New Journeys to the West
Ying Wa Primary School , Deming , Ford Jonathan - 10
Newspaper boys bustled around Beijing , all with the same headline news : ‘ Scriptures Stolen in St . Petersburg ’. Monkey King and ‘ the team ’ quickly grabbed a copy and ran to their detective agency . Detective agency ? Yes , it was 1992 and they were going to go on their most perilous journey yet .
You might wonder why this incident made headline news . It was because the scriptures were the most famous in the world ; famous for having ‘ everything and nothing ’ written on them , as a famous ecclesiastical scholar once said . However , Monkey King and ‘ the team ’, Xuan Zang , Piglet and Xuan Lang knew that there was also something else written on them : a set of nuclear codes in invisible ink .
Why did they know this ? It was because in their very first case , they were hired to eliminate the writers of the codes .
They looked at each other . They knew that as a human-interest agency , which took on cases to help humanity , they had no choice . They had to save the world from possible annihilation . To St . Petersburg it was !
Onboard the Trans-Siberian Express , Monkey King and Piglet found the four people in the compartment next to theirs very suspicious .
However , Xuan Zang , who was very calm and would give anybody the benefit of the doubt , befriended one of the occupants . Then between Ulan Bator and the Mongolian-Russian border , Xuan Zang invited the occupant for a shot of vodka .
Out of the window , the endless grasslands of the Mongolian steppes rolled by . Inside the carriage , Xuan Zang slowly drifted into unconsciousness as the poison that had been slipped into his drink took effect .
Fortunately , the poison was not lethal , but Monkey King decided to remove the would-be assassin . He was very good at fighting and totally confident in his ability .
That night , in the dark , clanking gloom of the wheel-change shed on the Mongolian-Russian border , Monkey King waited in the shadows . The would-be assassin walked to the rails . Then , Monkey King pounced . He knocked the would-be assassin unconscious and rolled a set of bogies on top of him . The man was dead . It looked like an accident . Mission accomplished .
If the people in the next compartment were the people who had stolen the scriptures , and were now trying to eliminate the four detectives , the world was one step closer to avoiding an ugly incident .
The Trans-Siberian Express thundered relentlessly on through the stark beauty of Siberia towards Irkutsk , one-and-a-half days away .
That evening , Anastasiya , the young , blond-haired lady from the next compartment , worked hard to attract the attention of Piglet . Monkey King was worried . Piglet had a dangerous track record of losing his senses when he became infatuated with a beautiful woman .
Xuan Lang immediately stepped in and had a private conversation with Piglet . Piglet retained his senses and the strategic side of his personality cut in . It now seemed very likely that the people in the next compartment wanted to kill the four detectives . Were these people really the scripture-theft culprits ?
The train came to a halt at Irkutsk Station and Piglet persuaded Anastasiya to take him to her flat . It was very grand , located in an old imperial palace . What an appropriate setting for a murder !
Whilst in a romantic embrace , Piglet pushed a pillow over Anastasia ’ s face and held it there until she moved no more . He then rushed quickly to the train and got onboard . Two down . Two to go . Could the world be saved from possible disaster ?