The Great Zoo of China Read online

  About The Great Zoo of China

  It is a secret the Chinese government has been keeping for forty years.

  They have found a species of animal no one believed even existed. It will amaze the world.

  Now the Chinese are ready to unveil their astonishing discovery within the greatest zoo ever constructed.

  A small group of VIPs and journalists has been brought to the zoo deep within China to see its fabulous creatures for the first time. Among them is Dr Cassandra Jane ‘CJ’ Cameron, a writer for National Geographic and an expert on reptiles.

  The visitors are assured by their Chinese hosts that they will be struck with wonder at these beasts, that they are perfectly safe, and that nothing can go wrong.

  Of course it can’t . . .

  GET READY FOR ACTION ON A GIGANTIC SCALE.

  Contents

  Cover

  About The Great Zoo of China

  Dedication

  Map

  Epigraph

  Introduction

  Prologue

  FIRST EVOLUTION: THE UNKNOWN DESTINATION

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  SECOND EVOLUTION: THE LEGEND OF THE DRAGON

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  THIRD EVOLUTION: THE UNDISCOVERED PREDATOR

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  FOURTH EVOLUTION: THE KNOWN PREDATOR

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  FIFTH EVOLUTION: INTO THE ZOO

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  SIXTH EVOLUTION: THE TIME OF THE DRAGON

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Chapter Forty-four

  Chapter Forty-five

  Chapter Forty-six

  Chapter Forty-seven

  Chapter Forty-eight

  Chapter Forty-nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-one

  Chapter Fifty-two

  Chapter Fifty-three

  Chapter Fifty-four

  Chapter Fifty-five

  Chapter Fifty-six

  Chapter Fifty-seven

  SEVENTH EVOLUTION: THE BATTLE FOR THE OUTER DOME

  Chapter Fifty-eight

  Chapter Fifty-nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Chapter Sixty-one

  Chapter Sixty-two

  FINAL EVOLUTION: THE LAST CONFRONTATION

  Chapter Sixty-three

  Chapter Sixty-four

  Chapter Sixty-five

  Chapter Sixty-six

  Chapter Sixty-seven

  Chapter Sixty-eight

  Chapter Sixty-nine

  Chapter Seventy

  Chapter Seventy-one

  Chapter Seventy-two

  Chapter Seventy-three

  Chapter Seventy-four

  An Interview with Matthew Reilly About The Great Zoo of China

  About Matthew Reilly

  Also by Matthew Reilly

  Copyright page

  For Kate,

  Lovely, loyal and brave, too

  [American zoos] are visited each year by more than a hundred million people, a number that exceeds the combined attendance of all big league baseball, football and basketball games.

  —NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

  Here, there be dragons.

  —WARNING WRITTEN ON ANCIENT MAPS TO DEFINE AN UNKNOWN REGION

  INTRODUCTION

  FROM: FISCHER, ADAM

  CHINA VS THE WORLD

  (MACMILLAN, NEW YORK, 2013)

  CHAPTER 5:

  China and the Power of Disneyland

  It is difficult to describe just how dynamic modern China is.

  It is setting records that no other country can match: it builds a new city every year, its economy is growing at rates the West can only dream about, and its burgeoning middle class grows wealthier by the month, demanding all of the products that China used to manufacture for Western consumers.

  And at every opportunity the Communist Party proudly reports these achievements to the Chinese people through state-controlled media.

  But there is a problem.

  China desperately wants to be Number One, the pre-eminent nation on Earth. In the Communist Party this passionate desire even has a name: the ‘China Dream’.

  But to achieve that dream, China must seize the position currently occupied by the United States of America, and to do that it must first match America’s twentieth-century achievements in war, in space and in industry: it must build a powerful military, it must land a man on the moon and it must create companies that are known worldwide.

  And then—then—to truly replace America as the world’s most dominant nation, it must do something even more difficult.

  China must replace the United States as the cultural ruler of the planet.

  How America came to dominate global culture is nothing short of astonishing.

  After defeating the Axis powers in the Second World War with its military and industrial might, the United States then set about waging and winning a far more subtle war against the whole world: a war of cultural superiority.

  This war was not fought with guns or tanks. It was fought with movies and music, Coke and Pepsi, Fords and Cadillacs, and, of course, arguably America’s greatest weapon in soft diplomacy: Disneyland.

  Put simply, American culture became the world’s culture—drive-in burger joints of the 50s, Easy Rider in the 60s, platform shoes in the 70s, Coca-Cola ads in the 80s.

  Hollywood played a big part in this, helped along later by MTV. Thanks to hundreds of American movies, TV shows and music videos set in America, the names of American cities, towns, roads and products became known worldwide: New York, Vegas, Fargo, Key Largo; Route 66; Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny; DeLorean, Nike, American Express.

  Apart from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, can you name another Chinese city? Can you name a Chinese brand of sport shoe?

  What, I ask you, apart from the panda bear and a very long wall, is singularly and uniquely Chinese?

  And here lies China’s biggest problem in the twenty-first century.

  It has nothing truly its own.

  It makes other people’s stuff. Every Apple product is a slap in the face to China when it declares: Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China. A limitless supply of cheap labour might build you a new city every year, but it ultimately just makes you the factory floor for other countries’ companies.

  China wants to rule the world. But without the soft diplomacy of culture, China will always play second fiddle to the United States.

  Where is China’s Ford?

  Where is its Coca-Cola?


  Where, I ask you, is China’s Disneyland?

  PROLOGUE

  GUANGDONG PROVINCE, CHINA

  16 FEBRUARY

  Breathless, bleeding and covered in sweat, Bill Lynch dropped into the mouth of the cave and crab-crawled further into it as quickly as he could.

  He snatched his cell phone from his trouser pocket.

  NO SIGNAL. SOS ONLY.

  ‘Fuck,’ he said to no-one. The bastards had jammed the entire valley.

  Voices from outside made him spin. They spoke in Mandarin.

  ‘—went this way—’

  ‘—into that cave on the cliff-face—’

  Lynch heard the safeties on their assault rifles click off.

  Beyond the mouth of the cave, Bill Lynch saw a jaw-dropping view: a broad valley featuring lakes, rivers and waterfalls. In the middle of it all, shrouded by the hazy air common to southern China, was a huge central mountain that stabbed the sky.

  Dramatic landscapes like these had rightfully made the nearby region of Guilin famous. Soon, Lynch thought, this copy of the Guilin landscape—and it was a copy; it was nearly all man-made—would be more famous than any other place on Earth.

  And by the look of things, Dr Bill Lynch—senior herpetologist from the University of Florida’s Division of Herpetology—was not going to live to see it.

  Right then, the smell of the cave struck him. Lynch screwed up his nose at the stench, the rank odour of rotting flesh.

  The smell of the lair of a carnivore.

  Alarmed, he spun to search his newfound hiding place for its owner.

  But the cave was empty . . . except for the flesh-stripped skeletons of three large animals. They looked like the skeletons of horses—yes, horses, up in this cave three hundred feet above the valley floor. Their elongated skulls were tilted backwards in frozen shrieks of terror. Their bloody ribs pointed skyward.

  Holy shit, Lynch thought.

  He knew the creature that lived here.

  The cave delved into the cliff, and although it looked like a naturally formed cavern, it was not natural. It had been constructed to look that way. Indeed, carved into the otherwise natural-looking floor was a brass plate with an ID code etched into it: E-39.

  ‘Dr Lynch!’ a voice called from outside in English.

  Lynch recognised the voice and its Chinese accent.

  It belonged to Colonel Bao, the head of security at the zoo and a bona-fide asshole.

  ‘Dr Lynch, we can make this quick and easy for you, or we can make it very painful. Please come out of there so we may do this the easy way.’

  ‘Fuck you!’

  ‘Dr Lynch. This facility cannot be allowed to fail just because of an unfortunate incident.’

  Lynch stepped deeper into the cave as he spoke: ‘Unfortunate incident?! Nineteen people are dead, Colonel!’

  ‘Over twenty men died during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Dr Lynch. Does anyone regret that? No, all anyone sees is a marvel of its time, a great achievement in human ingenuity. So it will be here. This place will be beyond great. It will be the envy of the entire world.’

  Lynch strode further into the cave. After a dozen steps, he stopped abruptly.

  It was a dead end.

  There came a sudden beep! from his wrist and he looked down to see the green pilot light on his watch wink out.

  Lynch’s blood went cold. They’d deactivated his sonic shield. Now he had no protection from the animals. Lynch suddenly realised what Bao had meant when he’d said this could be done the easy way or the hard way.

  ‘You can’t kill every witness, Bao!’ Lynch yelled.

  ‘Yes, we can,’ replied the voice. ‘And yes, we will. Fear not, Dr Lynch. Your death will be a noble one. We will announce it to the world as an awful accident, the result of a light plane crash. It will be such a shame to lose so many brilliant people in the one accident. Of course, our facility will need to find another reptile expert to do what you have failed to do. I was thinking of your protégée, the young Dr Cameron.’

  Bill Lynch yelled, ‘You bastard! Let me give you some free advice. Don’t mess with CJ Cameron. She’s tougher than I ever was.’

  ‘I’ll be sure to remember that.’

  ‘And another thing, Bao. You’re a fucking psychopath.’

  There was no reply.

  The Chinese soldiers were probably getting ready to storm the cave.

  Lynch turned away, searching for something he could use as a weapon. As he did so, behind his back, a large reptilian head at the end of a long serpentine neck curved in through the entrance to the cave and stared directly at him.

  It made no sound.

  Lynch snapped a rib off one of the horse skeletons and turned—

  The animal now stood in the mouth of the cave.

  Its fearsome silhouette completely filled the cave’s entrance, blocking out the light. It was a prince, Lynch saw, nine feet tall, wingspan twenty feet. A red-bellied black.

  The great beast peered at him as if surprised to find an intruder in its lair.

  Its stance was powerful. In the dim light, Lynch could make out its sinewy shoulders and razor-sharp claws. Its wings were folded behind its body. Its long barbed tail slunk back and forth with cool calculation.

  But the head didn’t move. It was eerily still. In silhouette, the creature’s high pointed ears looked like demonic horns.

  The giant reptile took a step forward. It bent its head low, sniffing the ground.

  Then, very slowly, it opened its mouth, revealing two rows of long jagged teeth.

  It growled. A deep angry sound.

  Lynch felt his heart beat faster and in a deep analytical part of his brain, he realised that the animal could sense this.

  He also now realised why Bao had stopped talking from outside. The Chinese colonel and his men had seen this thing coming and had wisely got out of the way.

  Bill Lynch had no time for another thought for just then the massive thing roared and rushed at him, and within seconds Lynch was lying on the floor of the cavern, screaming desperately and spitting blood as he was foully eaten alive.

  The myth of the dragon is a very peculiar one, precisely because it is a truly global myth.

  Giant serpents appear in mythologies from all over the world: China, Scandinavia, Greece, Persia, Germany, Central America, the United Kingdom, even Africa.

  There is no discernible reason for this. How could the myth of a large serpentine creature be so consistent across the ancient world?

  —ELEANOR LOCK, DRAGONS IN HISTORY

  (BORDER PRESS, LONDON, 1999)

  HONG KONG, CHINA

  17 MARCH

  ONE MONTH LATER

  The sleek private jet shot through the sky above the South China Sea, carrying two passengers who had never flown in a private jet before: CJ Cameron and her brother, Hamish.

  The plane was a Bombardier Global 8000, the most expensive private aircraft in the world, the jet of choice for Saudi princes and Russian billionaires. This Bombardier, however, did not belong to any individual. It belonged to the Chinese government.

  Dr Cassandra Jane ‘CJ’ Cameron peered out her window as the plane landed at Hong Kong International Airport, an ultra-modern facility that had been constructed on an enormous man-made island.

  ‘Is there anything China can’t build?’ CJ said, gazing out her window.

  ‘I heard they built some wholly fake Apple Stores,’ Hamish said. ‘Did you read about that? It wasn’t just a few counterfeit iPhones, they were whole frigging stores. They even had Genius Bars. All the employees thought they really were working for Apple!’

  CJ threw a sideways glance at her brother. ‘Wise ass.’

  A black Maybach limousine was waiting for them at the base of the jet’s airstairs. Standing beside it was a pretty young Chinese woman dressed in a perfectly pressed navy skirt-suit. Not a hair on her head was out of place. She had a Bluetooth earpiece in her ear that looked to CJ like it lived there perman
ently. When she spoke, her English was flawless.

  ‘Dr Cameron, Mr Cameron, welcome to China,’ she said. ‘My name is Na and I will be your escort during your stay here. Should you require anything—anything at all—please don’t hesitate to ask. Nothing is too much trouble.’

  Na ushered them into the Maybach, which whisked them out a side gate. No Customs and Immigration. The limo then took them to the Four Seasons where they were put up in penthouse suites, all expenses paid. The next morning, they were told, they would be picked up at 9:00 a.m. sharp.

  This was all very unusual for CJ Cameron.

  Once a renowned herpetologist—a reptile expert—these days CJ worked as a vet at the San Francisco Zoo. At thirty-six, she was a petite five foot six, with piercing amber eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair.

  CJ was fit, athletic, and pretty in a sporty kind of way. Men often approached her, only to turn away abruptly when they came close enough to see the grisly scars that dominated the left side of her face.

  The scars stretched all the way from her left eye to the corner of her mouth, looking like a sequence of poorly aligned Xs. The ophthalmic surgeon had saved her eyesight. And the plastic surgeon, one of the best in America, had managed to reconstruct her jaw, but the slashing wounds to her left cheek had proved to be too much even for him.

  CJ didn’t care. For vapid men or for herpetology, not after the incident. All her life she had been something of a tomboy anyway. She didn’t bother with make-up and she didn’t mind getting her hands dirty. She lived outdoors: hiking, camping, horse riding. A keen horsewoman, she sometimes preferred the company of horses to people.

  Once upon a time, she’d been a star lecturer at the University of Florida’s Division of Herpetology, widely regarded as the best reptile faculty in America. Specialising in alligator research, she’d worked mainly at the university’s field site in the Everglades.

  But not anymore.

  In addition to her doctorate in herpetology, she was also a trained veterinarian, and now she worked as far from alligators as possible, tending to sick and injured animals in the clinic at the San Francisco Zoo.

  Which was why she’d been surprised when her old boss from National Geographic, Don Grover, had called and asked if she’d go to China to write a piece on some big new zoo.

  ‘No thanks,’ CJ had said.