The Dragon Pool: The Dragon Pool (17 page)

"You sent Abe?" Professor Bruttenholm asked, aware how cross he sounded. The searing pain in his arm grew worse.

"I know you're field leader, but you were off the board. Command decision."

"I see." Bruttenholm narrowed his eyes. "And has Abe returned yet?"

Hellboy met him with a slitted gaze that was almost a mirror of Bruttenholm's own. "Not yet. But he will. I see you're feeling better."

"Quite a bit, thanks to Sarah, here."

"How bad is the burn?" Hellboy asked her.

Sarah took a breath. "Could be worse. There'll be some scarring, but how noticeable it will be depends on how well it heals."

"What about the rest of the camp?" Bruttenholm asked.

Hellboy's expression darkened. "Redfield better get back from Lhasa quick, and with a full fuel tank. We need to get the injured out of here and get Kora as far away as possible."

As he spoke, Anastasia watched him. Her heart must have been broken over the deaths of her team members and her friends, and the ruinous end to her expedition. But she gazed at him with such tenderness in her eyes that Professor Bruttenholm could not help being touched.

"The injured and the girl first," Sarah replied, "but we need to get
everyone
out of here."

"What we need is to kick the crap out of that dragon, put him back where he belongs," Hellboy said.

Bruttenholm grimaced. "It's never easy to put the genie back into the bottle. I suspect it won't be as simple as having superior firepower. Even if it were, I doubt the cavalry will arrive with rocket launchers and tanks. Assault weapons are not going to stop the Dragon King."

"It'd be a start," Hellboy said.

"Too right," Anastasia said bitterly. "But I agree with Sarah. The sooner we remove everyone from the area, the better."

"On that, my dear, we are all agreed," Professor Bruttenholm said.

Anastasia's expression remained grim, and she did not respond. After their last conversation, the professor could not blame her. Seeing her with Hellboy--witnessing for himself the way she obviously still felt about him--he felt regretful.

"Dr. Bransfield," he said.

Her brows knitted as she regarded him coolly. "Professor?"

"My behavior earlier was boorish and inexcusable. I'm an old man, and sometimes I come to believe my age allows me to speak with candor that I later regret."

She blinked, obviously startled, then tried to brush the words away. "It's fine. Really."

"No. It isn't at all fine. Regardless of my feelings, I have no right to meddle. I dislike viewing myself as a troublesome old crank. Please accept my apologies."

Anastasia smiled softly. "Of course, Professor. I do. Thank you."

He allowed himself a moment of contentment, nodding at the woman, then he glanced at Hellboy and Sarah.

"All right, then. All the injured will be prepared to travel to Lhasa. We'll give Mister Redfield a brief respite upon his return, then he'll have to fly again. Sarah, I'll want our entire team here on the ground, so Ellie Morris will have to travel with the wounded on the helicopter."

She nodded.

Bruttenholm went on. "Dr. Bransfield, you'll need to break camp. Anything that can be salvaged should be packed up and ready to move. In your survey of the area, did you locate any caves or other structures nearby to which we can retreat until help arrives?"

Anastasia glanced up at the ruin of the dig. "There are caves on the other side of the lake, but given what we've just seen, I think going inside of them would be a spectacularly bad idea. There is an abandoned monastery not far--"

"It'll have to do," the professor said. "Hellboy, talk to Anastasia, and to Professor Kyichu about what he read on the inside of the preparatory chamber. If there's a clue in the legend of the Dragon King about how to destroy it, or at least to defeat it, we need to know. And we must all gather whatever weapons we can find. Fighting the dragon may be useless, but we must make the attempt."

Bruttenholm had been sitting at the base of the slope that led up to the archaeological dig, in the same place Hellboy had left him after Abe had pulled him from the burning tent. Now, from the darkness of the slope above their heads, came a sibilant whisper.

Hellboy drew his pistol and aimed it at a scattering of large rocks on the slope. His tail swayed behind him, and his huge right hand clenched and unclenched.

"Who goes there?" he demanded.

Bruttenholm heard a hiss and narrowed his eyes until he could make out a figure among the rocks, perched at an angle, head downward. Twin candles of flame flickered to life, and as the figure moved, he saw that it was one of the dragon-men.

"Koh?" Anastasia asked.

Hellboy glanced at Anastasia and nodded. "Get Tenzin."

She turned and ran toward the makeshift camp, calling Tenzin's name. The professor and Hellboy and the dragon-man, Koh, all stared at one another. Koh must have realized what they were all waiting for. Less than a minute after she'd departed, Anastasia appeared once more, walking toward them with the guide and translator, Tenzin, following behind.

Tenzin did not flinch at the sight of Koh, clinging to the ridge above their heads. He knew precisely why he had been summoned. Before anyone could ask it of him, he began speaking to the dragon-man. Agitated, Koh pointed to Hellboy and rattled off angry words.

"His village is destroyed," Tenzin translated. "His father is dead, burned before his eyes. At least half of the villagers are dead."

Tenzin's voice rasped as he repeated this horrid news. Though Koh spoke no English, the anguish in the dragon-man's voice was terrible to hear, in any language.

Hellboy slid his gun back into its holster. He shook his head slowly. "I couldn't stop it. I know I said I'd take responsibility, but I never thought--"

Tenzin began to translate.

Koh dropped to the ground, landing in a crouch among them. Sarah moved protectively to Bruttenholm's side. Anastasia took a step back. Tenzin glared at the dragon-man. But Koh paid no attention to any of them. His focus was entirely on Hellboy.

Koh spoke again, and Tenzin quickly translated.

"Those of us who survive will hold you to your vow. To take responsibility, as you swore you would, there is only one thing you can do. You must destroy the Dragon King."

Professor Bruttenholm saw the tension in Hellboy deflate.

"Yeah. We're on the same page, there. We were just talking about that. I don't plan to leave without making sure the dragon isn't going to bother anyone else. The way it sounded in the legend, he'd just keep traveling farther and farther to get what he wanted--mainly, death and destruction and human flesh."

When Tenzin had translated, Koh shook his head, frowning.

"The Dragon King wants fear and worship," Anastasia said.

Sarah laughed softly, without amusement. "Well, he's got step one all sorted."

Hellboy stared at Koh. "If you have any ideas on how to take him down, chime in anytime."

Koh's fiery eyes widened as Tenzin repeated the words in his own language. He said something quick, his expression grave.

"What was that?" Sarah asked.

"The only one who was ever able to defeat the Dragon King was Dwenjue," Tenzin said.

Professor Bruttenholm frowned. "Even if we presume that because the Dragon King exists, the rest of the legend must be true, Dwenjue lived many centuries ago."

"According to the story, Dwenjue disguised himself as a child and had the villagers throw him into the lake," Anastasia said. "He fought the dragon for seven days and seven nights before slaying it...or, at least, mortally wounding it and trapping it beneath the lake."

"Yeah," Hellboy added, "that's not exactly helpful. Dead, dwarf, warrior monk isn't going to show up to save the day this time."

Koh crossed his arms defiantly.

"Are you quite sure of that?" Tenzin asked.

Bruttenholm stared at him. "Do you mean to say that Dwenjue is still alive?"

Tenzin asked Koh the question.

The man with dragon blood gestured toward the lake.

As he spoke, Tenzin gave voice to his words. "The Dragon King still lives," he said. "I do not know if Dwenjue is still alive, but the legend says that if the king rises, the monk will also return to battle him."

"So where is he?" Sarah asked, a bit snide.

Once more, Tenzin translated the question. Koh pointed to the east and replied.

"He says that he can guide us to the place where he is buried," Tenzin said.

"His corpse isn't going to do us much good," Hellboy replied.

But Anastasia's eyes were bright with hope. "We're living a legend, now. A myth has come to life around us. It seems only sensible to me that to destroy one bit of legend, we'll need another, even if it's Dwenjue's bones for daggers."

Professor Bruttenholm raised an eyebrow.

Hellboy reached out to take Anastasia's hand. "Anyone ever tell you, you've got a way with words?"

D
eep within the underwater crevice where the Dragon King had gone, an orange glow flickered like torchlight in a dark cave. Abe floated at the opening of that crevice and tried to make sense of it all. Did this lead to some kind of extension of the lake that stretched beneath the plateau around it, or were there pockets of open space beneath the bottom of the lake itself?

Abe swam away from the crevice--from that glow and the growing heat that emanated from it--and looked around in the darkness. His wide eyes went even wider as he turned the questions over and over in his mind. He flipped in the water and swam for the loose soil of the lake bottom. Rare vegetation wavered in the gentle eddying of the water. Abe wrapped a hand around the nearest stalk of that plant and pulled. It came away from the soil with only the lightest tug. Its roots had nothing in which to anchor.

The soil had been sliding into the open crevice where the dragon had hidden away. Now Abe touched the bottom of the lake, plunged his right hand in deeply. It felt like beach--like sand.

His fist broke through a kind of crust, and a hole appeared in the lake bottom. Sandy soil began to spill down into the hole, just as it had into the crevice entrance to the dragon's lair.

Abe pulled back, swimming in place, gills pulsing as he stared into the gloom, trying to make sense of the impossible geography of Lake Tashi. Beneath the bottom, there definitely existed some kind of underwater cavern, perhaps an entire warren of caverns. The Dragon King must have lingered in some kind of suspended animation there. A shiver went through Abe. He, himself, had been discovered in similar circumstances--though in a glass chamber in the basement of an old building rather than in some ancient, subterranean den.

As Abe hovered in the water, the hole he'd made quickly filled in, and in moments there was no trace of it. He glanced over at the crevice, and the glow from within seemed brighter to him now, the furnace in the heart of the lake burning stronger.

Only then did he feel the change in temperature.

The water had gotten hotter, just in the past few minutes. He wondered how hot it would get.

Troubled, Abe swam back the way he'd come. The dragon had inflicted horror upon the camp. His help would be needed. And he had to think about what he'd seen, and its implications. How many hollow caverns were down here? Lake Tashi was huge.

As he swam toward the far shore, where the ruined camp and the excavation of the city of the Dragon King lay, he slowly surfaced, waiting for the water to grow cool again. But though the temperature was not as hot as it had been near that crevice, the water did not feel cool anywhere. The temperature had risen all through the lake.

When he reached the shore, Abe climbed out of the water and stood for a moment, just taking in the awful scene. Perhaps half a dozen tents remained standing, but those were being taken down by members of Anastasia's team. Hellboy worked with them. Perhaps fifty yards from the camp, what appeared to be a makeshift field hospital had been set up. It consisted of blankets and cots dragged from tents. Those with burns lay on those cots or on the ground, being attended to by the uninjured.

All around this triage area, salvaged supplies had been haphazardly stacked and lined up, and even as Abe started up the shore toward the embers of the camp, the expedition team raced around, rescuing what other supplies they could and preparing to evac as soon as possible.

But Abe's flesh was still warm from the lake water, and he knew that it would only be getting hotter. If they were going to evacuate the area, it had better be soon.

Almost as if summoned by this thought, the distant sound of a helicopter reached him, and he turned to see the long black chopper they'd arrived in, flying low over the surface of the lake.

Redfield had returned. But he wasn't alone. Two more helicopters came over the horizon, falling into formation behind the first, and almost identical to it. The trio buzzed across Lake Tashi toward camp.

Apparently, Redfield had brought help. Or Mr. Lao had. It was too early for the BPRD reinforcements to have arrived, and that worried Abe more than a little. The Chinese government had welcomed the BPRD to Tibet--a land where their dominion was always in question--and given them carte blanche to conduct an investigation. But in crisis, Abe had a feeling that the balance of power was about to shift.

Redfield made a pass over the camp, staring down at the burned remains of the tents. There'd been a volleyball net set up in the midst of camp, and whatever plastic materials it was made of were still on fire, flames flickering along the net.

"Christ," the pilot muttered. "What the hell happened here?"

He could see injured people gathered in one place, others running around frantically, and he could feel their panic and urgency. Whatever had done this, the expedition team obviously was afraid that it was going to come back.

"Agent Meaney," Redfield said. "You seeing this?"

"Check," the burly orange-haired field operative said from the rear of the chopper. Redfield glanced over his shoulder and saw that the man was staring out a side window.

"Looks like we've got our work cut out for us," Redfield said.

He glanced sidelong at the black-suited Mr. Lao, expecting at the very least some kind of surprise on the man's face. Instead, he only looked angry. Lao had been swift and decisive in Lhasa. When the BPRD team had arrived, Lao had been waiting on a helipad at the airport with this helicopter, courtesy of Beijing. They'd landed on the same helipad tonight and had been met within minutes by other men in dark suits. The helicopter had been refueled while Lao spoke to a pair of his colleagues, men who seemed simultaneously to speak with him and on their mobile phones.

Before that conversation was over--before the fueling was complete--nearly thirty men and women in black jumpsuits without insignia or identification marched onto the helipad and stood at attention, awaiting instructions. Redfield hadn't liked the way things were going, but he didn't have any kind of authority to argue about it.

He'd figured Lao's blacksuits would head up to Nakchu village and deal with the half-human, half-dragon people there. Redfield had done covert ops before he came to work for the BPRD, and he could imagine some pretty horrible outcomes for the half-breeds of Nakchu. The blacksuits might just take the guys who'd murdered Dr. Conrad and the others at the dig site, but Redfield had a feeling it would be more than that. Sure, some of the villagers would be kept for study, but the others would be eradicated. The whole place would likely be destroyed--erased from the face of the earth.

Governments did that sort of thing every day. And if his own government did it--he'd seen such atrocities with his own eyes--he couldn't expect the communist, oppressive government of China to behave any differently. There was a reason the jumpsuits on Lao's soldiers didn't have any insignia on them.

Now, as Redfield brought the helicopter down on a stretch of lakeshore a hundred yards from the ruined camp, he knew that everything had changed. The other two helicopters circled above them, awaiting orders. The plan had been for them to fly on to Nakchu village, but apparently the devastation at the expedition camp had given them pause.

Lao's smooth forehead creased as he reached out and grabbed the headset from Redfield and slipped it on. He started barking orders in Chinese. Immediately the two helicopters drew away from the lake, noses dipping as they ascended, buzzing northward.

"What are you doing?" Redfield snapped. "These people need help. Didn't you see the injured down there? We'll need more than one chopper to evac them to Lhasa."

Mr. Lao glanced at him without expression. The rotors began to slow. The helicopter almost seemed to sigh as it settled down fully on the lakeshore. Lao popped open his door, dropped from the chopper, and started toward the remains of the camp.

"What's that creepy little shit up to?" Meaney muttered from the rear of the helicopter.

Redfield shook his head in disgust. "He ordered his spook troops to take the village, to continue with their mission. Son of a bitch just prioritized that over the lives of our wounded."

Meaney poked his head up from the back. "You speak Chinese?"

The pilot shrugged. "You pick things up over the years."

Anastasia stared at Han Kyichu. "You can't be serious."

The professor's white hair was wild, and he had scorch marks on his jacket where fire had singed the fabric. Dark soot streaked his face, probably where he'd touched his cheeks after handling some of the partially blackened equipment trunks or strips of tent that had to be stomped out. She thought she'd seen him helping to carry buckets of water up from the lake in an impromptu fire brigade that had included his daughter, Kora.

Now, though, the hard work was over. The only business left to attend to was getting the hell out of here. At least as far as Anastasia was concerned. Professor Kyichu had other ideas.

"Of course I am serious." He spread his hands to indicate the lake and the mountains around them. "I would ask you the same question, Anastasia. Are you serious about abandoning all of this? We have found the city of the Dragon King. The temple must be here somewhere as well. We have proven the existence of a myth! Dragons are quite real. Anthropologists must be brought to the dig as well. And biologists. Don't you think they will want to study the children of dragons and humanity?"

Anastasia whipped off her Yankees cap and shook her head. She stared at Professor Kyichu in horror. "I don't think they'll want to be burned to death, or eaten! People are dead, Han. The dragon is gone, but only for a moment. You cannot possibly think anyone will sanction the continued presence of an expedition or any excavation work on this plateau until the damned dragon is dealt with."

Pushing his hands through his white hair, the man glared at her. "Listen to yourself, Stacie. How can you suggest that we leave all of this unattended? We can take precautions, build shelters. Are you really going to surrender your claim on this discovery? The museum will certainly want you to follow through. Think of the paper we can present on this. It's a discovery unlike any other. It may be the single most important archaeological discovery of the twentieth century."

Ice gripped her heart and she gaped at him, sorrow embracing her. "My responsibility is to the members of this expedition, Professor. Yourself included. Perhaps you're in shock. Otherwise, I'd have to say that you're delusional. The museum would never condone my leaving any sort of team in place here as long as the threat to their lives was so significant. Too many have died already. They were my responsibility, don't you see?"

Professor Kyichu narrowed his eyes. "All I see is a woman without the courage to be great. No one would have believed this, but we believed, Stacie. We were right!"

"And I wish to God we hadn't been! What is wrong with you? Christ, Han, what about Kora? You're going to keep your daughter here, knowing that the Nakchu people will throw her in the lake if they've got a chance, never mind the danger she's in from the bloody Dragon King every moment she remains here?"

The older man flinched as though she'd struck him.

"I would never knowingly put my daughter in danger," Professor Kyichu said. "All of the injured are going to Lhasa. Ellie Morris is going to doctor them on the way. I've already asked her to look after Kora until I can join them there, or the trouble is finished here."

"Oh, you've asked her, have you? Well, it isn't your call. It's mine. You work for me, remember?"

The professor gave her a hard look. "If that's the way you feel, I've no choice. I resign. But I'll stay here, and the dig becomes mine."

"The Chinese will never allow it."

"I'm willing to take that chance. I'd think they'd want someone with an archaeological background on-site while they deal with this. I suspect there'll be no defeating the dragon without at least some knowledge of the worship that went on here."

Anger simmered in her, even worse because on that point, Anastasia knew he was right. The Chinese would want someone to remain. She wondered if the BPRD would be allowed to help, to consult on the matter. And then she saw the end of this conversation.

"They'll keep Hellboy and the other people from the BPRD around. This is their sort of disaster, isn't it? I doubt they'll need your advice, Han. Particularly as they'll have mine."

"You can't keep me from staying, Stacie."

"You arrogant, self-serving bastard. You'd just abandon your daughter in the midst of this, after the trauma she's been through?"

Fury erupted on his face. His cheeks reddened, and when he spoke, nearly spitting, his hair fell across his eyes. "That will be enough insults. This is for Kora. Everything I do is my legacy for her. My career will be assured for the rest of my days based on this expedition. Lectures alone will support us. I'll write a book, and she'll have the proceeds long after I'm gone. The whole world will know us, Stacie, if you'd only be logical."

Disgust rippled through her. "The whole world. Fame, eh? That's what you're really after? I thought I knew you, Han. I thought we were friends. But you stand here with the dead and the dying around you, and you want to feed more victims to the dragon, throw your own life away on a gamble."

She sighed. "You're right. If Ellie will take Kora, there's nothing I can do to force you to leave. Your resignation is accepted."