Ash Ketchum: Hunt For Jade Dragon

Ch. 2 The Ranch

  "Ash, wake up. You're dreaming." I opened my eyes to see my girlfriend, Serena, leaning over me. "It's okay, you're just dreaming."

   I rubbed my eyes, then slowly sat up. "Where are we?"

  "Still in the van."

   I took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. The right side of my mouth was ticking like crazy. "I had another nightmare."

  "I know. I saw it."

  "You saw my nightmare?"

   Serena nodded. "It was terrifying. This time I was in it."

   Ever since we blew up the Ampere I'd been having recurring nightmares of the explosion and the boat sinking. I could see people trapped inside the boat, screaming as they tried to get out before they drowned. But lately they had been people I knew, like my mother or Clemont. This time it was Serena.

  "It was awful," I said.

   Serena wrapped her arms around me. "I wish I knew how to take them away. I tried."

  "Maybe that's why you were in it," I said.

   We had left Peru before sunrise and flown for about six hours, finally landing on a dirt runway in the middle of nowhere. As we got off the plane we were met by two men wearing suits and dark sunglasses who said little other than to tell us to board their van. Now we had been traveling on the same dirt road for more than an hour, an unending landscape of meadow grass, cacti, and cypress and Joshua trees occasionally broken up by barbwire fences. I squinted against the late afternoon sun as I looked out the window. "Any idea where we are?"

  "No. Just more of the same," Serena said. "I feel like we're in one of those cartoons where the same background keeps going by."

  "Look, cows," Shauna said, pointing ahead of us. "Hundreds of them."

   Everyone looked out to see a large herd scattered across the landscape.

  "Actually they're Brangus cattle," Clemont said. "They're a cross between the Indian Brahman and the Scottish Angus breeds originating from hybrid research conducted in Jeanerette, Louisiana, in 1932."

  "What did he say they were?" Calem asked.

  "Cows," Shauna said.

  "When are we going to get there?" Korrina asked.

  "Where is there?" Iris said. "Why do they have to be so secretive about everything? It's not like we're Galactic."

  "Please don't say that," the man in the front passenger seat of the van said. It was the first time he'd spoken since we'd started driving.

  "Say what... Galactic?" Iris said, deliberately using the word.

  "You never know who is listening," the man said.

   Iris groaned. "If someone was listening to us they would have already died of boredom."

  "It's better we don't know where we are," I said, "in case we're captured and they torture us for information."

  "You've got a way with words, Ketchum," Iris said. "I feel so much better now." She asked the driver, "Are we there yet?"

  "Yes, ma'am," the driver said without turning back. "This is the Timepiece Ranch."

  "We're going to a ranch?" Serena asked.

  "Yes, ma'am," the driver said.

  "A ranch makes sense," I said. "They'd have privacy. Room to do things. You could detonate a bomb out here and no one would know."