by A. J. Roe
Rick didn’t even bother to respond to the question. “Remember, if one of us gets caught, the other has to go on alone whatever happens.”
“Are you worried about me getting sentimental or something?” Yuriko almost smiled. “If so, you needn’t be.”
One by one, the passengers began to wake and file out of the train into the cold, grey pre-dawn. From the window opposite their doorway, Rick stole a glance at the checkpoint. This perspective gave an entirely different view of their environment than the one from his compartment. A huge white, stone building straddled the plains, like a lighthouse floating on an endless ocean of black grassland. It was adorned with a vast red and gold Chinese Communist star, as if the government were trying to prove something.
Rick wasn’t counting on any help but he pulled the relic from beneath his pillow anyway, figuring it wouldn’t hurt to try.
A familiar buzz resonated up his arm. “You need to split up,” she said, “When I say, help Yuriko out onto the roof.”
“The roof? What’s wrong with hiding in the compartments down train?”
“Security is tight here, they will check the maintenance areas. We must now double our chances. There is a maintenance ladder four feet to the left of your window. Yuriko must climb up and move towards the rear of the train. Now.”
Rick slid the windowpane back, but it stopped after just a few inches. He wrenched it again hard, snapping the locking mechanism clean off and allowing it to glide all the way open. He turned back to meet Yuriko’s gaze. “Climb out.”
She stared back, her eyes bulged but she didn’t move an inch. “You’ve got to be joking?”
“We haven’t got time for this.” The sound of a barking dog and shouted orders somewhere just a short distance down the corridor, helped her make the decision. Rick boosted Yuriko up, she put her feet on the tiny aluminium table and heaved her body forwards. Apparently, she found a good handhold because a moment later her body disappeared entirely.
The thud of army boots on the faux-wooden floor were getting closer with each moment, he had to hide and fast.
Twenty seconds after Yuriko’s ascent, a pair of soldiers stomped along in the corridor. Rick listened with bated breath as they passed just three feet from where he was hidden.
From the outside, the narrow space beneath the bottom bunk didn’t look like it would be able to accommodate a fully-grown adult. However, the angle was misleading and with a few fast and painful manoeuvres, he’d managed to work his way under in time.
Rick ignored the decades of dust in his nose that was begging him to sneeze. He dared not to think about what would happen if they were caught. With no passports, having entered China illegally and trying to sneak into the disputed Tibetan military zone would no doubt end with him being all but crucified, and that’s if the authorities didn’t find out the pair were wanted for murder.
In absolute silence, Rick lay with the relic tight against his chest. More than an hour went by as the officers trawled from the far end of the train down towards him. They entered each compartment one by one, rifling through them for anything that jumped out as suspicious then shouted a loud ‘clear’ to their colleagues. As the soldiers got closer, the unmistakable snarls and pants of a canine cut through and he shuddered. I hate dogs.
Inside the coffin-like hollow Rick tried his best to ignore the intrusive thoughts of death and instead chose to focus on the only other subject buzzing around in his head. What would await them when they finally entered the caverns beneath the mountains? Even if he miraculously could somehow figure out how to restore Thyos’s power, would it still be feasible for them to turn things around or was humanity simply too far gone?
No. It must be possible, Rick resolved. Either way he couldn’t just sit by as billions of lives were extinguished. He needed to be a better man and have some integrity for once, for his daughter’s sake.
Soon enough, Rick found his thoughts drifting to the man who was fast becoming his mortal enemy. Why was Sota so desperate for the relic? Sure, it was probably priceless, but he suspected that was only part of it, there must be something else driving him. Is it possible Sota knows about Thyos? How could he?
Rick dismissed the thought as paranoia, but it did occur to him that there must have been people that knew about her existence over the ages; others that acted as her contacts. Maybe they were the prophets or visionaries of their times, using her knowledge to give them seemingly supernatural power? If she was as ancient as she claimed, it would make sense. He compiled a list of possible candidates, Abraham, Lao Tsu, Jesus, Muhamad, Nostradamus?
The mad train of thought was suddenly cut short as a pair of gleaming black boots marched into the compartment, stopping just inches from his face. The heavy panting of what was undoubtedly a massive salivating German Shepherd entered right behind.
The bed creaked and showered Rick with ancient dust as the huge animal bounded up onto its surface. The handler muttered something in Chinese and the dog started sniffing around. Rick had no idea what they were searching for but if it caught a whiff of him, then what little days or weeks remained of his life would undoubtedly be spent being mercilessly beaten in some end-of-the-earth Chinese prison.
The movement above stopped. The dog sat perfectly still and let out a slight whimper. Its handler laughed and stroked the animal’s head. Rick didn’t need to know the language to tell it was being praised. He swallowed hard. This is it. I’m done for.
32
A whistle blew from somewhere outside the vehicle. The handler gave the German Shepherd an order and the dog jumped off the bed, its claws clacking on the floor as it led the way out into the corridor and they both paced off down the train. Rick had no idea what had just transpired but he was swamped with such an overwhelming sense of relief that he had to choke back tears, still wary of making a single sound.
Barking somewhere further down the train soon cut through the silence. He prayed it wasn’t from the officer’s finding Yuriko. Despite everything, she was still the closest thing he had to a friend, and right now, he needed her.
If things came to it, Rick would have to push on alone. He knew Yuriko would do the same for him, although whether she’d have the physical strength and stamina to climb halfway up a mountain, in freezing temperatures with thin oxygen, would have to be seen.
Moments later, the powerful hiss of hydraulics echoed out across the plains. The entire carriage shook, a deep rumble reverberated through the iron skeleton of the vehicle, making Rick’s teeth clack together. What's going on?
Not long passed before he heard the chatter and thuds and voices of the passengers slowly coming back aboard and returning to their compartments. Upon finally sliding out from beneath the bed, the room was aglow with light from the rising morning sun. Warm rays caught the cloud of dust that Rick beat from his clothes.
The only sensible thing to do now was to bide his time and wait for Yuriko to return once the coast was clear. She was a grown woman after all, one of the smartest and most tenacious he’d ever known, but he still had to fight his instincts to go charging off to look for her.
“Is Yuriko safe?” he said with the relic still in his hand. Once again, there was no answer and Rick figured that no news was good news. He could appreciate that Thyos was running short on time, but damn it was frustrating having God-like knowledge one minute and then being utterly clueless the next.
The train jerked and with a rumble and grind of gears, began to roll. Please don’t still be up on the roof.
Scanning the checkpoint from the compartment door, Rick prayed he wouldn’t see Yuriko being dragged off by the border guards. Instead, something equally disturbing caught his eye.
What looked like an entire other train was sitting stationary, on a parallel pair of rails. He was sure it hadn’t been there when they’d arrived and he’d have certainly heard another of the huge vehicles pulling in. How was it possible then?
After a few seconds, they veered off on a track to the le
ft and picked up speed, putting more distance between him and the second train.
A wave of nausea came over Rick as it hit him what had come to pass. “You can’t be serious?” he yelled at the stationary row of carriages, now rapidly fading into the distance amid a sea of yellowy green grass.
Rick banged on the door of the compartment beside his own and it slid open revealing the younger of the Han brother’s wrinkled face. Once again, a thick cloud of cigarette smoke billowed out from the room, stinging his eyes. “What happened to the back of the train?”
Young Han muttered something in Chinese, his face bewildered. It didn’t take a genius to figure out he had no idea what his foreign friend was demanding.
Pointing at the floor of the train, Rick mimed it breaking in two with his hands, before raising them, along with his eyebrows, in question.
Young Han nodded in recognition, sporting a big grin, completely oblivious to the panic in the face opposite. He held up his forefingers on both hands. “One” he said slowly in thickly accented English, “Shigatse,” he said signalling with his left forefinger. “Two, Lhasa.”
Rick’s jaw clenched so tight he could feel the veins in his neck swell in response. “Fuck,” he screamed and threw his right fist into the wall beside the compartment so hard that the wood split. Two of his knuckles immediately swelled up to double their size.
Young Han was wide eyed in horror and spun to look at his brother, whose cigarette had fallen from his lips and was smouldering as it burned a hole in his brown cotton trousers. Older Han, suddenly noticing the pain in his leg, yelped and brushed it off, shouting for his brother to close the door.
The cheap wood slammed shut and the lock clunked in place, leaving Rick, alone, injured and pulsating with rage. Why would Thyos make her go to the back there? Surely, she must have known?
33
It was late morning when the train hit the final stretch of track into the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. If Thyos’s calculations had been correct, she now had a day of power remaining at best. Meanwhile Rick was still a good seven hundred miles from the coordinates inscribed upon the relic.
The journey had taken almost four straight days, crossing the best part of three vast countries and most of a continent but the last stretch was the only bit that was truly awful.
Rick sat depressed and alone in his compartment, the window was busted and freezing winds were pouring in, all the while his muscles were weak and cramping from the waning oxygen at altitude. To top it all off he was starving and thirsty with no supplies and not even a penny in his pockets.
Thyos still wasn’t speaking and he was no longer sure if he had the will or the strength to follow through with this on his own. Especially with the knowledge that Sota could be waiting to cut him down anywhere, at any moment. The thought of facing a man like that, in a state like this, made him want to roll over and die right now.
Fortunately, the location as they rolled into the epic valley surrounding Lhasa gave him ample distraction. Rick knew that the region served as a spiritual home for millions of followers of the Dalai Lama, different Buddhist sects, Jains and various other religions, now he could see why. The scale of the Tibetan Plateau was truly majestic. If there was anywhere on earth grand and desolate enough to hide a gargantuan, ancient machine, this had to be it.
The rhythmic thud of iron wheels over icy tracks slowed as they rolled towards the station. Rick took in his first view of the capital itself. Lhasa was nothing like what he had pictured. Rather than the rural wooden houses and huge cliff top monasteries that were displayed in the tourist adverts and postcards, the city was sprawling. The station ahead was a vast, modern building, constructed from a dozen rows of grey concrete pillars that stood like the rib cage of some vast rectangular whale that had inexplicably beached itself in a valley at one of the worlds’ highest elevations.
Before the terminal lay a massive, brown, concrete courtyard, looking more like something you would see in the former Soviet Union than in one of the holiest cities on earth.
On the far side of the street, rows of buses and taxis waited to take the recent arrivals to their destinations. When the train finally came to a stop, Rick watched the flow of passengers depart and the crowds disperse, biding his time until he was sure he was safe.
A hundred yards further on from the taxis, an old Chinese campervan had been left running, sitting up against the kerb. Rick could see a smartphone mounted in a case on the dashboard and knew he wouldn’t get another chance like this. A small part of him still wanted to go and search for Yuriko, he regretted how he’d left things with her. If they were never to meet again that was one thing but not having a chance to apologise for treating her badly was another.
“Take the van,” Thyos said the moment he touched the handle of the relic in the back of his waistband. “There is a private airstrip a few miles east from here. With any luck you can buy transport.”
“But I haven’t got any money.”
“The driver’s wallet is in the glove compartment, his pin number is 3, 4, 7, 9, 1, 1. Remember it.”
Rick sighed, he needed to do this before going any further. “What happened to Yuriko? I need to know why you sent her to the back of the train. You must have known.”
“Yuriko is free and unharmed. I had to maximise our chances. She will continue on from the west and you from the east.”
“This was your plan?” Rick said, way too loud. He could scarcely believe what he was hearing. “And you didn’t even think to bother telling me?”
“Would you have agreed if I had told you? I doubt it. Now, I must preserve all my remaining power, at this rate I have less than seven hours. When you arrive, I will contact you again.”
Rick growled beneath his breath, but continued on his path to the van, he didn’t have time to pick a fight with Thyos right now. That would have to wait.
The driver’s side of the vehicle was facing out into the street. Through the windows, Rick could see the owner going about his business in a small hardware shop opposite. The overalled man was searching for something on a low shelf, almost hidden by the selection of brooms, mops and plumbing equipment piled up against the glass.
Rick paced across the road, tugged open the driver’s door and slipped behind the wheel. Pressing his back deep into the seat, hoping not to be seen.
Giving the engine a gentle rev, he dropped the handbrake and put his foot down, speeding off and down the road before the owner even noticed anything was amiss. As he sped away, Rick saw the furious tradesman in the rear-view mirror run out from the shop, jumping and shouting in the street. Sorry, I need it more than you.
The morning sun was behind him so Rick figured he must be heading east. After putting a few miles between himself and the scene of his latest crime, he pulled over and tapped the screen on the smartphone, luckily it didn’t have a password.
Rick punched in the address. When the map rerouted, he slipped the phone back into the case on the dashboard and set off, wondering how likely it was that someone could track his movements via the device. It was a risk he’d have to take.
The narrow streets of Lhasa’s old town were filled with cars, tuk-tuks and motorbikes that bustled and fought for space. Navigating through the traffic on the wrong side of the road, in a stolen van with a burned-out clutch and piss-poor brakes was no mean feat. However, after a good half an hour of crawling along, Rick finally turned away from the city centre and the streets opened up.
To his left, a row of small shops and guesthouses ran the length of the main road out of town. The right was far sparser, with patches of trees and grass intermittently breaking up the grey of the city.
Rick pulled up at an ATM booth standing on the corner of the dusty street and killed the engine. It was good to get some respite from the thick unfiltered diesel fumes that seemed to spill directly back into the vehicle. He located the wallet in the glovebox and soon had a fat wad of red notes, adorned with the smiling face of Chairman Mao, in his hand.
Two dozen yards from where he’d parked, a pair of wooden chairs were sitting outside the front of a cement hut with a faded sign depicting a cup of coffee. It was a risky trade-off with limited time remaining but if Rick was to stand a chance of making it high into the mountains before Thyos expired, his body would need energy and hydration.
An old lady with dazzling white hair that practically shone against her dark skin, pottered out and smiled. Rick mimed a cup and rubbed his throat and she waved him over to sit before ladling him a cup of impossibly sweet, spiced tea out a stone pot near the door. She then brought out a plate of stubby bananas and sugary fried bread rolls.
Rick ate the lot in a matter of seconds and then went inside the shadowy hut looking for a toilet. The old lady led him through the building and back outside via a door at the rear.
Among a dusty patch of trees and bushes, a six-foot panel of wood stood upright. Behind it was a hole in the ground, surrounded by thick mud and reeking of old piss. Fortunately, there were a pair of planks to stand and squat from and even a roll of toilet paper hanging off a nearby branch. Rick’s ribs were killing him and even getting low enough to make use of the hole made him yelp in pain.
As the only water in sight was from a grim looking stone bucket buzzing with huge striped mosquitoes, he figured it was probably safer not to bother washing his hands at all.
On his return from the horrific outhouse, Rick handed the old woman a pair of the red notes. She looked extremely pleased and waved him off as he headed further east in his stolen van.
The old suspension buffeted up and down on the potholed and uneven roads but fortunately it wasn’t long before he arrived at the entrance of the private airfield Thyos had sent him searching for.
There was a ten-foot mesh fence, covered in warning signs to keep the public out but a sliding gate in the centre was wide open. Well aware that people might be on the lookout for the stolen van, Rick didn’t hang around and drove straight in.