Read The China Dogs for Free Online Page B

our leaders had something of a disagreement last night,” General Zhang says. “President Xian and I are keen you do not leave our city having misunderstood matters.”
    â€œDon” Jackson has been briefed, and more than expected a “final word” from Zhang, a man widely regarded as the future president of China. “I don’t think there is any misunderstanding, General. You are concerned about repayments of our debts and you suggested an alternative method of financing them. A method we have politely declined. There is no ill feeling. We can all move on and continue to grow good relations between our great countries.”
    â€œAah.” Zhang wags a finger indicatively. “This is what we feared. Mr. Jackson, I invited you here because there are things you may understand better than your President.”
    â€œThere is very little President Molton doesn’t understand, General Zhang.”
    â€œAllow me to show you something.” He walks across the room and motions to a black leather settee. “Please sit while I close the curtains.”
    Jackson eases himself onto the hard two-seater. The room grows black. A ceiling-mounted projector throws a pool of bright light onto a wall.
    â€œWe have discovered a new form of terrorism, ‘genetic terrorism,’ which we fear may be used against you. Please watch.”
    Video footage flickers onto the wall. Jackson can tell it’s shot from aerial cameras, mounted in planes or helicopters. Men in orange jumpsuits spill from a number of parked buses. They start to run. First all together, then they divide into smaller groups. It looks at first like some army challenge. Maybe a competition like in the Japanese game show Endurance.
    Then it’s apparent this is no game.
    Lionlike beasts are attacking men. It’s a bizarre form of Roman torture updated and played out in a desert rather than the Coliseum.
    The camera zooms in.
    Jackson sees jaws sink into thighs, faces, sides, and stomachs. Blood spills and dries almost instantly on the scorching sand. Now it’s clear that the animals are dogs. Some are huge and incredibly muscular, the likes of which he’s never seen before. Others are small, terrierlike, but maybe even more aggressive than the larger ones.
    There is a cut in the video, a second or two of black frames. The camera pans over dismembered, disemboweled, and decapitated corpses.
    The screen goes blank.
    Zhang flicks on the room’s lights.
    Jackson swivels around to face him. “What the hell was that?”
    Zhang smiles comfortably. Nothing is more pleasing to him than seeing his enemy morally distressed. “It has come from military sources, intelligence we cannot disclose but we know to be reliable. The dogs you saw have been genetically weaponized by a terror group who are enemies of America. They are capable of carnage far worse than you saw.”
    â€œWhat terror group?”
    â€œI cannot say.”
    â€œCannot or will not?”
    â€œLet me put it like this.” Zhang paces slowly. “China can stop this third party threat. We have enough influence with the country behind the terrorists to protect America and its allies from it. That is, should China want to.” He stops intrusively close to the American and leans on the arm of the sofa. “Should we have a long-term interest in doing so.”
    Jackson stares through him. “Are you somehow connecting your crazy taxation demands to an even crazier story that we need your protection from some tin-pot terror state and a pack of rabid dogs?”
    â€œNo I am not.” He couldn’t look more smug if he tried. “I am telling you that this weapon has already been deployed. These animals are already in your country and killing your people.”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?”
    â€œOpen your eyes, Mr. Jackson. You have a death in Miami. A young girl killed by a dog on a beach. Do you think that was