, sir. Anything else, sir?”

“While you're waiting for the
Volta
to arrive, I want you to spread the word around the plant that we have the girl.”

“That seems unwise, sir. Word may leak to the resistance.”

“I'm counting on it,” Hatch said.

“I don't understand.”

“If they know we have the girl, they'll send that snake, Michael Vey, to rescue her.”

Welch's forehead furrowed. “You want Vey in Taiwan?”

“More than you can imagine.” Hatch leaned forward over his glass. “You know how to kill a snake, don't you? Decapitation. You cut off its head and the body dies. We've underestimated Vey. He's been at the head of every Elgen conflict. Without Vey, there is no resistance.” Hatch drained the glass, then his voice fell to a low, guttural tone, almost as if he were talking to himself. “I've had enough of this boy and his Electroclan. It's time we cut off some heads.”

M
y best friend, Ostin Liss, told me that there is an ancient Chinese curse that says:

MAY YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES

My name is Michael Vey, and I'm definitely living in interesting times. Just a year ago that wasn't true. In fact, my life was about as exciting as one of Ostin's clogging recitals. I was just an average, no-name freshman at Meridian High School in Meridian, Idaho—a small town where the only thing above average is the cow-to-human ratio. Don't feel bad if you've never heard of Meridian, Idaho. Neither has anyone else.

I lived with my mother, who worked as a checker at the grocery store, in a tiny apartment with eggshell-white walls and green shag
carpet. I walked to school every day; avoided bullies, the principal, most types of math, and organized sports; and played video games with my best (and only) friend, Ostin, six out of seven days of the week. And I watched Shark Week twice a year. That pretty much summed up my life.

I suppose the only thing vaguely interesting about me was my Tourette's syndrome, which isn't really that interesting because I don't do any of the fascinating things that some people with Tourette's do, like shout out swear words in public or make animal noises. I mostly just blink or gulp a lot. I know, boring.

Actually, what I just said about Tourette's being the only interesting thing about me isn't really true. There's something about me that has always been very interesting—I'm just not allowed to tell anyone. I'm electric.

Which is what's led to my new and very interesting life. For those keeping score, in the last year I've done the following:

• Made friends with a group of kids with electric powers like mine.

• Been locked up in a cell and tortured.

• Shut down a private school.

• Scored a really hot girlfriend. (Still can't believe that one.)

• Flown to Peru and rescued my mother.

• Been tied up and almost fed to rats.

• Blown up a major power plant.

• Made Peru's list of most wanted criminals.

• Been chased through the jungle by helicopters with flamethrowers.

• Lived with the Amacarra tribe in the Amazon jungle.

• Attacked the Peruvian army and rescued my friends before they could be executed for terrorism.

• Blew up the
Ampere
, a billion-dollar superyacht, before the Elgen could take over and enslave the entire island nation of Tuvalu (which, like Meridian, Idaho, you've also never heard of).

Now we're preparing to fly to Taiwan to rescue a nine-year-old Chinese girl from the Taiwanese army and a group of Elgen superninjas called the Lung Li.

I have a feeling things are about to get a whole lot more interesting.