Chapter
4 Jade Dragon
The Jade Dragon, also known as Sun Lin, vaulted across the open gap
between the rooftops. It was a good forty-foot leap, but she made it easily.
Her jumping ability, enhanced by her psychic development, had been steadily
increasing as she delved more thoroughly into the mysterious arts of ancient
She was on the lookout for any criminal activity. Especially activity
connected with the notorious crimelord known as
Brick Henson. She still had a score to settle with Brick. Although she and
the Scarlet Falcon had badly weakened organized crime in
On his part, Brick had made it his mission to eradicate the Jade
Dragon and her companions. They had made his life miserable in the last year;
constantly interfering in his criminal operations and costing him millions
in lost revenue. That meant that she had to proceed with caution. Snipers
were often lurking on rooftops waiting for the chance to pick her
off. She had killed four of them
that month alone. She dropped their dead bodies into the streets as a warning
to other criminals, but it did not seem to deter others from taking their
place. Brick had placed a $50,000 bounty on her head, and a sum that large
was difficult to resist.
She and the Scarlet Falcon had already destroyed much of Brick’s criminal
activity involving prostitution and bootlegging, but his
loansharking, drug smuggling, gambling, and a number
of other criminal operations still flourished. There were also other criminals
in
She moved along the edge of the rooftop keeping an eye out for any
trouble. In the street below she detected a furtive movement. Several individuals
were lurking in the shadows. Farther down the street she could hear the sound
of merry laughter. Someone was out late and walking home. Stealthily, she
took up a perch directly over the hiding place where the lurkers were situated.
Sure enough, as the party of late-nighters approached,
three men stepped from the shadows. There were four people in the group of
late night revelers, two men and two women, and it was obvious that the finely
attired party was hopeless outmatched.
One of the toughs who had been lying in wait stepped forward. He held a
snub-nosed revolver in his right hand. “Good evening, gents and ladies.
Sorry to disturb you, but we’re a little short of
cash and we’d like you to make a donation.” The man was
sarcastically polite.
“Your
wallets and purses please.”
The two men seemed completely stunned by the holdup. Their hands shot into
the air and they simply stood there with their mouths agape. One of the women
let out a tiny scream. The other looked as if she was going to
faint. One of the other thugs
stepped forward and picked up their victims’ purses and wallets. He
then moved closer and took a necklace from one of the women and a diamond
ring from the other.
The third man now moved toward the terrified holdup victims and grabbed one
of the women, a tall, very attractive brunette, around the neck.
“Hey,” he said, “how about we take this one with us for a
little late night entertainment?”
“Good idea,” said the man with the gun.
“No!” the woman protested loudly, but she was already being dragged
away.
One of the men made as if to come to her rescue, but the gunman pointed his
weapon directly at him. “Go ahead,” sneered the gunman,
“be a hero.”
By now the brunette was sobbing in fear, but her boyfriend stopped moving.
He seemed to realize how hopeless the situation was.
Sun Lin had seen enough. She fastened a rope to a rooftop stanchion and swung
down toward the trio of muggers. Her descent was rapid and almost silent.
Only the air ripping through her cloak warned of her impending arrival. Her
feet spread, she intended to take out two of the
muggers with the force of her descent. She would then deal with the remaining
villain once she was on the ground.
Her plan was a good one. It had worked many times before, but this time something
very strange happened. Just as she was about to make contact all three of
the hoodlums dropped face down onto the street and Sun Lin went sailing by
overhead. Surprised, but not unnerved, she dropped to the street, and
protectively placed herself between the mugging victims and the hoodlums
who had robbed them. She would now rely upon her lightning reflexes and martial
arts training to deal with the thugs.
The man with the gun was the most dangerous, and she dealt with him first.
As he scrambled to his feet Sun Lin’s foot shot out and knocked the
gun from his hand. The force of the blow caused the firearm to fly twenty
feet down the street. Then she closed with the trio of stunned crooks, her
feet and fists taking out the first two with a flurry of blows. Only the
third man remained, the one who had suggested using
the brunette as a source of “entertainment.” Sun Lin intended to
punish him especially hard. She was about to launch into her attack when
she received a numbing blow to the back of her
head.
The unexpected attack knocked her to her knees. Dazed, but not unconscious,
Sun Lin rolled to one side to avoid a further assault, but it was too late,
a heavy body landed on her, pinning her to the pavement. Desperately she
sought to break free of the unexpected attack, but a damp cloth was held
over her mouth and nose, cutting off her breath. Gasping, she attempted to
draw air into her lungs. Too late she realized that the cloth was saturated
with chloroform. Her head swimming, she tried to hold her breath while fighting
to escape the grasp of her attacker, but the damage had been done. She felt
her consciousness slipping away. As she fought a losing battle for awareness
the she caught a glimpse of her heretofore-unseen assailant. To her surprise
and consternation she saw that it was one of the very people she had been
trying to help. By placing herself between the thugs and the supposed victims
she had left herself wide open for attack. She had fallen into a clever trap,
one of the many that Brick had ordered set for her all over the city. Most
likely the “mugging” she had thought to prevent had been played
out many times before she happened to stumble upon it. Now she was involved
in a fight for her survival. All of this flashed through her mind in the
last second before her heavy eyes closed and consciousness
faded.
Her captors looked down at her still body. “Well, that wasn’t so
hard,” said one of the women.
“Better get a few ropes on her, said one of the men. “This Chinese
babe has taken out more of us than I can
count.”
“Just a sec, Moe,” replied the man who had held the gun, “I
want to see if she looks as good without her costume as she does with it
on.”
As he spoke, he bent over the Jade Dragon’s prone figure and unzipped
the back of her costume. “Well, she looks pretty good from the back,”
he said as he rolled her over.
“I wouldn’t so that,” cautioned one of the men that the Jade
Dragon had knocked flying when she had swung into action. “She’s
damned dangerous.”
“Carter, you’re awake!” exclaimed the woman who had crowed
about their victory. “I’m surprised you’re still alive. She
really hit you.”
“I heard her coming,” replied Carter, rubbing the back of his head.
“I rolled with the hit. And I meant what I said. Get some ropes on that
babe or you’ll be damned sorry.”
“In a minute,” replied the man who was undressing the Jade Dragon.
“Wow, look at that!”
He rolled the Jade Dragon onto her back and pulled down the front of her
costume, revealing two of the most perfect breasts on the face of the
earth.
“What a set of tits! God, I’d like to fuck
her!”
“Harry,” implored one of the women. “Stop
thinking with your dick. Brick told us not to do anything to her.
She was going to be his special little toy.”
The others were crowding around now. They made murmurs of agreement.
“Alright,
alright. Get the ropes.
We’ll truss her
up.”
Sun Lin opened her eyes. She could see nothing. She was surrounded
by total darkness. She was still quite groggy from the affects of the chloroform
so it took her a few seconds to realize that from the noise and the motion,
she was inside the trunk of a moving car. She shook her head to clear the
cobwebs, and tried to move to a more comfortable position. It was then that
she found that she was tightly bound, both hand and foot.
She did not know it, but she had been in the trunk of the car for less than
a minute. The dose of chloroform she had received would normally have been
enough to keep the average woman unconscious for over an hour, but Sun Lin
was not average. It took more than just a chloroform soaked handkerchief
to put her under for any length of time.
Struggling, she tested her bonds. Whoever had tied her had done a thorough
job. Her wrists were tied behind her back and her legs were tied at the ankles
and the thighs. A rope had been run from her ankles to her neck, bending
her back in a bow. The slightest movement of her legs pulled the rope tightly
into her neck, cutting off her breathing. Another set of ropes had been wound
tightly around her upper arms and crisscrossed over her breasts, which, she
found to her chagrin, were completely exposed. Apparently she had been partially
undressed before being bound. Her mouth was incredibly dry mainly due to
the fact that her mouth had been gagged by wrapping several ropes around
her head, tying her mouth open. Her breasts hurt. Apparently her kidnappers
had done more than just expose her and tie her
up. Her beautiful breasts had
received a bit of a mauling.
She forced herself to relax. Her struggles so far had merely seemed to tighten
the knots that held her. She had to tackle the problem scientifically. She
had recently attended a performance by the great magician, Houdini. His
incredible ability to escape from any situation had impressed her immensely.
She was not able to determine how Houdini escaped from the ropes and chains
that were placed upon him, but she was able to determine that he did not
rely upon brute strength.
Flexing her wrists, she found that she could stretch the ropes a little and
then by rubbing her bound wrists against her backside she could get the ropes
to slide down a little. It wasn’t much of a gain, less than a millimeter,
but it was definite progress. She repeated the maneuver and slid the ropes
a little farther down. Five minutes later, she was rewarded when one of the
ropes looped about her wrists slid over her hand. After that it was but a
matter of a few more seconds to slip out of the ropes binding her wrists
and arms completely. She then untied her legs and ankles, and removed the
gag. She was free, sort of. She was still in the trunk of a car that was
most likely headed for Brick Henson’s headquarters.
She felt around her in the trunk. It was quite spacious, which indicated
that she was probably in quite a large car. But it wasn’t the size of
the trunk that she was interested in. She continued to feel her way around
the interior of the trunk. Finally her hand closed on what she had been seeking.
It was the leather bag containing the kit for changing a tire. She opened
the bag and took out the tire iron. Then she felt around until she located
the locking mechanism for the trunk. Using the tire iron like a lever, she
hauled back on it with all of her strength. With a sharp “ping”
the trunk popped open. She now had an avenue of escape, but she wasn’t
going to let her kidnappers get away scot free,
not after what they had done to her.
She climbed to the edge of the trunk and held on as the car careened through
the streets. The driver was going as fast as he could. She did not have much
time. She still had on her utility belt. “Perverts,” she thought.
“More interested in squeezing my naked breasts than making sure that
I was rendered completely harmless. I’ll make them pay for that
oversight.”
Fortunately, she car she was in was a large saloon
with a high back that shielded her from the view of those who were inside
the car. Holding on to the car with her left arm, she leaned over the edge
of the trunk. She could just reach the cap covering the gas tank. Quickly
she unscrewed the cap and pushed a length of the rope she had been bound
with into the opening. She kept on pushing the rope in until she was sure
that it was soaked in gasoline. Then she pulled the rope partway out. Taking
a match from a waterproof container in her utility belt, she struck a light
and set fire to the rope. She timed this act for a time when the car slowed
to take a corner. Then she dove for the pavement. Tucking herself into a
ball she hit the street and rolled. Her timing had been perfect. The slower
speed of the car as it turned the corner protected her from serious injury.
When she stopped bouncing off the pavement, she had a few bumps and bruises
but was otherwise all right.
The car continued to roar through the streets for about half a block. Then
there was a tremendous explosion as the burning rope ignited the fuel tank.
Rising to her feet, Sun Lin ran to where she could view the fruits of her
labor. She was just in time to see the car smash at high speed into a lamppost,
bringing it to a sudden halt. The back of the car was almost entirely engulfed
in flame. From within the burning vehicle she could hear screams as the raging
fire neared the passengers.
“Pooh,” Sun Lin thought, “I just can’t leave them
there.”
Breaking into a run she raced as hard as she could toward the blazing vehicle.
The impact of the crash had buckled all of the doors, making it almost impossible
to open them, and the passengers inside were too dazed to think of crawling
through a window. Drawing back her foot she smashed the heavy plate glass
passenger window. Ignoring the shards of glass that still protruded from
the broken pane she grabbed one of the screaming women by her collar and
hauled her through the opening. Then she pushed her body halfway through
and hauled out the second woman. By this time the fire was blazing fiercely,
threatening to engulf the entire vehicle. In desperate haste she returned
to the car and dragged one of the unconscious men out of the window. By now
the heat was almost too much for her. In desperation, she reached through
once more and grabbed both men by their collars. Heaving desperately, she
managed to drag them through the smashed front window of the car just before
the hungry flames consumed the entire vehicle.
The sound of police sirens was moving closer and closer. It was time to get
out. She left her defeated foes lying in the street. Tossing a grappling
hook to the top of the nearest building she swung up and away from the street.
She headed home. It had been a busier night than she had expected.
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