Rogue Angel: Forbidden City

by Alex Archer

  By then Annja was in full motion, streaking for her backpack. She reached inside for the flare gun, brought it up, and took aim. Kelly was exchanging fire with Ngai's remaining two men. One of them fell as Annja squeezed the trigger.

  The flare leapt from the emergency pistol, streaking across the intervening distance like a flaming arrow. Annja had aimed at the center of Ngai's chest, but the flare veered off-course and slammed into the face of the man beside him.

  Annja rushed forward as the wounded man screamed and swiped at his burning face. The flare had caught him in the mouth, breaking teeth and lodging inside. His screams sounded strangled. As he jerked, he smashed into Ngai.

  Before Ngai could recover, Annja was on him. He tried to bring up his pistol, but she slashed his hand and forearm with one swipe. She followed that with a deadly blow. Then she realized she'd seen Roux go down.

  Feeling scared and helpless, Annja turned toward the old man.

  Roux was dragging himself onto Sha Wu Ying's throne, grabbing the bony knees for support. Blood covered his lower back and one of his legs.

  Garin stood, the assault rifle dangling at his side. His face held disbelief and pain as he looked at Roux.

  Stubbornly, Roux reached for the jade ogre. He wrapped his arm around it and fell backward, coming to a seated position at the foot of the throne. He clasped his bloody hands over the statue's head, like he was keeping it from hearing anything he said.

  "Garin!" Roux's voice was loud and commanding.

  Annja stepped in front of Garin, holding the sword within inches of his face. "Stay back," she ordered.

  The ceiling continued to drop.

  Angrily, Garin spat fierce curses. For a moment Annja though he was going to go for the assault rifle hanging at his side.

  "Annja," Roux cried. "Let him through. I need him."

  "He tried to kill you," Annja argued. "More than once." But she didn't know if she would be able to shoot him if it came to that.

  Roux cursed loudly. "We don't have a choice."

  Suddenly aware of a frightful green glow taking shape behind her, Annja glanced over her shoulder.

  Roux held the jade ogre tightly. Light leaked through his hands and arms. "It's activated, Garin. We have to stop it."

  "That's not my problem, Roux," Garin snarled. "You knew it was going to activate the instant you touched it. If anyone's to blame, it's you."

  "You're the only one who can help me," Roux said.

  "I was your apprentice once, old man. You don't own me now."

  The jade ogre smoked and smoldered, and Annja thought it had to be hot enough to scald or burn Roux. Still, the old man hung on to it. Blood smeared over the statue.

  "If you don't help me, it's going to kill us all," Roux said.

  "Let it." Garin switched his attention back to Annja. "Kill me or let me go. Either way I'm not going to stay here and be crushed."

  Annja didn't know what to do. She fully expected Garin to try to pull the assault rifle into position. If he did she'd have to kill him. She had no choice.

  Slowly, Garin turned to go.

  Only a few feet away, Kelly pointed both of her weapons at him.

  "No," Annja said. "Let him go."

  The light from the ogre grew stronger. The ceiling was within leaping distance. Annja knew they didn't have much time.

  "Garin," Roux called. "Please. In memory of the boy I took from his father's cold hearth and gave as much of a life to as I knew how."

  For a moment, the words hung in the room in spite of the grinding going on around them.

  Garin froze, then turned to face Roux. "You owe me, old man. Swear on your life and your black soul that you owe me."

  Roux hesitated. "I swear to you, Garin. You shall one day have my favor."

  Without another word, Garin ran to Roux. Together they put their hands on the jade ogre and started chanting words that Annja couldn't understand. The light coming from within the ogre alternately grew stronger and weaker, pulsing faster and faster.

  In the next instant, the statue exploded.

  The detonation rendered Annja deaf for a moment, and the flash blinded her. Disoriented, her head swimming, she lost her grip on the sword and sank to her knees. She thought she'd blacked out. Then the shrill grinding of the ceiling continuing its downward spiral ate through the cottony deafness in her ears.

  Annja forced her eyes open. Ahead of her, Roux and Garin were slumped on the floor. Pushing herself up, Annja looked around, then saw that Kelly was rising, as well. Both of them had been out of the main blast radius.

  Going to Roux first, Annja found the old man unconscious. She tried to rouse him and couldn't get him to acknowledge her.

  "Is he all right?"

  Glancing over her shoulder, Annja saw Garin forcing himself up. "He's breathing," she said. "Other than that, I don't know."

  Garin stumbled over to Roux's side and pressed his fingers against the old man's neck.

  Annja reached for her sword and felt it in her hand.

  "I wouldn't hurt him." Garin didn't look at her when he spoke. "There'd be no honor in that."

  Annja didn't see Garin as an honorable person. But maybe he was talking about a more personal level of physical combat rather than life in general.

  "He needs a doctor," Annja said.

  "I know. You're going to have to get one for him when we get out of here."

  Annja thought Garin's plans for them getting out of there needed serious review.

  "The front door is jammed," Kelly said, "but there's the secret entrance we came through."

  Annja squatted and tried to pull Roux to his feet. The old man never made a sound, just lolled helplessly.

  Stooping, Garin scooped the old man up in his arms. He was so tall and broad that Roux looked tiny and frail in his arms. "Go," Garin growled. "I've got him." He could no longer stand fully upright under the descending rock slab.

  With the walls losing height, the flames in the channels weren't enough to light the heart of the treasure room. Or maybe whatever fueled them was running out. Annja didn't know.

  She took a flashlight from the ground and charged toward the back of the room. The secret passageway was half-closed from the descending ceiling. Annja crawled through, then turned to help Garin pull Roux through the opening.

  Once they were through, Garin hoisted Roux once again.

  "Where does this go?" Garin asked.

  "Back to the main chamber eventually." Annja took off. Garin and Kelly followed.

  ****

  They made good time, winding up back at the torture chamber in short order. There was brief consternation when Professor Hu and his crew recognized Garin as an enemy.

  Before they could get into an argument or discussion about who was on whose side, one of the workmen pointed to the top of the stairs. "Look! There's sand coming down through the hallway!"

  Several flashlights aimed at the doorway to the torture chamber. As Annja watched, puffs of dust roiled into the room.

  "Quickly," she ordered. "Let's go." She led the way out.

  ****

  In the main chamber, a solid column of desert sand poured onto the middle of the floor. The deluge pushed treasure chests and mummified bodies in all directions. The sand kept coming.

  "That's what pushed the ceiling down after it was freed," Garin said. "There's no telling how much is going to come through."

  Across the room, the sand began to lap at the door to the hallway. With both exits that she knew of blocked, Annja knew there was only one way out.

  "Let's go." She set out at a brisk pace, running down the steps as fleetly as she could.

  Once she reached the floor, she headed for the doorway. Her feet sank into the powdery sand and running became harder, but she pushed herself.

  "Did you leave any traps intact back the way you came?" she asked Garin.

  "Nothing."

  Good, Annja thought. They didn't need anything else to slow them down.

&nb
sp; The sand came faster, and Annja had to believe that wherever it was coming from, it had to be draining the entire Lop Nur. She felt it pounding at the backs of her legs.

  Two of Ngai's men guarded the doorway that led to the spiral stairs. They unlimbered their weapons, but they froze, stunned by the approaching wall of sand.

  Kelly didn't wait for them to recognize the threat for what it was. She pointed her weapons and opened fire. The bullets knocked the men down, spilling them across the hallway.

  At the doorway, Annja stepped to the side and urged Kelly on. "Take the lead. In case there are any more of them."

  Kelly nodded. She entered and started running.

  Annja wished she had another surgical mask – anything to keep the choking dust out of her lungs. Her mouth and throat felt raw and dry.

  Garin carried Roux up next.

  Annja waited until Professor Hu and his team were safely up into the spiral staircase. By that time the sand was swimming around her knees. It had washed over the two corpses and hid them from view.

  Hacking and gagging, Annja followed the last man up into the spiral staircase. Starving for air, head swimming, she went as quickly as she could, dizzy from the lack of air and the constant circling.

  She kept the person in front of her in sight, making certain she didn't run up their back. Briefly, she flicked the flashlight down and made certain the sand wasn't rising any higher. It had peaked far below.

  Only a few minutes later, Annja was stumbling through the entrance they'd made in the cave's side. Garin still held Roux, looking down at the old man as if he were gravely concerned.

  "Is he all right?" Annja asked.

  Garin nodded.

  "What did the two of you do to the ogre statue?"

  Garin sighed. "We destroyed it. Something so full of power, and now it no longer exists."

  "The sword returned to the world."

  Smiling at her, Garin said, "Some things don't, Annja. That statue was one of them."

  "What did it do?"

  Garin shook his head. "I don't know. I would have kept it and found out."

  Epilogue

  A beep woke Annja, but it was accompanied by the very definite feeling she was being watched. Blearily, she shifted in the chair and cracked her eyes open, wanting to check on Roux.

  For the last three days, she'd been his constant companion in the hospital. She was irritated because she thought she'd have been used to all the beeps from the hospital machinery by now.

  During those three days, Roux hadn't woken at all. Not even for a minute. Garin had left them at the dig site, before the emergency medical people had arrived. He'd told her that Roux would be fine, that he'd seen the old man survive worse.

  But the doctors had told Annja that Roux had lost so much blood – in addition to a broken leg and internal injuries – that they didn't know if he would come out of the coma.

  At first there'd been a lot of questions asked by the Chinese police in Shanghai after Roux had been transferred to the hospital. Then an attorney who claimed he represented Roux arrived and made all the questions go away. He spoke with Annja, too, explaining how to get hold of him if she needed anything.

  For the last two days, everyone at the hospital had left her alone. Annja was happy with that. She didn't know what to say anyhow. Professor Hu had most of the story and had interfaced with the police.

  When she looked at Roux, she expected him to be sleeping comfortably. Instead he was staring right at her. A look of apprehension tightened his features.

  Roux glared at all the medical equipment around him. He cursed. "You'd think someone had been hurt."

  Relieved at the fighting spirit so evident in Roux's voice, Annja laughed.

  "I think they thought you were going to die," she said.

  "Fools. It's going to take more than a few bullets to kill me."

  How much more? Annja couldn't help thinking.

  "Did they say when I could get out of here?" Roux demanded.

  "No."

  "Well, we'll have to see about that, won't we?"

  "If you try to get out of that bed, I'm going to kick your skinny butt."

  "Oh, so that's how it's going to be."

  "Yes."

  Roux looked around the room. "I seem to have a shortage of visitors."

  "I think Garin would be here if he could. There were going to be too many questions from the police."

  Roux closed his eyes and breathed deeply. When he spoke, his voice was soft. "I judged him too harshly."

  "When you needed him, he was there. Garin carried you out of the City of Thieves. He could have left you." That had amazed Annja, and she'd spent considerable time thinking about that when she wasn't worrying about Roux.

  "No, he couldn't have. He got me to agree to a favor for him. He won't squander that," Roux said.

  Annja had been wondering about that, too, trying to figure out how much trouble that might cause.

  "Well, I suppose everybody's rich now," Roux said glumly. "At least, the Chinese government should be richer."

  "Actually, no." Annja explained about the desert sand that had poured into the underground complex. "It's going to take a lot of money and effort to dig everything out."

  "They will," Roux said unkindly. "After all, there's gold and gems down there. Men can't stay away from such things."

  Annja knew that was true.

  "What about you?" Roux asked.

  "I'm fine."

  Roux looked away from her. "You didn't have to stay. Obviously I was well taken care of, and I had an attorney standing by for just such an occasion."

  "He was here."

  "I presume he took care of everything?"

  Annja nodded.

  "What about the young woman who was with us?"

  "She got out, too."

  Roux smiled. "She seemed quite capable. I liked her."

  "So did I," Annja said.

  "Do you think she's seeing anyone?"

  Annja slumped back in her chair and shook her head. "You," she said distinctly, "are a goat."

  Roux smiled. "Women who can take care of themselves are exciting, attractive and refreshing in this day and age. You don't find many."

  "She's gone."

  "Pity. Is she going to be all right?"

  "I think so. I gave her one of your cards. And mine. I told her that if she needed help, we would do what we could. Of course, I also told her that you can do her more good than I can."

  "Maybe she'll call," Roux said with a grin.

  Annja didn't think so. Kelly seemed very complete and self-reliant.

  Silence filled the room for a time, interrupted only by the wheezing and beeping of the hospital equipment.

  "You didn't have to stay," Roux said again, more quietly than before.

  "I know."

  Roux stared at the ceiling. "I have to admit, there was a time there that I was worried." He raised his right hand and opened his thumb and forefinger a fraction of an inch. "A little."

  "About what?"

  "I thought I might not make it back this time. Things are different now. The sword is back." Roux looked at her. "And it's in good hands. There's a possibility that the world doesn't need me anymore."

  "Wow," Annja said, "self-centered much?"

  Roux grinned at her. "We are all interested in our own lives. We can't help it. It's just how things are for most people." He paused. "But a few of us, sadly a very few of us, can look beyond our own lives to the lives of others. I want to thank you for staying."

  "You're welcome." Annja thought about Kelly. For a while the woman had stayed with her. She'd talked about how hard it was to lose her father, how close they'd been when she was younger, before she'd been sent away to the United States to go to school. Before she'd been lured into working for the CIA.

  "You should get out of here," Roux said. "Surely there's something else you can do. I'm going to be fine."

  "I've got a hotel room I haven't seen since we checked
in. A shower. A change of clothes. I'm going to go but I'll be back." Annja stood. "Is there anything you want?"

  "You're coming back?" Roux looked vulnerable in that moment.

  Annja had to wonder how many people the old man had lost. For that brief instant, she saw the pain in his face. He's afraid of losing me, she realized. He's afraid I'm going to end up like Joan.

  That was part of why he treated her so brusquely. She thought of how things had been in her apartment when he'd stayed with her while they figured out what to do. It had seemed natural, not uncomfortable. Two travelers sharing the road.

  "I am," Annja said.

  "Do you play poker?"

  "No. The nuns at the orphanage wouldn't allow it."

  Roux looked more interested, almost like a fox in a henhouse. "You've never played?"

  "Not ever."

  "Bring back a deck of cards and some chips. I'll show you how to play."

  "Okay." Annja leaned over the bed and kissed his forehead. Then she left quickly, while Roux was still so surprised he didn't know what to say, and before he could say something that would embarrass them both or infuriate her to no end.

  Knowing Roux as she did, it could have gone either way.

  She'd lied about the poker. Bart McGilley had taught her to play and she'd learned a lot about bluffing from his fellow cops in several all-night tournaments.

  Who knew? Maybe before Roux got out of the hospital he'd owe her a favor, too.